
How the Tudors Invented Breakfast - Thevet
http://www.historyextra.com/feature/tudors/how-tudors-invented-breakfast
======
barrkel
_Few of us in the 21st century would dream of embarking upon our days on an
empty stomach_

In my circles, I'd estimate only a narrow minority have a breakfast beyond
caffeine. I certainly don't eat before noon.

PS: more evidence, after I searched to investigate:

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7593760/Two-thirds-
of...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7593760/Two-thirds-of-Britons-
do-not-eat-breakfast.html)

 _Men skip their morning meal the most, with 74 per cent admitting lunch is
their first meal of the day._

~~~
jrs235
"The most significant difference was the traveller’s breakfast. Often we find
this consisted of nothing but ale or wine."

It appears ale and wine has been replaced by coffee. That's usually all I
consistently have before lunch.

~~~
laichzeit0
I particularly like an excerpt from Benjamin Franklin's autobiography of when
he worked at a printing press. Apparently it was quite common to drink on the
job for "strength" if you were a manual labourer.

"My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at
breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a
pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he
had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom; but it was
necessary, he suppos'd, to drink strong beer, that he might be strong to
labor. I endeavored to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer
could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley dissolved in
the water of which it was made; that there was more flour in a pennyworth of
bread; and therefore, if he would eat that with a pint of water, it would give
him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on, however, and had four or
five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that muddling
liquor; an expense I was free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves
always under."

[1] [http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies/benjamin-
franklin/chap...](http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies/benjamin-
franklin/chapter-3.php)

------
arjn
\---- excerpt ----

Aragorn: Gentlemen, we do not stop 'til nightfall.

Pippin: What about breakfast?

Aragorn: You've already had it.

Pippin: We've had one, yes. What about second breakfast?

[Aragorn turns and walks off in disgust]

Merry: I don't think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.

Pippin: What about elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He
knows about them, doesn't he?

Merry: I wouldn't count on it.

\----------------

:-)

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cafard
Then how does breakfast appear in The Odyssey?

~~~
graeme
It's not a good idea to judge articles by their headlines. Typically, the
headlines aren't written by the author.

The article itself says that breakfast became a more regular occurrence due to
longer, fixed workdays. Some people ate breakfast before then, it just wasn't
a set routine the way lunch and dinner were.

~~~
azernik
In fact, says my quick text search, the string "Tudor" does not show up once
after the headline.

~~~
dghf
But the thrust of the article is that in England eating breakfast became the
norm during the 16th century, a period almost coterminous with the rule of the
Tudors (Henry VII took the throne in 1485; Elizabeth I died in 1603).

------
vl
>[16th century] The main meal, dinner, was held at about 10.30 or 11 in the
morning, and supper about five hours later.

Hmm, I wonder what was the typical time for dinner in the 19th century? I.e.
when Mr Bingley was invited "to dine" with Bennets, at what time he was
expected to show up?

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rokhayakebe
My first thought was "does this have anything to do with the invention of
street lights and the time people could now get to working?"

------
emjaygee
Yes, but Tolkien invented Second Breakfast. No comparison.

~~~
dllthomas
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_breakfast](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_breakfast)

 _" It is traditional in Bavaria, in Poland, and in Hungary. In Bavaria or
Poland, special dishes are made exclusively to be eaten during second
breakfast."_

~~~
Surio
IIRC, Czechs (and Slovaks too, perhaps) have something called "svacina" which
fits this definition of a second breakfast.

There are other places in the world too that have this custom:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffin)

~~~
psykovsky
In Portugal it's called "bucha".

