Imagine you're
transported to the twenty-eighth century and your well-meaning
temporal
host says brightly, “I've prepared some typical dishes from your
era!”, then brings out truffled
langoustine ravioli with chopped cabbage, sweet
corn
agnolotii,
and
Long Island duck breast. While you might be pleased to have dishes
taken directly (as these are) from the menus of some of America's
most expensive restaurants, you might also say, “Could I have some
mac n cheese? Maybe a Cobb salad? Fettucine Alfredo? A hamburger?”
You
would then be roughly in the position of a person from the fourteenth
century magically transported into the midst of a modern “Medieval”
feast, recreating dishes taken directly from period cookbooks. Most
of what most people know about Medieval food is taken from such
cookbooks. However, these describe either (like Taillevent's
Viandier)
the food of royalty and the highest nobility or (like the Menagier
de Paris)
the “aspirational” food of well-off people who wanted to dine in
a similar way. What's more, much of the food described was served,
not at normal meals, but at great feasts, meant to impress.
A
cookbook-based idea of Medieval food, then, leaves one (as the French
say) “on one's hunger”. While the popular imagination has seized on foods like peacock and swan, served in all their feathers, or dishes reeking of spices as "typical" Medieval fare, in fairness period cookbooks contain a wider range of dishes. Still, if some simpler dishes have found their way
into these works, for the most part they do not answer a simple
question: what did most Medieval eaters actually eat?
The
early Medieval side of that question has already been addressed in an
earlier post. What follows here is a look at food from the same period as most
cookbooks; that is, the late Medieval period (specifically, here, in
France).
Royalty and high nobility
The divergence between
the food in cookbooks and regular practice begins with the very
classes for which such works were written. Consider a rare extract of
accounts for John the Good (reigned
1350
– 1364),
right after his coronation (1350). Lalou resumes the food in these:
During the month covered by the accounts, the court ate 130 pigs, of which some are fattened pigs (porci pingues), 37 oxen and 23 sheep. One must add to this rabbits, chickens, partridge, pheasant and plovers, as well as all the fresh or salt-water fish. Among the fish cited, one makes out eels, bruli [?], herring; one must also note crayfish. The king's cooks prepared the dishes in two ways, either in roasting them or in boiling them. Two very distinct parts of the kitchen are responsible in fact for "roast" and "pottage". One must not forget either the "saucery". The kitchen uses spices, sugar, almonds. Fat bacon and pasties are also regularly noted.
In addition to bread, the
baked goods include nebulae (“clouds”), a particularly
light form of wafer.
The most luxurious items
in this list are the spices and the partridge and pheasant, which
were of course a step above chicken – but hardly peacock or swan.
Nor were the nebulae, if slightly finer than common wafers,
exceptional as pastries. While 130 may seem like a large number of
pigs, bear in mind that the oxen would have been bigger. Still, these
royal meals included more pork than was becoming common at this
point. In earlier centuries, this had appeared as the main meat in
written accounts; it is far less present in this and later centuries.
About a century later,
the accounts for the Burgundian court are similar. The Burgundians by
now were already rivaling the French kings and had even sided with
the English against them, even if their court had not yet reached the
height of its magnificent. Some daily accounts survive for the
expenses of Isabelle of Portugal, wife of Philip the Good (1396 – 1467). Sommé,
in
summarizing these for
1450,
highlights
the "regularity" of expenditures for food:
In September and October are bought almost each day four sides, four shoulders and six pieces of mutton, a half veal, a veal fraise ("calf's pluck"), a leg of beef, a fat capon, 17 fowl, five pairs of pigeons, a partridge, fifty eggs. The same regularity shows in the consumption of bread, of fats, of verjuice and of vinegar. Finally, if the quantities are not given, the sum spent for pottages and greens are always essentially identical. The accounts tell us less about the consumption of fish because they enumerate the varieties without specifying the quantities, and only mention the total: “The master paid for plaice, sole, red-fish, mullets and herring, XLIX s.” Nonetheless the same species recur frequently. In these days of abstinence, the quantity of eggs grows: instead of fifty, often one hundred are used in cooking.
Nor
does this regularity vary by locale; essentially the same data is
found for trips to Bruges and Ghent.
In
a later analysis, Sommé shows
that mutton predominates here, with veal far behind and beef still
farther; none of this is in the least exotic today. Otherwise,
During these four months, no mention is made of buying grown pigs [porcs], but only of several younger pigs [cochons], in particular for banquets... These are then suckling pigs and not full-grown... Offal appears in the accounts as well, more frequently than pork butchery products: tripe is eaten every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, a veal fraise is bought almost every day. Ham, rare like pork, only appears at the December 31 banquet.
And
for luxuries?
Poultry and game make up the luxury food, more expensive than meat, naturally reserved for the duchess' table, in particular the fatted capon, bought very often, which is as expensive as the quarter of a veal or a pig.... Partridge is the only game regularly consumed... Domestic poultry is then far more important than game in the daily food. It is only during banquets that the guests can consume, in addition to partridge, pheasant, "little goslings", river birds, bitterns. All these products are very expensive... Other game however appears more common, that is the rabbit...
As
game goes, partridge and rabbit cut a pretty modest figure next to
the large birds and boars often associated with elegant Medieval
dining.
Because of their price, birds and game then form the essence of spending for banquet days. In effect if the difference between these days and normal days lies first in a light increase in the part held by outlays for meat, in the larger sense, in the food budget, it consists above all in a far greater increase in expenses for birds and game than expenses for butcher's meat.
As
for fish. for Fridays and Saturdays, crayfish especially were
appreciated. Roach, sole and plaice, herring and whiting, liver fish,
turbot and mullet all appear, especially in Bruges. Other records
show that court cooks used mackerel, cod, ray and even porpoise.
Mussels appear often as well.
For
fresh water fish, which appear less, carp, perch and “white frying
fish” are mentioned at Bruges, elsewhere, pike, salmon, eel, trout, gudgeon
and bream. "Despite certain recurrences, there is then a
relative variety in the fish consumed; the accounts for fast days do
not present the remarkable regularity of those of meat days."
Noting
that the accounts give no details on how all this was prepared, Sommé
nonetheless points out that much of the meat and fish was used in
pasties. The pastry-chef (who mainly would not have made sweets at
this point) also made tarts and “leafed” pastries – what
English-speakers today call “puff pastry” – but possibly more
like a Napoleon since she writes that these surely included fish.
“This taste for pasties and savory cakes is explained by the need
of varying as much as possible the presentation of meats and fish,
since these made up the essential of the food.”
The
accounts included ginger, cinnamon, saffron and “sundry spices”.
Pepper does not appear, but may (unusually) be included in the
“sundry spices”. Far more sugar – considered a spice – was
bought than of the others. Other imports – rice, Corinth raisins,
almonds – are mentioned. These are all relatively luxurious items
and some of the few markers that these are meals for the highest
class of consumer.
A
variety of wines, notably the famous wine of Beaune, also hint at the
class of these consumers. But in conclusion Sommé
writes: “Whatever the variety of culinary practice... monotony,
which shows through the regularity of the expenses, must not have
been avoided.” And this at what was virtually a royal court.
A
special example appears with the last independent ruler to bear the
title of “Dauphin” in the region known as the Dauphiné;
after Humbert II sold that possession to the king of France, his
title became that of the oldest royal French prince. Humbert II
(1312
– 1355)
was
not good with finances and before he, in effect, sold off his realm,
he tried to limit expenses, in part by carefully laying out the meals
for his household (around 1336-1337). The result goes on for several
pages, but Le Grand d'Aussy sums it up in his eighteenth century
history of food:
For his Sunday and Thursday dinner, the Dauphin wants to be served two pasties, each made of a hen and two chickens.
On Monday and Wednesday, he wants a puree of peas or of broad beans, with two pounds of salted pork; then good tripes, cooked in water. For the second service, two portions (rotulos) of beef and mutton, boiled and served with a warm pepper sauce; and, as a roast, six capons, or six fat hens.
On Tuesday, instead of soup, he asks for rice with cabbage, beets. turnips and leeks, with a pound of salted pork; half a portion of boiled beef, served with mustard; twelve chickens, or six hens, cut in half; and, for the second service, a portion of fresh pork.
As for supper, he has it consist of a half-portion of roast beef; beef feet, prepared in vinegar with parsley; and grilled beef tongues, with cameline sauce.
His dessert is made up of cheese and fruit.
The Dauphin's feasting, on meatless days, resembles those of meat days. These are, for Friday, two soups, or puree, either of peas, or of cabbage; of fish, if any are found; twenty-four fried eggs, with a good sauce; Lorraine pasties; then some fried food.
For Saturday, two soups with a puree of broad beans and almonds, seasoned with onion juice and olive oil; fish, if there is any; twelve poached eggs, with a good sauce; tarts of greens, and eight hard-boiled eggs.
The
Dauphin of course got the best quality of wine, which happened to be
(though not yet known as such) côtes
du Rhône.
The
Dauphin's knights and barons got essentially the same food, but in
smaller quantities. Only he got certain specialties, like the tripes.
He also got two types of bread, one the finer pain de bouche,
the other small one-pound rolls meant to be dipped (probably in
soup).
Le
Grand explains that Lorraine pasties “consisted
of a fish stuffing, which was enclosed in a pastry kneaded with
butter, sugar, and eggs. They were then fried in butter. There were
meat versions; and these were stuffed with a hash of capon white
meat.” Along
with the cameline and pepper sauce, these may be some of the more
extravagant items noted here. Note that the special treat in
these meals
was... tripe.
Otherwise,
such a menu would have been unworthy of the time of a chef like
Taillevent.
Minor nobility and the middle class
As strapped as he was for
a while, one can hardly mention Humbert in the same breath as a host
of minor nobles who lived far more simply. Charbonnier has carefully
analyzed the accounts of two such nobles in Auvergne, one, William,
the lord of the several estates, and the other, his brother Amblard,
a cleric, with a modestly prestigious office as dean of a chapter.
These accounts come from the start of the fifteenth century. Their
meals, Charbonnier writes, were
"generally improvised." One
example comes from the eve of St. Catherine's in 1387. It is
basically made up of bread, wine and five hens. Similar
meals (with
somewhat less wine) are noted for December
16 and January
16 of
the following year.
When
Amblard
came
to visit with
an
uncle,
the
commander
of Montferrand, on
Tuesday December 1, they had a quarter of mutton, bread, wine and two
hens for supper; on Wednesday, bread, wine, fish, oil and two hens
and for supper,
bread, wine, "large meat [beef
or mutton] bought
at Maringues"; on
Thursday (for supper?), bread, wine, three hens.
In
September,1389. William's dinner required bread, wine and one hen.
Other meals were similar; the number of those present is unknown.
Charbonnier says there were two types of meals:
The most ordinary, which one can suppose were improvised, are divided into three elements: bread, wine, and meat which is almost always poultry. It was in fact easy to go find poultry in the neighborhood, perhaps as a rent, while butcher's meat had to be bought at Maringues. More care was taken with the meals served to Amblard and his uncle: they in fact include two meats and these are more varied, since beyond hens, they include mutton, “large meat” and fish.
He
notes that wine is always the most expensive item in these meals. He
also notes that pork is mentioned relatively little (and game barely
mentioned at all), while the estate raised a lot of bovines, though
mainly for milk. At one of the estates, butter was the main fat, but
at another walnut oil was more common; olive oil was only bought for
special occasions. A local lake and the moat provided fish, largely
perch and bream. Fish was of course needed for Lent and fast days. Accounts for one of the estates record numerous purchases of fruit; the other
seemed to be well-placed to grow these. A similar situation existed
for vegetables and one can reasonably speculate that these too were included in meals, though Charbonnier does not suggest as much.
Salt
(a purchase) was largely used for salting meats and cheeses. In
theory, pepper was among the rents due, but does not seem to have
been given in the period covered by the surviving accounts. Ginger,
cinnamon and saffron were all bought at Clermont (the first two by
the pound, saffron by the ounce). These apparently were used mainly
for festive meals.
“Festive”
however was relative. Consider the accounts for one gala affair, here
the wedding of minor nobles related to these. The accounts list
wheat, wine, spices (saffron, ginger and pepper), beef and pork,
chickens, cocks, geese, fish, 250 wafers, a quart of vinegar, a
bottle of verjuice, a rabbit, a hare, 400 donnihos [?] and
mustard. If the spices add a luxurious touch, the other foods are
undistinguished. The large amount of wafer belies their low cost,
even if such desserts were probably not seen on more modest
tables (including, in regular times, William's). Whatever the
donnihos were, they barely cost more than the mustard.
If
the items listed were sufficient for a large party, they seem neither
exotic nor elegant.
In
fact, it may be that more modest people living in or closer to Paris
fared better as a matter of course. Some glimpses of the meals of
comfortable but undistinguished diners come from the acerbic
fourteenth century poet Eustache Deschamps (1340–1406).
One of his poems is a tirade against mustard, which he claimed was
offered to him no matter what he ordered in a Brussels tavern. The
food he mentions includes fresh herring, carp, pike in
water, fat soles, all this presumably for a fast day, along with
green sauce, saffron and "grains" [grain of paradise?]; he also enumerates
roasts of mutton and boar, hare, rabbit and bustard.
Here is somewhat the
reverse of what is seen in the more exalted ranks. If Deschamps was
not so impoverished a poet as Villon, for instance, and even held office as a
sort of bailiff at one point, he was not of the upper crust either,
and yet the meals he considered reasonable for his persona were about the same sort as those noted above. If anything, the bustard
would have been a touch better.
In another tirade, this
one on fasting for Lent, he says that people leave oxen, cows,
mutton, veal and lambs, rabbits, partridge, capons, stags and deer,
pork?, butter, eggs and cheese, geese, ducks, pheasant, herons and
peacocks for:
Stinking herring, rotting sea fish,
puree and peas, and broad beans in a pile,
cooked apples, ground barley, and rice.
The first list seems to
trace foods across classes; it is unlikely that Deschamps or those
around him often ate herons or peacock. But much of the list, again,
is unexceptional even for today. Otherwise, the second gives an idea
(albeit exaggerated) of what people had to put up with for Lent.
Another look at meals for
a wider selection of the population, in Paris at least, comes from
public feasts held by the “Hostel for Pilgrims” of St. Jacques in
Paris. These were held each year for the departing pilgrims and
members of the public, all of whom paid to attend. The surviving
records record different details, depending on the accountant, but
give a vivid picture of the sort of food a paying crowd could expect
in fourteenth century Paris:
1338 eight hundred and nine guests:
5 oxen (slaughtered and skinned)
18 pigs
3000 eggs
2 setiers and 3 minots coarse salt and 3 minots white salt
spices mustard verjuice
water (brought by wagon)
cheese, pears
a queue [ about a hogshead and a half] of white wine for the kitchen
1339 seven hundred and ninety-nine guests:
5 oxen
14 pigs
bread (white and dark)
wine; beer for the cooks
fruit (pears)
cheeses of Champagne
verjuice (a setier)
Pasties
five bushels of "cake powder" (spice mix for cakes?)
1340 one thousand eighty guests:
5 oxen
20 pigs
pasties
3000 eggs
Wine - two barrels of white wine and three queues of red wine
bread (white and brown)
salt (2 setiers of coarse salt and 3 minots of broken up, a bushel of white salt)
eight bushels of cake powder
3 Champagne cheeses
4 setiers of verjuice
10 setiers of mustard
1341 twelve hundred and seventy three guests:
6 oxen
19 pigs
pasties
wine 1 queue of red wine, 2 barrels of white wine for the hospital; 1 queue of white wine, 1 barrel of red wine of Beaune
white and dark bread
ten setiers of mustard
3 Champagne cheeses
3000 pears
eight bushels of cake powder
Overall, this shows
people eating beef, pork, at least partially in pasties, sometimes
eggs, cheese and pears (probably the “dessert”) and either adding
mixed spices to their food or having cakes flavored with them (“cake
powder” is an unusual and obscure term). Sometimes with wine,
sometimes even good wine. In the country, one might speculate that
vegetables were added from the garden, but here they would have to
have been bought and so do not seem to have been included at all.
Basically this was a lot of meat, with some bread and drink, and
cheese and pears afterward.
Not a bad feast, even
today, but hardly what one would deduce from period cookbooks.
Finally, a simpler
glimpse of modest but not limited food comes from the 1346 list of
food sent to a prior who had gone to the country for a few days (from
the abbey of Saint-Theodard in Gascony): “For 8 sols of bread and
for 6 sols for the price of a quarter of mutton. Item for the cost of
a quarter of beef, a sheep, a bacon of pork, two pairs of partridges,
twelve fougasses, 200 wafers, 3 pounds of oil, 3 tallow
candles and spices; 2 crowns, 3 sols (the crown worth 40 sols)”
Again, mutton, pork,
partridge; nothing exotic in the way of meat. The wafers (or waffles,
essentially the same at this point) were probably small, making the
200 noted here like a few boxes of cookies. Fougasse is
variously defined in different authors' notes, but originally was
simply hearth bread (the name derived from the same root as foccacio,
that is, bread made on the focus, or hearth). This may have
been a slightly better bread or even a sweet pastry at this point.
The
poor and workers
Here we come to the least
advantaged members of Medieval society and also those whose meals are
the least discussed: the poor and the workers (the boundary between
them could depend on a day's work). In fact, the meals of workers may
be better known than that of many others, since they were often
defined in contracts or other records; but it is rare to see them
examined in detail.
Some
of this food has already been seen as “hospital food”, which
often was indiscriminately served to the poor and the sick in such
establishments. A similar example comes from the Abbey of Obazine in
the Bas-Limousin in the twelfth century. Records there record rations
given to the poor during times of shortages, when they got a tourte (a large round loaf) of a pound and a half, as well as a measure of broad beans and wine.
Sometimes to speed things up they were given dough to cook
themselves. Women got as many of these rations as the children they
brought, even in the cradle (etiam in cunabalis).
However
the twelfth century poor in the Limousin did not do entirely without
meat, which was promised to those doing hard work. In one case, too,
a poor woman used grain gathered from gleaning to raise some
chickens. Others probably did the same.
The
founder of the abbey got irate when some masons killed a pig in the
woods, ate some and hid the surplus in pots. Something so good as a
pig was probably a rare treat for these workers.
Aubrun,
analyzing all this, writes: "What is striking above all is the
near total absence of a food reserve for country people who find
themselves at the mercy of a bad harvest.”
Collin
provides an overview of early fourteenth century food in the Lorraine
region. The workers there were supposed to be given bread, cheese and
wine for their (obligatory) labor during the corvées,
but it seems that the lords sometimes refused to provide even these simple
rations. Otherwise, bread and wine were standard fare; Collin thinks
the poor even got meat: “If [butcher's meat] appeared regularly on
the tables of lords and probably the bourgeoisie, if it was part of
the provision for troops on campaigns, it is probable that the
peasants ate it too.” He writes that beef and lamb were most
common, pork not mentioned (as is increasingly the case in this
period).
Fishing
was a seigniorial right, but sometimes granted to bourgeois. It is
less likely that the poor were able to (legally) do it. Oak, beech,
apple, and pear trees were all protected as “fruit” trees, oaks
for the acorns, beech for its mast "from which no doubt oil was
made". Beech mast, like acorns, was often fed to pigs as well.
On the Auvergnat estates
mentioned above, a
rare note of a meal for the valets comes from August 1389: bread,
wine and "a pair of poussins". This, says Charbonnier, was very like the lord's meals, but bread cost more in proportion to the
wine.
The
only note of food for the estate's workers is of wheat, "mixture"
(of wheat and barley) and broad beans. However other evidence shows
that cow-herds got a flitch of bacon, to which was likely added
vegetables and dairy products from the estate. At Saint-Amant
(probably nearby) vineyard workers got bread, wine and meat as well,
but the meat was of a lesser quality (goat meat, for example). At Lent
this was replaced by peas (elsewhere it was more typically replaced
by herring). Cheese was often given to vineyard workers and was even
included as part of a salary. Since William also sent some as gifts
to his in-laws, this was probably considered to be of a respectable
quality.
Overall,
says Charbonnier "there existed then a difference in diet
between different social elements, but it was not very pronounced."
Extensive records exist
from the north, near Arras, for the estates of Thierry d'Hireçon,
a large landowner in the Artois who later became bishop of Arras (1328).
In 1321, at Roquestor for
a household of seven or eight people and three or four valets hired
for the harvest, 52-57 rasières (half a hectoliter) of wheat
are recorded, as well as 4-6 of peas, and 1 or 2 of oats to make
gruel. One fattened pig was always ready for food needs (probably to make
bacon above all). For Lent and August labors a large number of
herring is recorded; meat is noted for a feast day. The accounts also
mention salt, oil, and goodale (a weak form of beer).
Verjuice was made on the
estate, as well as milk, butter, cheese and poultry. Most vegetables
were as well though some were bought in Abbeville and Paris. Accounts
show these to have been wild leeks, leeks, cabbage, onions,
scallions, garlic, broad beans, peas, spinach, lettuce, borage,
orache, chard or cardoon, spring onion, parsley, hyssop, Caulet
cabbage, and clary.
In 1322, at Sailly, 2500
herring are recorded at Lent, 500 from the 1st of August to All
Saints; wine was given during the harvest.
Richard resumes all this:
"Wheat bread, oat porridge, pork, broad beans, dairy products,
including butter and cheese, and, at certain moments, herring
therefore form the basic food of this rural population. As a drink
one finds, with water which does not need to be mentioned, verjuice
and the beer called goodale, more rarely wine;" No cider is
mentioned, though this was produced nearby.
Workers, paid in money,
could buy the same food as the household. Prison accounts from 1300
to 1329 show that the basic food cost one or two deniers, leaving
enough for workers to buy pork, broad beans, herring, even sometimes
butcher's meat; rabbits and chickens were also available. "The field
worker then could without too much trouble from time to time put a
chicken in the pot."
It helped that these
workers got tips ("alms") from visiting lords (sometimes for
singing a welcome). The region also had "poor tables" in
each parish and the poor also had the right of gleaning during the
harvest, as they did in a number of places.
Records
from Alsace cover a variety of obligations both for feeding workers
during corvées
and for special rations offered during obligatory participations in
regional lawsuits. Schmidt
does not give specific dates for
these,
but begins
by discussing thirteenth century stipulations and says
that in the fifteenth century some managed to buy themselves out of
these corvées;
the figures then seem to apply to the late Middle Ages.
A
peculiarity in the Alsatian records is that food rations were often defined by how much they exceeded given measures; meat was often defined by how far it spilled over the edge of a plate and bread by how far
above a man's knee it came when set on his feet.
In Alsace, in the Valley
of Lièvre, when the domain's foresters came twice a week to report
to the abbot, they received a glass of wine, bread, meat or eggs or
in Lent fresh fish or herring. At Nothalden the mayor gave the abbess
of Hohenbourg's seven foresters bread, wine and boiled or roast meat
on the Sunday after St. Martin's. At Munster the abbot gave them a
meal of wine, bread and two types of meat (and sent a violonist at
night to lull them to sleep!). Harvesters at Marmoutier got wine or
beer and a special bread (Actebrod); the reaper, bread and
either wine and meat or beer and cheese. At Nieder-Hausbergen
workers got wine, bread and two meats exceeding the plates by the
width of four fingers.
At Ebersheim the abbot
gave, during the ploughing of the fields, wine and a vegetable porridge.
At Marlenheim, a sheep and an ox were killed for the reapers, each
also got a loaf in the evening. At Artolsheim, a peasant got two
herring, a valet a porridge; some drank wine, some beer. At the
mountain of St. Odile they got bread, cakes, and meat spilling over
each side of the plate; the bread had to be big enough that if a man
put his thumb in the middle he could circle it with the longest of
his fingers.
At Metzeral reapers got
bread, garlic and red wine, At Logelnheim during the work bread and
cheese were given, in the evening, wine, beans and bacon. Variations
on all this existed, sometimes with meat, cheese, porridge, etc.
Schmidt says of the lords
“they were obliged to give the workers meals, which, often, must
have seemed like true feasts to people not used to drinking wine or
eating roast meats”.
For some legal court
proceedings the mayor was obliged to feed the estate farmers (colons)
who attended. At Sigolsheim this included boiled or roasted meats
(for which each paid 6 deniers); at Soultzmatt they got roast meat, a
vegetable porridge, a green sauce, raw and cooked apples (“not
rotten or worm-eaten”), walnuts and cheese. The mayor and his wife
got a half-quart of wine, two loaves, pieces of beef and veal larger
than the plate, with a spiced sauce and a yellow sauce. During the
session itself there was bread and wine on the table.
In the evening at
Neugartheim a half-measure of wine, a vegetable and roast were served.
At Eichhoffen the evening meal included twelve loaves, two cheeses, a
bushel of walnuts and a measure of wine. On the Saint-Martin, the
mayor invited a few of the colons, giving them bread, wine,
vegetables and cheese "until one saw the stars shine".
The
poor of course always had the random resources of charity, as when
confiscated food was given to the hospitals. At the public banquets
given by St. Jacques, the leftover food was given to
the poor.
In
the meal plans for the Dauphin Humbert, the squires and servants who
ate in the household got smaller amounts of the same foods as the
others. Servants who were served outside the palace got a small
ration of beef cooked in water and a "root" soup for
several dinners, a half-pound of salted meat and a dish of broad
beans on others. On fast days they got a soup of roots or turnips and
a portion of cheese divided among fourteen. (“Roots” were simply
root vegetables, such as carrots). For supper, they only got cheese.
They also got (with every meal?) four white loaves.
For
breakfast, the squires and servants who ate in the household got
bread, pure wine of medium quality and a portion of well-cooked beef;
on Sundays, they seem to have gotten pasties only for the main meals,
but with a minimal quantity of pork and no chicken.
For
breakfast, servants who did not dine in the household got bread, the
lowest quality of wine and eggs.
Some
other glimpses of food for the poorest classes come from literature.
In a classic poem called “The butcher of Abbeville”, a priest's
concubine, mistress of the house, beats a servant girl for
“stealing”:
"Lady, what have I robbed you of?"
"Debauched creature! My barley, my wheat,
My peas, my salt pork, my bread – you took everything
The suggestion here seems to be that
this was simply what the servant ate.
Like many a poet in many
a culture, Deschamps idealized the “simple life” – what he called,
“living frankly”.
There's nothing like the simple life
Cabbages, peas, broad beans and bacon,
rye, wheat or barley bread,
plain [“frans”], fruit, lettuce, leeks
because nothing is so good as the simple life.
If his list of foods is a little
caricatural, it does give an idea of what people of his time thought
the poor ate. In another poem with a similar theme, he talks about
“living on bread and gruel”.
Finally, in his poem on Lent, Deschamps
describes the fast day food of the poor:
Garlic and onions, oil of hemp,
moldy nuts, apples and dark bread
is put in front of them, greens, cabbage and leeks,
tourtes in pot [meaning crust?]
of barley and winter barley
Summing
up
This
is only a sample of the meals described in sources other than
cookbooks for the late Medieval period, but what appears here is
fairly consistent. Those of any means at all ate much the same meat
people eat today: beef, lamb, pork; not to mention chicken, which had
remained standard fare in France since the Gauls. If these were
sometimes prepared in pasties and with spices and verjuice, they
could also be presented more plainly, even for the well-off. Game
only appeared exceptionally on tables and large birds like peacocks
and swans were reserved for special occasions. Basically, the meals
of the time appear if anything simpler and less varied than what we
expect today as a matter of course.
There
is also no clear distinction between the ordinary meals of the
highest classes and those of adequate but not great means. Partridge
and pheasant seem to have been the most exotic foods either ate in
normal times. The most variety appears in lists of fish, which
probably varied a great deal depending on the region and the season.
The
poor often were limited to (typically, dark) bread and whatever
greens they could find for free, sometimes beans or peas, often with cheese, more
rarely with bacon (which seems to be mentioned less by now than it
had in earlier centuries). Gruel too was a staple. Depending on the region and circumstances,
some had more access to meat (beyond bacon) than others. On fast
days, by far their most common option was herring, though some were
limited to legumes. Surprisingly often, they also had a ration of wine or
beer.
Broad
beans and, less often, peas remained the staple legumes across all
classes. Beef and lamb are mentioned far more often in this period
than they had been in earlier centuries, a trend which would only
continue; pork had begun to lose its status as the favored meat of the
elite.
Deschamps'
complaint about mustard hints at how common that condiment had
become, even if one might find green sauce, for instance, in a
tavern. (One could also buy sauces from professional saucemakers, but the fact that this item appears in none of the above records suggests this was exceptional.) Overall, the impression one gets in this period is of a
limited range of foods served with a limited range of flavorings,
except at the most elegant (and ostentatious) events. Rather than
finding the period's food exotic, many modern diners would probably
have found it, if anything, monotonous.
FOR
FURTHER READING:
“Les
problèmes
de l'alimentation”, Bulletin
philologique et historique jusqu'à 1610 du Comité des travaux
historiques et scientifiques,
v1
1968
Special
issue on food, including:
Jules-Marie Richard, “Thierry d'Hireçon, Agriculteur Artésien”, Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes V53 1892
Schmidt, Charles, Les seigneurs, les paysans et la propriété rurale en Alsace au moyen âge 1897
Schmidt, Charles, Les seigneurs, les paysans et la propriété rurale en Alsace au moyen âge 1897
IN
ENGLISH FROM CHEZ JIM BOOKS:
What do Peacocks eat?
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