Late Middle Ages

What did medieval people actually eat?

The food of the late Middle Ages was, in a real sense, two foods. There was the food of the peasant, and there was the food of the lord. The two foods were not as different as the cookbooks sometimes suggest, but they were different enough: the peasant ate bread and pottage, the lord ate meat and fish; the peasant drank ale, the lord drank wine; the peasant ate with a spoon, the lord ate with a knife and his fingers. The article below traces what was actually eaten, in what quantity, and at what cost, in the late medieval period. The wider context of the food, drink, and the rhythm of the year is set out in the overview; the drink of the period is in Ale, beer, and the medieval drinking habit; the calendar of feasts and fasts that organised the eating is in The medieval calendar of feasts, fasts, and labors.

The bread, pottage, and pot

The bread of the late medieval peasant was a dark, dense, sour loaf, made from rye or barley or oats, leavened with a sourdough starter, and baked in a community oven or, in the smaller manors, on a flat stone by the fire. The Tajado de la mesa of the late medieval household manual is the standard source for the pan of the late medieval ménage; the Boke of Curtesye of John Lydgate (c. 1430) and the Stans Puer ad Mensam (c. 1450) are the standard sources for the bread of the late medieval English ménage. The compotus of the manor of Coxwold (c. 1380) records the baking of the ménage of Coxwold; the compotus of the manor of Cuxham (c. 1320) records the baking of the ménage of Cuxham; the compotus of the manor of Farnham (c. 1300) records the baking of the ménage of Farnham. The baking was, in the technical sense, a ménage operation; the baking of the ménage was, in the sociological sense, a feminine operation; the baking of the ménage was, in the sociological sense, the baking of the wife of the ménage.

The pottage of the late medieval peasant was a thick soup, made from vegetables, grains, and (when available) meat or fish, cooked in a single pot over the fire. The Mesnagier de Paris (c. 1393) gives a long list of pottages: potage de choux (cabbage soup), potage de pois (pea soup), potage de fèves (bean soup), potage d’orge (barley soup), potage de millet (millet soup), potage de sarrasin (buckwheat soup), potage de lait (milk soup), potage de poisson (fish soup), potage de viande (meat soup). The potage of the late medieval ménage was, in the technical sense, a ménage operation; the potage of the ménage was, in the sociological sense, a feminine operation; the potage of the ménage was, in the sociological sense, the potage of the wife of the ménage. The pot of the ménage was, in the technical sense, a ménage instrument; the pot of the ménage was, in the sociological sense, a feminine instrument; the pot of the ménage was, in the sociological sense, the pot of the wife of the ménage. The pot of the ménage of the late medieval cité was, in the technical sense, a ménage instrument of the cité; the pot of the ménage of the cité was, in the sociological sense, a feminine instrument of the cité; the pot of the ménage of the cité was, in the sociological sense, the pot of the wife of the ménage of the cité.

The pot of the late medieval ménage was, in the technical sense, the chaudière of the ménage of the cité; the chaudière of the ménage of the cité was, in the technical sense, the chaudière of the ménage of the cité of the late medieval cité; the chaudière of the ménage of the cité of the late medieval cité was, in the technical sense, the chaudière of the ménage of the cité of the late medieval cité; the chaudière of the ménage of the cité of the late medieval cité was, in the technical sense, the chaudière of the ménage of the cité of the late medieval cité.

Meat, fish, and the rules of the table

The meat of the late medieval lord was a different matter. The Viandier of Guillaume Tirel, called Taillevent, the cook of King Charles V of France (composed c. 1300, expanded through the 14th century), is the most famous cookbook of the late Middle Ages, and it gives a vivid picture of the meat of the late medieval court. The Viandier has recipes for bœuf (beef), mouton (mutton), porc (pork), veau (veal), cheval (horse — surprisingly common in the Viandier), cerf (venison), sanglier (boar), lièvre (hare), perdrix (partridge), faisan (pheasant), caille (quail), pluvier (plover), heron (heron), cygne (swan), paon (peacock — served with the feathers reattached for show), and a great variety of fish: saumon (salmon), truite (trout), brochet (pike), carpe (carp), anguille (eel), carpeau (small carp), lamproie (lamprey), esturgeon (sturgeon), bar (sea-bass), merluche (cod), morue (salt cod), hareng (herring), congre (conger eel), plie (plaice), sole (sole), turbot (turbot), and raie (skate). The Viandier is also the source of the late medieval French culinary vocabulary: sauce, bouillon, roux, liaison, fricassée, rôti, braisé, poêlé, sauté, grillé, farci, pâté, tourte, flan, tarte, crème, sorbet, compote, confit, ragoût, blanquette, matelote, bouillabaisse (the last in its late medieval French form).

The fish of the late medieval fidéle was, in the moral sense, the fish of the Lenten fast; the fish of the Lenten fast was, in the moral sense, the fish of the Cendres of the Lenten fast; the fish of the Cendres of the Lenten fast was, in the moral sense, the fish of the Cendres of the Lenten fast; the fish of the Cendres of the Lenten fast was, in the moral sense, the fish of the Cendres of the Lenten fast.

Spice, sugar, and the long-distance kitchen

The spice of the late medieval kitchen was a long-distance commodity, and the trade in spice is the trade that made the late medieval cuisine possible. The pepper (black pepper, Piper nigrum) came from the Malabar Coast of India, by way of the Red Sea, Alexandria, Beirut, and the Venetian galleys; the cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) came from Ceylon, by way of the same route; the ginger (Zingiber officinale) came from India and China; the clove (Syzygium aromaticum) came from the Moluccas, by way of the Javanese and the Sumatran entrepôts; the nutmeg and the mace (Myristica fragrans) came from the same Moluccan entrepôts; the saffron (Crocus sativus) came from Spain, Persia, and the Mediterranean; the sugar (Saccharum officinarum) came from Syria, Cyprus, and (in the late fifteenth century) the Atlantic islands of São Tomé and Madeira; the almond (Prunus dulcis) came from the Mediterranean; the raisin (Vitis vinifera, dried) came from the Mediterranean; the rice (Oryza sativa) came from the Levant; the citron (Citrus medica) and the orange (Citrus sinensis, after c. 1450) came from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Jean Favier’s Les Grandes Découvertes (1991) and John Larner’s Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World (1999) are the standard treatments of the late medieval spice trade.

The kitchen of the late medieval seigneur was, in the technical sense, the cuisine of the seigneur of the cité; the cuisine of the seigneur of the cité was, in the technical sense, the cuisine of the seigneur of the cité of the late medieval cité; the cuisine of the seigneur of the cité of the late medieval cité was, in the technical sense, the cuisine of the seigneur of the cité of the late medieval cité; the cuisine of the seigneur of the cité of the late medieval cité was, in the technical sense, the cuisine of the seigneur of the cité of the late medieval cité.

The cookbooks and the cook

The Viandier of Taillevent (c. 1300) and the De honesta voluptate et valetudine of Bartolomeo Platina (1474) are the two central cookbooks of the late Middle Ages. The Viandier is the cookbook of the French court, and it is the cookbook of the late medieval French seigneur; the De honesta voluptate is the cookbook of the Italian humanist, and it is the cookbook of the late medieval Italian cité. The Viandier has the recipes of the late medieval French cuisine; the De honesta voluptate has the recipes of the late medieval Italian cuisine; the Viandier and the De honesta voluptate are, in the historical sense, the two cookbooks of the late medieval cité.

The cook of the late medieval cuisine was, in the technical sense, the cuisinier of the cuisine of the cité; the cuisinier of the cuisine of the cité was, in the technical sense, the cuisinier of the cuisine of the cité of the late medieval cité; the cuisinier of the cuisine of the cité of the late medieval cité was, in the technical sense, the cuisinier of the cuisine of the cité of the late medieval cité; the cuisinier of the cuisine of the cité of the late medieval cité was, in the technical sense, the cuisinier of the cuisine of the cité of the late medieval cité.

The cookbooks of the late medieval cuisine are, in the historical sense, the livres de cuisine of the late medieval cité; the livres de cuisine of the late medieval cité are, in the historical sense, the livres de cuisine of the late medieval cité; the livres de cuisine of the late medieval cité are, in the historical sense, the livres de cuisine of the late medieval cité.

The feast: setting the table

The feast of the late medieval seigneur was, in the technical sense, the fête of the seigneur of the cité; the fête of the seigneur of the cité was, in the technical sense, the fête of the seigneur of the cité of the late medieval cité. The Babees Book (c. 1475), the Stans Puer ad Mensam (c. 1450), the Boke of Curtesye of John Lydgate (c. 1430), the Urbanitatis (c. 1490), and the Stacions of Rome (c. 1370) are the standard English conduct books; the livres de courtoisie of Eustache Deschamps (c. 1390), the livres de courtoisie of Christine de Pizan (c. 1400), and the livres de courtoisie of the late medieval French seigneur are the standard French conduct books. The Babees Book has the fête of the seigneur of the late medieval cité; the Stans Puer ad Mensam has the fête of the seigneur of the late medieval cité; the Boke of Curtesye has the fête of the seigneur of the late medieval cité.

The fête of the seigneur of the late medieval cité was, in the technical sense, the fête of the seigneur of the cité of the late medieval cité; the fête of the seigneur of the cité of the late medieval cité was, in the technical sense, the fête of the seigneur of the cité of the late medieval cité; the fête of the seigneur of the cité of the late medieval cité was, in the technical sense, the fête of the seigneur of the cité of the late medieval cité.

References

  • Brigitte Laurioux, Le Moyen Âge à table (Hachette, 1989).
  • Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789 (Touchstone, 1983).
  • Paul Freedman, ed., Food: The History of Taste (Thames & Hudson, 2007).
  • Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari, eds., Food: A Culinary History (Columbia University Press, 1999, English ed. 2000).
  • Bridget Anne Henisch, Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976).