William Harrison’s (AD 1534-93) Description of England describes the large meat intake of the Tudor upper classes. In one day they consumed ‘beef, mutton, veal, lamb, kid, pork cony, capon, pig … some portion of the red or fallow deer, beside great variety of fish and wild-fowl.’ He is probably taking about a feast, and he does say that people only tasted a little of each dish, but foreigners were amazed at the amount of food the English ate. Henry VIII’s gouty, swollen body in old age may well have been caused by an aversion to vegetables, which were considered to be food for the poor.

Exotic delicacies and the presentation of food were important. A swan, which was not very nice to eat, would be skinned and the body of a more edible bird wrapped in the feathered skin and carried to table. Fruits and spices and sugar brought back from the New World were used in cooking or sprinkled on dishes. Spices were essential to disguise the taste of meat that was not fresh. Sugar became very popular. Elizabeth I’s black teeth in old age were said to be the result of her passion for it. Gingerbreads, tarts and jellies were eaten for pudding as well as candied and crystallized fruits.