Eating Mediaeval
Many people's ideas about how folk ate in the Middle Ages are completely erroneous ones. Maybe they came about by attending a Mediaeval Banquet' where gluttony ruled supreme, and table manners were forgotten. However, in the case of the late Middle Age English gentry, the opposite was the rule.
What must be remembered is that, although the existence of America was known about at this time, it was seen mainly as an obstruction to the westabout route to the Orient. Foods peculiar to the New World, such as potatoes and tomatoes would not be discovered for nearly two hundred years.
Nevertheless, ladies would vie with each other to lay out the most exotic fare. The further away the foodstuff came from, the more expensive it was, and the table the lady set was a reflection of the richness, or otherwise, of her husband.
Soups and stews called pottages in those days would be served in a handled pottery bowl, and wine in a glass, the more exotic, the better. Venetian glass was much prized for this purpose and, if the choice was given of a set of wine-glasses or glazing a window, the wine-glasses would win every time.
Red wine was preferred, and the redder, the better. For a long time, darkness of the wine was seen as a sign of quality, and some unscrupulous dealers had been known to darken their product with beetroot juice, or even blood. This led to strict rules being introduced, with dire penalties for those caught.
A salt-cellar of the finest material, for salt in those days cost more than saffron, completed the tableware provided by the hostess. Food was served in messes to cater for four people (the origin of the British Army mess') and each individual took a small portion on to his trencher. A trencher was a slice of bread, and the higher your status, the fresher your trencher.
The trencher was not usually eaten, but left, along with any uneaten food, for either the servants, alms for the poor or fed to the animals. But, any cold meat might be reserved for breakfast the following day.
The diner brought his own cutlery, which consisted of knife and spoon only; the fork was not introduced until the 17th Century. The spoon, according to the owner's status might be bone, horn or pewter he might even have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The knife could be the sheath knife that most men carried, or it could be one especially made for the purpose.
There were books on etiquette at table, some of the rules still hold good today in the Middle Ages, you ignored them at your social peril. Water, often scented with rose petals, was always provided for the diner to wash his hands before eating. Sometimes, this was also brought around between courses. No talking with your mouth full; no loud talking, and no belching or burping (from either end!). And, if you did get drunk, there was ale and wine in plenty as water was considered dangerous to drink, you did your best to hide it.
It's true that fingers were made before forks, and eating with the hands was tolerated. But, it was an inflexible rule, as with modern Muslims, that food was taken with the right hand only. The reason is identical; the left hand was used for sanitary purposes.
The main course may have consisted of an extravagant dish, such as a great pie, consisting of several layers of different meats. The top layer may well have been live blackbirds, which, as the nursery rhyme tells us, were released when the crust was cut into.
Bread and cheeses either imported or domestic may also have been served. Desserts were usually milk-based dishes, sloppy and extremely bad for your teeth, but sometimes at the close of a meal, or between courses, subtleties might be brought out.
These could be sweet or savoury; but a golden rule was that they had to be capable of being picked up with two fingers. Surviving recipes mention meat balls shaped like hedgehogs, or decorated to look like miniature pieces of fruit. Other subtleties were douchettes which might be sweet, similar to a modern custard tart, or made with eggs and bacon, like a miniature quiche.
Another subtlety was a mushroom pie, shaped like a miniature Cornish pasty.
If a tourney or hunting party was planned, the lady might instruct her cook to prepare subtleties. These were to serve out to any friends or acquaintances who might drop by her tent and, once more, the main objective was not to feed visitors, but to impress them.
So, the more imported food she could offer, and the further afield it came from, the better.
The final course, in each case, was, again, designed to impress. It could be that the lord's castle was replicated in pastry, and each turret would have a different filling, of meat, apples or anything available.
Here's the nasty bit. The piece, over which the cooks would have laboured for many hours, was brought before the lord with due ceremony by the head cook and he would cost a pretty penny to employ, too. And, the lord would show his wealth and power by simply smashing the confection.
But, it was shared out afterwards, so it makes a little more sense than piling up a Ferrari to show off your wealth!