Pilgrim Meals & Table Manners

In the time of the pilgrims or the 17th century, the biggest meal of the day was eaten at noon and it was known as 'dinner' or simply 'noon-meat'. Housewives used to spend their mornings cooking this elaborate meal. Suppers used to be a smaller meal that was eaten at the end of the day. Leftovers from noon-meat of the previous day took care of the breakfast in the pilgrim household. According to the custom in colonists' homes in those days, children and servants used to wait on adults as they sat down to eat. The foods eaten by Wampanoag Indians and the colonists were quite similar to each other but they had very different eating patterns.

Wapanoags used to eat whenever they were hungry and one could find pots cooking in their homes throughout the day. On the other hand, colonists had a fixed timetable for eating their meals such as breakfast, dinner and supper. Pilgrims used spoons, knives and fingers to eat and yet not had access to forks. They used to wipe their hands on large cloth napkins that were also used by them to pick up hot morsels of food. On the harvest feast, salt would have been placed on the table to sprinkle on the food as they like but pepper, though it was being used in cooking, has still not made it to the tabletop.

In those days, the food was served according to the social standing of a person and the best food and dishes were placed near the most important people in the gathering and people did not get to sample all the dishes on the table but had to eat only what was closest to them. Similarly, the people were not served meals individually and the food was just served onto the table and then people had to pick up the food from the table and eat it. There were no courses of food and all types of foods were placed on the table at the same time and people could choose what they want to eat first and what to eat next. Even if there were two courses, both of them would contain everything including meat dishes, puddings and sweets.