Medieval Food - Life in Medieval Days

Many foods eaten by the medieval English would not be recognizeable today; much of what we expect to see on the table was not even known. Until the Crusades in the 1200s, there were few spices. Fruits were rarely eaten; only dried figs, raisins and lemons were easily imported. There was no tea, coffee, or cocoa; potatoes arrived in 1550. Macaroni had not been brought in. Even vegetables were rarely eaten; the few used were the onion, leek, pea, and bean. As a result, scurvy was quite common in the winter.

The average person ate beef, pork, mutton, poultry and fish. For larger animals, the animal was worked to death before it was eaten, though, so the meat was often tough. People tended to eat the fresher meats on a daily basis - fresh eggs, chickens, geese and fish. Pork was a special treat for holidays such as Easter. It's important to remember that all wild animals - deer, rabbits, bear - belonged to nobility. A peasant who "poached" wild game could be slain in punishment.

Medieval people did not have refrigerators - meat was either eaten fresh, or was salted for long term storage. P> Medieval homes did not have an oven - rather, they had an open fire which they hung a pot or skewers of meat over. Each village would have one or two bakers who maintained a large oven and he would then sell bread to the community. This was a staple, and was made from a variety of sources. Wheat, because it is so time intensive to grow, was primarily for the rich. Poor people ate bread with beans, peas, or oats. The crust, in all circles, was considered quite unhealthy and was often donated to beggars.

Filling out this diet was soups and stews of all kinds. A popular dish was 'pease pottage' - pea soup left to solidify for a week or so. Just about any random meat, veggie or other item could become a stew.

In general, medieval people ate "fresh". They ate what was in season the moment. Summertime meant fresh greens of a changing nature as the crops were harvested. Keep in mind that this means all winter long they had to eat dried and stored items. They could not go to the supermarket to get imports from China.

Nobles had a wider range of raw material to work with. They had numerous farm animals plus the wealth of the forest to draw on. In addition they would important exotic materials such as peacock and African spices for their meals. They employed chefs who worked to create a variety of dishes. The fork did not arrive until well into this era, so many dishes were mushy / stewlike. Typically, solid pieces were small enough to be easily picked up with fingers or spoon.

Most spices were expensive and brought in from distant lands. Salt, for example, was used as a currency in many locations. Other popular spices included pepper, saffron, ginger and cinnamon. Again, these would be typically reserved for nobility.

Nobles would often flaunt their spices as a form of wealth. As an example of the zealous spicing of dishes, read this standard recipe:

"Take figs and grind them in a mortar all small with a little oil and grind with them cloves and maces. And then take them up into a dish and cast thereto pines, saunders, currants, minced dates, powder of pepper, cinnamon, saffron, and salt. And then make fine paste of flour, water, sugar, saffron, and salt, and make thereof fair cakes. And then roll the stuff in thy hand and lay it in the akes. Cut them and so fold them together as rissoles, and fry them in good oil, and serve them forth hot."

Chefs would try to come up with new, exotic dishes. Food was often colored in whole or part with saffron for yellow, blood for red, and so on.

It's always interesting to think of things that people would eat. For example, we love lobster as a luxury in modern times - but not so long ago lobsters were considered cheap, disgusting food. Some people eat live eels. The same was true in medieval times. People would eat lampreys - i.e. leeches!

"Take and make fair round coffins (pastry shells) of fine paste, and take fresh lampreys, and let them bleed four fingers within the tail, and let them bleed in a vessel, and let them die in the same vessel in the same blood. Then take brown bread, and cutit, and steep it in the vinegar, and draw through a strainer. Then take the same blood, and powder of cinnamon, and cast thereto until it be brown. Then cast thereto powdered pepper, salt, and wine a little, that it be not too strong of vinegar. And scald the lampreys and pare them clean, and lay them round ton the coffin, till it be covered. Then cover it fairly with a lid, save a little hole in the middle, and at that hole blow in the coffin with thy mouth a good blast of wind. And suddenly stop the hole, that the wind abide within, to raise up the coffin that it fall not down. And when it is a little hardened in the oven, prick the coffin with a pin stuck on a rods' end for fear of breaking of the coffin, and then let it bake and serve forth cold. And when the lamprey is taken out of thereto and powdered ginger, and let boil on the fire. Then take fair paindemain wet in wine, and lay the sops in the coffin of the lamprey, and lay the syrup above, and eat it so hot, for it is good lords' meat."

Yummm, leaches in coffins.

It's important to remember that you get accustomed to the tastes you grow up with. If you grow up with really spicy food, you find it normal and you find non-spicy food to be boring. If you grow up with bland food, then the slightest spice can blow you away. Similarly, by all accounts, the taste of even the mildest of some medieval food would probably be unpalatable to our tastes. We'd do fine with the onions, leeks and raisins. On the other hand, these people ate cormorant, whale, and seal - all quite nasty tasting to most modern humans. They used very strange combinations of spices and meats, such as oysters with ginger, sugar, saffron, and salt.

It's important to remember, though, that they were raised with these flavors. If you grow up eating seal, you probably come to love it. Some people love the taste of whale. A venison stew with onions would probably be really tasty. A cormorant stock with lots of salt - less so.

It was not until the laste 1700s that food preparation and storage underwent a revolution. The new books praised these changes, as food became more simple, recognizeable, healthy, and edible. Interestingly, many feel a similar revolution happened in the 1960s, when we went from plain "home cooked food" of a given region to having foods of numerous regions, numerous influences and very fresh tasting.

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