Alexm wrote:
> I have often wondered who decided that breakfast and cereal were
> married to each other. What did the multitudes eat for breakfast back
> in the 1400-1700s in London, for example?


The story I heard is that breakfast was made of foods that were on hand
and that cooked quickly. As the household got started, someone would
"do the chores" which included milking the cow, collecting the eggs from
the hens, and mucking out the stables. Then they'd come in for
breakfast. Meanwhile, another family member would have started the
fire. Breakfast would be a hearty meal of fresh milk, eggs which cook
quickly over the fire, and possibly a meat like ham or bacon, something
salted and preserved and therefore easily accessable in the house.
Cereal would fit that category of being on hand and easy to prepare
quickly. Later meals could be stews with long cooking meats or
vegetables, foods that wouldn't be picked or slaughtered until later in
the day.


That would all be for agrarian North America.


I googled on what breakfast would have been in the Middle Ages in a city
center like London. (It turns out that there are lots of travel sites
advertising Bed and Breakfasts with Medieval themes.) I found these
sites interesting:


http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk...eval_engla.htm
http://www.castles-of-britain.com/castlesf.htm
http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/~vaasjok...s/medfood.html


I didn't stay at the research long enough to find anything definitive.
I did get the idea that breakfast in Medieval London might have
consisted of bread, cheese and ale.


--Lia