THE TUDOR COOKBOOK: FROM GILDED PEACOCK TO CALVES’ FEET PIE

256pp Amberley Hardback Illustrated 2016

256pp Amberley Paperback Illustrated 2019

‘Have you ever wondered what the Tudors ate? What was served at the courtly feasts of Henry VIII, or what kept peasants alive through the harsh winters of the sixteenth century? The Tudor Cookbook provides over 250 recipes from authentic period manuals for starters, mains, desserts and drinks, from chicken blancmange to white pease pottage with seal and porpoise. It even covers vegetarian dishes – the Tudors designed dishes of vegetables to look like meat to be cooked during religious festivals when abstinence from meat was required. A few of the more outlandish ingredients and methods of cooking are now illegal, but the rest of the recipes have been trialled; many are delicious and surprising.’

Amazon review Joanne Sheppard ‘Informative and entertaining. The Tudor Cookbook by Terry Breverton is a collection of recipes from real Tudor sources. Of course, they are largely aimed at well-to-do households, as most ordinary people wouldn't have owned cookbooks, couldn't read and apparently existed mostly on poor quality bread and pottage with very little meat. However, this book does give a fascinating insight into the way wealthier people ate and what dictated the sorts of meals they had. These are real recipes with Tudor ingredients, cooking methods and language, so you'd be hard-pushed to recreate them - and indeed you probably wouldn't want to, as a lot of them are either weirdly unpleasant or absurdly labour-intensive. One thing that really stands out is how sweet a lot of the main courses are - lots of the meat and fish dishes have sugar added to them, and sugar was of course expensive at the time. It's also interesting to see how religious considerations played a role in what people ate: there are recipes here designed to get around Friday meat bans and fasting for Lent. I read this almost cover to cover and learned a lot.’

Canada reviewer ‘They ate a lot of fowl. A fascinating look at how people ate more than 400 years ago. There was a huge divergence in diet between rich and poor. If you can find the rare ingredients or substitute something your grocery store does stock, some of these recipes are still really good’.

Nicole USA ‘Great. A great gift or conversation piece! We have had many laughs reading the recipes from this Tudor cookbook and enjoy reading them out loud for guests who see it on the coffee table. Haven't been brave enough to make any of the recipes though.’