Egy uradalmi központ egy korabeli étrend tükrében (Csejte, 1623. november 1–1625. augusztus 31.)
A Manor House as Reflected in a Contemporary Menu (Csejte, No-vember 1, 1623–August 31, 1625)

Summary/Abstract: Using a single source unique of its kind, the paper makes an attempt to grab a slice of the past. This particular source is a list of dishes made for the guests entertained and the staff working at Pál Nádasdy's estate at Csejte in the twenty two months between November 1, 1623 and August 31, 1625. This is not a mere menu listing the dishes for lunch and dinner on a particular day: the persons attending the feasts are also registered, relatively often to-gether with the names of those arriving or leaving on a given day. The list always mentions how much beef and poultry were used for the meals. Sometimes it records if lambs, goats or pigs were slaughtered, or if new bacon or butter pots were served. The source usually makes mention of where the guests came from and where they left for. On the basis of the menu, we can claim that the guests arriving at the estate – mostly Pál Nádasdy's familiares, who spent a day or two here doing their service – were not treated with special meals. It seems that they made the feasts more formal and distin-guished according to their means. They served rarely eaten meals more often and in bigger quantity and also obtained trouts from the forbidden streams the neighboring land was abundant in. It is surprising that even on holidays (Christmas and Easter) there was no change in the menu. A part of the estate staff spent the holidays here but they were treated with the usual meals – maybe because of the reasons mentioned above. Forty-day fasting was not ob-served yet they ate lighter food and less meat during Lent. The paper analyzes in detail the seasonal characteristics of nutrition structure, which can be observed in the two-year period.

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