"Early European officials in India laid lavish tables. Mandeloslo in 1638 notes '15 or 16 dishes of meat, besidest he dessert' in the home of the president of the English merchants at Surat who all lived together. Even in 1780 in Calcutta, Mrs. Eliza Fay, a lwayer's wife and herself a dressmaker, wrote: 'We dine at 2 O'clock in the very heat of the day...A soup, a roast fowl, curry and rice, a mutton pie, forequarter of lamb, a rice pudding, tarts, a very good cheese, fresh churned butter, excellent Madeira...'...Edward Lear, known to posterity for his limericks, had a breakfast while in India in 1874 of 'boiled prawns, prawn urry, cold mutton, bread and butter, and plantains. A painting of an English family at breakfast shows fried fish, rice, oranges and a baked casserole of some sort...In the 18th century the main meal, exemplified by the huge spread desecribed by Mrs. Fay, was in the middle of the day, followed by a siesta, evening visits and light dinner at night...About 1910, a suggested lunch consisted of pea soup, roast chicken and tongue, bread sauce, potatoes, cheese macaroni and lemon pudding. The main meal had moved to 7 or 8 in the evening, and in 1909 the writer Maud Divers declares that 'India is the land of dinners, as England is the land of five-o'clock teas...'"
------Indian Food: A Historical Companion, K.T. Achaya [Oxford University Press:Delhi] 1994 (p. 176)
American meal times Colonial American mealtimes Early 20th century USA [1847] [1904] [1905] "Indeed, the hours for eating must be regulated by the hours of employment. If one is in the whirl of fashionable life of a great city, and nightly out until four or five o'clock in the morning, the heavy meal of the day must come late, and a light supper at midnight becomes a necessity. If you are a hard-working farmer, living in the country and going to bed between nine and ten, the meal hours must correspond..."Common Sense Hours.--Meals should be timed by common sense. It is probably more healthful to take a rather light breakfast, which, in a malarious countr, shouldalways incude coffee. At noon a more substantial meal is in order, but as, in this country, several hours of hard work are to follow, it should not be too heavy, and a quarter or half hour's rest after it is time well spent. The dyspepsia so common in this country comes from taking, as a habit, more food than is necessary, and then workinghard with head or body immediately afterwards. Digestion requires repose and most people eat far more than nature calls for. The best time for a heavy dinner is after thehard work of the day is over and a couple or more of hours can be given to comfortable rest, reading, conversation or light amusem*nt. Eat slowly, not to much at anyone meal, take small pieces which can easily be masticated, and do not go directly from the table to violent exercise or severe brain work. Make your dinner (or eveningmeal, by whatever name you choose to call it,) a pleasaunt, social affair, which tempts you to linger over it; not a pllace to bolt, in haste, a certain amount ofunmasticated food, and then fly from. Cultivate the beauties and the social aspects of the meal daily, and it will prove not only a delight, but a source of health as wellas of civilization. Then your dinner parties to strangers will need only a little more care than the daily event, not a contrast which upsets the household."
"American meal patterns over the past four centuries have varied across different regions of thecountry and have been determined by an individual's occupation, social class, gender, ethnicity,and personal preferences. Seasons, holidays, and the weekly round of activities also played a partin determining what is eaten when. All meals, whether served at home or in a restaurant, arestructured events...In colonial times, American meal patterns followed Europeanpractices, in which the extended family participated in meals, which occurred three times a day;the standard meals were breakfast, dinner, and supper. As the first meal of the day, breakfast...waseaten immediately upon rising or a few hours later, after the earliest chores have beencompleted...Working men and schoolchildren returned home for dinner, the main meal of the day,which was traditionally served in the early or late afternoon...Supper, the last meal of the day, waslight and, sometimes, optional. It was eaten in the early evening...The traditional meal patternbegan to change duirng the mid-nineteenth century, due in part to the growth of cities and theshifting of occupations of American men. The first meal to change was dinner. As towns and citiesgrew, it became more difficult for wokers to return home for dinner at midday as the distancebetween home and the place of work increased...Dinner, the most important meal of the day,moved to the evenings, when the family could dine together at a more leisurely pace. The middayrepast came to be called lunch...and evolved into a small, light, and frequently rushed meal--oftensomething brought from home in a tin pail or a brown bag, or a quick bite in a workplacecafeteria. Sandwiches, soups, and salads became common luncheon foods...After World War II,the American meal pattern changed yet again...Snacking became increasingly common as thecentury progressed, and the "three squares" diminished in importance."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [OxfordUniversity Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 65-7)
Mealtimes, and meal titles, at the turn of the 20th century were a reflection of social status, not location. Wealthy folks emulated the latest British etiquette while farm families and poorer folks stuck to the traditional agrarian standards. Folks living in institutional settings (military, hospitals, schools, prisons) ate according to regulations. For example: A wealthy person's dinner party would commence anywhere from 6-8PM, while a mid-western farm family might be sitting down to dinner (their main meal of the day) at noon. The wealthier you were, the later (and longer) the breakfast. Lunch cut across all social classes at this time. Priviledged ladies entertained each other with fancy luncheons while factory workers and school children chowed down sandwiches in brief, prescribed breaks. Regardless of time and place, the general distinction between dinner and supper is the former indicates the main meal of the day; the latter is a light repast. If you took your dinner at noon, you supped at 5 or 6. If you took your dinner at 8, you might sup at 11.Period etiquette books were written for the wealthy and upper middle classes. Meal times and dining notes generally address social occasions rather than family (informal) meals.
"United States' hours for Breakfast, Dinner, and Tea. The hours for meals, with such Americans as delight in the possession of some little degree of nationality, and respect for theh laws of adaptedness, are the same throughout these United States.
Breakfast--From six to eight-o'clock, A.M.
Dinner--From one to three o'clock, P.M.
Tea--From six to eight o'clock, P.M.
Supper--By bona-fide Americans, is not taken; the onnly refreshment for the evening being syrup-water or lemonade and cakes, unless wines are used; or ice-cream andice-water, if desired; and sponge-cake, or lady-cake, or small wine cake, or any other not too rich, which may be preferred. Capillaire or orgeat may be used to flavor a tumbler of ice-water, instead of syrup or lemonade."
---American Syste of Cookery, Mrs. T.J. Crowenn [T.J. Crowen:New York] 1847 (p. 401)
"The hour for luncheon is usually half after 1, the matter of time being its chief distinction from a breakfast, as the latter is served at noon; though another point of different is that while luncheons are frequently given without any more particular meaning than enjoyment, breakfasts come after certain ceremonies or occasions, as for instance, a wedding breakfast or a hunt breakfast....The dinner hour varies from half after 6 to 8 o'clock."---The Good Housekeeping Hostess, facsimile 1904 edition [Hearst Books:New York] (p. 14-15)
[NOTE: This reprint is readily available. Your local public librarian will be happy to help you obtain a copy. It contains detailed descriptions of how to give parties from invitations to instructions for serving.]
Formal dinner at 8PM (p. 6); "Formal luncheon is served as a rule at one, half-past one, or two o'clock--not later than the latter hour, lest it spoil the guest's appetite for dinner." (p. 36-7); "The modern supper is not, as a rule, the first and foremost object of an evening's entertainment, but is usually an adjunct to some other form of festivity, such as a theatre or card party, or reception. Among the exceptions to this are the so-called game, wine, and fish suppers, popular among the "men-folk." Suppers are of various degrees of formality--from the delightfuly informal chafing-dish "spread" to an affair scarcely less elaborate than the formal dinner...there is no variation from the general rules applying to those features of the formal dinner...[no specific time recommended ] (p. 42-43); "The formal breakfast--or perhaps it would be more accurate to say the company breakfast, for this meal is not as a rule very formal--is much in favor with people of the leisure class...who frequently have considerable time to kill...The hour for a breakfast is usually twelve o'clock, but very often it is as early as ten; never later than noon, for it would then infringe upon the hours appointed by custom for luncheons." (p. 49); "In America the six-o'clock dinner prevails very generally, and the "Five o'Clock Tea" custom has gained comparitively little foothold; it has been adopted by the leisure clases, and is also popular with the college girl, the bachelor maid, the artist, and the so-called Bohemian circle." (p. 53)---Consolidated Library of Modern Cooking and Household Recipes, Christine Terhune Herrick [R.J. Bodmer Company:New York] 1905 , Volume 1: The Modern Hostess
---Twentieth Century Home Cook Book, Mrs. Francis Carruthers [Thompson & Thompson:Chicago] 1905 (p. 388-389)
Food historians generally agree "course meals" were made possible by the agricultural revolution, approximately 10,000BC. When humans evolved from hunter/gatherers into organized agricultural communities, civilization happened. Farming and domesticated animals provided the stable food base required for more advanced activities to flourish. For the upper eschelons, this included leisurely dining and fancy banquets. One of the earliest examples we have of meals offered in different courses comes from Ancient Rome. About Classic French Course meals.
What is a square meal? Excellent question with no simple answers. There are two primary schools of thought:(1) Symbolic/metaphoric (a "square meal" is a substantial, satisfying repast) and (2) An actual scientificanalysis proposed by a British physician in the 1920s. Shaped, to make it easier for people to understand, like a square. The simple shape concept was embraced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture'sFood Pyramid, c. 1992. In both cases, a "square meal" is an ideal, not a required list of ingredients or recommended dishes.
A brief evolution of "square" concepts in USA social context:
"Colonists were calling city blocks laid out on the grid plan squares by the 1760s... By 1832 men used square approvingly to refer to the natural, even gait of a good horse in such expressions as a square-gaited horse or square trotter. By 1836 square meant full or complete, as a square meal, though people didn't talk about three squares a day until 1882."
---Listening to America, Stuart Berg Flexner [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1982 (p. 487)
"Square meal. a substantial, satisfying, and balanced meal; three square meals a day. Said to derive from nautical use, with reference to the square platter on which meals were served on board ship."
---New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd edition [Oxford University Press:New York] 2005 (p.1644)
Symbolic & metaphoric interpretations:
[1857]
"...they'll learn how to enjoy a good square meal when they get back if they live long enough."
---"Walker's Deserters in the Park Again," New York Daily Times, August 27, 1857 (p. 4)
[1866]
"What would you say to see a man tolerably well dressed...down on his knees, scooping remnants of apples, cabbages, very cold potatoes, etc., out from the gutters and devouring them ravenously? Prompted by charity you might perhaps offer him two bits, to go and get something approaching a square meal with, but he would repulse you angrily. This is an everyday sight with us."
---"The Great West, California, The Gutter-Snipes of San Francisco...," New York Times, January 9, 1866 (p. 2)
[1878]
"A revolt is said to be imminent in the staff of medical assistants at Bellevue Hospital. There are 19 of these assistants, who are young physicians, recent graduates of our City medical colleges, and they give their time and whatever talents they possess in consideration of the experience the acquire in walking the hospital and one 'square meal' a day...They say everything is first-class about the institution, and they are treated handsomely in every respect but in the matter of that 'square meal.' That is poor. In fact, it is usually nothing but hospital soup, which, while abundant in quantity and nutritious enough for convalescents, is pretty weak stuff for stalwart, hard-worked young men. This 'feed' question has been the subject of frequent and earnest consultation among the 19, and a day or two ago they had about made up their minds to send in protest or their resignations."
---"They Want 'A Square Meal," New York Times, October 24, 1878 (p. 8)
[1890]
"'Soup, any kind of meat, coffee, vegetables and pie, 15 cents,' is the redletter sign of a Los Angeles-street restaurant."
---"A Cut-Rate Dinner: A 'Square Meal' for 15 cents," Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1890 (p. 8)
[1897]
"Franklin, N.J. While Chief of Police Lester Kierstead slept last night a thief paid him a visit. The thief evidently was hungry, for he went into the cellar of the Chief's house before starting to look for plunder, and ate a square meal of cold meat, bread, preserves, and fruit. To top it of he drank several bottles of beer and smoked a cigar...The Chief was not awakened. He had been out the night before attending the firemen's parade, and was very tired. The first he know of the robbery was when he came down stairs this morning for breakfast."
---"A Chief of Police Robbed," New York Times, October 3, 1897 (p. 1)
[1901]
"In the interests of scientific research and in behalf of the City Council, The Times has appealed--and not in vain--to well-known experts to settle the question, 'What is a square meal?' Councilman Bowen, the champion of the anti-saloon element, after a long and desperate struggle to establish the legal status of a square meal in the haunts of rounders, the retired, out-numbered, discouraged and disarmed by the solitary hamless sandwich and the lonely mustard pot. Editors of erudite evening journals have labored and strained in anguish, but a rotund and filling definition of a square meal cometh not forth...'Maybe you might come in an order a plate of beans for 10 cents. May be that's all you want... well, that's a square meal for you. Suppose I have an egg for breakfast and you come along ad say 'Aw, that ain't a square meal.' 'Well if it's all I wanted it's a square meal.'..."A square meal is anything you want to eat. It's an old piece of bologna, if that's what you want to eat. You can't pass no law to make you eat what you don't want...'"
---"When Does a Meal become 'Square?'", Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1901 (p. 7)
[1910]
"How John D. Rockefeller, Jr. came to camp and begged for a morsel of food, and how he ate as if he had never seen a square meal before, is the story Claud Park is telling his friends."
---"Millionaire Begs Food," Los Angeles Times, July 12, 1910 (p. I1)
[1915]
"Our language is a riddle. A man will eat a pound of round steak, a pyramid of mashed potatoes, half a dozen oval biscuits, a triangle of pie, drink two cups of flat coffee--then call it a square meal."
---"The Square Meal," Toledo Blade, Chicago Defender, June 5, 1915 (p. 2)
[1934]
"To make a meal really 'square' a fourth group may be said to include the extras and trimmings which greatly vary the caloric concentration of a meal, and which in any particular meal or for any particular person may or may not be helpful. No meal is complete that does not contain a goodly quantity of the first two. The amount of the third depends largely upon activity, temperament, weight, digestive ability and appetite. The fourth group may be eliminated with some and the meal will still be adequate, but it is helpful generally as a means of furnishing energy concentration, appetite appeal and attractive variation. A practical working out of this plan for anybody...will be...Breakfast--Fruit freely in any form. Milk or eggs in ample amounts. Cereal food. This last varying anywhere from a thin slice of toast through the many forms of breakfast breads and cereals to a stack of pancakes or even doughnuts...Lunch--Fruit or salad or both; milk or equivalent dairy products; choice of substantials to satisfy appetite: spreads, dressings, etc. Dinner--Vegetables in any and every form; building form."
---"Square Meal Hints Offered," Belle Wood-Comstock," Los Angeles Times, January 8, 1934 (p. A)
[1935]
"Revival of interest in the square meal as a national institution was cited as another evidence of returning prosperity here today...The meeting was in conjunction with the annual convention of the New Jersey State Teachers Association...contrasted modern trends in food selection and preparation with historical curiosities regarding diet."
---"Square Meal Returning," New York Times, November 10, 1935 (p. 42)
[1968]
"America's changing meal patterns must change even more in order to upgrade American diets...The change from three square meals a day at home to haphazard eating, a change affecting all classes of people, is apparently irreversible."
---"Mod Meals:Three Squares a Day Out," Jean Murphy, Los Angeles Times, July 11, 1968 (p. H1)
[1984]
"Our omnibibulous H.L. Mencken...mentions square meal two or three times in his several volumes about the American language, but without really defining it as anything but an interesting proof of our 'instinct for the terse, the vivid, and the picturesque,'...Almost any American of more than a few months' citizenship knows what a square meal is, whether he teaches computer programming or picks crops. A few days ago a man said to me, 'All I really need right now is somewhere to sleep, and three squares a day.' And I knew what he meant: warmth, then food, decent food, something to stick to his ribs and keep him upright and strong. But he did not mean a bowl of beans, or meat between bread slices, no matter how sustaining either of these things may be. He meant a square meal, which perforce means tolls and a place to use them, a knife and a spoon and perhaps even a plate, and a protected place for the enjoyment of all or almost all he could eat. Most of us have eaten square meals in strange places. But no matter where we are or how the food looks, we feel without question that it must be eaten while we are sitting down, and it must be ample, to be truly square...A square...MEAL means plenty of good hot or good cold familiar odorous decent FOOD."
---Square Meals, Jane and Michael Stern, forward notes by M.F.K. Fisher [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1984 (ix)
Scientific interpretation
British Doctor Plimmer is credited for creating dietary recommendations based on nutrients illustrated in "Square Meal" format.The square was meant to make nutrition science easier for average people to understand. Here is the originalSquare meal diagram. Happy to provide color photo if you wish.
"For practical purposes, the easiest way in which to think about a complete diet is in the form of a diagram which we have called 'A Square Meal.' It is illusterated ...in the middle of the fronticepiece. The large circle represents the bulk of the food, the fuelfoods, which consist of carbohydrate (starches and sugars) with a moderate quantity of fat. To a considerable extent the proportion of fat to carbohydrate can be varied without ill-effect, but too high a proportion of fat may upset the digestion. Th ordinary proportion is two-thirds carbohydrate to one-sixth fat, dry weight...To make a 'square meal' four corners must be added. Inthe diagram the corners are marked respectively...showing how they must be filled by the vitamins to make a completedaily diet...In the frontispiece the diagram of the square meal is set within a large square subdivided into four sections so it can beseen at a glance which articles of food must be provided to fill each corner. If the corners are suitably filled and the appetitesatisfied with these good foods, the diet will be well balanced. Many foodstuffs in common use do not contain vitamins. Lists of thesepoor foods are shown on the sides of the square. They are placed for comparison outside the main square in line with the foods which contain the different vitamins. The food consituents of any meal can be checked against this standard diagram (fronticepiece) to see how closely each meal, or the day's food as a whole, approaches to 'squareness.'
"Consider a simple meal of bread andbutter, meat and some green salad. The bread supplies carbohydrate...the butter supplies fat, the meat gives protein and mineral salts are containedin the bread, meat and salad. If enough of these foods be eaten to satisfy a normal appetite, fuel for warmth and energy willbe provided and also building material for growth and repair. The circle is thus properly filled. To toast the 'squareness,' each corner must be consideredin turn. The salad also supplies C. M will not be provided in sufficient amount unless the bread is wholemeal, as none of the other threefoodstuffs supply this vitamin. The meal will not be square unless the bread is wholemeal. The lean of the meat provdes PP or B2."
---Food, Health, Vitamins, R.H.A. Plimmer and Violet Plimmer [Longmans, Green and Co. Ldt:London] 3rd edition 1928 (p. 13-15)[NOTE: Plimmers' 1st edition c. 1922 was titled Vitamins and the Choice of Food and contained no "square meal' diagram or explanation.]
Additional USA observations
[1926]
"A 'square meal' has finally been defined by British scientists after considerable discussion. The term, supposed to have originated in America, should imply more than a substantial repast, in the opinion of Dr. Harvey Henry Aldres Plimmer, professor of chemistry at the University of London. 'A square meal,' the professor says, 'should be be geometrically square, in the sense that it should embrace the cardinal points of good diet, Vitamins A, B, and C and good protein.' In his campaign against impure foods, Sir W. Armuthnot Lane, President of the New Health Society, organized just after the famous surgeon returned from a two months' visit to the United States, says: 'The nation requires not only the square meal but also the 'square deal' in regard to the safety and cleanliness..."
---"'Square Meal' is defined: It should contain three vitamins and protein, says British scientist," New York Times, March 6, 1926 (p. 3)
[NOTE: Dr. Plimmer's findings were published in the book Food, Health, Vitamins c. 1925.]
[1927]
"The familiar expression 'a square meal' may be adopted to represent a complete diet supplying all the material that the body needs, say R.H.A. Plimmer of the University of London and Violet G. Plimmer in Hygia Magazine. The center of the square is filled with the fat, carbohydrate, mineral salts and water; the corners are filled respectively with vitamins A, B, and C and protein P. The corner A represents both the fat soluble vitamin A and D, which are found in the same foods. Foods from the same corner may be used alternatively, but a food from one corner is not a substitute for one from another corner. A square meal consists of food from all four corners in suitable proportions. Some of the foods in the A corner are butter, red liver, oil, milk, egg yolk and liver. In the C corner are the fresh fruits, especially citrus fruits, tomatoes and green vegetables, either raw or very slightly cooked; the B corner contains whole meal cereal products, dried peas, beans and lentils and nuts; corner D includes meat, eggs. milk and cheese."
---"Material Needed to Make Up Square Meal," The Post [Frederick MD], January 12, 1927 (p. 2)
[1941]
"[Miss Plimmer's] square meal plan is easy to learn and easy to follow. The square meal is made from foods in four groups: Bread, Butter, Flesh and Salad. Bread includes flour, cereals, nuts, legumes, potatoes, bananas and root vegetables and dried fruits. Butter includes all kinds of fat. Flesh includes meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese and milk. Salad includes fresh or canned fruits and vegetables, especially citrus fruits, berries and green leaves."
---"Square Meal Rule Aids Planning Meals in Wartime," Science News Letter, October 18, 1941 (p. 246)
"Square meals make round people
"The saying "square meals make round people" was used by Mrs. August Belmont in 1920, but became popular in newspaper column beginning in 1954. 11 December 1920, New Orleans (LA) States, pg. 2, col. 1: ...Mrs. August Belmont, apropos of the girls restaurant strike in New York, said, "I approve of the strike because it was justified. The inadequate luncheons," concluded Mrs. Belmont, "these girls would look like different human beings. Square meals, you know, make round people." SOURCE: Barry Popik
