The New England Puritans allowed the elders to have control over almost every aspect of their lives. The food that they ate was an eclectic blend of Puritan ideals, the tastes of the colonists, and the available resources in America. Early generations of Puritans wanted to keep the food as close as possible to what their palates were already accustomed to from England. They also mixed a healthy dose of humility in with every recipe.

In an age when wealthy people stayed away from vegetables simply to show that they had the money to eat an entire meal of meat every day, the Puritans saw eating their vegetables and other simple foods as a way to avoid indulgence at the table. They saw overindulgence of any sort as sinful, and if they ever overate they would pray for forgiveness. These were not the type of people to head to a buffet and gorge themselves. They thought of food merely as a chore, something that was necessary for survival.

New England is famous for it’s wonderful supply of lobster, a food that people today will pay big money to eat (even though it is the roach of the ocean and thoroughly disgusting ... little editorial license there!), and the Puritans nourished themselves on stale brown bread and cold baked beans while these lobsters and other fish swam happily along in the ocean, untouched. The main staple of a New England diet was something called “pease porridge,” which was really New England baked beans. Field peas were one of the first crops introduced in New England and they grew with much success. Baked or boiled, they were eaten sometimes three times a day, and as they stored well, they were the main source of vegetables over the winter months. Other staples in diet included brown bread, made of rye flour and cornmeal.

Boiling was the cooking method of choice, and the boiled dinner was a favorite dish, consisting of meat and veggies boiled in plain water all day with no seasonings. The most common beverage was dark English beer and, later on, apple cider. The diet stayed basically the same, year round, and was quite healthy. Compared with the available resources of the land, though, the meals were almost impoverished. The Puritans saw the oysters, salmon and wild fowl as suspicious, and had no desire to eat them unless forced to by their hunger.

Puritans took no delight in their food. Their meals were rarely served in courses, rather a big platter with all the food on was passed around and everyone just ate what they could. The only food they really took any pleasure in at all were the baked goods. Baked turkeys on special occasions, squash, bread, and pies all served to equal out the austerity of the normal diet. Even so, the Puritans made a virtue of sensual restraint, contributing to a culture that Sam Adams called a “Christian Sparta”. For many generations, the typical Yankee was thought to have a lean and hungry look about him.