French Medieval Food

Bread, accompanied by meat and wine, was the centrepiece of the medieval diet. Vegetables were more for peasants, both in reality and imagination. Not all foods had the same cultural value. Each had its place within a hierarchy extending from heaven to earth.

Cereals were the basic food, primarily as bread. Oats were eaten as porridge, mainly in the Atlantic regions of Europe. By the end of the Middle Ages, wheat had become the most sought-after cereal. Rye was cultivated only in the roughest soils, whilst millet was a speciality prominent in the south west of France. A recent arrival, buckwheat, began spreading through Brittany.

Vegetables were a daily part of the peasant’s diet. Cabbage, in particular, was king of medieval gardens. In towns, itinerant vendors sold green vegetables (spinach, leeks and cabbage) used for making purées and soups.

Fruit was considered fit for the nobility, at whose tables it was served.
Pears stewed in wine were often the “ending” eaten at the end of a meal.

With the exception of human milk for nursing infants, doctors did not recommend milk, decrying its excessive moisture content. It was mostly consumed as cheese or butter.

Onions were a very widespread vegetable among peasants. Like garlic, onions had numerous medicinal qualities.

The inhabitants of medieval towns liked their bread white, made from pure wheat, finely sifted. Mixed with bran, the bread of the poor was dark, like the slices on which food was placed during mealtimes. Whilst peasants had to have their bread baked in their lord’s oven, in towns, bakers were plentiful.

During the last centuries of the Middle Ages, meat-eating predominated. This period was marked by a proliferation of butchers’ shops.

Deer, wild boar, herons and pheasants, pursued on foot or hunted in flight, were considered noble game. Country folk also hunted hares and small birds, using the noose or the trap.

Refraining from meat during Lent and on days of abstinence, that is to say over 100 days a year, was required by the Church. Fish consumption, particularly herring, the fish of the poor, was accordingly very large.

Salt was the most widespread means of preservation. Salted bacon gave taste to the peasant’s soup and salt barrel herring (herring salted on board fishing vessels and then placed in barrels) was his staple food during the long weeks of Lent.

Wine growing developed considerably during the Middle Ages and peasants who did not cultivate a few vines were rare. Taste preferences were for light, usually white, wines; full-bodied red wines became fashionable in the 14^th century.

Until the 14^th century, sugar was still largely regarded as a medicine and French cooking used sugar only in dishes for the ill. Sugar-coated almonds and other spice preserves were served at the end of choice meals to promote the guests’ digestion.

Sources, Exposition Bnf, La gastronomie Médiévale en images.

http://expositions.bnf.fr/gastro/

The best Medieval Recipes Book

Le viandier by Guillaume Taillevent : http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k62367s

How to cook a peacock

White Brewet Of Capons

Or poultry or veal, it is best to boil it and take the broth, once it is cooked, and to put it aside. Blanch the almonds, and crush them, and soak them in the broth of the poultry, capons or veal, and then strain the almonds through a cheesecloth, and take a reasonable quantity of powdered white ginger, and infuse with verjuice and white wine, and put a large quantity of large lumps of sugar to boil. When it is boiled, put the broth separately in a nice pot and also the meats (that is, the poultry, capon or veal), and, when serving it, put your meats in a dish with your broth.

Chicken with Fennel

Summertime Cerulean Blue Sauce

The Medieval Kitchen

Recipes from France and Italy

Odile Redon, Françoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi

Translated by Edward Schneider

The chicken pasty