If I asked you to think about the pirateswhat would come to mind would definitely be Jack Sparrow de Pirates of the Caribbean, with the bottles of rum he consumed at the diners. When, however, the pirates of the 17th century were traveling they obviously could not eat hot or long-preserved foods and in fact they had a very particular diet.
Pirate gastronomy: on ships they couldn’t eat just anything
First of all, you need to know that in that period it was not possible to preserve food as we do today with a simple refrigerator, and for this very reason no one on board could eat fresh fruit and vegetables, certain types of meat or cheese, given that everything they brought with them perished after a few days of navigation. Furthermore, what they kept in the keel could not be perfectly maintained, because of all the water infiltrations inside the vessel.
They used very frequently aromatic spices, pepper, herbs and cumin and many varieties of chili peppers to make foods a little tastier. Subsequently, chillies were then used to prepare various condiments, but not only that, given that other ingredients were also used to prepare saucessuch as papaya, tomato or ajilimojili, today known as a typical dish of Puerto Rico, with lemon and garlic.
Since the pirates traveled a lot, they had the opportunity to go to different areas of the world and consequently meet different animals, which they fed on. Among the various animals that ended up on the plates of these people we can mention: the meat of flamingos, that of armadillos, that of turtles and even of monkeys. Today, however, thinking about eating the meat of these animals would make people turn up their noses, do you agree?
An aspect that was absolutely never missing from their diet was obviously the alcoholand in this Pirates of the Caribbean they were very faithful in reporting reality. In fact, drinks such as rum, tequila or brandy were considered excellent loot, also because it was believed that they were precious goods capable of helping provide greater sustenancegiven that an optimal level could not be achieved with food alone.
Obviously, with such a diet they were not uncommon Health problems, given that inevitably there were some nutritional deficiencies, and in fact many suffered from physical weakness or diseases such as scurvy. On the other hand, however, eating these types of meat provided an adequate protein intake, and spices and alcohol were considered excellent aids due to their antibiotic and anesthetic propertiessince they could be useful not only for feeding, but also for healing some wounds.
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