In the American colonies, the mid-day meal wasn't called lunch, but instead was called dinner, and was considered the main or biggest meal of the day. The evening meal was called supper and was usually a much lighter meal than lunch. The quality of and amount of foods and the times served were based a great deal upon level of wealth and status.
The settlers, the poor, ate
breakfast early-a hastily drunk cider or beer and a bowl of porridge cooked
slowly all night over the embers-then went straight to their chores. The rich
ate later in the morning. Townspeople usually had an alcoholic beverage upon
rising followed by cornmeal mush and molasses, with more cider or beer.
By the late 1700s, breakfast was
served at 9 or 10 a.m. and consisted of coffee, tea, or chocolate, toast,
wafers, muffins with butter. Poor southerners ate cold turkey and cider. More
affluent southern planters ate more leisurely breakfasts of breads and cold
meats. In the Northeast, people also ate fruit pies and pastries. In the Middle
Colonies, people ate scrapple, a mixture of cornmeal and headcheese, and sweet
cakes deep fried in fat.
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| scrapple |
Colonial Americans ate dinner in
the early afternoon, served in the hall or common room. Poor families ate from
trenchers filled from common stew pots. A trencher was a long wooden table with
a v-shaped "trough" cut along the center of the table. Stews
comprised pork, sweet corn, cabbage, vegetables and roots, eaten with slabs of
bread. Richer families might have a two-course meal of soups, meats, meat puddings
or meat pies containing fruits and spices, pancakes and fritters and side
dishes of sauces, pickles and catsups. Salads or "sallats" were
served more often with supper and also added as a table decoration. Desserts
were the second course-custards, fresh cooked or dried fruits, tarts
sweetmeats, pound cakes, gingerbread, spice and cheese cakes.
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| apple tarts |
Affluent Northerners ate shortly
after noon, and Southern planters ate later after the slaves and laborers had
been fed.
Supper for the early setters was
either non-existent or a light bedtime snack of leftovers or gruel, a mixture
of boiling water and oats or corn meal. Some ate roasted potatoes prepared with
salt and no butter. Richer people had side dishes of eggs.
