References
Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.
1660
1661
1662
1663
1664
1665
1666
1667
- Mar
Lobster
Log in to post an annotation.
If you don't have an account, then register here.
Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
Log in to post an annotation.
If you don't have an account, then register here.
Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.
7 Annotations
First Reading
April Peavey • Link
Was lobster an expensive delicacy or was it regarded as a "poor man's meal?"
James Griffin • Link
I have read that one reason the Pilgrims in Massachusetts were so short of food during their first year in America is that they did not consider lobsters edible.
dirk • Link
Lobsters vs Pilgrims
Not very credible, if you check this site:
"The English colonists ate a variety of shellfish, including lobster, but they preferred their traditional, grain-based fare. Shellfish might have been an especially important staple of the colonist's diet before the English grain-based foods were plentiful."
http://www.es.umb.edu/faculty/edg…
The main problem seems to have been not so much one of taste but preservation in a time when there were no cooling facilities...
At some point even:
"Lobster was a poor man's food."
http://www.fostertravel.com/CNBRU…
Terry Foreman • Link
Lobster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobs…
Second Reading
Bill • Link
If you are ordered to break the claw of a crab or a lobster, clap it between the sides of the dining-room door between the hinges. Thus you can do it gradually without mashing the meat; which is often the fate of the street-door key, or the pestle.
---Directions to Servants. Jonathan Swift, 1745.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Poor food? Pepys enjoyed lobster every year in the Diary.
William Clifford • Link
While today it’s considered a delicacy, lobster was once a poor man’s food. Thanks to its overabundance, people quickly became sick of the shellfish and only fed it to animals, prisoners, and indentured servants. However, lobster became a popular luxury food in the late 1800s and remains one to this day.