The culture of eating in eighteenth-century Tallinn

Abstract

Tallinn, one of the principal ports on the east Baltic coast, at the beginning of the 18th c. controlled by Sweden, in 1721 became part of the Russian Empire together with the whole of Estonia. The city, having a population of about 10 000, was home to people of many nationali-ties (including Estonians, Germans and Russians) and religions (Protestants and Orthodox Christians). In the second half of the 18th c. its development was greatly infl uenced by the proximity of St Petersburg, the new capital of Russia. The author bases his research into Tallinn’s culture of eating on varied sources, including descriptions of the city and the country by clerks and travellers, precursors of ethnography, newspapers and cookery books (the oldest Estonian one dating back to 1781). Much information on the cuisine and culture of eating can also be drawn from probate inventories of merchants, artisans and the emerging intelligentsia (clerks, teachers, physicians, clergymen). Determined by his sources, the author focuses on the culture of the richest and middle-class burghers. The article identifies the basic elements of the diet, which included bread, groats, pastry and vegetables: poorer city-dwellers ate boiled peas and beans, carrots, beetroots, turnips, cab-bage and swede, while more affl uent ones preferred lettuce, cucumbers, asparagus and cauli-fl owers. The end of the 18th c. saw fi rst recipes for potatoes (e.g. baked). The most popular meat was beef. Of prepared meat, products of German specialist settled in Tallinn (coming from Saxony or Thuringia) were highly valued, especially roasted sausage, liver sausage and blood sausage. Much fi sh was also consumed, both saltwater fi sh (herring, cod) and freshwater fi sh (trout, European whitefi sh); seafood was quite popular (oysters, shrimps, lobsters). The diet did not lack fruit, both grown locally (some burghers had orchards) and imported (apples, lemons, oranges, grapes). The basic preservative as well as seasoning was salt, but many other season-ings were used, notably pepper, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, caraway and saffron. The consumption of sugar was increasing; it was used to season drinks and pastries.As to drinks, the basic one was still beer, which had a nutritious value in addition to thirst-quenching and spirits-raising qualities. Beer was both brewed locally and imported (e.g. from England). More and more people drank vodka, which was mass-produced from grains and was gradually replacing beer as a stimulant. Strong alcohols, e.g. rum, cognac and arrack, were also imported. The inhabitant of Tallinn also drank Rhine, Moselle, burgundy and French wines. As in the whole of Europe, also in Tallinn the 18th c. witnessed the popularization of coffee, tea andchocolate. Tea was widespread already in the fi rst half of the century; coffee attained similar import at its end.In the last part of the article the author focuses on changes in tableware. As in Western Europe, it became customary to eat from individual dishes and no longer from a shared pot. New dishes appeared (cups and saucers, tea-pots and kettles), used to prepare and serve coffee or tea. The highly valued silver dishes and the popular tin ones were replaced by porcelain or cheaper faience crockery. Porcelain was imported, while faience was also produced locally.