School: Corlis

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1. Food in Olden Times

   

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   In olden times people had three meals a day. The breakfast which was about 9 a.m. consisted of oat meal stirabout followed by tea and bread. The men were out in the field at 6 a.m. and had a good appetite for the breakfast. The dinner of potatoes, cabbage and American bacon was generally at 1.30 p.m. In Summer, when the potatoes were exhausted, Indian meal porridge was taken for dinner. The supper of oatmeal stirabout and buttermilk was about 7 o'clock. Poor people, who had no oatmeal, lived almost wholly on Indian meal stirabout and potatoes. Potatoes and buttermilk were often taken for supper in the harvest season. Buttermilk was largely drunk by the people who had cows.
   The men took their meals at the kitchen table which was placed along the wall under the kitchen window, while the family sat round a skip of potatoes which rested on a pot in the middle of the floor and peeled the potatoes with their thumb nails. When having porridge or stirabout the people usually sat round the pot and filled their porrengers which they held in their left hands. In some houses tables were hung up against the walls when not in use. They were hinged on posts standing close

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. products
      1. food products (~3,601)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Eugene O' Reilly

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Legaland, Co. Cavan

   Informant

   Thomas O' Reilly

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   62

   Address

   Legaland, Co. Cavan