In reply to:
There were no potatoes in Britain until the 18th Century (fish'n'chips a recent tradition, eh?).
From J.E.Austen-Leigh's A Memoir of Jane Austen (his aunt) written in the late 1860s:
The dinners too were more homely, though not less plentiful and savoury; and the bill of fare in one house would not be so like that in another as it is now, for family receipts were held in high estimation. A grandmother of culinary talent could bequeath to her descendant fame for some particular dish, and might influence the family dinner for many generations.
Dos est magna parentium Virtus.
One house would pride itself on its ham, another on its game-pie, and a third on its superior furmity or tansey-pudding. Beer and home-made wines, especially mead, were more largely consumed. Vegetables were less plentiful and less various. Potatoes were used, but not so abundantly as now; and there was an idea that they were to be eaten only with roast meat. They were novelties to a tenant's wife who was entertained at Steventon Parsonage, certainly less than a hundred years ago; and when Mrs Austen advised her to plant them in her own garden, she replied , 'No, no; they are very well for you gentry, but they must be terribly costly to rear.'
Bingley
