Portuguese navigator da Gama discovered at the beginning of15th century that wine can effectively prevent and alleviate septicemia. Since then, as long as the fleet needs to sail, it will buy a lot of wine. Wine can not only quench thirst, but also prevent diseases, and it can be stored for a long time, so it has become a good heart for navigators to sail in the ocean.
Magellan also loaded a lot of wine on his boat. They also loaded some live animals and brought seven cows and three pigs. However, these animals will not stay on board for long. First, they consume a lot. Second, they can't adapt to life at sea. They should be slaughtered and eaten before they get sick and die.
So the fleet carried more bacon. Bacon at that time is definitely not delicious now. In order to preserve bacon for a long time, it was cured for a long time, dark and hard. These cured meats take several hours to cook, and they taste terrible. How hard is this meat? It is said that some boring sailors will carve patterns on these pieces of meat to pass the time and then polish them into statues.
Nordic meatballs
According to lawrence bell Green's Gold, Spices and Colonies, "(Magellan also brought) sardines, cod and tuna. All the fish are dried and salted. " Sailing at sea, although fish can be caught along the way, these fish are mostly stored as grain reserves.
In order to supplement protein, cheese is also a necessary food for Magellan's fleet. But this kind of cheese, like bacon, is not as delicious as we know now. Cheese in that era was not so easy to make and sterilize, so the finished product was usually sticky food with strong smell, which was different from the delicious cheese we know now.
Cheese photo
In addition, Magellan's fleet was loaded with some food, such as beans, rice, garlic, nuts and jam. Although these foods are loved by all the staff, they can't carry too much, because they can't stay on the boat for too long. Condiments are also essential, such as salt, sugar and vinegar. In addition to seasoning, vinegar also plays the role of disinfectant, and salt is also needed to pickle food, so the dosage is large. Sugar is an extremely precious food, which is generally not used as a condiment, but is provided to the sick crew to supplement nutrition.
Among the foods listed above, the most important food-staple food is still missing. Sailors' biscuits are the most important staple food when they go to sea. This biscuit is actually a very hard bread. Its raw materials are coarse wheat flour with skin, water and salt. In order to preserve this biscuit for a long time, it is usually baked twice, and the final product is very hard. Before it is put on the market for sale, it needs to be stored for another month to volatilize water as much as possible, so that it can be preserved for a long time.
Moldy food
Even so, the humid environment in the ocean will make this hard biscuit damp and moldy, and then produce weevils and maggots. So many sailors have to knock on the table twice when they eat cookies, just to shake out the bugs inside. This kind of biscuit will still be eaten after it is damp and moldy, and the chef will add them to water to make a paste. This kind of food is difficult for sailors to accept. Only when they are very hungry can they put it in their mouth.