ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Cuisine in the early modern world

Okay kiddo, let's talk about food in the olden times – the Early Modern World. This was a time when people didn't have fancy machines to cook their food, like we do today. They had to do everything by hand.

Back then, the kinds of food people ate depended on where they lived and what they could grow or catch. Some people lived near the sea and ate a lot of fish and seafood, while others lived inland and ate more meat like beef or pork.

In the Early Modern World, people didn't have refrigerators to keep their food fresh. So they had to find ways to preserve food. One way they did this was by salting or smoking their meat. This helped keep it from spoiling.

People also used a lot of herbs and spices to flavor their food. Some of these spices, like cinnamon and pepper, were very expensive because they had to be imported from faraway places like Asia. So only rich people could afford them.

In the Early Modern World, people didn't have supermarkets where they could get everything they needed. They had to grow their own food or buy it from local farmers. They also had to make everything from scratch, like bread and cheese.

One thing that was different in the Early Modern World was that people had different eating habits than we do today. They didn't eat three big meals like we do now. Instead, they had a big meal in the middle of the day called dinner, and a smaller meal in the evening called supper.

In some parts of the world, people also had etiquette rules they had to follow when eating. For example, they had to use a knife to cut their food and a fork to eat it. And they had to keep their elbows off the table!

So there you have it, little one! In the Early Modern World, people had to work hard to grow and preserve their food, and they used herbs and spices to make everything taste delicious. They also had different eating habits and rules that they followed, which were very important to them.