It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of greatness, it was the epoch of death, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of fine dining and hope, it was the winter of disease and despair, they had everything before them, they had nothing before them. 1 “In the Early Middle Ages, the production and consumption of food were closely linked despite the presence of the market, albeit more concerned in the selling of luxury goods such as spices.” 2 It was not until the eighth or ninth century that the market place became an important place of food exchange, but rather up until this point most food was simply eaten by those
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Such as, pigs provided a great supply of meat particularly suitable to preservation, whereas goats and sheep were kept for milk and wool. The opposition was mainly between milk and meat products rather than the different types of meat, the three animals all being crucial to the Early Middle Ages and their respective diets, being noted as being represented as up to 80 percent of all animals recorded in rural areas. Many of the animals were very different from the animals found standard today however, as many of the animals were in very different shapes and sizes than the ones commonly seen today. The pig in particular was very hairy, as well as having tusks and was widely accepted to be a red meat due to their dark reddish skin and stiff bristles, being more like a wild boar than their modern day counterparts. The cow was also typically smaller and mainly used as a work animal rather than one to be eaten. Despite written records that many cows were killed after 10 to 15 years of service, when they were no longer of any use in the fields, thus not being a staple to the growing diet of the Early Middle Ages, many archaeologists have found that the cow, albeit not as common as today, was more likely killed between the ages of 3 and 5, thus equaling out the time spent between the field and the table, making it a rather standard item for peasants, since it was considered a dirty animal by the upper class, with each cow still giving 440-550 lbs. “Another source of animal protein was also the eating of farmyard fowl, which included poultry, ducks, and geese.”2 But the final touch to the peasant’s
Such as, pigs provided a great supply of meat particularly suitable to preservation, whereas goats and sheep were kept for milk and wool. The opposition was mainly between milk and meat products rather than the different types of meat, the three animals all being crucial to the Early Middle Ages and their respective diets, being noted as being represented as up to 80 percent of all animals recorded in rural areas. Many of the animals were very different from the animals found standard today however, as many of the animals were in very different shapes and sizes than the ones commonly seen today. The pig in particular was very hairy, as well as having tusks and was widely accepted to be a red meat due to their dark reddish skin and stiff bristles, being more like a wild boar than their modern day counterparts. The cow was also typically smaller and mainly used as a work animal rather than one to be eaten. Despite written records that many cows were killed after 10 to 15 years of service, when they were no longer of any use in the fields, thus not being a staple to the growing diet of the Early Middle Ages, many archaeologists have found that the cow, albeit not as common as today, was more likely killed between the ages of 3 and 5, thus equaling out the time spent between the field and the table, making it a rather standard item for peasants, since it was considered a dirty animal by the upper class, with each cow still giving 440-550 lbs. “Another source of animal protein was also the eating of farmyard fowl, which included poultry, ducks, and geese.”2 But the final touch to the peasant’s