Hey guys- I do 18th century cooking classes and prepare many different recipes. I have been told by other colonial foodies that the colonists required, on average, 5000-6000 calories a day to do all of the manual labor required.
I know that the food prep was a lot of work but I don't believe they can get this amount of calories from their daily food intake. A stew and bread is not going to cut it especially shared by several people. Even if other dishes are added this doesn't seem possible. Even a lb of butter is only 3000 calories - and I doubt the average colonists were eating pounds of butter per day.
Anybody have any info on this?
I have some sources from 18th century Norway I can share. It might not be quite representative for other places like the English colonies, especially since Norway had multiple famines in those times, but still interesting as the work on farms was probably just as hard as elsewhere.
A figure like 6000 calories would be impossible for normal people here. The historical cuisine of Norway even after potatoes and improvements to most people's lives were rather basic, consisting of a lot of grain, milk, preserved fish, and later potato, supplemented with vegetables and meat (but ofc. with variations). Moseng [2013] mentions multiple historians who argue about weather the average calorie intake even stayed above or under the minimum until the 19th century.
Marthe Gamlemoen Johansen mentions some sources for the amount of calories in Norway in her thesis[1] about mortality. Hovland [2] talks argues that the calories didn't change that drastically and weren't as critical in the 18th century as some claim. Suggesting 2000-2200 kcal in 1723 compared to 2600-2860 in the start of the 19th century, the growth mostly due to potatoes. He also reminds us that the sources of how this was divided between people aren't that clear.
Other sources she brings argues that the potato was only part of it, and better grain farming and animal husbandry might play just as big a role.
Nedkvitne [1988] has a lot of interesting info, for example statistics calculating how much farms in different regions could produce calculated from the averages in the cadastre of 1723.
The percentage of daily calories produced on a farm needed to support the people registered there:
| Region | grain | milk | meat | Total % of needed calories produced "at home" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coast Ryfylke | 78% | 38% | 4% | 120% |
| Inland Sogn&Fj. | 47% | 49% | 5% | 101% |
| Inland S. Trøn. | 64% | 36% | 4% | 104% |
| Coast N. Trønd. | 52% | 39% | 4% | 95% |
| Coast Sogn&Fj. | 23% | 42% | 4% | 69% |
Not included in these numbers are fishing, which would be making up the remaining numbers for the ones not able to produce enough on their land, and probably be important the ones able to produce enough as well.
Rian [1980] has similar data for Vestfold in eastern Norway. 1100 kcal per person produced on farms in in the countship of Larvik, and 970 kcal in Jarlsberg-countship. This growing to 2110 kcal in the start of the 19th century. I am not 100% sure where that deficit would be fixed, but certainly both fishing and imports from Denmark would be important in that area. In fact when the seaway to Denmark was blocked by Britain during the Napoleonic wars the famine hit these areas (Eastern Norway) in particular. It also helped popularise the potato, which along with independence helped us cut some ties to Danish food.
In conclusion:
The data from the time aren't the best and most accurate, but the general trend seem to be on the lower even struggling to keep above the minimum rather than going up towards anything like 6000 calories in Norway. Farm work was still being done, so I doubt such a massive amount would be necessary. Though I am now curious at how many calories the workers would be most effective.