Publisher's Synopsis
Food histories often tell readers more about the diet of the nobility than the everyday food of lowlier folk. This book describes how people living and working together for a common purpose could also share a common diet, and examines how the food preparation of certain groups was restricted by their choice of foodstuffs. Amongst the diets described are those of medieval monks, servants in a noble's house from the middle ages to the 19th centruy, schoolgirls at the French school of St Cyr, the typical workhouse diet in Yorkshire, a sailor's diet between 1530-1830, and the diet of soldiers in the 19th and 20th centuries. "Food for the Community" aims to shed as much light on the social context of the special diets as it does on the foods consumed.
