Food of the Middle Ages By: Jessica P. Daily Meals Both Upper and Lower class has 3 meals a day Breakfast is served between 6-7 am Dinner is served in.

Food of the Middle Ages

By: Jessica P

Daily Meals

Both Upper and Lower class has 3 meals a day Breakfast is served between 6-7 am Dinner is served in mid-morning from 12-2 pm Supper is the substantial meal served from 6-7 pm. The upper class is

accompanied by entertainment The diet was mainly bread, pottage, dairy products like milk and

cheese, and a meat, usually beef, pork, or lamb Spoons were rarely used with liquid food (soup), it was drank form a

bowl instead Forks were introduced in the 14th century’

Lower Class

If lower class people were to poach (steal) from someone, the punishment would result in death or having their hands cut off.

The poor could not afford to buy spices for their food.

The Ploughman’s lunch of bread and cheese was also a stable diet for the lower class workers

They would eat from wooden or horn dishes Most food was home grown They were also not allowed to hunt for

animals like dear, boars, hares, or rabbits. Their diet includes:Rye or barley bread, pottage (a type of stew),

dairy products, meat such as beef, pork, or lamb, home grown herbs and vegetables, fruit from local trees or bushes, nuts, and honey.

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Upper Class

A bread called Manchet Bread (made with wheat from wheat flour) was consumed by the Upper Class

Their food was highly spiced They had expensive spices such as pepper,

cinnamon, cloves,nutmeg, ginger, garlic, saffron, coriander, mace, mustard, ect.

They ate with silver and gold dishes Their diet would have included Manchet bread,

a vast variety of different kinds of meat, fish (fresh and salt water), shell fish, spices, cheese, fruits, and a limited amount of vegtables.

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Preserving Food

They would preserve food in the summer to be eaten during the winter It was not economic to feed animals in the winter because of the lack of food, so they would

be slaughtered in autumn Meat would be preserved in salt There was two methods of preserving with salt Dry-salting where the meat or fish was buried in salt and brine-curing where meat was

soaked in salt water.Other methods of preservtion are, Pickling - Pickling in a salt brine was the standard method of preserving meats and fish.

Typical pickling agents included brine (high in salt) and vinegar Gelatine - Jelly or gelatine was used for preserving cooked meat or fresh fish. Food may be

preserved by cooking in a material, such as gelatine, that solidifies to form a gel Smoked Food - Wood smoked food was a method use to preserve pork or fish Drying - Most meats and fruit can be preserved through the drying process. Candies - Fruits & nuts could be candied in order to prolong their life Honey - Was used a preservative in mead

Cooking

Upper Class: Had huge kitchens in their castles and were served by the sefs or servents. The kitchens had cooking ovens,huge fireplaces, and roasting food. It also included a water

supply with a sink and drainage. The buttery was a room intended ofr storing and dispensing beverages The bottlery was a room that stored wines The pantry was a storage place for parishable food products The storerooms, often located over the butery and pantry, were used to store non-

parisheable kitchen items and productsMethods of cooking: Spit roasting Baking Smoking Salting Frying

Drinks

The water in medieval times was often unclean The poor drank ale, mead or cider But the rich were able to drink many different types of wines Cider is a drink made of apples made by pouring water on

apples, and steeping them, so as to extract a sort of half-sour, half-sweet drink.

Many wines were made with the infusions of wormwood, hyssop, rosemary that were mixed with sweetened wine flavor and with honey

Honey was used to make the sweet alcoholic drink called mead. It was drunk by all classes.

Middle Ages Food Recipes

Traditionally, recipes were passed from one generation to another.

Food during that time was changing, new spices were being introduced by the crusades from the east and included the middle age recipes.

Spices were extremely expensive and therefore only used by the Upper Class

The recipes were written in a totally different way then they are today.

There was no list of ingredients The measurements were extremely basic (quantities were

usually not included) temperature control was difficult and not specified Cooking times were vague- it was left to the reader to decide

how long it should be cooked

Food for the King

Menus for the wealthy were very expensive but the portions were small On the table would be a center piece that represented a green lawn. It

was surrounded with large peacocks’ feathers and violets tied onto green branches.

In the middle of this lawn was a fortress placed covered in silver. This fortress was hollow and formed a sort of cage which held several live birds.

The first course would consist of a hare, a quarter of stag which spent a night in salt, stuffed chicken, and a loin of veal.

The last two dishes were covered in German sauce, with with sugar-plums, and pomegranate seeds.

Pie was served and had silver around the top For the three following courses there was a roe-deer, a pig, and a

sturgeon cooked in parsley and vinegar And lastly plums stewed in rose-water

The Black Death

The amount of food of food in the Middle Ages world changed in the year 1328

The Black Death spread across Europe with a devastating effect The population dropped dramatically The Black Death killed a third of the population with 2,000,000 people

dieing It ravaged the land for nearly 60 years This resulted in a much smaller population, resulting with much more

food for the people who survived