2 Dinner. Pudding Bread Meat Roots Pickles Vinegar Salt & Cheese .09
N.B. In this article of the Dinner I would include all the Raisins Currants Suet Flour Eggs Cranberries Apples & where there are children all their Intermeal Eatings throughout the whole Year. And I think a Gentleman cannot well Dine his family at a lower Rate than this.
4 Small Beer for the Whole Day Winter & Summer. 1-1/2
N.B. In this article of the Beer I would likewise include all the Molasses used in the Family not only in Brewing but on other Occasions.
For one Person a Day in all 1_s._ 4-1/2_d._
For the Whole Family 365 days £200 15_s._
For Butter, 2 Firkins at 68 lb. apiece, 16_d._ £ 9 1_s._ a lb.
For Sugar. Cannot be less than 10_s._ a Month or 4 weeks especially when there are children. £ 6 10_s._
For Candles but 3 a Night Summer & Winter for Ordinary & Extraordinary occasions at 15_d._ for 9 in the lb. £ 7 12_s._ .01
For Sand 20_s._ Soap 40_s._ Washing Once in 4 weeks at 3_s._ a time with 3 Meals a Day at 2_s._more £ 6 5_s._
For Shoes after the Rate of each 3 Pair in a year at 9_s._ a Pair for 7 Persons, the Maid finding her own £ 9 09_s._ ----------------- In all £249 12_s._ 5_d._
No House Rents Mentioned Nor Buying Carting Pyling or Sawing Firewood No Coffee Tea nor Chocolate No Wine nor Cyder nor any other Spirituous Liquor No Pipes Tobacco Spice nor Sweetmeats No Hospitality or Occasional Entertaining either Gentlemen Strangers Relatives or Friends No Acts of Charity nor Contributions for Pious Uses No Pocket Expenses either for Horse Hire Travelling or Convenient Recreations No Postage for Letters or Numberless other Occasions No Charges of Nursing No Schooling for Children No Buying of Books of any Sort or Pens Ink & Paper No Lyings In No Sickness, Nothing to Apothecary or Doctor No Buying Mending or Repairing Household Stuff or Utensils Nothing to the Simstress nor to the Taylor nor to the Barber, nor to the Hatter nor to the Shopkeeper & Therefore no Cloaths."
Certainly we gain from this "scheam" a very clear notion of the style of living of this genteel Boston family.
There is, of course, no possibility of exactly picturing the serving of a meal in early days; but one peculiarity is known of the dinner--the pudding came first. Hence the old saying, "I came in season--in pudding-time." In an account of a Sunday dinner given at the house of John Adams, as late as 1817, the first course was a pudding of Indian corn, molasses, and butter; the second, veal, bacon, neck of mutton, and vegetables.