What did the Tudors eat for dessert?
Isabella Bartlett
Updated on May 03, 2026
The Tudors were also fond of desserts (if they could afford them). The rich ate preserved fruit, gingerbread, sugared almonds, and jelly. However, in the 16th-century sugar was very expensive so most people used honey to sweeten their food. Marzipan was eaten in England from the Middle Ages.
What did Henry VIII eat for dessert?
As for desserts; jelly (recipe included below), tarts, fritters and strawberries (recipe included) are featured regularly. There is plenty of evidence that Henry VIII loved fruit.Did the Tudors eat chocolate?
Food that Tudors didn't eatNot all the food that we eat today was available to the Tudors. Such food as potatoes, tomatoes, sweetcorn, cocoa and pineapples were only discovered in the Americas during Tudor times. So, Henry VIII wouldn't have been able to have eaten chips, pizza, nor chocolate!