The Working Man's Supper

I think a heavy meal at noon when sitting at your desk is a recipe for a nap, but I will say from my experience working on the farm that if you did not fill up during lunch it was very hard to maintain your energy during a day of hard labor. So this eating pattern makes a lot of sense for the context.

It's difficult for me to put into words how much I love this channel. This is the epitome of comfort content.

My grandfather on my mom's side had a farm in Minnesota, and he followed this almost exactly. At that time, nobody was a "specialty" farmer. He and grandma did everything. Grew corn for sale, grew hay for their beef cows, had a milk cow for the farm, etc. So he'd get up, milk the cow at 5:30 AM, come in around 6:30 for oatmeal and a cup of Folgers coffee, back out to work until around 11, then a big lunch with vegetables, pork chops, mashed potatoes, etc., then a nap on the couch for an hour or so (do NOT disturb), then back out to work until dark. In the summer, when dark wasn't until 9, a small break with a cup of coffee and a butter and bologna sandwich might happen. Then at the end of the day, a small meal; a roll with jam, maybe soup or some hot dish (and maybe on a weekend, a wedge of pie) then to bed. Rinse, repeat. When we'd visit, we'd all be eating toast, eggs and bacon on Saturday morning, and he'd have his bowl of oatmeal with warm cow's milk he'd milked that morning (occasionally with a bit of hay floating on top) and brown sugar or honey. Not too different a routine than the last century or so, apparently.

"A melancholy juice" also tells us that whoever wrote this believed pigeon eaten at night would unbalance the humours and possibly lead to illness. Many food and drink choices of the time were based on the humoral theory of medicine.

I'm an 80s kid who grew up in Kentucky. Supper was our big meal, but we also had "bedtime snacktime" which was often a glass of cold milk with a piece of leftover cornbread crumbled into it, then eaten with a spoon. We called it Crumble In and it sounds a lot like this recipe! I like thinking we were just doing the same thing our great grandparents probably did.

I work PM hours (Noon to 8pm) and oddly follow an 18th century meal plan. Small breakfast, large lunch, snacking or small meal before bed. Never gave this thought till this series.

This video was very surprising to me. I live in a farmers family in Germany and we still eat like this today. A light breakfast, sometimes just coffee and water, definitely nothing savoury, lunch is a big warm meal where everyone comes too the table and dinner is cold, bread, sausage like salami or ham, sometimes fish and vegetables.

Another possible reason for the light supper in the evening is that in northern countries during the winter it gets dark early and it’s nearly impossible to cook by fire and candle light. I’ve tried this and definitely can’t see what I’m doing. Much easier to eat something leftover or already cooked earlier in the day, like bread and cheese.

I just wanted to leave this comment, I've been following you for.... Not sure how long now! But I remember a time when you were faltering a bit about the future of your channel and it brings me joy to see that it's not only gone the opposite, but it's thriving! I see other YT channels mention you hither and dither and it's always a joy. Cheers for many more old style cooking days! \o/

Here in Brazil, at least in my region, the meal sizes depend on the weather. When it's extremely hot (like right now), we tend to eat ligther lunches, more salads. During winter, we eat more (and a lot of heavy soups) at dinner. I imagine that had its place, especially back then as well. Great video!

This channel just understands their core audience. Bravo. Plus the camera work, editing, everything. You've come a long way. Now I'm hungry.... thanks for the great content!

You have to remember that with such a large mid-day meal, there would often be a siesta to nap and digest, and then a return to work, with a small dinner just before bed at 9 or 10PM. Modern industrial work days don't allow for this so the lunch was made smaller and more convenient. Also in the past folks often we working near their homes where a large meal could be prepared whereas in the modern era when working outside the home became the norm, smaller portable lunches became prevalent. Notice also how school is organized. In Italy for example, where the agrarian culture persisted longer, school ends around 1PM so children can join their family for their large "pranzo" lunch. In the US however, lunch is eaten at school, often in under 40 minutes, where schoolwork begins immediately after mimicking the modern workplace.

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Where i live and how i was raised, we called our meals Breakfast (Morning meal), Dinner (mid day meal), and Supper (the evening meal). In addition i have heard this saying “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.” ― Adelle Davis

Here in germany, lunch is the largest meal of the day for most people. I think it's intriguing to see the differences in food cultures around the world and throughout time :)

I always wondered why people referred to their evening meal differently; supper, tea or dinner. I'm Welsh and we have so many different dialects that I assumed that to be the reason, like the same way everyone has their own word for the tv remote 😂 thank you for answering a question I've long pondered over!

Seniors tend to eat this way today, well at least in rural areas. Any rural person will tell you most restaurants have early bird specials for seniors who eat their main meal in the late afternoon. The older you get the worse your body handles a heavy meal closer to bedtime.

First time I've caught one this early! Really love the focus on the working man's day to day. Keep it up guys!

Always interesting seeing videos like this since in my family in the North East of England the older meal names are still used alongside the evening meal being tea. Causes no end of confusion when talking to people when my dinner is their lunch and their dinner is my evening tea etc, though at least we can agree on breakfast. Supper is invariably a light meal but rarely eaten.

The fact that we get free videos from Townsends on YouTube is priceless ... Keeping the knowledge and entertainment alive. 👏👏👏👏👏