However, the lord's kitchen workers and servants could have the opportunity to take food for themselves if the lord didn’t know about it.ĭinner for the poor was known as a "ploughman's lunch" because peasants would eat it out in the fields where they worked. Only the small amounts of the dishes would probably be eaten and the remainder thrown away. Meat and fish would be available with wine and ale. Lords would normally have three courses but each one may have had another four to six courses in it. A lord may typically have had white bread, three meat dishes three fish dishes (more fish on a saint's day) and would have drunk wine or ale.Ī peasant would eat their breakfast at sunrise and it would normally consist of dark bread (usually made from rye) with a drink of ale.ĭinner was between 11am and 2pm. The following table further demonstrates the differences between the diets of the rich and poor in medieval times:īreakfast occurred between 6 and 7am and people took their time over it. In some cases the lords would allow peasants to sell this ale, but usually it was for personal consumption only. Once this had been dried and ground down, it would be fermented in hot water. This would be soaked for a few days and then germinated to produce malt. Many villagers would drink ale to protect them from the germs in the water, but this took a long time to brew so barley was often used. However, the water was often sourced from rivers and usually full of bacteria, while milk didn’t last very long due to the lack of refrigeration. However, only lords were allowed to hunt salmon or trout, which would have been kept in a large pond somewhere on their estate.ĭrink available to peasants included water and milk. Permission granted by the lords may also cover certain types of fish in their nearby river, potentially including gudgeon, grayling and dace. There were cases where lords would allow peasants permission to hunt on their land, but this permission would usually only cover squirrels and hedgehogs. However, these animals belonged to the lord who owned the land, which meant peasants risked serious punishment such as having their hands cut off. There were wild animals available at this time including rabbits, boars and diet. However, their blood was also used to create black pudding. Mutton, from sheep, was also consumed by peasants but they were often so thin that the meat produced was not of a high quality. There were many different types of pottage made, often including seasonal vegetables such as parsnips, turnips and leeks.Īlthough meat was not as readily available as it is now, pigs provided a relatively steady supply to peasants as they could be killed at any time of year and were able to forage for food themselves their ability to live off acorns from local woods made them a cheap meat to produce. Another staple of the medieval diet was pottage, which was a between soup and stew in terms of consistency and contained oats.
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