Post by Icarus on Mar 26, 2008 8:47:13 GMT -5
Pride of the Table
Most people in 14th century England subsisted on a plain diet of bread, weak ale and potage- a thick stew made largely with cereals and pulses. Fish and fowl occasionally relieved the monotony of this fare, but meat was a rarity. Famine, caused by bad weather or failed harvests, was a constant threat which raised food prices to exorbitant levels and left the poor to starve.
In the Nun’s Priest’s Tale Chaucer writes of a poor widow who had no sauce piquante to spice her veal, or wine to drink, but lived on milk, bread, broiled bacon and the occasional egg.
The wealthy, by contrast, could choose from an astonishing array of dishes, both sweet and savoury, and 14th-century royal banquets might run to hundreds of courses. Elaborate confections served on these occasions included peacock that had been skinned and roasted, then had its feathers and begilded beak and claws replaced to lifelike effect. Pork meatballs were coated in batter and coloured green with herbs so that they looked like apples (pommes dorees). Dried dates, figs, prunes, and almonds were stuck on a skewer, covered in batter and roasted to look like the entrails of wild boar, a hunter’s delicacy. Such disguising of food was known as ‘pride of the table’, and although widely condemned remained popular for centuries.
Sauces were also popular. A green one, often eaten with the fish which was required fare on fast days (such as Fridays and Lent), was prepared from herbs, bread-crumbs, vinegar, pepper and ginger. Frumenty, for meat and fish, consisted of wheat broiled in milk or water with herbs and spices. But the most versatile sauce of all was mustard, which accompanied meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, creams and puddings.
For the royal and noble table, fine wine was a necessity, and Gascony supplied a substantial proportion of the high quality red wine consumed in England. Ale was poor man’s staple, and was brewed and drunk in vast quantities, with cider and mead, sweetened with honey, to relieve the monotony.
From: Chronicles of the Age of Chivalry, edited by: Elizabeth Hallam
Most people in 14th century England subsisted on a plain diet of bread, weak ale and potage- a thick stew made largely with cereals and pulses. Fish and fowl occasionally relieved the monotony of this fare, but meat was a rarity. Famine, caused by bad weather or failed harvests, was a constant threat which raised food prices to exorbitant levels and left the poor to starve.
In the Nun’s Priest’s Tale Chaucer writes of a poor widow who had no sauce piquante to spice her veal, or wine to drink, but lived on milk, bread, broiled bacon and the occasional egg.
The wealthy, by contrast, could choose from an astonishing array of dishes, both sweet and savoury, and 14th-century royal banquets might run to hundreds of courses. Elaborate confections served on these occasions included peacock that had been skinned and roasted, then had its feathers and begilded beak and claws replaced to lifelike effect. Pork meatballs were coated in batter and coloured green with herbs so that they looked like apples (pommes dorees). Dried dates, figs, prunes, and almonds were stuck on a skewer, covered in batter and roasted to look like the entrails of wild boar, a hunter’s delicacy. Such disguising of food was known as ‘pride of the table’, and although widely condemned remained popular for centuries.
Sauces were also popular. A green one, often eaten with the fish which was required fare on fast days (such as Fridays and Lent), was prepared from herbs, bread-crumbs, vinegar, pepper and ginger. Frumenty, for meat and fish, consisted of wheat broiled in milk or water with herbs and spices. But the most versatile sauce of all was mustard, which accompanied meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, creams and puddings.
For the royal and noble table, fine wine was a necessity, and Gascony supplied a substantial proportion of the high quality red wine consumed in England. Ale was poor man’s staple, and was brewed and drunk in vast quantities, with cider and mead, sweetened with honey, to relieve the monotony.
From: Chronicles of the Age of Chivalry, edited by: Elizabeth Hallam