Wars of the roses food

[researchingWOTR]

Hi all,

I am doing some research about the Wars of the Roses and something which I am struggling to find info on is the food and drink the soldiers would eat of this period. Someone once told me a story about cheese so hard they had to hit it with a hammer and pickled sprouts but trying to find out how true this is. Anyone know or read anything anywhere?

cheers

[moosiemoosiegander]

It's a difficult one really as I've been looking into this for a while and I have yet to find anything really comprehensive in terms of a soldier's diet from WOTR. What it does seem however is that army logistics in terms of the army having supply trains of food etc were not really used during this period but rather the army would utilise local supplies from nearby towns etc. It is reasonable in that case to assume (though this is an assumption) that the army subsisted on a fairly usual civilian diet for the time rather than having specific 'rations' such as were recorded in garrisons during the time of Edward I.

In terms of the 'pickled sprouts', brussels sprouts (again as far as I can tell) are a variant of brassica that wasn't known in the UK at that time so I'm afraid that story isn't really likely.

I hope that information is of some help.
Moosie