Royal feasts during the Tudor era (1400s–1500s) were ostentatious affairs, often consisting of eight courses! Entrées were fashioned into towers of crowns and decorated with exotic feathers. Bowls overflowed with cheeses and fruit, including berries, damsons, apricots, and grapes. Thick slices of bread were used as plates, called trenchers. There was an appalling lack of vegetables and an over-abundance of ale. In fact, enough ale was consumed every year by Henry VIII’s court to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool! The royal kitchens served more than 1,200 oxen, 8,200 sheep, 2,300 deer, and 53 wild boar annually. Not to mention peacocks, cygnets, and other game! Heaps of seafood was enjoyed too, including porpoise, seal, and even whale! Dessert platters always followed, loaded with everything from marmalade pies and animal-shaped pastries, to…
