Foods mentioned in Shakespeare
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Foods Mentioned in Shakespeare — Daily trivia Sunday, September 6, 2026: questions and answers
All 10 questions with answers and explanations. Play this daily
Q 01Complete Sir Toby's Twelfth Night line: 'no more ___ and ale'?
- APies
- BPuddings
- CCakes
- DCustards
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Cakes
Cakes and ale stood for life's pleasures in Sir Toby's jibe at Malvolio, and Somerset Maugham borrowed the phrase for the title of his 1930 novel Cakes and Ale.
Q 02What curdled-milk dessert is mentioned in 'The Taming of the Shrew'?
- AJunket
- BPanna cotta
- CMousse
- DCustard
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Junket
Baptista promises the guests 'there wants no junkets at the feast' after Petruchio drags Kate away from her own wedding breakfast; the dessert is milk set with rennet, and the word later came to mean any pleasure trip.
Q 03Which hot spiced milk nightcap does Lady Macbeth drug in Macbeth?
- AGrog
- BWassail
- CMulled wine
- DPosset
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Posset
Lady Macbeth drugs the grooms' possets so they sleep through Duncan's murder; the drink was hot milk curdled with wine or ale and spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon, and was as often a remedy as a nightcap.
Q 04Which fruit does Falstaff use as his measure of worthlessness in 'Henry IV, Part 2'?
- ARaspberry
- BGooseberry
- CCurrant
- DStrawberry
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Gooseberry
Gooseberry. Falstaff grumbles that all man's other gifts 'are not worth a gooseberry', and the humble berry later starred in gooseberry fool, a creamy dessert.
Q 05Which sweet is the 'marchpane' a servant in 'Romeo and Juliet' asks a friend to save him?
- AMarzipan
- BNougat
- CTurkish delight
- DToffee
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Marzipan
Marzipan. 'Marchpane' was the original English name for the almond sweet, later largely ousted by the German 'marzipan', and the servant wants his piece saved from the Capulets' feast.
Q 06Which food does Falstaff ask the sky to rain?
- APotatoes
- BTurkeys
- CTomatoes
- DPumpkins
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Potatoes
Potatoes. 'Let the sky rain potatoes,' Falstaff cries in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and the English word traces back to batata, the Taíno name for the sweet potato.
Q 07Which fruit, eaten only once rotten-soft, does Apemantus offer Timon?
- AFig
- BServiceberry
- CHawthorn berry
- DMedlar
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Medlar
Apemantus offers Timon a medlar so he can pun on 'meddlers'; the fruit is hard and sour when picked and only edible once 'bletted', softened by frost or storage until the flesh turns brown.
Q 08Which Shakespeare heroine dismissed her youth as her 'salad days'?
- ACleopatra
- BJuliet
- CRosalind
- DPortia
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Cleopatra
Cleopatra coins the phrase in Antony and Cleopatra, brushing off her affair with Julius Caesar as 'my salad days, when I was green in judgment'; the idiom is Shakespeare's own.
Q 09Falstaff's candied aphrodisiac 'eringoes' are the roots of which coastal plant?
- ASea holly
- BSamphire
- CSea kale
- DMarsh mallow
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Sea holly
Sea holly root was candied as a sweetmeat and recommended by Dioscorides for flatulence; Falstaff wants it to fall with kissing-comfits and a 'tempest of provocation' as he woos Mistress Ford.
Q 10What was the 'sack' that Falstaff drinks by the gallon?
- AA strong dark ale from the Low Countries
- BA spiced honey mead
- CA West Country cider
- DA fortified white wine from Spain
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A fortified white wine from Spain
Sack meant a fortified white wine from Spain or the Canary Islands, and 'sherris sack' from Jerez later gave English its word sherry.
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