What was the job of a cook in medieval times?

Answer 1

There were many different kinds of cooks during the Middle Ages. Bakers were especially important, because people ate a lot of bread. People who lived in towns and cities usually could not afford to have their own kitchens, so there were a lot of cooks who did meal preparation. The manors had cooking staffs, including a number of different positions, and in fact often had different kitchens for different kinds of cooking.

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Answer 2

Depending on what their work was, cooks were either peasants or middle class. Most cooks were undoubtedly peasants, but the chefs in manors were skilled beyond what a peasant would have been. Most of the meals cooked in towns and cities appear to have been prepared meals that were sold, as most people who lived in these places did not have kitchens or Cooking Equipment, and many of the cooks who prepared them were people who were running their own businesses.

Answer 3

Medieval cooks cooked food, just as cooks do today. There were differences however.

During the Middle Ages, most cooking was done over open fires, and this made it impractical to cook inside because there was too much heat and too much smoke, unless the building was built with a lot of ventilation and a very high ceiling. The reason for this was that chimneys were not invented until the 12th century, and so there were no modern fireplaces. The result was that most cooking was done outdoors, or in rooms with specially designed smoke canopies that gathered the smoke into a hole in the wall so it could go outside.

There were indoor kitchens in some manor houses, and outdoor kitchens at others. The kitchens were divided according to the nature of the food prepared. There were special kitchens for preparing roasts of meat, which ordinary people similarly could not afford, as such kitchens required big fires and roasting spits. Bakers used ovens and provided their community, including nobility and serfs, with bread. Ordinary people could not afford ovens, though in some places there were communal ovens they could rent.

Ordinary folk who lived in towns usually could not afford to cook. They could not even afford their own separate heating sources, which, as we can understand, as they would have required a large room with a high ceiling at the roof level. The result is that these people bought prepared meals. And so a lot of cooks were people who worked in towns or cities to provide meals to ordinary working people. Some of these were bakers of breads and savory pastries, and others made soups and stews, among other things.

Answer 4

Serf or peasant