Our Anglo Saxon forebears munched their way into this Millennium on a diet of meat, fish, bread, grain and herbs, which were cooked on heated stones, clay ovens and open fires, writes Helen Peacocke.

We now close the millennium on a diet consisting mainly of commercially prepared foods that need little or no preparation, and a wealth of technological kitchen aids to heat them through.

Today we can prepare an entire meal without even getting our hands dirty, whereas the Anglo Saxons had to first catch their prey before they could eat.

They also had prepare a fire on which it could be cooked, before being able to rip it apart and eat it using the very same knife that had been used to kill the beast or defend them against an enemy. (Forks were not in use until midway through the 17th century). Gradually refinements were built into that early diet. Early pottages and broths into which grain, meat and fruits were stewed together were gradually thickened, first with bread, and later potatoes.

Our traditional Christmas pudding evolved this way, beginning life as a thin broth, to which fruits, meat and eventually spices were added with such enthusiasm that by Victorian times it became a solid meatless pudding filled with dried fruits and breadcrumbs.

The art of bread and pastry making gradually became more refined once ovens were constructed into the stonework of the house. These were heated with a wood fire which gave off its heat to the stones, a method still in use today in many parts of the world. With the 17th century came a proliferation of cookery books, and herbals written mainly by men as guides to help their women keep house. These books contained recipes for cleaning agents, furniture polish, wines, medicines also lotions and potions to keep away the plague.

It was the industrial revolution which made a really dramatic impact on the way we ate. New manufactured products became available. The wonders of bottled sauces, tinned meats, and fruits powdered custards and eventually even OXO cubes were spread before us and they were seen as the real way forward. Tinned pineapple and salmon were actually deemed a treat, and far superior to the real things. By the turn of this century the enormous differences between the living standards of the rich and the poor, were just as apparent as they had always been and were particularly noticeable in university towns such as Oxford which attracted rich students who demonstrated their wealth through the food and drink that they consumed in excess.

Undergraduate breakfast parties consisting of beefsteaks, grilled fish, broiled chicken, eggs, bacon, kidneys and sausages served with towering piles of toast, tea, coffee and cocoa, were the order of the day. Any left over's (of which there were plenty) were snapped up by the college servant who had laid out the feast. The cookery influences during the turn of the century to the Second World War, were largely down to Mrs Beeton. This means that vegetables were being boiled to death in gallons of salted water and dishes such Windsor soup, kedgeree and devilled kidney's were favourites among those who could afford them.

Farm workers lived mainly on basics such as bread, potatoes and anything they could grow or catch for themselves. Labours without access to the countryside were not so lucky. Cookery writer Marguerite Pattern helped knock Mrs Beeton of her pedestal with her a weekly television programme on cookery during the early days of broadcasting, and it was food writer Elizabeth David who helped us to appreciate the joys of olive oil (previously sold at the chemist as a cure for ear ache). Given the foods available to us now, we should be happier and far healthier. But are we?

Along with this wealth of tastes comes GMF, mad cow disease, salmonella, and countless other nasties like poisonous chemicals and pollution, which we are only just beginning to come to terms with.

Perhaps our ancestors who ate their colostral-free meat were better off than we are after all?

Story date: Wednesday 29 December

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.