What did peasants eat in the middle ages?

Answer 1

They ate gruel, or very watery porridge. They also ate homemade bread with either ale or mead, a honey wine made with honey, water, Ale Yeast, and any kind of grapes you prefer.

-----Most serfs ate mainly food they grew themselves. Some people of the serf class were townsfolk who bought their food, but most of this was locally grown.

The most important single food item for serfs was bread. Grains also provided a basis for gruel and porridge, along with peas.

Other important foods were root vegetables, such as turnips, beets, carrots, and parsnips. Also onions, leeks, and, in some places, garlic. But they did not eat potatoes, as these had not been introduced.

They ate greens, lettuce, cabbage, kale, chard, beet greens, turnip greens, and so on.

They ate peas, lentils, and fava beans, but other beans, like the potatoes, had not been introduced.

There may have been some Old Word squashes or melons grown in medieval Europe, though I cannot find references to their use. The New World varieties, including important types of pumpkins and summer squash, were not introduced yet. They did have cucumbers, though I do not know how widely they were cultivated.

In much of Europe, vegetables of whatever sort were pickled, and pickles were important for food, especially as they were more nutritious in many ways than fresh vegetables (something largely lost in modern times because of processing for market).

Peasants ate a lot of fish where they were close to the sea. They had salted fish where they were a little farther away, and this was more restricted by the cost of transportation than by preservation because the salted fish could last for quite a few weeks.

Peasants ate a lot of cheese, where it was available. Cheese kept well and was highly nutritious.

Meat eaten by peasants was poor cuts, the sorts of things people of higher station did not want. They ate chicken and poor cuts of pork. They ate a small amount of mutton and very little beef. In many places, sumptuary laws forbade their eating good cuts, or even meat that had not been chopped. They ate sausages, as they were made from poor cuts of meat. They did not eat large game, but did eat game that could be varmints on the farms, such as rabbits and squirrels. In England, at some points of history, peasants were required to be armed at all times in order to keep them ready for war, and they were encouraged to shoot small animals to keep them in practice.

Eggs were commonly used.

Wine was the table drink for nearly everyone in southern places. In the north, peasants drank ale; lager production was very limited and only done in the Alps during the middle ages. Ales were very often of a type that was rather sour as a result of its brewing, and rather like modern Northern German Weissbier, which was more like white wine than modern beer (not the Bavarian type, which tastes like cloves). Ale was not seasoned with hops, but with spices of mostly local production called gruit, and was rather different than it is today. Cider was commonly available to peasants, but mead was usually to pricey for use by poor people.

Fruit was whatever happened to be local. Almonds were in great demand, but probably beyond the means of poor people most of the time.

The most common meal might have been stew served on a bread trencher without plates or bowls.

Truly poor people ate cereal porridge with a little milk and an egg or two, without seasoning or sugar.

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The Middle Ages food and diet of the peasants was home grown. They were unable to afford items such as spices and only Lords and Nobles were allowed to hunt deer, boar, hares and rabbits. The diet of the lower classes included:

• Rye or barley bread bread

• Pottage

• Dairy products such as milk and cheese products

• Meat such as beef, pork or lamb

• Fish - if they had access to freshwater rivers or the sea

• Home grown vegetables and herbs

• Fruit from local trees or bushes

• Nuts

• Honey

Answer 2

The peasants and the poor ate rye (mushy rice) and water. Vegetables and meat.