Medieval Food and Drink It is ironic that the meal most associated with medieval food is a grand feast, but only a small portion of the population ever has feasts. The general person eats three meals a day but these meals are very dissimilar especially between economic classes. Large differences are evident between the foods and drinks consumed for breakfast, dinner and supper of peasants and that of nobles. The first meal of the day for all classes is breakfast, which is eaten between six and seven in the morning. The lower class, or peasants, will generally eat some kind of dark, rough bread, likely made from rye or barley. After a poor harvest, a peasant’s bread might also include beans peas or acorns due to the short supply of grains.
…show more content…
Wheat bread is more expensive because it requires more work to grow the wheat grain. With their breakfast bread a peasant will drink ale. Ale is one of the most common drinks of the lower class in this time period. Ale takes a long time to brew and cannot be sold without special permission from the lord of the peasant’s land (“Food and Drink in Medieval England”). Early in the medieval era “the real beer, was made with barley; but, at a later period, all sorts of grain was indiscriminately used”(Alchin). This meal is usually eaten quickly while the peasant heads out to the fields to work in the early hours of dawn. The breakfast of the lords is extremely different. A lord and their household will rise early for breakfast. A meal consisting of approximately three fish dishes and three meat dishes is served to the nobles by their serving staff. The amount of each type of dish can vary (“Food and Drink in Medieval England”). For example the amount of fish dishes served usually increases on a saint’s day, or “fish days”, when meat is abstained from as a for religious reasons. Fish days occur on Fridays and Saturdays and …show more content…
It is the heaviest meal and is eaten around mid-day, between twelve o’clock and two o’clock. On a normal day, a peasant would eat what was referred to as a “ploughman’s lunch”. This lunch would involve rye or barley bread as well as some form of cheese (“Food and Drink of Medieval England”). Cheese is very important to the lower class since it takes more time to spoil than milk. Cheese is made using milk which “[can] be curdled, and the curds either eaten as is or used to make cheese”(Salisbury). The Crusades introduced biscuits into a peasant’s dinner as a convenience food since biscuits are easily transported. If a peasant is doing well their dinner may also include some form of meat. A peasant’s meat is usually beef, pork, or lamb. Unless they are desperate, a peasant will not poach wild animals. Poaching is punishable by having one’s hands cut off or, in some cases, death (Alchin). All the animals in a lord’s land belong to the lord; therefore, the peasants could not hunt them. Some lords allow their peasants to hunt squirrels and hedgehogs but only with permission. Lords also had to grant peasants on their land permission to fish from the local stream, but they usually only allow the peasants to catch fish that are considered not good enough for nobles like dace, grayling and gudgeon. Ale is the usual drink to go along with a peasant’s dinner, but milk can also be drunk. Milk it is less common since
Wheat bread is more expensive because it requires more work to grow the wheat grain. With their breakfast bread a peasant will drink ale. Ale is one of the most common drinks of the lower class in this time period. Ale takes a long time to brew and cannot be sold without special permission from the lord of the peasant’s land (“Food and Drink in Medieval England”). Early in the medieval era “the real beer, was made with barley; but, at a later period, all sorts of grain was indiscriminately used”(Alchin). This meal is usually eaten quickly while the peasant heads out to the fields to work in the early hours of dawn. The breakfast of the lords is extremely different. A lord and their household will rise early for breakfast. A meal consisting of approximately three fish dishes and three meat dishes is served to the nobles by their serving staff. The amount of each type of dish can vary (“Food and Drink in Medieval England”). For example the amount of fish dishes served usually increases on a saint’s day, or “fish days”, when meat is abstained from as a for religious reasons. Fish days occur on Fridays and Saturdays and …show more content…
It is the heaviest meal and is eaten around mid-day, between twelve o’clock and two o’clock. On a normal day, a peasant would eat what was referred to as a “ploughman’s lunch”. This lunch would involve rye or barley bread as well as some form of cheese (“Food and Drink of Medieval England”). Cheese is very important to the lower class since it takes more time to spoil than milk. Cheese is made using milk which “[can] be curdled, and the curds either eaten as is or used to make cheese”(Salisbury). The Crusades introduced biscuits into a peasant’s dinner as a convenience food since biscuits are easily transported. If a peasant is doing well their dinner may also include some form of meat. A peasant’s meat is usually beef, pork, or lamb. Unless they are desperate, a peasant will not poach wild animals. Poaching is punishable by having one’s hands cut off or, in some cases, death (Alchin). All the animals in a lord’s land belong to the lord; therefore, the peasants could not hunt them. Some lords allow their peasants to hunt squirrels and hedgehogs but only with permission. Lords also had to grant peasants on their land permission to fish from the local stream, but they usually only allow the peasants to catch fish that are considered not good enough for nobles like dace, grayling and gudgeon. Ale is the usual drink to go along with a peasant’s dinner, but milk can also be drunk. Milk it is less common since