Food in the British Empire Question

JJohnson

Banned
I'm trying to flesh out a timeline, talking about the foods people ate back in the colonial era. I'm looking to focus on Cuba, British Guiana, British South Africa, British Honduras, and British South America (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay). Loyalists from the USA have moved into each of these colonies, bringing colonial American foods as well.

The colony and date of "joining" the British Empire:
Cuba - 1740
British Honduras - 1787
BSA - 1800
Guiana - 1815
South Africa - 1815


The question is, for the period 1800-1825, what would British Cubans, Hondurans, and British South Americans be eating commonly? And for 1815-1850, what would each of these colonies be eating? Would they have grits like southerners took to eating? Rum, beer, tea, coffee, whiskey? I'm guessing seafood would be big. Would plantains be used in British Honduras?

I found a food timeline, which is helping, but I wanted to make it as detailed as possible, but also unique and interesting.
 
I think your first question will be who is eating. In most colonial settings, class and race determines diet much more strongly than geography.

Some general remarks:

Cuba: Bread is very dear and uncommon on most tables, though the upper classes make a point of eating wheat bread, olive oil and wine. The staples are cassava, maize and increasingly rice, though I'm not entirely up on the timeline of Cuban rice cultivation. Meat, especially beef and pork, is still relatively cheap even in sugar-cultivating areas and is usually eaten cured. Seafood is commonly eaten on the coast, but it's not considered a luxury or high-status food. Tropical fruit play a big role in everyone's diet.

Honduras: not sure, but probably broadly similar to Cuba. The upper classes imported wheat and oil from Mexico and wine from Chile.

Guiana: same as above, though probably with a greater emphasis on cassava.

Exquemelin mentions eating plaintains in the seventeenth century, so they'll most likely be around in all three areas.

South Africa: A strongly European diet, adapting some local flora to traditional recipes, but mostly centered on meat and cereals. More beef than pork, generally. Bread would likely still be a distinctive 'white' food at this point.

Southern Cone: a very meat-heavy diet supplemented with relatively little in the way of cereals and fruit. Potatoes, bread and beans are in use, but as late as the 1830s, Darwin remarks how relatively little of this and how remarkably much meat the local 'white' population ate and how they often took little notice of readily available crops. Natives observe a more vegetable diet.
 
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