0:00:04 > 0:00:07'Forget about the stories you've read in history books.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11'Our food customs are our most direct connection
0:00:11 > 0:00:13'to the world of the past.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20'This is history that you can touch, smell and, above all, taste.'
0:00:20 > 0:00:22It's lovely.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26'The rituals of breakfast, lunch and dinner are something I think
0:00:26 > 0:00:27'we take for granted,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30as if they have always existed as they are now.'
0:00:32 > 0:00:35I think I'd have preferred it fried.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37You would have a heart attack by lunchtime.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41'But unpick the stories of our three main meals
0:00:41 > 0:00:45'and you discover gastronomic revolutions,
0:00:45 > 0:00:49'technological leaps and, sometimes, gruesome realities.'
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Decay is also going to cause really bad breath.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Yes, I think I've had boyfriends like that.
0:00:55 > 0:01:00'I never miss a good meal but food is about more than just filling up.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05'There's a rich and complex history to our daily meal times
0:01:05 > 0:01:08'and that's what I'm setting out to explore.'
0:01:11 > 0:01:13Right, dig in.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34Master, My Lords, My Lady, aldermen,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Please make your way into the great hall.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44'I'm here at the Apothecaries Hall, where the great and the good
0:01:44 > 0:01:48'of the medical profession are assembled to dine.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53'Dinner in this form is our grandest and showiest meal.'
0:01:53 > 0:01:55Hello, how do you do?
0:01:55 > 0:01:59'The one we most associate with a sense of theatre and ritual.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03'It's also the meal that most clearly signals
0:02:03 > 0:02:06'how we position ourselves amongst our peers.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10'I've come here to maintain a family tradition.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14'My father was surgeon to the Royal household.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17'Look at us in all our finery.'
0:02:17 > 0:02:19I do love men in white ties.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23'We're here to celebrate membership of a select club.'
0:02:23 > 0:02:26Right, silence for grace by Clarissa Dickson Wright.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28SHE GIVES A LATIN GRACE
0:02:34 > 0:02:37'Even if you haven't been to an event like this,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40'you'll no doubt recognise
0:02:40 > 0:02:44'the performance aspects from dinner parties or family gatherings.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49'There's a display of culinary prowess,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52'a set series of courses,
0:02:52 > 0:02:57'everyone's made an effort to scrub up, even me,
0:02:57 > 0:03:02'and every male diner has a lady seated to his left and vice versa.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08'The way we stage either a formal dinner or an informal dinner party
0:03:08 > 0:03:13'is, in fact, a living microcosm of 1,000 years of dining
0:03:13 > 0:03:18'whose rituals have evolved step by step.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22'For a start, the concept of a head table is very medieval.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26'We take our cutlery for granted,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29'but that's evolved over the centuries.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32'We're eating a delicious Chateaubriand,
0:03:32 > 0:03:37'but our access to beef hasn't always been guaranteed.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41'And set courses of food plated up in the kitchen
0:03:41 > 0:03:43'is a relatively recent custom.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49'But the biggest thing we take for granted is
0:03:49 > 0:03:52'that it all takes place at night.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00'There was a time when the conventional hour for dinner
0:04:00 > 0:04:02'was very different.'
0:04:03 > 0:04:06We normally think of dinner, the main meal of the day,
0:04:06 > 0:04:08as eaten in the evening.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11But historically, the timing has always been dictated
0:04:11 > 0:04:15by the availability of light, and in the middle ages,
0:04:15 > 0:04:20it was eaten in the middle of the day, when you had daylight.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26'I want to travel back to the medieval period
0:04:26 > 0:04:30'to examine one of the earliest forms of dinner.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36'It's a fascinating mixture of customs that are both familiar
0:04:36 > 0:04:40'and strange to us today.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44'The time that we ate dinner is the first significant difference,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47'but there are many more.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52'I'm here at New College, Oxford, to meet food historian
0:04:52 > 0:04:56'Sally Dickson Smith, who's going to elaborate
0:04:56 > 0:04:59'on what a medieval dinner was actually like.'
0:05:00 > 0:05:04So, New College dining hall in Oxford,
0:05:04 > 0:05:09but probably very similar to any medieval hall.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12Very similar. I mean, incredibly recognisable.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15This kind of place... I mean, this is a very grand version,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18but this kind of structure, from the Anglo-Saxon times
0:05:18 > 0:05:22right up to the 19th century, really is at the centre of the household
0:05:22 > 0:05:27and the place where everyone would come together and eat.
0:05:27 > 0:05:33'People of all ranks ate communally, something I regret we've lost today.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37'Also, in medieval times, and for centuries after,
0:05:37 > 0:05:43'food was served differently, in a style called a la francais.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47'Dozens of different dinner dishes, savoury and sweet
0:05:47 > 0:05:53'would be set on the table at the same time in an enormous display.'
0:05:53 > 0:05:56The way the service happens is that the people at the high table
0:05:56 > 0:06:00are always served first. It really is about a pecking order
0:06:00 > 0:06:03and demonstrating that pecking order. Who gets to eat what when.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09'However, it wasn't all privilege at the high table.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11'You might be served first
0:06:11 > 0:06:15'but everyone ate under the eyes of a Catholic God.'
0:06:15 > 0:06:18If you're at the high table, you have to wait until everyone
0:06:18 > 0:06:21in the hall has been served before you start eating,
0:06:21 > 0:06:23because it can indicate gluttony
0:06:23 > 0:06:25and you wouldn't want to be seen to do that.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29'And when everyone started eating, there was another difference.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32'There was almost no cutlery.'
0:06:32 > 0:06:33This is, of course, a time
0:06:33 > 0:06:35when people were eating with their fingers.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38They will have a knife. Knives were just part of everyday dress
0:06:38 > 0:06:40and something that everyone would have on them.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44- And you didn't eat off a plate. - No, you didn't eat off a plate.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46What you had was what's called a trencher,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49which later does become a plate made out of wood,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52but in the middle ages is a piece of bread.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54'You might not recognise the plates,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58'but some of the food would be very familiar.'
0:06:58 > 0:07:02And you wouldn't be surprised to see a ravioli on your trencher.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06No, you start getting ravioli from the 14th century.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09It's something that people don't realise how far back it goes.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12'And contrary to popular cliches,
0:07:12 > 0:07:17'dining was not a raucous Neanderthal feeding frenzy,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20'but an exercise in decorum and hygiene.'
0:07:20 > 0:07:22There are very strict rules about what
0:07:22 > 0:07:25you must and mustn't do at table,
0:07:25 > 0:07:28but also things like everyone would come into the hall and would
0:07:28 > 0:07:32wash their hands before the meal, and also after the meal.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35This is very important, because though you would have a knife,
0:07:35 > 0:07:37people don't have forks,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39so you're sort of holding your food with your left hand.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43'The food they ate was, by necessity,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46either caught or grown locally,
0:07:46 > 0:07:50'but that didn't stop them serving up a huge range of dishes.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56'And when the main meal was over, there was dessert,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59'which was then a medicinal course to aid digestion.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01'It was known as the void
0:08:01 > 0:08:07'and involved spiced wine, wafers and sugar coated seeds.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10'The theatrical nature of this kind of dinner
0:08:10 > 0:08:13'will always have an extra element,
0:08:13 > 0:08:18'another course, if you like. The entertainment.'
0:08:18 > 0:08:22THEY SING CHORAL MUSIC
0:08:32 > 0:08:37'But the entertainment didn't come only courtesy of minstrels
0:08:37 > 0:08:39'or the court jester.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43'Medieval cooks were expected to deliver a feast for the eyes
0:08:43 > 0:08:49as well as stomach and, if possible, throw in the odd joke as well.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53'There's a fascinating book from the Middle Ages
0:08:53 > 0:08:55'called Liber Cure Cocorum,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59'which features a number of culinary practical jokes
0:08:59 > 0:09:03'that play on a diner's expectations of their food.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11'I've come to Cumbria to visit food historian, Ivan Day.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14'He's going to prepare one of these recipes and show me
0:09:14 > 0:09:19'what amusing tricks were served up at a medieval dinner.'
0:09:20 > 0:09:23I'm sure you know this funny little book.
0:09:23 > 0:09:24HE CHUCKLES
0:09:24 > 0:09:28Well, actually, this little book was probably composed not very far
0:09:28 > 0:09:31from where we're standing, because the middle English scholars
0:09:31 > 0:09:34tell us it's written in a north western. So if you read it,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37you've got to read it with a George Formby accent,
0:09:37 > 0:09:38it's the only way to be.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40I'll play the ukulele and you read it.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42It's fascinating, because it's the only cookery book
0:09:42 > 0:09:44that is written in rhyming couplets,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48so I think it must have been designed to be learnt off by heart.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51Well, that's what rhyming couplets were for, weren't they?
0:09:51 > 0:09:54Exactly, and the recipe in Middle English is called
0:09:54 > 0:09:56hasteletes on fysshe days,
0:09:56 > 0:09:58which means fish you would only eat
0:09:58 > 0:10:01on a day when you're not allowed to have meat.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05What the dish consist of, usually, were entrails,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08which you wrapped around the skewer.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12This is a way of making a hastelete that doesn't have any meat in it.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15But it's a joke with a very good ending,
0:10:15 > 0:10:17because I think this is one of the most extraordinary dishes
0:10:17 > 0:10:19in the history of British food.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23You take the thread, the length of the mat.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25It tells you take an almond
0:10:25 > 0:10:29and what you've got to do is to put the needle through the almond.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32Go like that, pull it onto the thread.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35So, we take a piece of fig.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37It's like a child threading beads.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40It's just like a long, long necklace
0:10:40 > 0:10:43like the hippies used to wear in the '60s, isn't it?
0:10:43 > 0:10:47And that goes on there. Well, this is what the finished thing looks like.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49Good Lord, look at that! Isn't that fun?
0:10:49 > 0:10:51- It looks splendid, doesn't it? - It looks amazing.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54But it's what we do with it next which is the most wonderful thing.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58What we've got to do with that is to attach it in a very cunning way,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01which is a wonderful medieval word,
0:11:01 > 0:11:07to wind it around the broach and this is how they did the entrails.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10These chaps were expecting to see something that had got meat in it
0:11:10 > 0:11:13and it hadn't, it had got fruit in it, which was kind of girly stuff,
0:11:13 > 0:11:19really, for these testosterone drenched medieval huntsmen, you know.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22And, of course, they couldn't eat meat on a fish day
0:11:22 > 0:11:25because they had to follow the rules of the Church.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27Or they'd go to hell.
0:11:27 > 0:11:32Absolutely. So that's all finished, hastelete for a fish day.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35If you look at the Bayeux Tapestry,
0:11:35 > 0:11:37you will see men with things that look like this,
0:11:37 > 0:11:40but what they are, they're probably the same thing,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43but probably with intestines or some sort of kebab.
0:11:43 > 0:11:44Yeah, that's right.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46So if you would like to be the turn spit.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49- I'll be the turn spit. - And just make yourself comfortable.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54I'm sure you've got a much grander throne there than most turn spits.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58I'm going to put this batter, which is called an endoring batter,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01cos it's the colour of gold, oro,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03because it's got saffron in it.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06And, of course, this mixture of spices
0:12:06 > 0:12:10is very similar to ginger, which was a very popular spice.
0:12:10 > 0:12:16The ginger means that it is actually a bit like gingerbread.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20'You have to admire the ambition of medieval cooks.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22'They had limited cooking apparatus
0:12:22 > 0:12:26'but they could still devise a recipe for a sweet meat
0:12:26 > 0:12:29'masquerading as roasted entrails
0:12:29 > 0:12:33'by using an ingenious means of fire-side-baking.'
0:12:35 > 0:12:40I've got to just work the spit out and then pull it right out like that.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43And can you see what's happened?
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Oh, yes. All the string's left behind.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49Miraculously, all of the string is left behind.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51- That's extraordinary. - So, there is your hastelete.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55It does really look like something that might be meat.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Yeah, a delightful surprise, really,
0:12:58 > 0:13:03because it's probably one of the most unusual British cakes...
0:13:03 > 0:13:04It is.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06..in every way, and long forgotten.
0:13:06 > 0:13:07Fascinating.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12Of course, a lot of the ingredients in this are from the Mediterranean.
0:13:12 > 0:13:18The fruit, the nuts, it says a lot about the exotic food
0:13:18 > 0:13:20of the medieval community.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23The great medieval English bake off.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29'I love the playfulness of medieval food.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32'These cooks intuitively understood
0:13:32 > 0:13:35'that a good dinner wasn't just about the taste of the food,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39'but also how it could deliver a theatrical experience.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45'I'm going to leap forward 100 years in my dinner timeline
0:13:45 > 0:13:50'to the Tudor period, when two enormous social changes
0:13:50 > 0:13:53'radically altered the way we ate.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00'Kentwell Hall in Suffolk was largely completed in the 1560s
0:14:00 > 0:14:04'and is a glorious embodiment of the new Tudor values
0:14:04 > 0:14:08'of flamboyance and display.
0:14:08 > 0:14:09'With the Reformation,
0:14:09 > 0:14:14'Henry VIII ended the dominance of the Catholic church
0:14:14 > 0:14:16'and ushered in an age of excess,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19'throwing the door wide open to gluttony.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27'And at exactly the same moment,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31'voyages of exploration were bringing exciting new ingredients
0:14:31 > 0:14:33'to the Tudor dinner table.'
0:14:36 > 0:14:41Kentwell is a perfect example of what the Elizabethan age is about.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44It's all about show, it's about new money,
0:14:44 > 0:14:47it's about money from the dissolution of the monasteries
0:14:47 > 0:14:52and all sorts of new ingredients to tempt the flamboyant Elizabethan.
0:14:52 > 0:14:58So you've got the tomatoes, the aubergines, the potatoes,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02and then there's the sweet potato and every type of bean.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06All the beans come from the New World.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09And most exciting of all, sugar.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13It was all the rage, the dernier cri.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15People got really excited about sugar
0:15:15 > 0:15:19and all the different things they could do with it.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23It's all together a breath-taking time for food.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29'Kentwell's owner, a fellow veteran of the legal profession,
0:15:29 > 0:15:32'is retired QC, Patrick Phillips.'
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Good Lord! Look at this. Amazing!
0:15:35 > 0:15:38'He's kept the showy Tudor spirit alive here
0:15:38 > 0:15:41'with his Tudor days historical re-enactments.'
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Wonderful. But tell me, do you dress up for the Tudor days?
0:15:45 > 0:15:48I do dress up. I used to dress up all the time.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51There is me. I'd like to say that that was only last year,
0:15:51 > 0:15:55but that was actually many years ago.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58I think you possibly loved the flamboyance of that age.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01Men dressed because they were showing off all the time.
0:16:01 > 0:16:02Real peacocks.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06Real peacocks and it's, I think, a sad decline
0:16:06 > 0:16:09when it comes to a stage now when everybody, all of us,
0:16:09 > 0:16:13myself included, you know, go around looking like a bag of shit, really.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16Well, there are bags of shit and bags of shit and better manure.
0:16:16 > 0:16:17And better manure, that's right.
0:16:17 > 0:16:23So, yes, and it's such an exciting time. Our furniture started,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27our painting started, our voyages of discovery started.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30Henry VIII set the foundations for a great new future.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33And I'm a great fan of Henry VIII, we share a birthday.
0:16:33 > 0:16:39Oh well, of course. Now, that puts you into distinguished company.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43'Gluttony was now a mark of aristocracy
0:16:43 > 0:16:48'and wealthy Tudors focused their indulgence, above all, on sugar.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54'It was the vital ingredient for a grand dinner
0:16:54 > 0:16:57'and any self-respecting Tudor kitchen
0:16:57 > 0:17:01'had a dedicated area just for confectionary.'
0:17:02 > 0:17:06# Why doesn't my goose Sing as loud as thy goose
0:17:06 > 0:17:10# When I paid for my goose Twice as much as thy... #
0:17:10 > 0:17:16'Tissy Tabina, that's her 16th century character name,
0:17:16 > 0:17:21'has been making sweet meats here for over 20 years.'
0:17:21 > 0:17:26Ah, hello, there. It's so good to welcome you to this kitchen.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29It's so wonderful to be here. It's amazing.
0:17:29 > 0:17:30Come and sit down.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32Now, that's a good chair.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35It is a good chair, indeed. It's been here many, many years.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37Many a cook has sat upon it.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40I think that is why there is such an indentation.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43Oh, yes, that's right, an ample cook's arse.
0:17:43 > 0:17:50I want you to tell me something about the influence of sugar
0:17:50 > 0:17:54in the Tudor Elizabethan kitchen.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Of course, it was not for the poor people or the common people.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59It was only for those that had the money,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03the wealth, to buy sugar. Mostly, it was very, very costly.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06There would have been many maids,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08around 12, 13 or 14 years old,
0:18:08 > 0:18:12and they would have been pounding and pounding to get the sugar
0:18:12 > 0:18:14to the right texture.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16Where was it coming from at this period?
0:18:16 > 0:18:20Well, mostly North Africa, Egypt and some of the islands as well.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24'But Tudors wanted entertainment from their dinners.
0:18:24 > 0:18:29'They painted marzipan made from sugar to fashion displays
0:18:29 > 0:18:33'that could satisfy a sweet tooth and deliver a smile.
0:18:35 > 0:18:41'They loved these edible sugar sculptures called subtleties.'
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Perhaps you could explain a little more about what a subtlety is.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48It wasn't just a pretty thing. It had to have meaning,
0:18:48 > 0:18:51because it was presented at the end of the dinner
0:18:51 > 0:18:55when the gentlefolk had all dined, to give them something to talk about.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59The nearest I ever got to that was a corporate event where I made
0:18:59 > 0:19:03the logo of a motorcar company in sugar and put one on each desert.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11'During the Tudor period, our interest in food expanded
0:19:11 > 0:19:14'and the first domestic cook books appeared.
0:19:14 > 0:19:20'This age also produced one of my favourite cooks of all time.'
0:19:20 > 0:19:23One of the people I would really, really wanted
0:19:23 > 0:19:26to have gone to dinner with was Elinor Fettiplace.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28She's one of my heroines.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31She gave what is the first English recipe for meringue,
0:19:31 > 0:19:35which she describes as white biskit bread.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38It's a pound and a half of sugar, that's a lot of sugar,
0:19:38 > 0:19:43the whites of 12 eggs beaten very fine and other ingredients.
0:19:45 > 0:19:51Now we add the aniseed, and she says half a spoonful.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53Well, a Tudor spoonful.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56This is the unusual ingredient,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59Dame Elinor says, "A spoonful of flour."
0:20:06 > 0:20:10'The Tudors turned the medieval concept of dessert
0:20:10 > 0:20:15'as a medicinal note to end a meal completely on its head.
0:20:15 > 0:20:21'Instead, they wanted to gorge on a full blown symphony of sugar.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24'This final course was so celebrated,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28'it got its own name. The banquet.
0:20:28 > 0:20:34'And it got its own building, too, known as the banqueting hall.'
0:20:34 > 0:20:38Look at this wonderful array of things that Tissy has produced,
0:20:38 > 0:20:43Tudor banqueting stuff and look, that's a sugar plate.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45The whole plate is made of sugar.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47Several of the Tudor recipe books
0:20:47 > 0:20:49encourage you, at the end of the meal,
0:20:49 > 0:20:51to break the plates and eat them.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55When you think that all these dishes follow on
0:20:55 > 0:20:59for what today we think of as being a very grand meal,
0:20:59 > 0:21:03and they've been eating, probably, for an hour or two
0:21:03 > 0:21:05before they came to this particular part.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07- To the banquet.- To the banquet.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10And, in fact, the banquet was all the goodies at the end.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12Exactly.
0:21:12 > 0:21:13Ah-ha, here comes Tissy.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16Now, Tissy...
0:21:16 > 0:21:19White biscuit bread, fresh from the oven.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22White biscuit bread, fresh from the oven. What could be better?
0:21:22 > 0:21:25- It's a meringue.- It is.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27Really delicious.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31This subtlety, Mistress Clarissa Dickson Wright,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34is made to give you honour this day
0:21:34 > 0:21:37and is a tribute to you in the form of a shield.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39How lovely.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43And here you have the crab, the sign you were born under, of Cancer.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47- Your talents and your skill as a cook.- Yes.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52Numbers and letters that have a meaning for you.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55Indeed, absolutely, from Two Fat Ladies.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58And beans that I hear that you spilt.
0:21:58 > 0:21:59SHE GUFFAWS
0:21:59 > 0:22:02Very good. That's brilliant.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06- Is the spilling of the beans your autobiography?- My autobiography.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08You may take it away with you.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12Thank you. Yes, indeed, I would love to do that and I will treasure it.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17'But there was a price to pay for eating all these sugary treats.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22'The Tudors may have lived in an age of discovery
0:22:22 > 0:22:27'but not, sadly, in an age of dentistry.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31'I'm going to the Museum of London
0:22:31 > 0:22:34'to meet archaeologist Mike Henderson.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38'He's going to show me some rather remarkable oral history.
0:22:38 > 0:22:43'If you're eating your dinner now, you might want to look away.'
0:22:46 > 0:22:49Now, introduce me to your colleagues.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52So, here we have a collection of some of our,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55our medieval individuals and looking at their teeth...
0:22:55 > 0:22:58This is a young male, probably in his early 20s,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01and as you can see, there's very little dental disease.
0:23:01 > 0:23:03He's got a perfect set of teeth there.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Amazing. He must have had a lovely smile.
0:23:05 > 0:23:06Yes, yes, quite.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09So, what would that show us about what he was having for dinner?
0:23:09 > 0:23:12Perhaps there wasn't as much sugar in the diet.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14Nothing to attack the teeth.
0:23:14 > 0:23:21Do you see a huge deterioration in the teeth of skulls
0:23:21 > 0:23:24that are sort of Elizabethan rather than medieval?
0:23:24 > 0:23:28As sugar enters the diet, we see inflammation of the gums,
0:23:28 > 0:23:33such as in this individual here. This is an elderly lady.
0:23:33 > 0:23:34Gosh, she's got no teeth at all.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37No, she's lost all the teeth of her mouth. She's completely edentulous.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40Lord, what a wonderful word, edentulous.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42We also see things like this.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46This is an abscess that has formed.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Inflammation of the pulp cavity will cause pus to build up,
0:23:49 > 0:23:53pressure will build and build and it needs to, to find a way out
0:23:53 > 0:23:56and it forms this sinus here to release the fluid
0:23:56 > 0:24:00and drain it, so this would have promoted bad breath and the decay
0:24:00 > 0:24:04and the pus from abscesses is also going to cause really bad halitosis.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06Yes, I think I've had boyfriends like that.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11'The damage inflicted by sugar was alleviated
0:24:11 > 0:24:15'a little, at least, by the arrival of the toothbrush,
0:24:15 > 0:24:19'a concept brought to Europe from China in the 17th century.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25'And there were other major innovations in our food technology
0:24:25 > 0:24:28'that appear during the same period,
0:24:28 > 0:24:32'reflecting social shifts in our approach to dining.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36'I'm meeting food writer Bee Wilson,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39'who's carved out a niche for herself
0:24:39 > 0:24:41'as a historical cutlery expert.'
0:24:41 > 0:24:43Ah, what have we here?
0:24:43 > 0:24:47'She's ordering us food that will help illuminate the changes
0:24:47 > 0:24:52'that rocked the world of 17th century table implements.'
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Bee, we didn't always have the fork, did we?
0:24:55 > 0:24:57The middle ages, they didn't have the fork.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Well, no. It's a very recent table implement in Britain, at any rate,
0:25:01 > 0:25:03compared to either the spoon or the knife.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06There's a kind of mystery about the fork, because it gets
0:25:06 > 0:25:10adopted in Italy in Europe far earlier than any other country.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14I think the reason is very simple. You can use one word - pasta.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16The macaroni and vermicelli trade
0:25:16 > 0:25:20goes all the way back to medieval times.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23There's this man, Thomas Coryat, who went travelling in Italy
0:25:23 > 0:25:26some time in the reign of Elizabeth, and he discovered in Italy
0:25:26 > 0:25:29that people ate everything, including their meat, with a fork.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32At first, he found this strange but then he discovered
0:25:32 > 0:25:36he rather liked it and then came back and wrote about it in 1608.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39His friends just ribbed him and made such fun of him
0:25:39 > 0:25:42and called him Furcifer, which kind of means fork eater,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45but it also meant rascal at that time.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49He was just seen as a kind of social weirdo, really,
0:25:49 > 0:25:51for using one of these things.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54'But the fork did start to catch on.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58'The first dinner forks were made with two flat prongs
0:25:58 > 0:26:00'and owning one was a mark of wealth.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07'Charles I, seen here dining with his wife, Henriette Maria,
0:26:07 > 0:26:12'declared in 1633, "It is decent to use a fork".
0:26:13 > 0:26:17'His seal of approval heralded the beginning of a much more
0:26:17 > 0:26:23'refined attitude to our eating habits at the dinner table.'
0:26:23 > 0:26:26By the end of the 17th century, everyone's using one.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29We just take forks for granted at almost every meal now.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34'The most essential item of cutlery had always been the knife,
0:26:34 > 0:26:39'and this, too, would soon become a more genteel proposition.'
0:26:39 > 0:26:41The thing that you see that starts to happen
0:26:41 > 0:26:44after the adoption of the fork, table knives change.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46I mean, they used to be very sharp,
0:26:46 > 0:26:48but you then start to see these knife designs
0:26:48 > 0:26:52coming out of the late 17th, 18th century,
0:26:52 > 0:26:53which are ostentatiously blunt.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55Those ones that are kind of shaped like that.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59We'd think of that as a kind of butter knife shape, wouldn't we?
0:26:59 > 0:27:00And it's really odd,
0:27:00 > 0:27:04because it does a much worse job of cutting the food on the plate.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06Another interesting thing with this change in knives
0:27:06 > 0:27:09is part of the reason that so many of us, I include myself in this,
0:27:09 > 0:27:10have bad knife skills,
0:27:10 > 0:27:14because if you transfer the hold for a table knife onto a kitchen knife,
0:27:14 > 0:27:16you end up with this...terrible.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19- You shouldn't hold a kitchen knife like that.- Like that, no.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22But it's another polite way of saying, "Look, I'm not going to
0:27:22 > 0:27:24"stab you with my dagger like this,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27"I'm sort of keeping my finger safely like that.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30"It's not a weapon. Don't worry, stay calm."
0:27:30 > 0:27:33'Changes to the knife and fork
0:27:33 > 0:27:38'reflected refined practicality and manners.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42'But a sudden change to the spoon, as a direct result
0:27:42 > 0:27:45'of the Restoration of Charles II in 1660,
0:27:45 > 0:27:50'was nothing less than a badge of political allegiance.'
0:27:50 > 0:27:53Under the Republic, people had these spoons called puritan spoons,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56which had a slightly sort of rounder shape.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00But the one thing that no-one in Britain before 1668
0:28:00 > 0:28:03had ever eaten with was a spoon shaped like this.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07Charles II ate with spoons like this. They were called trefids.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10He had used these spoons at the French Court while he was in exile,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14brought them back and just in the space of a very, very few years,
0:28:14 > 0:28:19all silver spoons in Britain went over to the trefid shape.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21If you had a puritan spoon, you'd be very careful to go
0:28:21 > 0:28:23and get it melted down and re-made as a trefid.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27- Yes, I'm for the King. - Yes, patriotic spoons.- Yes.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34'As we moved into the 18th century,
0:28:34 > 0:28:37'our dining habits continued to evolve,
0:28:37 > 0:28:40'thanks to another life changing development.'
0:28:47 > 0:28:51For centuries, the most readily available light source
0:28:51 > 0:28:55was a tallow dip reed taper,
0:28:55 > 0:28:58which didn't give a lot of light and was rather smelly
0:28:58 > 0:29:00and was probably just used for supper -
0:29:00 > 0:29:03the light meal at the end of the day,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06which was a bit of bread and cheese or a bit of cold pie.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08In the early 18th century,
0:29:08 > 0:29:12dinner time moved forward to 3.00 or even 4.00 in the afternoon,
0:29:12 > 0:29:16largely aided and abetted by the clearer brighter light
0:29:16 > 0:29:21of the beeswax candle that had become more readily available,
0:29:21 > 0:29:24at least to the better off.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29'Dinner moved steadily later into the afternoon
0:29:29 > 0:29:33'and opened up space in the day for a new meal called lunch,
0:29:33 > 0:29:35'taken at midday.
0:29:35 > 0:29:41'But it wasn't just candles that were lighting up our dinner tables.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45'Advances in agriculture and stock breeding in the 18th century
0:29:45 > 0:29:50'dramatically improved the quality of the central ingredient of dinner,
0:29:50 > 0:29:53'our main meal of the day.'
0:29:55 > 0:30:01We British now regard meat as a very vital part of our dinner.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04It wasn't always like that.
0:30:04 > 0:30:09We owe it to one funny little vegetable, the turnip.
0:30:11 > 0:30:16'Here on this estate in Norfolk in the early 18th century,
0:30:16 > 0:30:18'a revolution was launched
0:30:18 > 0:30:22'which unlocked the mighty power of the turnip.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28'The man behind it was the Second Viscount, Charles Townshend,
0:30:28 > 0:30:31'nicknamed Turnip Townshend.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35'He is one of my all-time food heroes.
0:30:35 > 0:30:41'Thanks to his four course rotation system, which boosted crop yields,
0:30:41 > 0:30:46'live-stock could be reared for meat all year round.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50'We no longer had to survive on salted meat throughout the winter.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57'Robin Ellis farms land here once owned by Turnip Townshend himself.'
0:31:00 > 0:31:03- Hello.- Hello, how are you?
0:31:03 > 0:31:07- I'm all right, thank you. You? - Good, very well, thanks.
0:31:07 > 0:31:12What's your view on what Townshend did for food?
0:31:13 > 0:31:17I think that he made meat available for 12 months,
0:31:17 > 0:31:20fresh meat available for 12 months of the year
0:31:20 > 0:31:22for an ever growing population,
0:31:22 > 0:31:26but this was well before the ages of freezers and things like that.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30So, there was fresh meat that could be fed on the turnips.
0:31:30 > 0:31:32So, if you had your dinner,
0:31:32 > 0:31:36you were far more likely to get beef or mutton after it?
0:31:36 > 0:31:37Yes.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40There, you see? That can only be a very good thing.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45'Crop rotation wasn't a new idea,
0:31:45 > 0:31:49'but Townshend's innovations delivered dramatic results.
0:31:50 > 0:31:55'By growing wheat one year, turnips the second, barley the third
0:31:55 > 0:31:59'and then a fallow year of restorative clover,
0:31:59 > 0:32:00rich in nitrogen,
0:32:00 > 0:32:05'the soil's fertility improved and crop yields surged.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10'Suddenly, there was enough surplus to feed livestock
0:32:10 > 0:32:14'throughout an entire winter and the turnip, above all,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17'was particularly good at surviving the cold.'
0:32:19 > 0:32:22What is the reputation of the Second Viscount now?
0:32:22 > 0:32:25Is he still well regarded in agricultural circles?
0:32:25 > 0:32:27I went to agriculture college.
0:32:27 > 0:32:32We still had the four course rotation embedded in our memories.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35Yes, it's...it's very good, actually.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39We've slightly adjusted the rotation,
0:32:39 > 0:32:42but I'm a great believer in rotating your crops.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44And still following the principle.
0:32:44 > 0:32:46The principle of it, precisely, yes.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49But he wouldn't have had that revolting rape.
0:32:49 > 0:32:50THEY LAUGH
0:32:50 > 0:32:52Any of us who suffer from hayfever don't love rape.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57'I think we should be eternally grateful
0:32:57 > 0:32:58'for Turnip Townshend's
0:32:58 > 0:33:01'revolutionary improvements to our diet.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06'I'm meeting Lord Townshend, the current head of the household,
0:33:06 > 0:33:10'at Raynham Hall, where Turnip Townshend himself was born.
0:33:11 > 0:33:13'I want to find out more about how
0:33:13 > 0:33:17'his ancestor's discoveries out in the field
0:33:17 > 0:33:20'affected his dining table.'
0:33:21 > 0:33:24- Good morning.- Hello, how do you do? - Nice to see you. Come on in.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27How nice of you to invite us. Isn't this wonderful?
0:33:27 > 0:33:31What I want to do is compare you with a picture of my hero,
0:33:31 > 0:33:33your ancestor.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35Ah, that may give you a shock.
0:33:35 > 0:33:36THEY LAUGH
0:33:36 > 0:33:39There he is, there he is.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41So, this is the great man himself.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45This is the great man himself. I hope I don't look too much like him.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47No, but you've got the same nose.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50- Shall we go this way? - Yes, absolutely.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55'Lord Townshend has brought out some rare 18th century menus
0:33:55 > 0:34:00'from the archive, which reveal the household's enjoyment of meat.'
0:34:00 > 0:34:03These were interesting, because this was a week,
0:34:03 > 0:34:08a week of December 15th, 1751,
0:34:08 > 0:34:14leg of mutton, chicken broth, salt fish and eggs and asparagus.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17Then, for the servants, they had a leg of mutton.
0:34:17 > 0:34:22And every meal has, for the servants, their menu as well
0:34:22 > 0:34:26and they were eating a buttock of something, beef.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29- Beef.- A buttock of beef, isn't that lovely?
0:34:29 > 0:34:30It's a rump.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33This was a different sort of thing that was
0:34:33 > 0:34:37a menu for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40It doesn't have Sunday. I don't know what they ate on Sunday.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42Roast beef.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45'And it wasn't just more meat on the table that was new.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48'The humble vegetable that made it all possible
0:34:48 > 0:34:51'also found its place on the menu.'
0:34:51 > 0:34:55They did actually eat quite a lot of turnips and carrots.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59They were in almost every meal.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04So, you know, by 1752, root crops were part of the staple diet
0:35:04 > 0:35:07and they probably wouldn't have been before.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10They were grown in cottages, in little cottage gardens,
0:35:10 > 0:35:13but they weren't really a sort of grand food.
0:35:13 > 0:35:14No, certainly not.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17You wouldn't have expected to find them in a house like this before.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21Exactly, exactly. So he did quite a lot of good.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27'The menus from the archive also reveal how much money
0:35:27 > 0:35:32'was lavished upon fine dining during the period.'
0:35:32 > 0:35:34And look at some of these prices.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37Four teal wrapped in quality lard, £1.14.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41They're very expensive. The whole meal cost £28.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43You could add, certainly,
0:35:43 > 0:35:45two, if not three, noughts to these figures.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48And slightly against my better judgement,
0:35:48 > 0:35:50- I've brought the original. - Oh, how lovely.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53This is the first time this piece of paper has ever
0:35:53 > 0:36:00been taken out of the archives and shown to, I hate to say the public.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03I'm not the public, I'm just a fat old cook.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06Shown to a very eminent cook.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09So kind, so kind, but I'm thrilled to see it.
0:36:10 > 0:36:16'I believe a Georgian dinner is the high water mark of British dining,
0:36:16 > 0:36:18'as these menus suggest.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24'For the rich and powerful, the Georgian dining room
0:36:24 > 0:36:27'reflected both a more intimate approach to dining,
0:36:27 > 0:36:31'away from the medieval and Tudor communal halls,
0:36:31 > 0:36:33'and a boom in decorative arts.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38'Gracious new silver and tableware were displayed
0:36:38 > 0:36:42'and the very best centrepieces would feature a pineapple,
0:36:42 > 0:36:45'a £1,000 extravagance
0:36:45 > 0:36:50'that became the defining emblem of 18th century hospitality.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52'There were fashionable new candlesticks
0:36:52 > 0:36:56'appearing on the dinner table and, if you could afford it,
0:36:56 > 0:36:58'you'd have a chandelier,
0:36:58 > 0:37:03'a word first recorded in England in the 1730s.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07'I've done my own bit of dabbling in the Raynham Hall kitchen
0:37:07 > 0:37:10'and I've come up with a menu based on the archives
0:37:10 > 0:37:14'to serve to Lord and Lady Townshend and Robin Ellis.
0:37:14 > 0:37:19'It's my culinary tribute to Turnip Townshend.'
0:37:20 > 0:37:23We've got the fish course, which is there.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27We've got oysters and crayfish and pickled herrings,
0:37:27 > 0:37:30and then you've got this wonderful beef cooked in red wine.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32This is your buttock of beef that was in the recipe
0:37:32 > 0:37:35we were looking at earlier on.
0:37:35 > 0:37:41Cabbage with bacon and, of course, the inevitable turnips and carrots.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43Wonderful.
0:37:43 > 0:37:44Right, dig in.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50'The Georgian era was an age of change when it came to dinner.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53'It wasn't only the meat and candles,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56'but the service of food was evolving, too.
0:37:56 > 0:38:01'Although courses of sweet and savoury dishes still arrived
0:38:01 > 0:38:06'mixed together, medieval style, some food, such as cold beef,
0:38:06 > 0:38:10'would be left on a sideboard for diners to help themselves.'
0:38:11 > 0:38:15I'm going to go straight onto the buttock of beef.
0:38:15 > 0:38:17Everyone is being very polite with the oysters.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19Yeah, well, all the more for you.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23I think that's probably my... my first course.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27'It's wonderful to celebrate Turnip Townshend's achievements
0:38:27 > 0:38:31'with one of his descendants.'
0:38:31 > 0:38:33Everybody, including the local sheep producers,
0:38:33 > 0:38:37they benefited enormously from what Charles Townshend did here,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40and enabled people to produce sheep better
0:38:40 > 0:38:41than they could ever do in the past.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43Have you ever had salt mutton?
0:38:43 > 0:38:45Yes, thank you very much.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49Well, all the more reason to be devoted to your ancestor.
0:38:50 > 0:38:56'The Georgians also forever changed the way we sat down to dinner.
0:38:56 > 0:39:02'The custom of seating a lady next to every male diner became the norm.
0:39:04 > 0:39:10'It allowed for flirting and for more civilised conversation.'
0:39:11 > 0:39:13It's really good, isn't it?
0:39:13 > 0:39:17How do you feel being married to the descendant of this
0:39:17 > 0:39:21iconic agriculturalist and promoter of the turnip?
0:39:21 > 0:39:24You mean being married to the descendant of Turnip?
0:39:24 > 0:39:26Yes, absolutely, but I'm trying to avoid saying it.
0:39:26 > 0:39:31The most charming thing about Turnip Townshend is that,
0:39:31 > 0:39:35if you ask anybody who's been schooled in Norfolk,
0:39:35 > 0:39:36they all know who Turnip Townshend was.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38Which I think is really lovely.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40A toast to Turnip Townshend.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42Turnip Townshend.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48'By the end of the 18th century,
0:39:48 > 0:39:50'beef was regularly on the dinner menu
0:39:50 > 0:39:53'and part of our national identity.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57A patriotic new ballad, The Roast Beef Of Old England,
0:39:57 > 0:40:02written in 1730 by Henry Fielding, was on everyone's lips.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05# When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's food
0:40:05 > 0:40:08# It ennobl'd our veins and enriched our blood... #
0:40:08 > 0:40:11'Hogarth created this print of the same name.'
0:40:11 > 0:40:15# Oh, the roast beef of Old England
0:40:15 > 0:40:18# And Old English roast beef. #
0:40:18 > 0:40:22'18th century beef steak clubs were the height of fashion,
0:40:22 > 0:40:28'confirming the traditional French nickname for us, le rosbif,
0:40:28 > 0:40:32'and all the while, dinner continued its relentless march
0:40:32 > 0:40:37'later and later in the day, thanks to a wonderful new invention.'
0:40:37 > 0:40:41The greatest innovation in oil lighting since Roman times
0:40:41 > 0:40:43came with the invention of
0:40:43 > 0:40:46the argand lamp in the late 18th century,
0:40:46 > 0:40:51which gave out as much light as ten beeswax candles.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55With mains gas becoming available in the 19th century,
0:40:55 > 0:41:00dinner moved forward to as late as 8.00, if not later.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04'By the Victorian era, all the elements
0:41:04 > 0:41:08'we saw at dinner in the Apothecaries Hall are now in place.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11'Everyone eats with a knife and fork
0:41:11 > 0:41:17'and service a la francais is now replaced by service a la russe,
0:41:17 > 0:41:21'a new custom brought to the west in the early 1800s
0:41:21 > 0:41:26'by the Russian Ambassador to Paris, Count Alexander Curacao.
0:41:28 > 0:41:29'For the first time,
0:41:29 > 0:41:33'set courses are plated up in the kitchen before being served.
0:41:35 > 0:41:42'On the table, non-edible ornaments replace sumptuous displays of food.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46'But just when our formal dinner-time customs
0:41:46 > 0:41:49'should have their crowning moment of glory,
0:41:49 > 0:41:53'something rotten arrives to derail our dinner.
0:41:53 > 0:41:58'The middle classes, freshly minted from the Industrial Revolution,
0:41:58 > 0:42:02'wanted to show off their new wealth with dinner parties.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07'They needed advice on how to do it and this is where
0:42:07 > 0:42:13'our reputation for fine dining drives headlong off the cliff.
0:42:13 > 0:42:18'In my view, Mrs Beeton is one of the main culprits.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22'Don't be fooled by the elegant pictures in her book.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25'The food is deplorably pretentious,
0:42:25 > 0:42:29'boiled to a pulp and purged of taste.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36'This London restaurant prides itself on championing
0:42:36 > 0:42:41'traditional British food, so I've asked head chef Lee Tearman
0:42:41 > 0:42:45'to turn his hand to some basic Victorian recipes.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49'He's making boiled carrots.'
0:42:49 > 0:42:51We're going to boil these for 30 minutes.
0:42:51 > 0:42:56We'll see if Mrs Beeton's correct in her estimations.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58'Boiled asparagus.'
0:42:58 > 0:43:01So the asparagus should be ready.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03We just murdered it.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07'Fish curry.'
0:43:07 > 0:43:11A tablespoon of curry powder and then put it on a moderate fire.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14'And a cake.'
0:43:14 > 0:43:17This is an egg powder cake. It's not actually egg,
0:43:17 > 0:43:19it's a vegetable compound.
0:43:22 > 0:43:23There's also no raising agent in it,
0:43:23 > 0:43:27so there's no chance for it to become light.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31'While Lee finishes off the food,
0:43:31 > 0:43:35'I'm going to join historian Fiona Lucraft to try to work out
0:43:35 > 0:43:38'what went wrong in the Victorian age.'
0:43:38 > 0:43:41The population is moving. It's moving from the country,
0:43:41 > 0:43:45where you literally go outside to the garden and you pick herbs.
0:43:45 > 0:43:47You've got eggs right there.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50I think it's something like a fifth of the population
0:43:50 > 0:43:53were in the city at the beginning of the 19th century.
0:43:53 > 0:43:58And by the end, there's four fifths of people moving to urban areas,
0:43:58 > 0:44:03and you lose the contact with nature, with how food is made.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06'Growing ranks of servants,
0:44:06 > 0:44:09'often people with minimal or no experience,
0:44:09 > 0:44:13'were hired to cook for their aspirational employers
0:44:13 > 0:44:16'and desperately needed guidance.'
0:44:16 > 0:44:20The thing about cookery books is, I think, linked
0:44:20 > 0:44:23to the growth of the middle class.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27It's this group of people that want to emulate the wealthy
0:44:27 > 0:44:29and they need to learn how.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33The idea for the 18th century, and then
0:44:33 > 0:44:38it continues with the Victorians, is learn from a book.
0:44:38 > 0:44:42A book's a nice solid object. You can always refer to it.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46'But it was a near impossible task to give advice to cooks
0:44:46 > 0:44:50'who were literally starting from scratch
0:44:50 > 0:44:52'to cater for people who wanted
0:44:52 > 0:44:57'but lacked any understanding of fine dining.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01'This Cassell's Household Guide recipe for hashed mutton
0:45:01 > 0:45:07'offers catch-all solutions to mask dull flavours or cooking disasters.'
0:45:07 > 0:45:08This is where they're beginning to give you
0:45:08 > 0:45:11an indication of where things are going wrong.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15"After making sure there are no cinders in it."
0:45:15 > 0:45:18There is an expectation in this recipe that you've got burnt meat
0:45:18 > 0:45:21on the outside and raw, undercooked in the middle.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25"Flavour with a dessert spoonful of the vinegar,
0:45:25 > 0:45:27"some mushroom catchup and, if you like,
0:45:27 > 0:45:30"a little Harvey's or Worcestershire sauce."
0:45:30 > 0:45:35So, what is being relied on here are all these extra bottled elements
0:45:35 > 0:45:38that the Victorians are now really very excited about.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Packaged this, bottled that,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44and it's what I would call moving further and further away
0:45:44 > 0:45:46from making these things yourself
0:45:46 > 0:45:48and therefore knowing what the flavours are
0:45:48 > 0:45:51and knowing how much of things to put in.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54'So much for the cookery books.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58'It's time to find out what the food actually tastes like.'
0:45:58 > 0:46:00Half an hour carrots.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02THEY LAUGH
0:46:02 > 0:46:06And that's some 15 minute asparagus.
0:46:08 > 0:46:10Oh, my. Well, you could mash that.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19It reminds me of baby food.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22It's sort of like cud.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26So here we have fish curry.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29Now, I'm going to eat the grey mullet.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35Right, this is edible, which I did not think the recipe was.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39- Don't put it on the menu. - I definitely won't.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44'And, finally, the egg powder cake.'
0:46:44 > 0:46:46It's more dense than anything.
0:46:46 > 0:46:48It's quite dense, he says.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50That's going to line your stomach.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53It's extremely sweet.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56I couldn't really say there was anything pleasant about it.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59If you took that down to the river and fed the ducks...
0:46:59 > 0:47:01- It would sink, definitely. - It would sink, yeah.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05'Despite serving terrible food,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09'the Victorians were obsessed with dinner parties.'
0:47:09 > 0:47:14Dinner was one of the few places where men could meet future wives,
0:47:14 > 0:47:17where future mothers-in-law could inspect
0:47:17 > 0:47:20their future daughters-in-law.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23Do you know how to hold a knife and fork?
0:47:23 > 0:47:25Do you know which one to use?
0:47:25 > 0:47:27And somebody described it as, I think,
0:47:27 > 0:47:29"The tyranny of the dinner party."
0:47:29 > 0:47:32I think it must have been tyranny, indeed,
0:47:32 > 0:47:36and especially for us poor women in our corsets.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43'In the first half of the 20th century,
0:47:43 > 0:47:47'our reputation for dinner deteriorated further.
0:47:48 > 0:47:53'What the Victorians started, the Germans finished off.
0:47:53 > 0:47:58'Wartime rationing put an end to much entertaining.
0:47:58 > 0:48:03'The grand spectacle of the showy dinner lingered on life support.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07'But another revolution stepped in to revive it,
0:48:07 > 0:48:09'that of the mass media,
0:48:09 > 0:48:12'which launched the advent of the celebrity chef.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16'Fanny Cradock was the one who came first,
0:48:16 > 0:48:21'a woman who intuitively connected cooking with performance.'
0:48:21 > 0:48:25There you simply go on adding a little cheese
0:48:25 > 0:48:29and a little milk and doing the same thing...
0:48:29 > 0:48:34'Here she is with husband Johnny in a recording from 1956,
0:48:34 > 0:48:38'hamming it up for the crowds and the camera.'
0:48:38 > 0:48:40You're taking the Michael out of me all the time.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43Well, maybe you'll eat your words.
0:48:43 > 0:48:45I'd sooner do that than eat your pudding, anyhow.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48Would you, huh?
0:48:50 > 0:48:52Would you?
0:48:52 > 0:48:53APPLAUSE
0:48:58 > 0:49:03'And here I am in a typical 21st century TV studio
0:49:03 > 0:49:08'with my old friend, food and television critic, A A Gill.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12'I want to find out what he thinks of Fanny Cradock
0:49:12 > 0:49:16'and her mission to revive the ritual of dinner.'
0:49:16 > 0:49:19At the end of the '50s and the beginning of the '60s,
0:49:19 > 0:49:24there was a generation of women who had never been taught
0:49:24 > 0:49:29how to cook for pleasure and all of the cooking that they'd done
0:49:29 > 0:49:35was to make the most of very sparse, usually very third rate ingredients.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39Food was fuel. You sat down and what was important was to be polite,
0:49:39 > 0:49:42have decent table manners and clear your plate.
0:49:42 > 0:49:48'What Fanny Cradock did then was to give women the confidence to cook.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51Prod it all over. Think of somebody you've never really liked
0:49:51 > 0:49:54but you're too well bred to say what you think of them,
0:49:54 > 0:49:57so you take it out on a good bit of meat and stab it all over.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00There is two sorts of food that you serve in your house.
0:50:00 > 0:50:02There is the food that we eat.
0:50:02 > 0:50:06A beastly job, this. You dip your hands into thin honey.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09And then, there's the food that company eats.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13I mean, Fanny Cradock is really Saturday evening food.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16She brought this idea that you could show off.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18There's your presentation dish.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21And what she offered us was snobbery.
0:50:21 > 0:50:26All beautifully moistening, ready for you to carve it.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29There's an awful lot of food is about snobbery,
0:50:29 > 0:50:31and there's no point in pretending
0:50:31 > 0:50:34that an enormous amount of food isn't about snobbery.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38And Fanny Cradock really was the most wonderful Cordon Bleu snob.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45'Adrian and I are going to pay tribute to Fanny Cradock
0:50:45 > 0:50:49'by having a stab at one of her dinner party classics -
0:50:49 > 0:50:53'duckling with apples, for which you need, amongst other things,
0:50:53 > 0:50:57'one good sized duck and a sandwich loaf.'
0:50:57 > 0:51:02Now, do you have a preference which side down you put your breast?
0:51:02 > 0:51:04- I have... - THEY GIGGLE
0:51:04 > 0:51:08No, I have no preference. I tend to put it skin side down.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12Skin side down. There we are.
0:51:12 > 0:51:14While your breasts are searing,
0:51:14 > 0:51:16shall we do something with the apples?
0:51:16 > 0:51:18Yes, what does she suggest you do?
0:51:18 > 0:51:20What does she suggest?
0:51:20 > 0:51:25Oh, no, we've got to do it in the duck fat afterwards.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28Are we really standing here waiting for this?
0:51:30 > 0:51:33You can put the legs in now, cos they take less time.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36- They take far less time. - So now, you take your...
0:51:36 > 0:51:37We take our apples.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43Do you think we're now supposed to use this cider?
0:51:43 > 0:51:46I suppose we are.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49I'm going to put the ducks in here with the apples.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51I suspect that we're supposed to fry this.
0:51:53 > 0:51:55Cooking with LEGO.
0:51:56 > 0:52:01I'm now putting in my LEGO into the hot oil.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03Do you think the cameraman can catch?
0:52:03 > 0:52:06I shouldn't think so for one moment.
0:52:07 > 0:52:08Oh, impressive.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11HE LAUGHS
0:52:11 > 0:52:15- This is the bit that she was always very...- Partial.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18..partial to, which was the display.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21- Oh, look at that.- Perfect. - Perfect.- Perfect.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24Her breast goes in there.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28I think that we sort of, in an Elizabethan way,
0:52:28 > 0:52:32arrange them like that, and now we have apple sauce.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38- Look at that.- Amazing.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40- And now... - One you made earlier.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43Yes, one we made earlier.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47And then you hold it up for the money shot.
0:52:47 > 0:52:49Doesn't that look lovely?
0:52:53 > 0:52:58'We now eat our dinner at an average time of 7.48pm,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01'when a lot of cooking shows are on television.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07'We've become a generation of armchair cooks
0:53:07 > 0:53:10'and I often wonder what people actually eat
0:53:10 > 0:53:12'as they watch these shows.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17'Quite probably, it's another innovation
0:53:17 > 0:53:21'that's influenced our dining habits, the ready meal.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25'I'm on my way to a place that produces
0:53:25 > 0:53:28'over 100,000 of these things a week,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31'which can be heated direct from the freezer.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35'But here, they're on a mission to elevate the ready meal
0:53:35 > 0:53:40'from a solitary TV dinner to off-the-shelf dinner-party fare
0:53:40 > 0:53:42'that will impress your guests.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53'I'm meeting three members of the development team,
0:53:53 > 0:53:58'Dale, James and Edward, to taste some of their future offerings.'
0:53:58 > 0:54:02This is a very high risk strategy.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06Presenting game things to Clarissa Dickson Wright.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09Am I allowed a voice?
0:54:09 > 0:54:10Of course, you're the perfect test.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13Yes, I am the perfect test.
0:54:13 > 0:54:14Right, roll on.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17OK, Joe. What have we got?
0:54:17 > 0:54:19We've got our venison Wellington.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21Oh, nice.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29- Does it come with the...? - It comes with the red wine sauce.
0:54:29 > 0:54:31With the gravy, with the red wine sauce.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33I love it raw. Raw? Rare, even.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36I like it so a good vet can bring it back to life.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40That's a bit overdone for you. Shall I give you that bit first?
0:54:40 > 0:54:42Thank you.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45Is this something that you would make yourself?
0:54:45 > 0:54:49Yes. I mean, I eat a lot of venison, although I do prefer the wild,
0:54:49 > 0:54:51I have to say.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55'It's very unusual for a ready meal to pass my lips,
0:54:55 > 0:54:57'and I'm as curious as to what I'll make of it
0:54:57 > 0:54:59'as everyone else seems to be.'
0:55:02 > 0:55:03What do you think?
0:55:03 > 0:55:06I think it's extremely nice.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09I would have seasoned the meat a little more, but I think that
0:55:09 > 0:55:12red wine jus is quite delicious, one of the best I've ever tasted.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14How about that? High praise.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17One thing I'm brutally truthful about is food.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20'I'm genuinely surprised to find
0:55:20 > 0:55:23'that a ready meal could be so palatable,
0:55:23 > 0:55:28'and it leads me to wonder who buys these elaborate pre-made dinners.'
0:55:28 > 0:55:31People are still fairly conservative about what they eat,
0:55:31 > 0:55:33certainly on Monday to Friday.
0:55:33 > 0:55:35You know, Friday night, maybe Saturday,
0:55:35 > 0:55:38they'll be a bit more adventurous. "Let's try this, let's try that."
0:55:38 > 0:55:42Entertaining is the other... the other big thing, in a sense that
0:55:42 > 0:55:44people want to cook for friends and have people over.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47So you want to do the bits you enjoy.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51But actually, some of it, you'd much rather somebody else did it for you.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54Some of them own up and some of them don't.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57So you're back to the whole thing of showing off to your friends.
0:55:57 > 0:55:59"Look how clever I am."
0:55:59 > 0:56:01So, the Monday morning phone call,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04"Can I have the recipe, cos I've lied?",
0:56:04 > 0:56:06does happen now and again.
0:56:06 > 0:56:07But then what they should say is,
0:56:07 > 0:56:12"Oh, no. If I told you, I'd have to kill you. This is my speciality".
0:56:13 > 0:56:16'We now live in an age of convenience cooking,
0:56:16 > 0:56:19'even when we're entertaining.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22'But perhaps these meals do have something in common
0:56:22 > 0:56:26'with our grand dinners of the past.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32'I don't believe in golden ages of dining,
0:56:32 > 0:56:36'but I think the mid-18th century, if you had the money,
0:56:36 > 0:56:38'was as close as you can get.
0:56:38 > 0:56:44'Grand homes like this were a stage for what I imagine
0:56:44 > 0:56:47'was some pretty elegant and sumptuous dinners.
0:56:47 > 0:56:52'We might not do it quite like this now, but I believe that
0:56:52 > 0:56:57'there's a common element to the way we've eaten dinner over the ages.'
0:56:59 > 0:57:05Dinner is the meal most associated with fashion and social ostentation.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09It is where you show off your grand clothes
0:57:09 > 0:57:12and embrace theatrical display.
0:57:12 > 0:57:17You may wonder what a gourmet ready meal has in common
0:57:17 > 0:57:21with a medieval feast or a grand banquet,
0:57:21 > 0:57:27but the one thing that we haven't lost is the desire to enjoy
0:57:27 > 0:57:30good company with food.
0:57:30 > 0:57:36And in that, it doesn't really matter what we're eating,
0:57:36 > 0:57:40because every generation has its own priorities.
0:57:42 > 0:57:43'It's the company that matters.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49'In the past, people devoted huge amounts
0:57:49 > 0:57:52'of time and energy to their meals.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55'Nowadays, we're usually too busy
0:57:55 > 0:57:58'and that's reflected in what and how we eat.
0:57:58 > 0:58:02'But meals are not just about food.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06'They're social events that connect us all
0:58:06 > 0:58:10'and I thoroughly disapprove of families who fail to eat together.
0:58:10 > 0:58:15'Our meals have always been moveable feasts,
0:58:15 > 0:58:18'but the irony is that we can eat better now
0:58:18 > 0:58:23'than at almost any other time in the past, if we care to.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26'I urge everyone to reconnect
0:58:26 > 0:58:29'with the traditions of fresh local produce.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32'Take time to cook and eat together,
0:58:32 > 0:58:37'then we'll be getting the best out of our daily meals.'
0:58:37 > 0:58:40Gosh, that's nice. Gosh, that's really, really nice.
0:58:56 > 0:58:59Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd