At this time, people thought fruit was cooling and eating it raw was bad for your health, so it had to be cooked. Only lower-class people ate raw fruit. Vegetables were the opposite.

Maria had eaten cooked fruit before—canned fruit, for example—but the cooking methods now were very different. She glanced at the bowl of soup on the table, and her sharp nose told her it was heavily spiced, with a strong scent of pepper.

The salad was a mix of raw cabbage, turnips, carrots, and onions. Honestly, she could handle raw cabbage, but raw carrots and onions were a challenge for Maria. She didn’t even like cooked carrots, let...