Here are some interesting facts. A bit of historical education regarding common expressions used in everyday conversation and also some food facts thrown in!
In the 15th century most people took their yearly! bath in May. Because they still smelled pretty good by June this was the common month for marriage. However, because they were starting to whiff a little, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water.
Houses had thatched roofs, as it was the only place for animals to get warm all the dogs, cats and other small animals lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying It's raining cats and dogs.
The floor was bare earth, only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor.
The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh but then it would start blowing outside so a piece of wood was placed in the doorway. Hence the saying thresh hold.
So what does this have to do with food, nothing so far, but keep reading……
In this era they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over a fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot and then replenish the next day. This is where the rhyme, 'Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old' comes from.
Sometimes they were lucky enough to eat get hold of pork. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off.
It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter and food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing death by lead poisoning. This happened often with tomatoes, so for the many years tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status, workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
Ale or whisky was taken from lead cups, the combination would sometimes knock the drinker out for a couple of days!. They would often be mistaken as deceased and prepared for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.
As the villages started running out of places to bury people they took to digging up coffins and and taking the bones to a bone-house, and then re-used the grave. When opening these coffins many were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realised they had been burying people alive. They then started to tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell, thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.
How times have changed, but some of the sayings and traditions have stayed with us.