by James Lynne

Created on: September 16, 2008

During the Medieval Ages it was believed there was a divine right of the nobility to have better, more refined, food than their social inferiors. Food was a social marker. Not only were certain foods unavailable to the peasantry and middle classes, but "sumptuary laws" dictated who could publicly partake of foods considered for the wealthy. Food choices and food availability, not just money and ancestry, separated the Nobility from the working class who were not nobility, but also separated the working class from the peasantry.

Food in medieval times was quite literally "feast or famine" for most of Europe. The medieval period or Middle Ages spans a period of approximately 1000 years of European history between the age of Antiquity, the Fifth Century, and the Renaissance in the Sixteenth Century. Food during this time tended to be feast for the royal class who controlled the land and famine for the peasants who eked out whatever existence they could. Availability of food often became a line of demarcation between the wealthy and the poor. The quality of food in medieval times contributed to poor health, scurvy, tooth decay, skin eruptions, infections and digestive disease, and death.

The diet of the Lords, Ladies, nobility and landowners differed greatly from the peasants. For the wealthy there was a surfeit of food, depending on the season. During the spring and summer meat was plentiful, cooked over open fires, served with an ample supply of ales and wines. During winter months meat was served dried, salted, or pickled in vinegars and brines since wild game was scarce in winter. Pigeons were raised as a meat supply for winter and served roasted, baked, broiled and stewed. Exotic game and fowl were served at sumptuous banquets. Castle ponds were stocked during spring and summer to provide fish for winter months. The nobleman who also had an amply stocked "spicery" was indeed wealthy for the variety spices offered to recipes.

Because of the variety of food options and cooking styles available to modern society medieval food by comparison would be unappealing to us today. Crude cooking mechanisms and limited choices restricted what could be done with food. Medieval diets were unbalanced both for the poor as well as for the nobility. The lavish banquet-style meals of the wealthy were high in fat, giving rise to gout, which eventually became known as the "rich man's disease." Because only the wealthy could afford to eat the high fatty content that caused gout,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>