Picnics were born in the sumptuous outdoor feasts that were traditions of the wealthy. Medieval hunting feasts, Renaissance country banquets, and Victorian garden parties: They’re all precursors of even humble cookouts in the 21st century. This wasn’t merely a European tradition. Similar outdoor feasts took place in Persia, China, and other non-Western geo locations.

The first picnics, in England anyway, were medieval hunting feasts: pastries, hams, baked meats, and more. They stayed much the same, though adjusted according to the wealth of a household, until the Victorian era, arguably the most refined era in the history of picnics. Nineteenth-century painters (Monet, Renoir, Cezanne) were brilliant chroniclers of picnics and outdoor entertainments.

Our rather curious English word derives from the Frenchpique nique(the meaning is murky, except for the connotations around “picking”). It originally referred to a kind of potluck, typically indoors, where everyone brought something to eat.

The…