Can I start you off with a drink?
Yes, even people back in the day were smart enough to figure out that if you don’t drink enough fluids you’ll eventually bite the dust. Unfortunately, Brita filters didn’t exist and therefore the water was almost always dirty.
Peasants
The poor poor peasants would typically be caught sipping on ale, mead, or cider. Hard to complain on the drink front I suppose.
Wealthy
The lucky fellas in their castles got to dabble in a little bit of red and a little bit of white- hey, why not both on some nights? I mean if you can afford it, bottoms up your highness.
Other drinks shared among most classes of people were juices such as pomegranate, mulberry, and blackberry. The extremely poor or sick would consume plain milk.
Grains and stuff
GLLUUTENN. In those days in Europe, most people ate twice a day: Once in mid-day, and again in the evening. Unless you were a working man, breakfast was only eaten by the poor, elderly, or sick. This is because the church and moralists frowned upon breaking their overnight fasts too soon. Men who worked manual labour were given the green light as they needed it in order to perform to their fullest.
The most common foods that were eaten among all classes were bread, porridge, gruel, and pasta.
Peasants
The poor typically had these foods made of barley, oat, and rye.
The Wealthy
The wealthy typically had these made from the finest wheat.
Eat your veggies!
Funny enough, the nobles rarely ate vegetables and fruit. That shit was left to the peasants. This is because it was deemed that the food that was “grown from the dirt” was meant for the lower class. In a funny way, the peasants sort of had a healthier diet than the nobles.
Vegetables were often thrown into stews and soups.
Dece Meat
You know that image you have in your head of a big king eating a big ass chunk of meat? That probably happened pretty often, as the good meat was only eaten by the rich boys.
The most commonly eaten meats were mutton and lamb. Beef wasn’t as popular because raising cattle was labour intensive.
Domestic pigs were eaten- not just the good parts either, every part of the pig was used. They were a great option because they were cheaper and required less attention.
Rabbit was considered a highly prized meat back in these days. They were grown for their meat and fur, and were popular among the church because they declared that rabbits were “non-meat” so they could eat them during lent.
Quail was very popular as well. Other birds that were commonly eaten during the middle ages were swans, peafowl, partridge, storks, cranes, larks, and linnets.
Desserts
Dessert as a word comes from the term desservir, which means to un-serve a table. Dessert during the early middle ages typically consisted of mulled wine, aged cheese, and dragée (a bite sized confectionery with a hard shell)
As time went on, during the mid to late “middle ages”, desserts got a lot more fun. They had fruits in crepes, tarts, pies, and even a type of waffle. Desserts were actually pretty good (apparently) back then!
So there you have it
We now have an idea of what eating was like back in the middle ages. It doesn’t sound all that great, unless you were a king. Even then, it isn’t the same as having a nice steak nowadays.
