Before Ireland had Potatoes
What did we eat before potatoes arrived in Ireland in 1589
I’m working on my Sunday indulgence project - a book based in 17th Century Ireland and Italy. I’m researching what food the common person ate before Sir Walter Raleigh introduced potatoes to Ireland in 1589.
The quick answer seems to be: milky. From the pre-Christian Celts up through the 16th-century, the Irish diet revolved around dairy; drinking milk, buttermilk, fresh curds, old curds. While ‘real curds’ and whey were mixed with water to make a ‘refreshing’ sour drink. Sounds very appetising.
In 1690, one British visitor to Ireland noted that the natives ate and drank milk “above twenty several sorts of ways and what is strangest for the most part love it best when sourest.”
Probably good for gut health, but would not have been a great place to live if you were lactose intolerant.
I often wonder if there was such a thing as lactose intolerance in those days. If all you ate was milk products and that was very pure, I expect you did not develop intolerances. So many of our allergies and intolerances seem to have become more common, and I think most of it is due to modern conditions, plastics and artificial food modifications.