Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Pastimes/DinnerParties
Dinner Parties
Dinner parties were an important event on the social calendar in Stuart England. They were a time where the local gentry class would be able to get together to eat, drink, and visit. They would often be expensive and intricate affairs, which would often start in the early afternoon and go well into the night with feasts and banquets following them. [1] They would be quite regulated with a set amount of time for each course of the feast and banquet and the order in which they were given. [2] It would all be quite decorative and a brazen attempt to show off wealth, as guests would be expected to look the part, style and fashion wise, and know the manners appropriate for a party of this scope.
The amount of food at these dinner parties would be enormous, as would be the a wide variety of foods to show wealth and taste. Since the opening of trade routes, there would be new spices, nuts, chocolate, dried fruits, and sugar that would both show off the wealth of the host. [3] These feasts would also be a great treat for guests, and something that would make or break the host as the talk of the neighbourhood. These events would be elaborate with food we would expect today like roasts and vegetables, but also foods that most would not find appetizing today like intestines and heads of animals. [4]
In a feast, guests would often be quite drunk and full after eating and drinking to their hearts delight to nearly countless dishes. Dishes would be very decorative and extravagant, with meats such as roast and fowl carved in such a way so that it would make patterns or displays. [5] After the feast, guests would often be invited to join a banquet, usually in the garden or in a special banquet hall where guests would be invited to partake in sweet dishes and wine.[6]
There would be entertainment, discussions, and it would be a wonderful place to renew acquaintances and meet new people.