So just for fun and my own personal interest...what would be a common diet for sailors (and pirates) while on board? Perhaps it changed over the years but say, during the golden age of piracy...1600s or 1700s
I think you would find 'hard tack" as a common staple for food on ships during the period you mentioned.
In her excellent book, "Everyday Life in Renaissance England (from 1485-1649," Kathy Lynn Emerson covers to subject on pp. 157-158.
To paraphrase: Close to shore, it was common to have fresh food on board: meat, vegetables, fruit. On longer voyages, there was reliance on ship's biscuit -- which "had to be considered edible even when it was rotting and infested with weevils." Other foodstuffs carried on long voyages were: beer, beef or pork cured in brine, oatmeal, salted eggs, salted fish, bacon, and "bag pudding" of raisins and currents. Fresh caught fish and other marine life (porpoises and penguins are mentioned), when available, were cooked and served.
Though not covered in Emerson's book, the practice of carrying citrus fruit to prevent scurvy wasn't widespread until the 1800s.
In addition to the hardtack, another one that comes to mind would be a meal called salmagundi, which was a salad dish or a stew originating in the early 17th century England comprising of cooked meats, seafood, vegetables, eggs, fruit, leaves, nuts and flowers and whatever was on hand aboard ship and dressed with oil, vinegar and spices. Also some of the more exotic ingredients according to some historical sources lists monkey meat, sea turtles, snakes and oysters as well.
And to wash it all down, aside from the standard ration of straight rum, sailors have been known to drink a few other rum based "cocktails" such as bombo, a blend of rum, water, sugar and nutmeg: rumbullion, made from rum, wine, tea, lime juice, sugar and spices: and rumfustian, which consisted of raw eggs, sherry, gin and beer.
It largely depends on which table you were dining at. Those who sailed before the mast (aka the crew) on long voyages lived on largely a diet of hardtack/ships biscuits and salted meat, with daily rations of Grog (watered down beer) and if they were lucky/hadn't been at sea too long fresh fruit. In the US coastal waters and down into the Caribbean the Cod fish was the primary meat source, Salted Cod and Hard tack all around. Mates and cabin boys etc, (officers or officers to be) usually ate better having some more cooked meats even if they were simply the same salted meats as the crew they would be prepared in a stew or in some other fashion, most boats carried in their holds a selection of animals that they would use for luxuries like eggs and milk and kill when necessary. Most often the captain ate largely the same as his officers, but on occasion would have a better meal prepared for himself and invited guest from the officers quarters. This is all on ships of Her Majesties Service.
As I understand the Pirate life, while hard, typically did not involve extended (meaning several months without making port) voyages at sea. This certainly has exceptions, but most pirates preferred to stick closer to land and island hop, jumping out into shipping lanes to take down a prize then returning to the relative safety of the coastal and inner island water ways. This would lead to a far more varied diet as trips to land were more readily available. Not to mention on extended voyages they could always partake in some forced requisitioning of supplies from merchants encountered along the way. Some pirates did sail far and wide, typically running for their lives, and on these journeys I fear they were probably worse off then those in the Queen's services.
I got an opportunity to try some typical sailors food from the golden age of sail and let me say, it was not tasty. Salted Cod, no matter how you prepare it is just really not that good of a meal, and hard tack, well you go mix some flower and some water through in the oven and see how it comes out. I am by no means and expert on this topic, but I have read several books and know some people who are true experts in the field of historic sailing. If you want a good impression of what life aboard was like, and a great read, I highly recommend the Master and Commander series by Patrick Obrien. It is the series of books the movie Mast and Commander is based on, and while fictional, are incredibly accurate according to the people I have talked to. In most instances Obrien uses actual naval battles in the books, simply changes the ships and where they take place, but in terms of the maneuvers and particulars of the fights in a lot of instances they come right out of ships logs. They also give some in sight into life in the service at that point and time and what it was like to sail in the Golden Age of Sail.
There's a pretty good website, www.maryrose.org, regarding a ship from Henry VIII fleet that was raised. Here is a passage from the site:
The sailors in the Tudor navy lived mostly on salted beef, salted fish and ship's biscuits.
They were given meat on four days a week and fish on the other three.
Other foods like cheese and butter would have been eaten by the crew, but no evidence of these survived on the wreck of the ship.
...and here's the link: http://www.maryrose.org/explore/cook/food.htm If you go to that link, you can click on some of the different categories of foods for a better description of the foods. Good luck!
Thanks alot, to all of you. I plan on finding some books, etc. I just figured that some of the folks on here would have some knowledge and give me a good starting point.
So, I found some hard tack recipes online and tried one of them. It didn't turn out that well, but I've never used flour before and my baking equipment isn't up to par so I think after some more research and buying some better equipment my next attempt this week will work out.
Lo and behold, I was walking around walmart and I found Salt Pork!!! So, I'm going to make some hard tack, and make some salt pork stew and see how it goes.
Don't forget the weevils!!!
lol, I might forgo being THAT authentic..... ;)
Your first attempt at hard tack was probably spot on. The crackers in MREs should be pretty similar, just awful tasting. The ones that came in C-Rats were always in the can with either the chocolate candy, or the cocoa, so they were crappy hard tacky, with a chocolate twinge.
Not trying to be a downer, but I can't help but imagine that institutional food aboard a ship would be similar to field rations for the Marines (or whatever). Are you just trying to get an experience of what their stuff tasted like?
Check out the Disney cartoon Pocahantes (sp), and see what John Smith says to the racoon when he throws hard tack out for a snack.
What, no weevils?? It just isn't a pirate biscuit without weevils!
Quote from: Butch on January 30, 2010, 06:08:55 PM
Your first attempt at hard tack was probably spot on. The crackers in MREs should be pretty similar, just awful tasting. The ones that came in C-Rats were always in the can with either the chocolate candy, or the cocoa, so they were crappy hard tacky, with a chocolate twinge.
Not trying to be a downer, but I can't help but imagine that institutional food aboard a ship would be similar to field rations for the Marines (or whatever). Are you just trying to get an experience of what their stuff tasted like?
Check out the Disney cartoon Pocahantes (sp), and see what John Smith says to the racoon when he throws hard tack out for a snack.
really, I just want to try it and see how it tastes and goes. I figure if I'm going to properly portray a pirate/sailor....I need to know what it tastes like. Just a thing with me, kinda a throwback to doing 15 years of theatre. In order to be a character I need to be in that characters shoes and try to experience his life as he would have.
authentic as I can get is what I like to do.....sans weevils. My first attempt actually went really bad, as I had never used flour before in my life....I wound up putting in too much salt...way too much salt and it kept sticking to my pan to where I couldn't flip it properly. It was truly a mess.
My question is, the salt pork has a lot of fat. Should I cut it out? i woudn't think so, cuz if I did, I wouldn't have much salt pork left.....
Quote from: Betty Munro on January 30, 2010, 08:41:10 PM
What, no weevils?? It just isn't a pirate biscuit without weevils!
LOL, true.....true *sigh* I just can't....just can't....:-)
Nah, leave the fat in the salt pork! That's where all the flavor is!
Here's a neat site that briefly discusses hard tack, albiet Civil War variety. Good luck!
Since the only recipes I found so far for salt pork stew was salt pork and peas in water, I added some other elements that I figure might be picked up in port or on a landing party by the ships cook....
Its not that authentic but its close. I've had some salt pork, potatoes, carrots and some beans with water cooking in my crock pot for almost 24 hours now. Should be fairly tasty. Maybe not that authentic but its a start.
As for my hard tack. I think I mixed it right and cooked it right, but I can't seem to get it to look like all the examples I see online....mine just looks like a spread out lump while the examples online all look like large crackers. So, maybe I didn't mix it right...I dunno. It tastes right though and its hard as hell.
'It tastes right though and its hard as hell.'
Yep, you got it right. My wife has a recipe for ships biscuits that calls for letting the dough rise 12-15 times and beating it back each time. Hard as hell as you say and tastes about like what you'd expect water and flour to taste like.
If you really feel that to portray a pirate you must eat like one, heres a list of things to try:
Rats
Weevils ( especially when rubbed on the gums to prevent scurvey)
Soft leather, used to cover the lanyards of the rigging
Drag a net overboard in salt waters, and boil up what ever is in the net
Bark
Bon appetite'