Food

The poor were often hungry. They lived mainly on dark rye bread and oat cakes, and porridge made from peas, beans, and oatmeal. There was also home-made cheese, and sometimes a little salted pork. But there was hardly ever any fresh meat. To drink, they had ale or cider.

Kings and lords ate much more, and had more variety. They liked fish, beef, and venison, and drank huge amounts of wine. At a fifteenth century feast there would be dishes like roast peacock, swan, and stork. By that time, there were rich sauces made with spices from the Far East.

No-one had forks in the Middle Ages - they made do with knives, spoons, and their fingers. Peasants ate off wooden plates, and the rich used pewter. Table manners were crude. A fifteenth-century book says that in polite company you should not lick your plate clean, or spit too far!

Walter Robson: Medieval Britain; Oxford University Press, 1991/2000, page 83