What did colonial people eat for dinner?

Answer 1

They ate breads (often made with grains like corn rather than expensive wheat) and boiled grains (porridge); squashes, lots of beans and peas, sometimes the occasional boiled greens and onions in the spring, but never tomatoes (they thought they were poisonous); wild game like deer, squirrel, rabbit, groundhog, boar, pheasant, turkey, and pigeon, plus domestically-raised meats like chicken and beef; they ate milk and cheese if they had domestic cows; also lots of nuts, berries, and apples when in season. The poorest of the poor sometimes made a flat kind of dry pancake out of ground acorns.

The morning meal was often plain porridge that had been simmering overnight in a cast-iron kettle hung over the fireplace. If the family was lucky, they might have a little bit of salt to season the porridge. Sometimes there was bread, or in the summertime, some honey. Dinner (what we call lunch) was usually bread and maybe a little cheese--easy stuff to take with you wrapped in a towel or a kerchief while working out in the fields or hunting. Supper could be anything from more porridge to a roasted rabbit, depending on what was available, and some starchy vegetables like corn or peas. If there was no meat, supper could be beans and bread. Snacks were usually things like wild-gathered walnuts, apples, blackberries, or buttermilk.

Answer 2

A porridge made from dried peas was common, as was a form of apple pie (which would be apples baked in a crust without sugar or spice). They also hunted and fished and ate what could be gotten in that way.

Answer 3

The site below shows how they cooked in colonial Williamsburg.

http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/autumn04/food.cfm

Answer 4

Colonial people cooked over a fire.