At all times the food used to be very simple
Before the potatoe was introduced in Mecklenburg around 1730 the people used to feed on grain mash and bread.
Dat's n annern Kurn, säd de Möller, dor beet he up'n Muskötel.
(That is a different sort of grain the miller said when he bit on mice excrements.)
Meat they only had at holidays. Dried fruit was added during the 18th century. Cabbage, also in form of
Sauerkraut (pickled cabbage), was part of the daily menu as well.
Bäter ne Luus in Kohl as goor keen Fleesch!
(It is better to have a louse among the cabbage as to have no meat at all!)
People also ate a small amount of milk products and salted herrings.
Dat smeckt doch nah Fleisch, säd de oll Frau un stek en Tunpahl ünnern Ketel; dor hadd ne Kreih up
seten.
(That really tastes of meat the old woman said and put a post where a crow had been sitting upon
under her kettle.)
A menu of a manor's estate, around the 19th century, for farmhands, daylabourers etc. probably is quite
similiar to a menu on a farm:
Monday: in the morning: thick Melksupp (milksoup), with low fat milk and without sugar
for lunch: Arwtensupp (peasoup) with potatoes and mutton
dinner: Arwtensupp warmed up
Tuesday: in the morning: Melksupp
for lunch: potatoes with Schausterstip (sauce with bacon)
dinner: fried potatoes
Wednesday: in the morning: Melksupp
for lunch: Bohnensupp (beansoup) with mutton or veal
dinner: Bohnensupp warmed up
Thursday: in the morning: Melksupp
for lunch: Pelltüffeln (potatoes boiled in their jacket) with herring
dinner: fried potatoes
Friday: in the morning: Melksupp
for lunch: Kohlsupp (cabbagesoup)
dinner: Kohlsupp warmed up
Saturday: in the morning: - well? Correct: Melksupp
for lunch: Tüftensupp (potatoesoup) with bacon
dinner: Tüftensupp warmed up
For Sunday nothing is mentioned.Probably they had a little bit better food then.
My grandmother Tilli used to say:
Man gut, dat wi di un die groten Katüffeln hebben, sonst müssten wi all die kleinen äten.
(It's good that we have got you and all those large potatoes.
Otherwise we would have to eat all the small ones.)
Another menu describes it as follows:
"During summer there are five meals: Morgenbrod (breakfast), Kleinmittag (small lunch), Mittag (lunch),
Abendbrod (dinner), Nachkost (late dinner); during winter only three meals. Dark rye bread, potatoes, food
made of milk or flour, dried fruit, cabbage, peas, beans, broad beans, pork and meat of the goose, salted or smoked,
are regular ingredients...Twice a week, Sundays and Wednesdays, people cook and eat meat, at the other days the food
will only be warmed up...Even for breakfast they have kale, peas and beer, potatoe soup, pearl barley milk soup,
warmed up...They think water is unhealthy. Everybody longs for beer...Beer gone sour will be poured into a ton
beside the stove to have vinegar at once."
from Redieck/Schade, Swartsuer frät de Buer, see Literaturliste
All people on the farm gathered around a table. Men and women sat seperated and sorted according to the
importance of their work. Children and sometimes the "Kleinmagd" (young farmgirl) had to stand or sometimes they
sat seperately on different seats.
Quite often all people ate from the same dish, sometimes they even used the same wooden spoon.
In former times they used simple earthenware, wooden plates, knives and selfcarved spoons. Later more wealthy farmers
used tin crockery.
In a farmhouse inventory from 1794 we see:
1 tin butterplate, 2 beermugs, 6 earthenware dishes, 4 earthenware plates, 6 wooden spoons, 1 beerjug
Solang de Minsch ett, solang läwt he noch.
(As long as a human being is eating as long he is alive.)
Meat and sausages were hung up in the smoke to preserve it.
Daran muß er sich gewöhnen, sagte die oll Fru und zog dem Aal die Haut ab.
(He has to get used to it, the old woman said, and peeled the skin off the eel.)
Bread was baked once a week. Usually they only had sour, dark and hard rye bread. In hard times
they mixed the flour with acorn flour (then the pigs had to live in want as well) or lime buds.
De Maden in't Hartbrot, dat wier de Botter dorto.
(The maggots in the hard bread were the butter.)
Wheat bread, the favourite "Stuten", they had only on holidays.
Lang hungern is keen Brotsparen!
(Continous starving is not the same as to save bread!)
Except water which was not very popular (no wonder beeing aromatized with dead cats and
rotten rats which were sometimes found in the well) people used to drink beer. In the villages every
farmer brewed his own beer even though it was not allowed officially. In farm inventories we can always find
one ot two beertons.
Most villages had a pub as well.
During the 16th century spirits (Schnaps) were invented in Mecklenburg and became very popular.
Originally it was made from grain ("Korn"), later people used potatoes or even beet.So it became quite cheap
and even daylabourers could afford their daily portion.
Wat bruken wi Alkohol, säd Johann, solang wi Bier un Brandwien hebben.
(We don't need any alcohol, said Johann, as long as we have got spirits.)
Milk wasn't used for drinking usually but used to make soups, sourmilk or buttermilk.
Quite lately coffee became popular. Mostly people drank coffee surrogate made from the roasted roots of
chicory (Zigurn) or roasted grain. Later people had real coffee which was served on holidays. A traveller
reports:
"People use to drink enormous amounts of coffee. I think it doesn't harm them because they wash it down with
the same amounts of spirits."
Prost, un wenn't mien Leben kost!
(Cheers! Even if it will cost my life!)
see Literaturliste, Redieck u. Schade, Swartsuer...