Tudor Food

What Did Henry VIII Eat? The King picked from a large selection of food at every meal. A first course might be chines of beef, venison in brews, mutton, carp or young veal, swan, green geese, stork or capons, garnished custard or fritters.

Rich Desserts The thing is, Henry VIII didn’t actually like desserts much. He only really liked marzipan fruits, jelly and spiced fruit cake. However, he loved pears, apples, plums and damsons. He was also fond of cherries and strawberries.

Royal Tudors ate everything! King Henry VIII ate a wide variety of foods including beaver, peacock and wild boar. The only reason rich Tudors ate beaver was because on holy day they were supposed to eat fish and Tudors thought that beavers were fish! King Henry had his own private French chef and often dined in his private rooms and not in the great hall. He drank only the choicest of wines.

Second Course The king’s second course might include jelly, cream of almonds, pheasant partridges, quails, cocks, gulls, kid, lamb or pigeon, larks or rabbits, chickens, venison in paste, tarts, fritters, fruit, butter and eggs!

Who Ate All The Pies? Henry did! One of the reasons he became so fat in later life is because he ate a lot of meat including meat pies. When he was young he played a lot of sport but due to a jousting accident he was no longer able to do any sport. This meant he got very fat! Food played an important part in royal Tudor life.