Middle Age Foods

By: Jessica Frazier

 

Beer, mead, ale, but no water!!!! What!?! Don't eat vegetables they are unhealthy !!! This is what people back then really did, how did they survive!?!

Food

• What food you ate depended on the class you were in. • Had 3 meals a day: 

             Breakfast served between 6 -7                Dinner - served at mid-morning between 12 – 2                 Supper - Served between 6 -7 and accompanied by various                                 forms of entertainment. 

 • Every person had his or her own knife. Spoons were rarely

used, instead people drank their soups and other liquids from a cup.

Royalty and the nobility Food

• Would eat their food from silverware, and even gold dishes. • Only Lords and Nobles were allowed to hunt deer, boar, hares and rabbits. 

 • Fowl such as capons, geese, larks, and chickens were usually available to the lord

and his family. • The wealthy could afford large quantities of milled flour and Dairy products such as

cheese and butter.  • Bread called Manchet, which was a bread loaf made of wheat flour, ate be upper

class. 

More Royal Food

• Their food was highly spiced with: Pepper, Cinnamon, Cloves, Nutmeg, Ginger, Saffron, Cardamon (aka Cardamom), Coriander, Cumin, Garlic, Turmeric, Mace, Anise, Caraway and Mustard. 

 • The royalty drank different wines

 • Food from the ground were only are considered fit for the poor, but vegetables such as

rape, onions, garlic and leeks graced a Noble's table.

Lower class Food

• Would eat their food from wooden or horn dishes. • The wheat they harvested was made into peasant breads, which were made

from barley and rye, baked into dark heavy loaves.

• Pottage was a main dish for the poor and was made out of anything they could find like: Onions, cabbage, garlic, nuts, berries, leeks, spinach, parsley and even sometimes salt pork or fatty bacon for flavor and protein.

 • Poor drank ale, mead, cider or water sweetened with honey.

  

Food Preservation

• Preserve food in the summer to be eaten during the winter months.

 • Spices and sauces were

added to hide the taste of salt.     

 

Ways of Food Preservation

• Dry salting- where the meat or fish was buried in salt and brine curing where meat was soaked in salt water.

 • 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. Some foods naturally form a protein gel when cooked such as eels.

• 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. Drying is also the normal means of preservation for cereal grains such as wheat, oats, barley and rye.

 • Honey- was used as a

preservative in mead. • Candies - Fruits & nuts could be

candied in order to prolong their life

 

Cooking

• Spit roasting • Baking

 • Boiling

 • Smoking

 • Salting

 • Frying

 • Conducted over an open

fire

 

THE END

http://www.medieval-life.net/food.htm

http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/middle-ages-food.htm