Many years ago I took a tour through a restored Georgian-era house in Dublin (best €2 I spent that summer). This included some pretty good explanations on the everyday life and customs in that period, along with a tidbit that stuck with me:
"Lobster was plentiful in those days, so much that one could pick it by hand by the shoreline. It was also considered food for the poor, so much so that servants at respectable households had it in their contracts that they would not be served lobster more than x times a week."
I have done some research that seems to back this up, albeit places the contract claim in the context of America rather than the Old Continent. My questions are:
Was lobster considered a poor man's food in Europe or America in the 18th and 19th centuries?
How and when did this social trend reverse?
Does the contractual limitation claim hold water?