The Top 5 Facts About Pirate Food

The lives of pirates have been glamorized with movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and festivals like Contraband Days in Lake Charles, LA. It's suddenly fun to be a pirate. It is fun to fight with swords. It is fun to make people walk the plank. It's fun talk like a pirate, as there's even an International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19). However, the life of a pirate may be reexamined once it is realized there were no showers and knowing the facts about what pirates had to eat.

Pirates Ate Well for Only the Beginning of a Trip

When pirates would set out to sea, the ship was stocked with fresh food. This meant that they could eat anything that they wanted as long as they had it. There was plenty of fresh meat, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and fresh bread. Pirates could eat this and enjoy eating it. However, after about two weeks, the food would be rotten or at least starting to rot.

Pirates Ate Spoiled Food

Pirates didn't stay close to shore or have refrigeration. This meant that they ate spoiled food when they were on a trip. The rotten food was not discarded. The food stayed on board and the chef cooked it. In order to hide the rotten taste, the chef used a lot of spices when he cooked.

The Food Was Alive

Cartoons often depict spoiled food as coming to life. Spoiled food doesn't come to life, but it might be based on the fact that maggots and other bugs could be found in spoiled food. It was common for pirates to find maggots in the food. This food was eaten, not thrown away.

Pirates Had Bones in Soup

Pirates would keep the bones from any animal that was eaten. They would also keep bones from rats. There is even a recorded case of pirates eating other people on the boat. It is not known if the bones from the people were kept, but it would not be out of the question. The bones were kept to make pirate bone soup. A broth was made, vegetables were added, and then bones from anything that had been eaten or anything that had died were added. The soup was slowly simmered until all the meat fell off the bones. Vinegar was added to the soup so the calcium would be leached from the bones and go into broth. This broth was often thin and drank from cups, especially since pirates did not use forks and spoons.

Mediterranean Pirates Ate Differently

The pirates on the Mediterranean Sea ate different from other pirates. This is because on the Mediterranean sea, the pirates were never far from a pirate haven. At these places, the pirates could stock up on fresh foods.