Have you ever wondered what the Tudors ate? What was served at the courtly feasts of Henry VIII, or what kept peasants alive through the harsh winters of the 16th century? The Tudor Cookbook provides over 250 recipes from authentic period manuals for starters, mains, desserts, and drinks, from chicken blancmange to white pease pottage with seal and porpoise. It even covers vegetarian dishes—the Tudors designed dishes of vegetables to look like meat to be cooked during religious festivals when abstinence from meat was required. A few of the more outlandish ingredients and methods of cooking are now illegal, but the rest of the recipes have been trialed; many are delicious and surprising.