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Larry Autry
 
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Default Pukka mealtimes

Just 5.5 cents from the states.

This of course is not quite your pukka, which is a fairly unknown term
here. When one reads the text below, one can see how terms regarding
meals can change over time.

When I was young, I knew the meals simply as breakfast, lunch and dinner
or, breakfast dinner and supper. I never knew why when the terms dinner
and supper were often substituted for lunch and dinner. There's
apparently a long history.

A nice write up is offered on this URL: http://tinyurl.com/pblh
AKA -- http://www.shasta.com/suesgoodco/new...aq/qsupper.htm

This is a "Civilian Reenactor's" web site. Referring to the civilian
contingent of reenactor's of the not so civil American Civil War.

----Larry Autry
=======================


Fannie is quoted here from the referenced site:
< a big snip >
[begin quote]
"Working class folks contented themselves with three main meals a day.
Breakfast, Supper & Dinner.

Breakfast was always the morning meal.

Dinner was the largest meal of the day and Supper was considered a
lighter meal (usually cold meats or leftovers). But here comes the area
where much confusion arises: Depending on the circumstance of the
diners, Dinner was eaten as the mid-day meal OR as the evening meal.
Supper & Dinner were interchangeable.

Here is the qualifier:
In households with a cook or servant, Dinner was usually the evening
meal, and was enjoyed at the end of the day. The householders considered
it the duty of the cook to keep the fires burning, the stove going, and
to prepare three hot meals a day. Supper, the lighter meal, was usually
eaten in the afternoon.

In households where the wife cooked, Dinner was often eaten in the middle
of the day, and Supper was the evening meal. The reason for this
practice was practicality.

It took alot of effort and skill to keep a fireplace or cook stove heated
with a nice, even heat for cooking. The housewife got the stove going to
prepare breakfast ,which was usually quite a substantial meal to keep the
menfolk working all day. Since the stove was already hot, she began to
cook dinner as soon as breakfast was done. (There were no instant foods,
and preparation usually included hours of slow cooking). This allowed
her to serve the big meal at mid-day, at which time she could let the
stove go out, escape the environs of the hot stove during the heat of the
day, and get some serious work done. She then served bread and cold
meats or leftovers for supper, any foods that did not need extensive
cooking.

This same practicality serves us at encampments. After breakfast is
done, we begin to cook dinner. The fire is already started, we have a
nice bed of coals, and it is much easier to keep this heat source going
than to start another fire in the afternoon. Dinner is served as the mid
day meal, and we escape having to work over the fire during the hottest
part of the day. We have our Supper later in the day, usually sandwiches
or cheese and fruit, which does not require cooking.

Also, this kept us hovering over our pots of food during public hours, as
they love to see us tending the fire and lifting the pot lids to examine
the delicacies cooking therein. (We are now so jaded on cooking that
after breakfast, we let the fire go out and have two suppers and no
dinner. Got lazy in our old age, I suppose)

The source for the above information is a good book which covers this
concept well:
The American Heritage Cookbook and Illustrated History of American Eating
& Drinking
by the Editors of American Heritage Magazine
Pub 1964 by the American Heritage Publishing Co, Inc."
[end quote]


--
Larry Autry
Manchester, MO USA
t
If you can spell Earth and net, you can email me.