The Tudor Kitchen

the long version

"Did you ever wonder what the Tudors ate and drank? What was Anne Boleyn's favorite tipple? Which pies did Henry VIII gorge on to go from a 32 to a 54-inch waist? The Tudor Cookbook provides a new history of the Tudor kitchen, and of both the sumptuous - and more everyday - recipes enjoyed by rich and poor, all taken from authentic contemporary sources. The kitchens of the Tudor palaces were equipped to feed a small army of courtiers, visiting dignitaries and various hangers-on of the aristocracy. Tudor court food purchases in just one year were no less than 8,200 sheep, 2,330 deer and 53 wild boar, plus countless birds such as swan (and cygnet), peacock, heron, capon, teal, gull, and shoveler. Tudor feasting was legendary, Henry VIII even managed to impress the French at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520 with a twelve-foot marble and gold leaf fountain dispensing claret and white wine into silver cups, free for all!" -- Publisher description.