What did they eat during the dark ages?

Answer 1

The diet of much of the population was

carrots

lettus

onions

turnips

peas

cabbage

spinch

barley (this was used most because it was cheap)

oats

rye

wheat ( the most expensive and only used by the rich)

grapes

cherries

plums

apples

meat was hunted

there was some beef, rabbit, pork

fish

eels

fowl

door mice

deer

hare

honey was a sweetner and used in cakes/pastries

cider

Answer 2

That depends on whether they were poor or wealthy.

Commoners/peasants are such things as:

• Pottage (vegetable soup/stew thickened with oats)
• Dark bread (made from oats, barley, and rye)
• Fava beans
• Vegetables
• Gruel
• Perhaps a little salted pork, chicken, cheese, or meat of they could afford it.

The nobility ate less basic foods and had far more choices.

For detailed information about what nobility and peasants ate, see the related page listed under Related Questions.

Answer 3

In medieval times, breakfast was usually a very simple meal, just bread washed down with wine or ale.

The main meal of the day was dinner, served between ten in the morning and noon, comprising two or three courses, each of several separate dishes, all repeating the same kinds of food, except the last course which consisted of fruits, nuts, cheese, wafers, and spiced wine.

In 'Life in a Medieval Castle' Frances and Joseph Gies write:

'In the kitchen, the cook and his staff turned the meat - pork, beef, mutton, poultry, game - on a spit and prepared stews and soups in a great iron cauldrons hung over the fire.

In addition to roasting and stewing, meat might be pounded to a paste, mixed with other ingredients, and served as a kind of custard. A dish of this kind was blankmanger, consisting of a paste of chicken blended with rice boiled in almond milk, seasoned with sugar, cooked until very thick, and garnished with fried almonds and anise. Another was a mortrews, of fish or meat that was pounded, mixed with breadcrumbs, stock, and eggs, and poached, producing a king of quenelle, or dumpling. Both meat and fish were also made into pies, pastries, and fritters.

Sauces were made from herbs from the castle garden, that were ground to a paste, mixed with wine, verjuice (the juice of unripe grapes) vinegar, onions, pepper, saffron, cloves, and cinnamon. Mustard, a favourite ingredient, was used by the gallon.

In Lent or on fast days fish was served fresh from the castle's own pond, from a nearby river, or from the sea, nearly always with a highly seasoned sauce. Fresh herring, flavoured with ginger, pepper and cinnamon, might be made into a pie. Other popular fish included mullet, shad, sole, flounder, plaice, ray mackerel, salmon and trout. Sturgeon, whale, and porpoise were rare seafood delicacies, the first two 'royal fish' fit for kings and queens. Pike, crab, crayfish, oysters and eels were also favourites.

The most common vegetables, besides onions and garlic, were peas and beans. Staples of the diet of the poor, for the rich they might be served with onions and saffron. Honey, commonly used for sweetening, came from the castle or manor bees, fruit from the castle orchard - apples, pears plums, and peaches - was supplemented by wild fruit and nuts from the lord's woods(fruit was always served cooked, raw fruit was considered unhealthy). In addition to these local products thee were imported luxuries such as sugar (including a special kind made with roses and violets), rice, almonds, figs, dates, raisins, oranges, and pomegranates. Ordinary sugar was bought by the loaf and had to be pounded, powdered white sugar was more expensive.

Wine was bought by the barrel and decanted into jugs. Some was spiced and sweetened by the butlers to go with the final course.

On such festive occasions as holidays and weddings, fantastic quantities of food were consumed. When Henry III's daughter married the king of Scotland on Christmas Day 1252 at York, Matthew Paris reported that "more than sixty pasture cattle formed the first and principal course at table . . .the gift of the archbishop. The guest feasted by turns with one king at one time, at another time with the other, who vied with one another in preparing costly meals.' Such feast included boars heads, venison, peacocks, swans, suckling pigs, cranes, plovers, and larks.'

Between courses at feasts dishes called subtleties were presented, partly for entertainment, elaborate decorated sugar and marzipan scupltures.

Supper was served in the late afternoon. Robert Grosseteste recommended 'one dish not so substantial, and also light dishes, and then cheese.'

Source(s):Life in a Medieval Castle by Frances and Joseph Gies

Additional Information: The above, while excellent, details the diet of the very wealthy. Common people ate much more simply. Bread was a staple food, as was dairy such as butter and cheese. Most homes did not have a separate kitchen or an oven. Cooking was done at a fireplace or hearth. Mot hot foods were soups, stews, pottage, or porridge, cooked over a fire. Beans, peas, and garden vegetables such as cabbage, onions, carrots, and garlic were common ingredients. Grains were sometimes added for thickeners. Ale was a common drink, as well as water. Herbs that could be grown locally would have been used as seasonings. Spices that had to be imported were very expensive and used sparingly, if at all.

Some meat would have been eaten as well, and the amount of meat consumption would have been directly connected to income and social status.

Gathered foods were somewhat important. Tree nuts were gathered. The wealthy ate these with dessert courses, but common folks would have likely eaten them as a basic food. Acorns were gathered as well. In better times these were for animal food, but in food shortages or economic distress they were consumed by people as well.

Those living in towns and cities would have had access to cook shops that sold hot, ready to eat foods, often in the form of pies, pasties, or roast meats.

The answer depends on exactly who "they" were.

If "they" were the large group of farming peasants, their diet consisted of vegetables, fruit in season, fish, large amounts of bread and dairy products: cheese, milk, buttermilk, butter, eggs and so on. Food was cooked in a large ceramic pot and generally consisted of a kind of vegetable stew called pottage; everything available (mainly vegetables) was thrown in, together with a handful of grain as a thickening and herbs for flavouring.

Meat was a rarity for such people, so their diet was lacking in certain elements. Drink was generally ale (not beer).

For the wealthy aristocracy, food generally meant meat, and a very wide variety of it: venison, wild boar, swan, goose, peacock, rabbit, fish and birds of all kinds. Pastries, cakes cooked with honey, sweetmeats, imported figs and dates, fruit and other delicacies were commonplace - vegetables were not, so again the diet was lacking in certain elements. Drink was generally wine, much of it imported.

Monks and nuns were restricted by not being permitted to eat the flesh of four-legged animals, but otherwise their diet was well-balanced and highly nutritious, if a little bland.

Only foods that were in season could be obtained, so there was no fruit of any kind in the early spring.

Meat and fish could be salted to preserve it; fish might also be smoked, but otherwise there was no way of preventing foodstuffs going rotten fairly quickly.

The result was that all foods were locally produced (except for expensive foreign imports) and it was generally fresh.

The staple foods for most people of Europe of the Middle Ages were cereals, mainly rye, barley, oats, millet, and buckwheat. Wheat and rice were available, but were expensive.

Much of the cereal was made into bread. A lot of it was made into porridge or gruel. It was also included in soups and stews, along with vegetables and meats.

Vegetables included cabbages, onions, garlic, leeks, beets, turnips, chickpeas, peas, fava beans, and lentils.

Fruit included apples, plums, pears, and strawberries, in Northern Europe (though the commonly used strawberry of today is a different species). Farther south, pomegranates, quinces, and grapes were grown. Various citrus fruits were introduced from the Middle East, as were apricots. Figs and dates were grown in the South, dried, and shipped all over Europe.

There were a variety of meats, including beef, mutton, and game animals for the wealthy, and pork for nearly everyone. Wealthy people had many types of fowl to choose from, and poor people ate chicken. Eggs were available for all classes.

Fish was eaten all over Europe. Inland areas had fresh water fish, but ocean fish were salted and shipped quite far.

There were all sorts of dairy products, though most people did not drink fresh milk. Yogurt, buttermilk, butter, young cheeses, and aged cheeses were all widely used. There were many varieties, and many of the cheeses used today were available in the Middle Ages.

They ate a lot of pickles, and nearly any kind of food was pickled, including most vegetables, fish, fruit, and so on.

Wines were made where there were grapes or other fruit. Cider was made where there were apples or pears. Beer was made wherever there was barley; most beer was flavored with spices generically referred to as gruit.

Sweets were eaten. During much of the Middle Ages, people who could afford it ate fruits sweetened with honey. Courses we would call desserts were introduced in the High Middle Ages and were popular among the wealthy.

People who lived in the countryside mostly cooked their food over an open fire at a hearth or outdoors (there were no proper fireplaces for most people until later). Baking was done by bakers because most people could not afford ovens.

In towns, people ate a lot of prepared food, because most could not afford a place to cook at all.

There is a link below.

villeins> mainly ate pottage - sort of thick soup, mostly made from vegetables. Bacon was the most common meat because pigs were easy to keep. They drank ale because water wasn't fit to drink.

Answer 4

they would eat cheese and bread and ale and broth

Answer 5

warm biscuits and gravy were quite popular

Answer 6

lots of chicken