Eaten Out of House and Home Trivia Quiz

Answer: A four-pint tankard of strong sherry

In 1400, Falstaff's time, a "pottle" was a half-gallon (2 quart or 1.9 liter) measure or a tankard that would hold that amount. Falstaff is drinking a lot in one serving! Over time, "pottle" became an obsolete measurement, while pints, quarts, and gallons remained common measurements in English-speaking countries. In some parts of New Zealand, a "pottle" is a small plastic carton that might hold strawberries, whitebait, or anything that will fit, but it is not a measurement.

The wine that Falstaff called "sack" or "sherris sack" was sherry, named for its place of origin, Jerez de la Frontera and surrounding areas in Spain. Sherry, shipped out of the port of Cadiz, was a popular import to England when trade was lively between the two nations. In Shakespeare's time, in 1587, as the Spanish Armada was getting ready to sail against England, Sir Francis Drake famously stole 2,900 butts of sack from Cadiz harbor.

Answer: A savory pie made with the meat of deer or other game animals

A "pasty" is a pie, not necessarily a small one like the Cornish pasties that may spring to mind first. The word "pasty" began as Medieval French "paste" (Latin "pasta") for a pie crust filled with venison, fish, vegetables, or other savory items. Recipes for "pasties" exist from around 1300, a century before Falstaff and 300 years before Shakespeare.

Although it now refers primarily to deer meat, "venison" in Falstaff's time (ca. 1400) could have referred to any wild game obtained by hunting. The word "venison" derives from Old French "venesoun" while the word "deer" in its Old English form implied a living animal (not always the cervine mammal we now call a deer). Similarly, the word "pork" comes from the Norman-French word for a pig, but the words for the animal itself (pig, swine, hog, etc.) come from Anglo-Saxon roots; the word "mutton" (French "mouton") is used for the meat of a sheep, and "beef" (French "boeuf") refers to the meat of a cow. The history of language about food thus reflects the history of the people of England: the Norman French did the feasting while the English took care of the livestock. By Falstaff's time, however, class differences were becoming more complex, as indeed they may have been from the beginning, and the French words have become English.

Answer: Ham or bacon from the hind leg of a pig, with thick, reconstituted horseradish mustard

According to the Tewkesbury Mustard Company in 2013, their mustard balls weigh around 1 ounce (30 grams) and are made of Severn cider, mustard flour, and horseradish. To turn the mustard balls into thick mustard that can be spread - perhaps onto a gammon - you add vinegar, beer, cider, or other such liquid. The same method would have been used by someone serving the fictional Falstaff in 1400 or the historical Henry VIII, who was supposedly presented with mustard balls covered in gold leaf when he visited Tewkesbury in 1535.

Gammon is cured in much the same way as ham but must be cooked before eating. In 1591, a "Book of Cookerye" advised, "To bake a gammon of Bacon. Take your Bacon and boyle it, and stuffe it with Parcely and Sage, and yolks of hard Egges, and when it is boyled, stuffe it and let it boyle againe, season it with Pepper, cloves and mace, whole cloves stick fast in, so then lay it in your paste with salt butter."

Answer: Smithfield

Site of the three-day Bartholomew Fair in August from the early 12th century through the mid-19th century, Smithfield was a center of activity outside the gates of London where not only livestock but many other goods were sold. In 1174, William Fitzstephen called Smithfield "a smooth field where every Friday there is a celebrated rendezvous of fine horses to be sold, and in another quarter are placed vendibles of the peasant, swine with their deep flanks, and cows and oxen of immense bulk"; the volume increased over time, with many thousands of animals sold each year. It also was known as a place of misbehavior, civil unrest, religious controversies, and public executions.

Pie (or Pye) Corner,known now for the "golden boy" statue commemorating the Great Fire of London in 1666, is near Smithfield and St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and owes its name not to cooked pies but to a sign depicting a magpie that once advertised a tavern on the site.

Answer: apples

In his 1883 "The Folklore of Shakespeare" T.F.Thistledon Dyer explains that the word "apple" in Shakespeare's time was a "generic name applied to any fruit" but Shakespeare mentions several varieties of apples. In "2 Henry IV" Prince Hal ridicules Falstaff by calling him an "applejohn" - a type of apple considered best eaten after two years, when it had become wrinkled.

The leather coat apple (which Dyer says is "generally known as 'the golden russeting'") and the pippin are also mentioned in this play. Dyer mentions that eating "pippins with caraways" may refer to adding caraway seeds for digestion but that "caraway" may refer to another variety of apple. Sweetings, crabs (crabapples), pome-waters, and codlings are mentioned in Shakespeare plays in which Falstaff does not appear.

Answer: The word "stews" is a synonym for "brothels" and unfit for proper women's ears.

Raw prunes are wrinkled dried plums and thus may be associated with age, but stewed prunes are no longer wrinkled, but plump and sweet. Everyone gets wrinkles if they live long enough, and stewed prunes - while not the most elegant of foods - are considered by many to be delicious.

While there may be other indelicate connotations, the bawdiness of the phrase "stewed prunes" in Shakespeare's time comes from the association of the word "stews" with houses of prostitution, because some brothels offered hot baths.

Answer: aphrodisiac

As exotic imports from newly discovered lands, potatoes and sweet potatoes were thought to be aphrodisiacs in Shakespeare's day, although Falstaff wouldn't have known them in 1400. Comfits are candies made with a variety of nuts, seeds, spices, and sugar. Eringoes are sea holly plants (Eryngium maritimum), which grow on the dunes; their roots have a gummy texture, and candies (comfits) were made by mixing them with sugar and orange water. The roots are said to taste like chestnuts and the young shoots like asparagus. The leaves are also edible. All of these were considered sexy foods.

In Act 5. scene 5 of Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" Falstaff has been the victim of an elaborate hoax in which he is lured into the forest with promises of wild sex; he wears horns and pretends to be a male deer as part of the game, then is frightened by children dressed as fairies. As he calls out for aphrodisiacs at the beginning of the scene, he also asks that the thunder sing to the tune of "Greensleeves" - he needs all the help he can get.

Answer: Welsh rabbit (or rarebit)

I looked up Welsh interjections, and "wfft" - the approximate equivalent of the Early Modern English "fie" - seems appropriate, since the English characters mockingly speak of the Welsh love of cheese and should be ashamed of themselves. Nevertheless, a great deal has been written about Shakespeare's Welsh connections (a grandmother, a schoolmaster, fellow actors) and the teasing seems to be affectionate.

"Welsh rabbit" is an older term than "Welsh rarebit" and seems more historically correct. Shakespeare doesn't refer to "rabbit" or "rarebit" but mentions toasted cheese more than once. There's no rabbit (or hare) in the dish, which consists of a melted cheese sauce over toasted bread, and some speculate that it was served when no meat was available, either because a hunt had been unsuccessful or because cheese and bread were the food of the poor, who couldn't afford or legally hunt meat. Saying "rabbit" when there's only cheese implies an ironic joke about making something delicious out of plain fare, while saying "rarebit" may be a posh - or, as English usage expert H.W. Fowler states, "stupid and wrong" - misunderstanding of the whole point.

Answer: blackberries

A "micher" is a truant schoolboy. In the England of Shakespeare's time, blackberries in season could be found growing wild and could be eaten for free if you weren't caught, as is probably true for many of the players doing this quiz (me, too). Blackberry brambles have grown wild in so many locations of the globe, there was no need to cultivate them in a garden until recent times. Because they are so ancient, much natural crossing of varieties occurred before hybrids were attempted, but in the United States, well-known names like Luther Burbank and Walter Knott (of the famous berry farm in California) are connected with the development of juicier varieties of blackberry.

Answer: "What's a joint of mutton or two in a whole Lent?"

The season of Lent in liturgical Christian churches runs from Ash Wednesday for approximately forty days until Holy Thursday or the evening before Easter, depending upon the church. It is a time of sober reflection. In England, during Falstaff's time in the late 1300s to early 1400s, all adults who were of good health were required to abstain from eating meat during Lent, except for Sundays, which commemorate the Resurrection and are therefore not part of Lent. Church law and secular law often agreed on such matters. With weekly fast days, meatless days in medieval Europe amounted to around a third of the year, so there were many days Mistress Quickly was not supposed to serve meat to guests. Her response is from "2 Henry IV" 2.4.245.

I have paraphrased the quotation about goodwife Keech and the vinegar and prawns from the same scene, lines 93-94, and added "Shrove Tuesday" - a holiday called "Mardi Gras" in French - which falls just before Lent; pancakes are traditional in England, but anything - including prawns and vinegar - would be allowed. The other two quotations are from Shakespeare's comedy "The Merry Wives of Windsor." The "bread and cheese" one is at 2.1.129; I added "Christmas Morning" - a day when bread and cheese might not be desired, but could lawfully be eaten. The "world's mine oyster" quotation is spoken at 2.2.2-3; there would be no prohibition on eating oysters on December 13, the Feast of St. Lucy, when they would be in season! Fish and seafood could be eaten during Lent, and by Shakespeare's time eggs and dairy products could be eaten during Lent, as well.