Medieval food

[frualeydis]

I'm currently reading an article by Raymond van Uytven about showing rank in the Middle Ages. He is citing several sources on which food was deemed appropriate for different classes or estates. Apparently peasants, according to the 14th century writer Philippe de Vitri, ate fresh cheese, milk, butter, hard cheese, cream, cream cheese, apples, nuts, prunes, pears, garlic, onions and smashed shallots on brown bread. Other sources mentions eggs, ham and bacon as peasant's food. Neither pork, chicken nor beef was really fit for a nobleman who should eat venison, mutton, capons, partridge, goose, swan etc.
The amount of vegetable dishes in cook books of the era are not proportional to the amount of vegetable dishes actually eaten, because they were too commonplace to write about. As Taillevent says in his Viandier(14th century): "Other small soups such as purée of beets, cabbages, turnips, leeks, chives, peas, beans(...) of all kinds an preparations of pork" will not be treated in his book, because "housewives are real masters of it and anyone can make those".

I think I like the peasant's food better than the nobleman's.

Comments

[peronel.livejournal.com]

That would be great and would justify me taking a break from writing to come. Yay!

I'm particularly interested in anything which includes the original dedication, preface, etc. It's likely your facsimiles do, so that would be great.

Nel.