MEDIEVAL FOOD HISTORY

I think most of us have watched the old movies where lords and gallant knights, seated on long benches around trestle tables, feasted on huge amounts of fish, fowl and meat washed down with a goodly amount of wine from golden goblets. They were waited on hand and foot by poor, downtrodden peasants, with the party usually ending in a bout of drunken debauchery. To a certain extent, these movies gave a reasonable, if somewhat over-dramatised, insight but the 'food chain' of the Mediaeval period was a little more intricate.


Many of the foods which we eat today, particularly the fruit and vegetables, weren't readily available, certainly in Mediaeval Europe. 


The nobleman's diet would have been very different from the peasant's diet. His normal everyday fare would be a mixture of meat and river fish, as well as fruit and vegetables. Cooked dishes were normally flavoured with exotic ingredients such caraway, nutmeg, cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, saffron, garlic, turmeric, mace, anise, mustard, ginger, pepper, almonds, dried dates, dried figs and raisins. The nobleman took great delight in using these exotic additions as, the more exotic they were, the more affluent he appeared to banqueting guests, besides which they masked the flavour and smell of meat and fish that were a little past their sell by dates!


Much of the meat and fish at his table would have been supplied from his estate stock and would consist of deer, boar, hares, rabbits and even squirrel and hedgehog. Beef, pork, mutton, goat, chicken, goose and duck were much enjoyed along with the river fish of salmon, eel, trout and pike or, if one was close to the coast, herring, whiting, plaice or cod. Shellfish also featured in the nobleman's diet and included crab, oysters, mussels and cockles. Even in these dim and distant days, various pies and sausages were enjoyed, much as they are today and pottage, a thick soup of mainly vegetables with some meat, was also a regular dish at the dinner table.


For banquets, the nobleman pulled out all the stops and provided more elaborate meats and game such as pea-fowl (peacocks and peahens), swan, larks and blackbirds, as well as artistically presented 'sweet meats', many of which were coloured with natural food dyes.
Vegetables were served at the nobleman's table but they tended to turn up their noses at root veg which were considered more fitting to the lower classes. In Mediaeval England we didn't have the wide variety we have these days, but among those vegetables which were available  onions, parsnips, fennel, garlic, parsley, watercress, endive, lettuce, beetroot, cabbage, leeks, carrots, broad beans, peas and lentils. More often than not these vegetables were referred to as 'herbs' and were considered almost as much for their medicinal properties as their nutritional and dietary values. Fresh fruit was not as readily available as veg and consisted mainly of apples and hedgerow fruits such as crab apple, quince, medlar, blackberries and rosehips.


Bread was one of the mainstays of the Mediaeval diet with the whiter, more refined flour being used for the nobleman and the lesser refined flour ending up in the peasant's bread dough.


Water was not the pleasant refreshing drink it is today, being polluted with all sorts of detritus and effluent so the nobleman relied on beer, ale, mead and wine as a 'beverage'.
Meals were eaten with spoons and knives only, the fork not being introduced until much further along in the history chain. Platters and goblets were used by the nobleman for the main 'plate', particularly favoured by the peasants was the trencher. A thick slice of bread which was regaled with the filling of one's choice.


Insofar as the poor peasant was concerned, he existed mainly on coarse rye bread, vegetable pottage and root vegetables. If he was fortunate the local nobleman would allow him to take the odd fish from his river or the odd hedgehog or squirrel. If he was unfortunate, then he could resort to poaching but for many, the risks probably outweighed the benefits of this. Some peasants did raise the odd pig or two as they were relatively self reliant, being perfectly happy snuffling around the ground for tidbits. Peasants, like the nobleman, had ready access to hedgerow fruits and nuts and were able to gather honey which was not only used to provide a flavouring and sweetening element to their food but could also be made into mead.


Due to the need for gathering fruit and vegetables according to seasons, some of the harvest had to be preserved. Fruit was often preserved in wine or syrup and veg was pickled or salted. The same applied to meat and fish, those that were not readily available during winter months were stored mainly by salting but, particularly in the case of fish, these could be pickled.


As far as meal times were concerned, the nobleman tended to have three meals a day. Unlike today where dinner tends to be an evening meal and lunch a midday meal, in Mediaeval times dinner was partaken in the middle of the day and supper was eaten in the evening, normally at set times. The peasant, likewise, would have three meals throughout the day but his timetable would be adapted according to the seasons as he would be up and working at day break, working throughout daylight hours and then sleeping when it was dark.


Over time more and more spices and plants were introduced to Mediaeval England thanks to the knights who returned from foreign shores following the Crusades but again, most of these ended up on the table of the nobleman, whilst the poor peasant had to remain content with his pottage and trencher washed down with a pint of mead!


By Jackie Money
in: http://www.helium.com/ edited and adapted by LC to be posted