Pirates restocked their food supplies by stealing from other ships’ stores, usually fishing vessels.  In the Caribbean, they also caught turtle for fresh meat.  Sea turtles were easily snared on land and were kept alive in the ship’s hold until needed.  Their soft-shelled eggs were a popular delicacy.  Pirates’ recounting of their adventures also mention fishing for dolphins, albacore tuna, and other varieties of fish. On shore they would hunt for feral pigs and cows. In the Caribbean these would be smoked using a method called boucane which is where the term buccaneer comes from. One popular dish was salmagundi or Solomon Grundy.  Similar to a chef salad, it contained marinated bits of fish, turtle, and meat combined with herbs, palm hearts, spiced wine, and oil.  This concoction was then served with hard-boiled eggs, pickled onions, cabbage, grapes, and olives.  Pirates also ate yams, plantains, pineapples, papayas, and other fruits and vegetables indigenous to the tropics.

Pirates were known for their drinking. Rum was a favorite and would be drank straight or mixed with spices.  A favorite recipe was bombo or bumboo, a mixture of rum, water, sugar, and nutmeg.  There was also planter’s punch which had rum, cinnamon, sugar cane, water, and lime. Blackbeard was known to drink something called kill devil. It was a mixture or rum and gunpowder that he said aided his virility. Rumfustian was another popular drink that blended raw eggs with sugar, sherry, gin, and beer.  Pirates also enjoyed beer, sherry, brandy, wine, and port.

When food was scarce, pirates resorted to more desperate measures to stay alive. When Charlotte de Berry’s crew ran out of food they ate two slaves and her husband to sustain them.  In 1670, Sir Henry Morgan’s crew ate their leather satchels.  They recommended cutting the leather into strips.  After soaking these, they tenderized them by beating and rubbing the leather with stones.  They scraped off the hair, then roasted or grilled the strips before cutting them into bite-size pieces.  The recipe suggested serving them with a lot of water.

Among artifacts uncovered in shipwrecks, pirate havens, and other areas frequented by pirates, archeologists have found glass wine and brandy bottles, earthenware beer bottles, pewter plates and tankards, and silverware, especially knives and spoons.  Forks were a symbol of wealth and the few found may have been part of pirate treasure.  Pirates, however, preferred to eat with their fingers.