Seeing as we're trying to approach this from a semi-historical perspective, I thought that a small discourse on medieval and renaissance diets was in order. So, here we go. Most of this was pulled from "Daily Life in the Middle Ages", by Paul B Newman.
Firstly, there were three basic foodstuffs that the medieval people, of all classes, consumed en masse: grain, vegetables/fruits, and beer. Dried fruits, spices and sweeteners were also consumed, though in much smaller quantities. The medieval diet was actually much more varied than we think of commonly, it's just that they were limited by the changing of the seasons and the ability to preserve food over long distances and periods. It will be seen that, while the carnivorous tendencies of the ancient nobility can not be denied, a lot of meat may have been out of reach of the average serf, standing directly in the face of conventional wisdom of the medieval diet.
Most medieval people, with the exception of the lords and vassals themselves, raised food for themselves (and often for their neighbors and lords). Grain was raised and included wheat, barley, rye, and spelt. It was a serious crop because two crops could be planted and harvested in a single year, so it was assured a center place in the diet. Meat was raised throughout the year and slaughtered at the end of the year by those with lots of animals, and preserved with salting and smoking to be consumed throughout the winter and spring, until other animals were ready for slaughter. The meat of the common folk was almost exclusively cow, pig, rabbit, chicken, etc - since hunting wild game was a right reserved exclusively for the noble class.
Other foods, such as fruit and spices and sweeteners, were usually imported. The nobles enjoyed Sugar and various Spices from the lands of the Turks, while the commonfolk usually relied on what few herbs and spices they could grow themselves, and relied on honey for sweetening. Fruit, such as figs, dates, and pears, were dried and imported from distant areas to those where they could not be grown - and this was supplemented by what fruits could be grown natively (such as apples).
So really, the medieval diet was just as varied as the diet we have today, it was just more limited by the seasons than ours is.
GRAIN
Grain was definitely the staple of most medieval diets. Pottage and Bread were the mainstays, next to meat and vegetables, of the medieval table.
Pottage was a meal much like oatmeal. It was prepared by placing some grain product in a pot of boiling water, and allowing the grain to absorb the heated water. Depending on the variety of pottage being made, the grain would just plump and take on a texture similar to wild rice; while in others, the grain and water would become a thick stewy paste, much like thick oatmeal. Vegetables and herbs, like spinach, onions, leeks, and other spices were added to pottage to enhance the flavor. From what I understand, though I have never had it, properly prepared Pottage can be quite delicious. This is in high contrast to the bowl of gruel we imagine most medieval serfs dining on.
Bread we are all familiar with. Strangely enough, no recipes for bread from the medieval era exist today; this is assumed to be because the recipes were simple and were handed down verbally from parent to child. And with such simple recipes, as Mr Newman says, "... making the recording of bread recipes as useful as writing down the recipe for boiling water."
Most breads were made similarly to the ones we have today, with the exception of a few ingredients. Dry yeasts did not exist, so breads were made from "old dough" (such as what is used in sourdough bread) or "barm" (which is a liquid yeast produced in the process of fermenting grain mash into beer). Oats, nuts, dried fruits, and even beans and lentils would find their way into bread both to change the flavor and to act as a filler when flour was in a shortage. In fact, bean breads were usually given to horses, but people would sometimes eat them too. If anyone here has a horse and wants to try feeding it a loaf of bread, I'd be fascinated to hear the results.
Most medieval bread, even without the added fillers, was coarse and chewy. This was due to the whole grain flour used in the baking. Noble people, however, often enjoyed lighter breads made from white flour. Now, granted, we all know the evils of modern white bread - but in the medieval times, it would seem that the reverse is true. Medieval white flour did not get the bleaching and bromating that our white flour does today. So most of the nutrients would stay, while most of the weight and some of the fiber content. And the loss of some fiber may not have been a bad thing; in fact, considering how much fiber the average medieval person took in (between beans, grains, and beer), white bread may actually have been BETTER for them than whole grain bread, as they may have already had excessive fiber levels. And as modern dietitians know, excess fiber levels speed food through your system, allowing your body to absorb less of the nutrients.
"Let us give praise to our Maker, and Glory to his bounty, for giving us... Beer!" --The Friar, "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves"
The last grain product we'll look at is the one that made water safe to drink. While it may seem rediculous, people in the medieval era drank as much - if not more - alcoholic beverages than straight water. The reason for this is obvious; with most surface water being used for everything from washing to dumping excrement and such, even the primitive medieval people knew that surface water could be dangerous to drink if not purified properly. Well water, while safe(r), was difficult to get to as most places didn't have wells because the cost and difficulty of building one was prohibitive. So where were they to go for pure water for drinking?
BEER. That's right, beer. The reason should be obvious - the fermentation process renders copious amounts of alcohol, which kills most (if not all) of the bacteria in the water. So any time you're Columbus, come by my place and kick back with a pint. "It's safer than drinking the water!"
Beer was the favorite drink of the common man in England and the Low Countries, and was enjoyed even by the nobles, despite the quantities of mead and wine they consumed. In fact, beer was so pervasive that in records from the era, rules for monastic houses specify the amounts of beer each brother is to receive each day. German labor regulations from th eperiod also said that beer rations of a certain fixed size were to be part of a daily compensation for some classes of workers. While it may sound rediculous to be paid in beer, consider also that roman soldiers used to get paid in salt. It's all a matter of perspective, and how useful the item you're receiving is. And when beer is the alternative to filthy water, it was definitely worth a day's work. Per capita beer production and consumption was higher in countries with poor viniculture, like England, while countries like Spain, France and Italy were more fond of wine. So while it can be seen that beer may not have been universal, alcoholic beverages were definitely prevalent in the middle ages. Keep that in mind if your kid ever comes in and asks for a cold one after a hard day at school. <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />
The only issue I have with this, is beer's obvious dehydrative properties. I know that when I drink, even just three or four glasses of something a day, I begin to get dehydrated at least a little bit. So I have to wonder how the avoided the dehydration resulting from such massive amounts of alcohol consumption. Any suggestions on this are welcome.
Now, before I get too far ahead of myself, beer was not ALL they drank. Here's a passage from Newman's book where he discusses water:
Water was a popular thirst quencher int he middle agfes. However, as with liquid milk, medieval people were well aware of the health risks from exposure to water from contaminated sources. In fact, as discussed in Chapter IV, they had numerous sanitary regulations to protect water quality. THus as a serious health measure and not just as a fad or status symbol, spring water, cool dn astraight out of the ground, was recognized as the best possible water to use for drinking and cooking. Water from clear running streams wa sa poor seconmd. Obviously, relatively few people had access to water from either of these preferred source and had to make do with well water or river water. It may seem odd that well water was held in low esteeem, but well water was often of low quality. With rare exceptions, such as at Dover Castle where the well was driven over 280 feet down through rock to guarantee the availabity of water during a siege, most medieval wells were shallow by modern standards. THese shallow wells reached only the uppermost levels of the water table and were very susceptible to ground water contamination from sewage anc storm water run-off that carried bacteria, parasites, an dother harmful impurities. Such contamination was especially comon in densely populated areas or anywhere else cesspits were too close to wells. So, it's quite understandable why beer and wine were usually considered superior to water.
But beer and wine could not entirely replace water. Despite its sometimes dubious quality, water was still essential as abeverage and in the preparation of food. Dishes and cooking utensils still had to be washed. Ingredients like vegetables and freshly slaughtered livestock and poultry still needed to be rinsed. And broths and soups simply couldn't be made without water for the stock. So the only solution was for them to make do and use the purest water available to them, regardless of its source, just as their ancestors did and just as their descendants would do until water purification treatments were developed centuries later.
VEGETABLES AND FRUITS
Vegetables in the middle ages were generally eaten raw or boiled. Many vegetables, including onions, lettuce, spinach, and others were eaten raw by choice, while other raw vegetables were generally eaten only in times of famine. Early salads were illustrated in Italian health manuals. All vegetables were often eaten boiled, turned into a sort of mush, but some vegetables were eaten parboiled in order to retain some of their original flavor and texture. Boiling the vegetables would seem to be a waste, but one must also remember that this was an age where soup spoons were in short supply; so the juice was often sopped up with bread during the meal. It is important to note that, in the Middle Ages, potatoes did not exist in europe from my understanding. They were brought back from the Americas during the Exploration, and weren't firmly established until the 17th or 18th century, I believe. So while you may imagine the main english vegetable of 1200 AD being the potato, you'd be wrong.
Fruits were eaten raw, dried or cooked, often in the form of pies or tarts, puddings, fritters, etc. Sometimes it was as simple as a baked or candied pear. Some dried fruits, depending on season, were used as substitutes in recipes when the ripe fruit was not in season; others were served dried by themselves, as a tastey treat to cap off the meal. They were also, of course, juiced and crushed to make a variety of beverages in addition to wine, like cider (from apples) and perry (from pears).
MEAT
The price of meat was high for most periods in the middle ages. It was expensive to raise, and therefore commanded a high price. It required land for the livestock to range on, and therefore was usually done only by the wealthier people, or by serfs for the nobles on their land. It also took longer to see returns on investments of livestock - you could plant and harvest a crop in the same season, while you may need to wait five years for a bull to reach big enough size to slaughter, and even pigs might take more than one season to produce enough meat for a slaughter. (Which is why so many people today often advocate the breeding of rabbits for meat, though pigs reproduce just as quickly and give bigger yields.)
So many serfs likely had little or no meat, which raises the question of where did they get their protein from. Alot of it came from vegetables and beans, but they did get *some* meat. Even though it wasn't much, the average serf could expect to have the occasional chicken on the table, or rabbit, or something of that nature that he had raised. But by and large, pottages and legumes made up the protein portion of the serf's diet. This may sound like the makings of a very immaciated person; but one must consider that the serfs were often the mainstay of the noblemen's armies, and they were obviously fighting fit from this diet, as can be seen by the *numerous* wars of the middle ages.
Now the middling and noble classes are a far different story. Meat was available at prices that even most people of the upper serf and lower middle classes could afford, albeit not a whole lot. German labor regulations from the era say that some workers were alloted two meat dishes per day; French records from the 14th century estimate that each person consumed 100 pounds of food per year. And as Newman says, "As for the nobility, their household records and accounts of their feasting leave little doubt as to their carnivorous tastes."
Stewing appears to have been the most popular form of cooking meat. This is because it didn't require as much as fuel as cooking everything separately, as we take for granted nowadays. Imagine having to cook with one burner plate, and splitting fuel between the hearth and the stove, and you'll understand the reasoning. Some cookbooks from the middle ages describe meat roasting on spits, or pre-cooked and then chopped finely and mixed with eggs, cheese, and seasonings and baked in pies (pot pie, anyone?). There were a great many other ways meat was prepared - though you can imagine that the average medieval person would look at the way we moderners just eat giant chunks of meat with nothing else (ever just fried up a steak with nothing else? I have), and cry at the wastefulness of it all.
Poultry, being easy to keep and raise, was another favorite of all classes including the serf class. Geese were also popular, and these animals provided fat for cooking, feathers for pillows and begs, and fletching for arrows. Poultry was prepared pretty much the same as larger meats, except grilling or roasting of while animals was usually applied to birds more than cows or pigs. Can you imagine trying to turn a bull on a spit? Sounds like alot of bull to me. <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />
Fish were popular as well, since they were not only tastey and nutritious, they were also not considered meat (and, for some reason, still aren't). This was important to the Christian of the middle ages, because there were many times during the year where they were forbidden to eat meat. Fish, however, was okay for whatever reason (the hipocrisy just kills me). While I will ignore the various precautions took before cooking them, due to the hybrid astrological medical beliefs of the time, I will say that fish were common in many dishes and recipes, including meat-filled pies. Fish was, by and large, used as "just another meat", but there were some dishes that showcased the specific flavor and texture of the fish itself. Such dishes included poached fish in aspic, smoked fish, and masterpieces where big fish such as sturgeons or big pikes, were divided into thirds with each section prepared a different way (roasted, fried, and poached or boiled) and then reassembled for presentation to the diners. We can be assured that this was probably only done at noble banquet tables.
You will notice that I didn't mention game meat in that list. That's because, in the middle ages, hunting was a right reserved for the noble lords of the land. Any person caught poaching was dealt with swiftly and decisively. The reason for this was that hunting was used as a way to sharpen skills used in war, and the serf classes didn't need to take away the nobles' practice targets. In fact, public archery contests - meant to encourage the study of the long bow in england - had the unwanted byproduct of creating many a skilled hunter, such as those featured in the Robin Hood legends.
COOKING
Next to table etiquette, this will be the last section. I won't go into the elaborate feasts of the noble class, because they were by far the smallest section of society, and most of their feasts consisted of lots of entertainment. The food was rather much the same. SO I will tell how most common peoples prepared their meals in this era.
One pot cooking was very popular, because as I've already said, conservation of fuel was important. One popular technique was to prepare individual courses in smaller pots, such as a pot of vegetables, another pot of some sort of stew, and another one of some kind of meat (often ground and rolled up into one big ball with seasonings and fillers). These smaller pots would be sealed at the top with a piece of cloth, and would be placed inside of a bigger pot which was also sealed. The bigger pot would contain the family's pottage, and would also contain the water for not only making the pottage but for heating the other courses. In effect, the whole thing was a big double boiler.
Cooking in this manner had a number of advantages, aside from conserving fuel. It would steam the meals rather than turn them to mush by directly boiling them; and at the same time, it would not be burned or scorched (a big problem when cooking over an open flame). The sealing of the pots also contained the flavors and spices from the dishes, ensuring it stayed in the food. It would also contain the fats and oils of the foods, often being soaked into the pottage - this may seem rediculous when we are today obsessed with reducing fat in our diet. But it must be considered that meat in those days was often much leaner, and the work the medieval people performed was much harder, so they burned more calories. Combine that with the fact that the human body needs a certain amount of fat to function properly, this was a desirable technique. The double boiling technique also likely not only prevented the secondary foods from being boiled and mushed, but also minimized their contact with the water to prevent the spread of parasites and bacteria (those that survived the boiling) from the pottage and its water to the rest of the food. Though, it must be understood that with the limited understand they possessed, most health benefits that medieval people received from their cooking was most likely more luck than skill.
ETIQUETTE
This is the only section of noble food I will go over, and I think it's an interesting one. Most people, when they imagine middle ages feasts, imagine a bunch of dirty, roudy boisterous men in plate mail banging their vambraces on the table to dancing women and other such loud noisy things. But the reality may have been very different. In fact, there are written guidelines for feast behaviour extending back as far as 12th century AD. Some of the rules are:
- Be sure your fingernails are clean before you go to the table. THis admonition was particularly important since tableware was very limited and most foods were eaten by being picked up and directly held in the fingers. Guests usually brought their own knives for cutting food while spoons were relatively rare and, when available, were used only for soups. Forks did not begin to come into common use until the Renaissance. Further, since feasting was a communal activity, with even the most important guests often sharing a cup and other dishes with at least one other diner, the prospect of picking up a piece of meat in sauce from a bowl or plate which someone had just dipped his or her dirty fingernals into was noless unappetizing then than it is now.
- Wash your hands before the meal. Again, the limited tablewareand intimate commuinal nature of feasting mad this an important rule. Hand washing was sometimes performed ritualistically with the lord who was hosting the feast pouring the water for th emost important of his guests. More commonly, the host's ewerer or another of his servants would pour the water, which was kept in a small ewer or pitcher and scented with flower petals and spices, when they were available. The water was caught in a small basin held below the guest's hands. Some of these pitchers and basins have survived. The pitchers were often made int he sahape of animals or people with the mouth of the figure serving as the spout f th epitcher, reminiscent of those dribbling cow creamers found at truck stops and country style restaurants across America's heartland.
- Chew with your mouth closed, don't talk with your mouth full, and don't let food in your mouth recirculate back out into the communal drinking cup. Duh.
- Don't handle a piece of food unless you are going to eat it.
- Accept the food placed in front of you and don't make a grab for seemingly better food in dishes placed before another guest.
In later centuries, etiquette guides refined the rules.
- Don't gorge. This may seem incredible given the numbers and amounts of foods served at many of the recorded feasts of the middle ages. However, gluttony was a sin and overindulgence is repellent. Beides just wanting to appear gracious, diners knew they would be inundated with food and so took and ate only small amounts of each dish,pacing themselves so they would have the room to enjoy the entire meal from beginning to end.
- Don't get drunk. Again, this may seem like an unavoidable consequewnce at meals where all the beverages contained alcohol. Yet, like the Romans before them, people of the MIddle Ages routinely added water to their wine, diluting its alcohol content and allowing them to drink more without gettin drunk. The water was taken from the purest sources available but adding water was obviously less hygienic than drinking pure wine. Presumably they thought that the wine adequalely purified the water.
- Don't pick your teeth, fingernails, or nose.
- Don't fidget, slouch, or rest your arms and elbows on the table.
- Don't pet dogs and cats during the meal. Some medieval illustrations show dogs and the occasional cat begging for food and scrounging for stray scraps around dining tables. Dogs, for hunting and as just plain pets, as well as cats, for keeping mice and other vermin down, were common in most castles and palaces.
- Don't curse or bring up any controversial topics or any distasteful ones, like diseases, operations, or off-color or ribald stories.
- Turn away from other diners if you need to sneeze or cough.
- Go to the toilet before the meal, to purge your system and lessen the chance of embarassingly passing gas at the table.
- Don't burp at the table.
- For men, be polite to the women present and don't gawk at them.
It's quite obvious that these etiquette rules have survived today, and form the basis of our own etiquette rules, which remain almost unchanged.
....
Well, that's all I've got. Hope it gives some insight into the fuel that drove the people that did the fighting that we now study.
