Cuisine of Wealthy People in the Middle Ages


King Richard II feasting with the Dukes of Gloucester, York & Ireland in 1386 (painted c.1480)
King Richard II feasting with the Dukes of Gloucester, York & Ireland in 1386 (painted c.1480)

The cuisine of wealthy people in the Middle Ages included lots of food since they could afford the best. Do you think you eat like a king? Well, let’s find out.

In the Middle Ages, the cuisine of wealthy people included a lot of meat, often that they hunted themselves, fish, wine, and other expensive foods. A feast would have many courses comprised of tons of dishes. Sweet and savory, salty and sour, all came together, in various courses but not separated by food type (ie. dessert course, main, appetizer), It was mixed together at different times during the meal.

Spices were expensive, and rich people loved them. Spicy food was popular. The centerpiece was often a whole animal. Dessert could include pies made with sugar and spice, dried fruits like dates and figs, and occasionally an orange would make the table. Some foods were expensive and complex, while others were simple and cheap.

A medieval feast (slightly modernized)

What exact foods appeared at the dinner table? How do you feast like a wealthy person from the Middle Ages?

Meat Dishes

The meat was the cuisine of wealthy people in the Middle Ages. It was considered prestigious and expensive. During a feast, there would be many meat courses. First of all, the centerpiece would often be a whole animal the lord and his men had hunted, like an entire pig or deer.

Suckling pig was a sought after part of cuisine of rich people in the Middle Ages.

Suckling pig was another sought-after dish. Swans and peacocks also went onto the menu when people could afford them. Basically, these masterpieces were a way to show off how wealthy a person was or how rich they wanted to appear. There would also be other meat dishes, some to amuse guests, like a pie with live blackbirds or even musicians inside. The crust would be baked and then opened. The bakers would then insert live blackbirds and even musicians and seal the crust back up. Then when it was cut open birds or musicians came out playing music. One nursery rhyme about these surprise pies is:

sING a sONG oF sIXPENCE

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn’t that a dainty dish
To set before the king?

The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlor,
Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.

And shortly after that,
there came a little wren,
As she sat upon a chair,
and put it on again.

Other food dishes were actually good to consume. Some of those could include blackbird pies (with the blackbirds baked inside rather than ready to fly out), pigeons, wild boar, and various fish dishes.

Ham

Pigs were pretty cheep, so cuisine for wealthy and poor people in the Middle Ages included them.

Because pigs could usually take care of themselves, doing things like facing off against predators and finding food all over, they could be reasonably cheap. They would run around town eating trash, so they weren’t expensive to feed. As people who like bacon know, they also taste remarkably delicious.

Pigs were only good to eat, and they were delicious. If you've never tried bacon, you're missing out.

Suckling pig was more pricy than ham from the adult pigs, because babies can’t take care of themselves very well. Pigs weren’t helpful for anything other than their meat since people do not drink their milk, pigs do not grow wool or fur, and they aren’t strong enough to pull heavy objects. Rich people also ate wild boar, which is like pig.

Fish

Many days in the Middle Ages were fasting days. People couldn’t eat meat on those particular days. Therefore, the cuisine of wealthy people in the Middle Ages included a lot of fish dishes.

Fish was a common dish made all sorts of ways in the Middle Ages. Here is some breaded fish my family made a while ago.

Many prosperous folks had ponds on their property to provide fish like carp and pike for lent and other church-ordered fasting days. Meanwhile, only kings, their families, and their guests could eat some things like porpoises, dolphins, and whales.

Porpoises, dolphins, and whales were foods fit for kings.

Ocean fish could be preserved in salt and shipped to other places, but it was expensive to ship. Fish could be eaten all year round, and it often was, but who wants to eat fish every day of the year? I certainly don’t want to eat anything every day for the rest of my life!

This is fish made with homemade garlic-rosemary butter.
Fish made with homemade garlic-rosemary butter

We caught this trout in a lake near our home. I made this fish with homemade garlic-rosemary butter. They had a little bit rubbed on the inside and fried in still more. I’ve also made breaded fish with flour and Tony Chacheres, fried in oil. Whatever you like is fine. Make sure that the fish is flaky and done before you eat it. It should get to at least 145° Fahrenheit to kill any harmful bacteria.

Vegetables

Who likes vegetables? Most kids don’t, and adults usually eat them to be healthy. During summer in medieval times, vegetables were cheap sources of food with high caloric value for the price.

Cuisine for wealthy people in the Middle Ages included vegetables.

Therefore, people couldn’t show off with them like with the main centerpiece and desserts. There are many more recipes for meat than vegetables, probably because meats were more challenging to cook well and repeat success.

Cabbages come from Europe, so medieval people had them.

Vegetables were pretty basic and easy to cook. People were probably going to eat more meat at any given feast anyway, so vegetables weren’t always a very high priority.

Medieval Cabbage, Apples, and Onions Recipe

Cuisine of wealthy people in the Middle Ages included slightly bizarre dishes like Medieval cabbage, apples, and onions all in one.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 a head of cabbage
  • 2 gala apples (or other sweet apples you like)
  • 1 onion
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg to taste
  • 2-3 Tbsp olive oil or butter
  • opt. a little bit of broth
  1. First, cut the cabbage into pieces. Then boil it until it starts to lose its size a little bit. Drain the cabbage.
  2. Cut the apples into small pieces, according to preference.
  3. Cut onion into small pieces as well.
  4. Combine cabbage, apple, and onion in a pan with the oil and sauté. If you like, sauté the apples and onions for a little bit without the cabbage. Add the salt. If you are using broth, add it to the pan. Cook until the apples are soft and the onions are translucent or caramelized.
  5. If you used broth, drain it now.
  6. Add your spices. I used a 1/2 teaspoon or less of each seasoning. It is entirely up to you.

Cheese

Brie was cuisine for the wealthy people of the Middle Ages, not the poor.

Most Americans eat cheeses like cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, and American cheese. However, in the Middle Ages, cheese could be way fancier. Brie de Meaux and Bleu de Gex were made at various monasteries. Most of the cheeses these monasteries made had to be aged for a long time.

Cottage cheese didn't have to sit for months.

In one recipe for Brie that I read, the cheese had to sit for two months for the mold to grow and age the cheese properly, therefore I’m not including a recipe. There were also soft cheeses like cottage cheese that didn’t have to age.

Breads

Bread was a staple part of cuisine of wealthy and poor people in the Middle Ages. The main difference was  the quality of flour they used.

Cuisine for the wealthy and poor people in the middle ages included bread. It was one of the staple foods at that time, but the quality of the bread varied based on station in life and wealth. Therefore, wealthy people could afford bread made out of finely ground white wheat.

Cuisine of rich people in the Middle Ages included bread made from finally ground flour.

Their flour was ground near them in their mills. Sometimes the grain was grown locally, too. However, the people from the poorer classes had rougher, browner bread.

Sourdough Bread

Ingredients

  • 1/2-1 cup of sourdough start
  • 4 cups of flour
  • Additional flour
  • 5 cups of hot water
  • 2 Tbsp salt
  • Opt. 1 egg for egg wash
  • Opt. 1 Tbsp water for egg wash
  1. Mix the sourdough starter, 4 cups of flour, and 5 cups of hot water in a bowl made out of plastic or wood. Do not use metal! Stir it well, but still do not use metal. Let it sit until it starts to bubble. (several hours probably)
  2. After the start has sat, pour the dough into a mixer. You can now use metal. 
  3. Mix in 2 Tbsp of salt. Add additional flour and mix it until the dough pulls away from the bowl and is not tacky. Let the dough raise. (again several hours. This loaf did not have a lot of time to rise so it was flatter and more dense but still tasted good.)
  4. Knead the dough on a floured surface, put it into pans, then let it raise. You can make one large loaf in a cast iron pan or make 3 or 4 loaves in ordinary loaf pans.
  5. Optional: Before baking, you can add an egg wash. You can use 1 egg whipped and brushed on top or 1 egg with 1 Tbsp of water whipped together and brushed on top. The egg wash makes a nice finished look on the top. In the picture above, I did not use an egg wash.
  6. Bake the bread at 350° for 30 to 45 minutes or until the internal temperature is 195° to 200°. 

Desserts

Oranges were only for the rich of the Middle Ages.

What food is comes after the main meal and is often sweet and unusual? Why I’d say, dessert fits that description. In the Middle Ages, sweet foods were highly sought after because sugar was an expensive commodity, and honey could be pretty pricy too.

The dessert part of cuisine of wealthy people in the Middle Ages included figs, dates, oranges, and sugar. No poor people could afford them. Honey was also a popular sweetener.

Dried fruits like dates and figs came from far away, and, honestly, citrus couldn’t be grown in Europe, and transporting fruits certainly isn’t easy. Every time you eat an orange, you eat better than a medieval king. They didn’t have sweet, delicious oranges like us, but bitter oranges and lemons from far away.

Doucetes

The cuisine of wealthy people in the Middle Ages included a variety of tarts. If you are looking for a sweet thing from the Middle Ages that isn’t crazy, then Doucetes are the thing for you. They are a delicious custard tart. To make the Doucete even better, they don’t have lard, meat, or other disgusting food inside! I’m also giving a shout-out out to Max Miller from Tasting History, who made the recipe. I’ll include my variation (I used a couple of substitutions) and a link to his. I also used a recipe from Spruce Eats for the shortcrust dough.

The Original Recipe

Take Creme a gode cupfulle, & put it on a straynoure; þanne take ȝolkys of Eyroun & put þer-to, & a lytel mylke; þen strayne it þorw a straynoure in-to a bolle; þen take Sugre y-now, & put þer-to, or ellys hony forde faute of Sugre, þan coloure it with Safroun; þan take þin cofyns, & put in þe ovynne lere, & lat hem ben hardyd; þan take a dysshe y-fastenyd on þe pelys ende; & pore þin comade in-to þe dyssche, & fro þe dyssche in-to þe cofyns; & when þey don a-ryse wel, take hem out, & serue hem forth.

https://thepastisaforeignpantry.com/2020/04/19/doucetes-15th-century/

Now here’s the modernized version…

Crust:
  • 2 cups of flour
  • a pinch of salt
  • 8 TBSP of cold butter
  • 4-6 TBSP of cold water 

Follow the instructions found here to make the dough. It turned out nicely.

Filling (my way)
  • 1 1/4 cups of cream
  • 7 eggs yolks
  • 3/4 cup of milk
  • 1/2 cup of honey (or less, like a little more than 1/4 cup.) My Doucete was too sweet, and some of my honey didn’t make it in.
  • Equal parts of Paprika and Turmeric, to taste. (I used too little, about a pinch of each, in my Doucete. It was so sweet that I wanted the spices to come out a little bit and provide depth and flavor. I would suggest 1/8 tsp of each at least.)
instructions
  1. Make your crust according to the instructions on the link (here if you need it again).
  2. Preheat your oven to 400° Fahrenheit.
  3. Line a 9-inch tart tin or several small tins with the shortcrust dough. I ended up with one big tart tin and two smaller ones. Poke holes into the bottom with a fork, then blind bake for 15 minutes for a big one, 10 minutes for a small one, or until dried completely. Remove from oven and let it cool. 
  4. Lower the oven temperature to 325° Fahrenheit. 
  5. Whisk the egg yolks until they are a pale yellow and frothy, then pour the cream into the yolks. After that, beat in the milk and honey. 
  6. Pour the filling into the cooled crust and put it back into the oven. Bake for 45 minutes, give or take a little bit, or until the filling has risen over the top of the crust, has a slight jiggle (definitely no slosh), and has just begun to darken. For my larger Doucet, it took about 50 minutes of cooking. My smaller tarts took 35-45 minutes. Serve warm, but not too hot.

There is a link to Max Millers Tasting History video about Doucetes, and you can also find that video here. His original recipe and instructions are also there.

To read more…

(and check out my sources)

Medieval food…

Castle Life – Medieval Food

Middle Ages Food: What Did They Really Eat?

Meat…

English Medieval Meat – Red Meats, Game, Poultry, Exotic Birds

Here’s where I got my vegetable recipe…

Medieval Cabbage and Kale from Tuscany

More about cheese…

Medieval | The Cheese Traveler

If you want to read about the kind of people that would have eaten these foods, check…

The Life of Wealthy Girls in the Middle Ages

The Lives of Rich Men in the Gothic Period

And last, but not least, here’s a link to my home page…

lifelong ago.com 


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