Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/133

 before you; not to get intoxicated during dinner; not to carry the victuals to your mouth with a knife." Our forefathers still ate with their fingers; though forks, often of silver, had been introduced into England, they were only used for eating pears and fruit or for picking up "soppys."

The art of cooking had developed, and a number of manuscript cookery books throw floods of light on the domestic life of this period. Here is one of the shortest menus for a little medieval dinner—

Each of these items needed elaborate preparation. Here is the receipt for "bruce": "Take the umbles of a swine and parboil them, and cut them small and put them in a pot with some good