Life in the Medieval City - What Did People Eat?

In this episode we are going to discuss what medieval city dwellers ate and bust some myths doing so.

Often Medieval People are depicted as being underfed, or having a unsophisticated palate both of these assertions are untrue.

While the medieval diet was different to ours today, lacking many of the important new world staples it was robust, plentiful and full of flavour.

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Links and Sources

CHILDHOOD DIET AND MOBILITYAT MEDIEVAL (1240s AD) by ARIANA GUGORA B.A. University of Florida, 2011

Food Composition and Production in Medieval England and Their Mutual Influences Wenda Qin

Cooking and Eating in Renaissance Italy by Katherine A. McIver,

The Peasant Diet: Image and Reality by Paul Freedman

Shifts in fasting in medieval France

How Medieval Chefs Tackled Meat-Free Days

The Later Medieval City, 1300-1500 – David Nicholas

Spice – Jack Turner ISBN 0006551734

Medieval Cookery Websites

Suggested Cookbooks
Seven Hundred Years of English Cooking – Maxime McKendry

All the Kings Cooks – The Tudor Kitchens of King Henry VII At Hamtpon Court Palance - Peter Brears ISBN 0285635336

Cooking & Dining In Medieval England – Peter Brears ISBN 9781903018873

The Medieval Kitchen – Recipes from France and Italy – Onile Redon, Franciose Saban, & Silvano Serventi ISBN 0226706850

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Our channel is intended to discuss the skills needed to reenact, demonstrate and teach. We also discuss the historic context and research behind our findings.

Popula Urbanum is latin for people of the city. We are recreating the burgeoning middle classes in the 14th century.

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Edited in Blender 2.8

[WilliamJones-Halibut-vqfs]

Medieval people had access to a vast choice of foods. Fruits: a variety of cherries, apricots, apples, pears, plums, lemons, raspberries, blue berries, elderberries, strawberries, cloud berries, grapes, raisins etc. Nuts: hazelnuts, almonds (in widespread use), walnuts. Grains: wheat, oats, rye, barley, millet. Wheat required a warmer climate. Vegetables: parsnips, carrots, turnips, cabbages, spinach, kale, kohlrabi (looks like turnip but member of cabbage family), cucumber, celery, fennel, broad beans (ie fava, haricot), green and yellow split peas, lentils, chickpeas, mushrooms, onions, garlic, leeks, radishes, capers and various salad leaves such as feld salad. There were also vegetables we don’t have now such as celeriac, parsley root. Marrows such as zuchini existed. Herbs such as parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, sorrel, oregano and horseradish. There was honey, juices and a small amount of sugar cane (grown in Sicily). Soft cheeses abounded in Sommer and hard ones on winter. There were more.

Vegetables that we didn’t have that came from Sth America were potatoes, tomatoes, kidney beans, green beans, maize, avocado, chille, capsicum/peppers, pumpkins and birds such as Turkey.

[magnuscole]

Oh good I always hear lots of different things about food. Thanks for your sources as well I always read though them afterwards they make a real difference.

[pedromoreira]

Always interesting to know more about medieval food, it's not a topic that many talk about

[YlvaTheRed]

No potatoes, the bane of my reenactor life!

[metacruft]

Great stuff! Medieval cuisine is a foreign cuisine that is great fun to explore. There's no restaurant I've ever seen that offers authentic medieval flavours, so if you want to discover the joys, it's DIY baby!
Nice vegemite cameo in the closer. I now do a little fist pump when you sign off. He said it! He said the stay safe thing again! I am Pavlov's bitch.

[johnshaffer]

This channel is an excellent resource for any dungeon master looking to do a bit of world building in their campaign :)

[steevemartial]

Thank you. I'd definitely be interested in more videos about medieval food

[Medieval_Mayhem]

Excellent video. I really enjoy your channel.

[xenophon]

Hi, I have a question concerning diets in winter. What were people eating when fresh food was more scarce? Especially in the more northern climates

[vanivanov]

Do you know of any town-specialties or regional differences in diet? Haggis comes to mind.

I'm also curious about game meat. Commoners were widely restricted from hunting, but could they purchase game meat or get permission to hunt?

[urchincreature]

But what about gnawing on turkey legs and throwing the bones over your shoulder?