Fast food and beer: how to eat people of the middle Ages every day?

You may have the question: how do scientists could learn what people ate hundreds of years ago? Because in the Middle ages, only 10% of men and 1% women were literate, but they did not write anything about your Breakfast, lunch or dinner.

To learn about the approximate diet of the middle Ages, the researchers had to examine many specimens of ancient pottery, preserved remains of organic material, and by means of molecular analyses to find out what our ancestors ate.

The main foods were meat (mainly lamb and cattle) and stewed cabbage, cooked in pots on open fires, and dairy products were called "white meat for the poor."

Here is an example of the typical dishes of the middle Ages: the meat of hare or wild boar were first roasted over an open fire, and then shifted into a large dish and add the onions and other vegetables. Sometimes the dish is seasoned with herbs, filled with barley (the main cereal) and bring to readiness in the hearth. That doesn't sound so bad, isn't it?

The main food of the middle Ages was, of course, cereals, and was the head of the list is bread. Baked it 1-2 times a week, yeast-free way mostly of rye flour.

Based on rye also cooked pudding and other cereal crops did the porridge: oatmeal, buckwheat (very rarely), barley and spelt. Eat cereal on weekdays and holidays, and the simple peasants, and know. And porridge, and bread was sometimes made from a mixture of grain, which was at hand, and other cereals, for example, beans or peas, added to any dish to make them more hearty. In the middle ages there was neither corn nor sunflower.

In the Nordic countries with a cooler climate butter can be stored for a long time. In Ireland, for example, it was stored in an original way: in small barrels, which were imbedded in peat bogs. Without oxygen the oil can not deteriorate for many years.

In Central Europe butter has become popular only in the second half of the XI century. At first it was included in the diet of peasants, but after a while the taste of the oil liked high society. It started to eat during lent, because it was nutritious and allowed a long time not to feel hunger.

In Europe, butter is used mainly for sandwiches, but in other countries as a sauce for meat or vegetables. Well, sour milk added to soups (a modern analogue of sour cream).

Butter is often poured into the lamp instead of plant.

Favorite drink medieval beer was brewed from germinated barley with added hops.

Beer drinking every day, about 1.5 L. it is believed that the Medieval people drank exclusively, because it was safer than dirty water from rivers and wells. However, it is not so.

There is plenty of evidence that people drank plain water, clear and cold, from the springs and streams. There is mention that Gauls, for example, prefer to drink sweetened water, skipped across a honeycomb, and in some regions of the med made alcoholic drink — Mead.

Also there are references to fruit juice from apples and Apple cider. And among the monks was a popular tonic in water was added rhubarb, fennel, celery seeds or juniper. Drinking and hot drinks, but they are mainly used for medicinal purposes. Medicine was considered warm goat's milk and teas from barley, chamomile or lavender.

Reindeer herding was a Central industry, as farming nowadays. In medieval England there were many forest parks, which were carried out a huge number of deer and other wild animals.

Also in the woods hunting for wild boar, ROE deer, bison and rabbits, and birds or on grouse, partridges, grouse and wild ducks and geese, according to archaeologists, medieval man could eat of cranes, magpies, crows, rooks or herons.

Forests and parks belonged solely to the upper class, who was there to hunt, but among the peasants, there were many poachers who killed the animals illegally.

The evidence was discovered in our time at the excavations, Dating from the XV century. Animals were killed outside the winter hunting season, and, hoping to circumvent the law, burying bones to get rid of the evidence. But ordinary people ate meat rarely, mostly during the holidays.

In the winter, when there was a shortage of vegetables and herbs, eating fish, raw or undercooked sometimes, but more often cured, dried, smoked and salted.

Those who lived by the seashore, it was easier, so the fish was the staple food, and away from the sea source of fish was rivers and lakes, where food of the poor was a cheap local fish.

It is interesting that during lent meat, wine and any alcoholic beverages was prohibited, but the fish under the ban did not fall. There it was possible, so some animals and birds was assigned to class fish. For example, marine birds, spending most of the time the water was considered a fish, and beavers with scaly tail, like a fish, she was allowed food.

In low-income groups 60% of the diet took carbs: bread, tortillas, and other baked goods, so the concept of fast food goes back to the days of the middle ages. City residents living in difficult conditions, to prepare their own home-made lunch was almost impossible. The furnace at that time was very dangerous, so the city residents ran into some shop for a quick bite.

In the cities there were areas with benches and shops, which were open around the clock and seven days a week. Here you can buy a variety of foods: cakes, pancakes, waffles and more. In medieval cakes, it was a lot of filling, and the dough acted as a container, so it is usually not eaten.

Pies with fillings were very popular because they can eat on the run, but unscrupulous sellers medieval food quickly discovered that the filling for the pie can hide any kind of meat. There were frequent cases of poisoning, and later originated the famous saying:

The vegetables were another popular product after cereals. Potatoes and tomatoes have not been, but the main dish was the turnip, eaten raw or cooked, and radish, rutabaga and cabbage.

Of peas bread was baked or added to stews, eaten parsnips, spinach, asparagus, and dandelions, and especially loved the bow, it was considered useful for male potency and was an obligatory vegetable on any occasion. Salads and vinaigrettes started to do only in the 15th century.

The most common fruit crops were Apple and gooseberry. Pears, plums, grapes and strawberries began to appear at a later date.

Raw fruit was not considered too helpful, they had a stomach ache, so before use, they are extinguished and the long cooked and sometimes seasoned with vinegar. Oranges and lemons became known to Europeans only in the late middle Ages. From Egypt came the almonds, and from the East began to carry the raisins and dates.