Compared with modern beer, medieval beer has lower alcohol content and richer material sources, which is a reasonable source of nutrition. It is worth mentioning that in the concept of ancient Europeans, beer is synonymous with grain wine. All fermented wines brewed with grains instead of fruits and not distilled can be called beer. Therefore, according to the classic classification method of Europeans, yellow wine and sweet wine in China and sake in Japan can also be regarded as beer. At that time, many people brewed their own beer or bought it from local brewers. Brewing and selling beer is a favorite job for women living in towns. Brewster (meaning female winemaker) in modern English surnames well reflects the remains of this medieval occupation.
In the Middle Ages, because ovens were expensive, difficult to build and dangerous to operate in crowded wooden houses in medieval cities, most city residents did not bake their own bread. Where there is a market, there is demand. At that time, there were several professional bakers in every place: they made dough in their own workshops and then sold it. In Paris, every village around the city has its own unique style of bread. The best bread at that time was white bread eaten by nobles, and of course it was the most expensive. On the remains found in medieval cemeteries, there are unique wear patterns on teeth. This archaeological discovery tells us that even the bread made of the best flour in London in the late Middle Ages was rougher than modern bread.
In the larger medieval cities at that time, such as London and Paris, there were still some green spaces, which were enough for many residents to own their own gardens and grow fruits, vegetables and herbs. This provides more kinds of fresh food for the urban population and ensures a balanced diet for most people. Some people even keep animals on their small plots of land. Chickens are particularly popular, as are goats and pigs.
English people in the Middle Ages, whether nobles or civilians, ate a lot of fish, much more than most modern people. In the Middle Ages, fish was easily available to the British. As the saying goes, the mountain depends on the mountain, and the sea depends on the sea. As an island country, nowhere in Britain is more than 70 miles from the coast. In addition, the restriction of diet by the dominant Christianity at that time indirectly promoted people's crazy love for seafood at that time, because other kinds of meat were forbidden to eat every Friday and during important religious festivals such as Advent and Lent.
There is a deep-rooted view that medieval food, especially heavy spices in meat cooking, is to cover up the fact that the quality of food is slightly worse (even worse), but this is undoubtedly wrong. Although the method of preserving food, especially meat, was of course limited in the Middle Ages, people in the Middle Ages could still know when food was past the time of eating. They also know that eating food in that state can lead to serious diseases. Remember: those who can always afford spices are the richest people-these people can also afford high-quality food, so they are the last people forced to eat bad meat.
On the contrary, there are two main reasons why we see rich spices in medieval recipes: First, people just like its taste. Compared with modern spices, people's tastes in the Middle Ages seemed to prefer different combinations of spices. They especially like the contrast between sweet and sour or sweet and spicy. For example, in a15th century ancient English cookbook, there is a recipe for pies, according to which pies are filled with pork stuffing seasoned with honey and black pepper. In addition, a cookbook of14th century contains cooking methods about fish pies. To make such a fish pie that tastes strange now, the seasonings needed include white pepper, clove, ginger, cinnamon and sugar.
Secondly, spices are also a symbol of status. These dishes with a lot of spices are also attractive in the social class, because the high cost of spices makes them a status symbol. Serve the guests a dish flavored with three different peppers-this is the requirement of many recipes-and tell everyone that you can afford these expensive things.
At that time, ginger, clove, pepper and saffron were the most commonly used spices. Sucrose, also known as a spice, is grown in Spain and the Middle East. It is an important part of food and medicine. The use of saffron (note: saffron is not planted in Tibet, but has been planted in Europe, Greece and Iran in West Asia in large quantities, instead of Wan Li transporting it to Europe from Tibet) seems to be more popular than now, because medieval dishes are generally single in color, and putting some saffron in food can give food a unique orange color: it makes your wealth visible. Although its cost is high. This cost didn't stop medieval chefs-or at least medieval cookery writers-from using it frequently.
Several spices were more common in medieval Europe than in modern Europe. For example, Galingale, which is called galangal by modern chefs, mainly appears in Thai food today, but it is very popular in medieval recipes. According to historical records, Kelpolo once discovered a large area of wild Alpinia officinarum in his travels. He is very happy because he knows there is a big market in Italy. Melegueta pepper, paradise pepper, is another spice that is more common than the modern west, and is also called paradise food. Today, this spice mainly appears in specialty stores in the Middle East, but recipes in Britain and France in the late Middle Ages show that chefs can easily get in touch with these spices.
All the English medieval recipes that exist in the world come from elite families: aristocrats or very rich civilians. They are the only people who need to instruct the chef how to make exquisite dishes. Only these people have access to all kinds of spices and ingredients described in the cookbook, and only these people know how to read the cookbook at the first time. A big city like London, and the only family with wealthy non-aristocrats-businessmen, lawyers, civil servants and jewelers-can support this food culture.
As William Fitzstephen wrote, restaurants and restaurants are unique to cities, because only in cities will there be a large number of people without kitchens to support these businesses.
In Jerusalem in the12nd century, there were so many restaurants that French-speaking residents even named a street in the city Malquissinat, which means "evil cooking street", similar to what we now call dark cooking street. In London at that time, restaurants were mainly concentrated in two places: by the river, which was convenient for water merchants, pilgrims and travelers; In poor communities, people living in cheap apartments have no fireplaces where they can cook. This is similar to take-out in modern cities. Many poor medieval Londoners had to rely on takeout to provide them with food.