EDIT: A lot of comments think I’m saying I can’t eat meat and there’s meat throughout the video. I can’t eat WHEAT. I'm also getting a lot of comments mentioning how most of the things here would not have been accurate for every day people and that is correct. At the start of the video, I mention how the 2 books I utilised for the recipes are primarily upperclass recipes. These are what wealthy medieval people would have consumed, not your every day people. Additionally, this is not meant to be a historically accurate representation of how medieval people lived or ate dinner. I'm not a historian nor a reenactor. Rather, this is meant to be a fun week of experimenting eating only medieval food, hence my careful wording of the title. I’ve been planning this video for the past 6 months, and after 100 hours of work in total today is finally the day of release! I hope you all enjoy our adventure of exploring medieval food for an entire week. The cookbooks I used for the recipes can be found here, and it is an Amazon affilliate link so I earn a small commision on every order placed (I appreciate the support!): www.amazon.com/shop/v.birchwood/list/32F782WLSGWZ?ref_=aipsflist_aipsfv.birchwood Additionally, if you'd like to support my channel further, no obligation to of course, but please consider becoming a Patron and get access to exclusive, behind-the-scenes content: www.patreon.com/vbirchwood Also, a fun game to play along, take a sip of your preferred beverage every time one of us says “veg” or “vegetables” 😂 Thank you for watching and see you in two weeks for another video 😊
Thumbs up for your stamina with the savoury cinnamon, I was wondering where the Veg went, the medieval menu had heaps of seasonal cooked veg and salads/herbs. Oh, the sugar would have been closer to Jaggery or palm sugar and it is not as sweet as processed sugar
I have read somewhere that most folks in the country side ate only twice a day which kinda was known till to the early part of the 1800s in Central Europe, .. ya missed one Medieval meal Oat porridge ;) I heard that how we cook potatoes today was also the way Turnips where cooked back then especially when fried. Awesome video
Medieval Europeans ate lots of greens that we generally don't: borage, sorrel, nettles, flowers, even ground ivy. Somewhere I think I learned that even carrot and radish tops were used, along with other vegetable tops. I was really surprised that there was nary a legume all week - I thought they were a big staple - yes?no? In any case, this experiment was very interesting.
Ground ivy/goutweed makes a delicious pesto. It was introduced to Norway as a potherb but it’s now an invasive weed, so I like to be quite greedy when I harvest it.
Those same greens are still eaten in many countries, not least because they are available at the time of year (often winter/early spring) when there is a dearth of other options.
Also, I do believe that it's believed lower class people would have eaten more vegetables than meats since they were cheaper and easier to come by. But that said, agreed there were more greens during those centuries (and in the various locations) than were represented here, and I do remember reading about a number of them in my various books. I do hope this experiment comes around again - it really was fun and interesting - because there were no actual instructions in most of the manuscripts, just a list of ingredients and general statement, you can give yourself some leeway in what and how (and how much) to use. So if you don't like the sweetness, for example, next time you can definitely reduce whatever made the dish sweet. We can definitely be grateful, as is stated in the vid, for the wonderful variety and abundance available to a good percentage of us; part of what can make this adventure even more fun is discovering variety within limits - most probably our ancestors would have been bored with the same, and really only, available spices, and I'm betting they allowed themselves to have some fun with them whenever possible.
I think legumes, especially beans, became very important. Hazy memories of medieval history lessons conjure up concepts of bean growing helping in keeping soil productive and fertile, and in providing protein for people who couldn't afford meat on a regular basis. I remember learning that the increase in eating beans was responsible for increasing brain nourishment and inspiring the Twelfth Century Renaissance. Quite an accomplishment, I say!
One reason carrots was an upper-class vegetable is that it’s a somewhat unreliable crop, as there’s a pest that can take out the entire harvest, and most medieval people tried to min-max their harvest, so they grew crops that may be less bountiful in good years, but also less likely to fail completely.
As someone growing carrots, I approve of this comment. If you grow vegetables, companion plants like certain herbs are great for protecting your garden. I thank my rosemary.
Carrots are also just more difficult to sow to begin with. If they don't blow or wash away, they're finicky to sprout because they want exactly the right amount of moisture at all times. Gardeners today get around the difficulty by sowing thousands of carrot seeds to increase the odds of getting enough to sprout.
If the pudding tastes "starchy," it is because you didn't bring the mixture to the boil. Bring it to the boil, and stir like mad for a full minute. The starch will cook and the dish will be delicious. You worked so hard. Well-done. I hope you get to see your friend again soon.
I'm from East Germany and imagine my surprise that your first meal was something I grew up with: eggs poached in mustard sauce with a side of rye bread! Nowadays I serve parsleyed carrots alongside. Detailed recipes by German youtubers are easy to find ;-)
I only know this dish with hard boiled eggs. Nobody in my family likes poached eggs, maybe that's why. ^^ We also eat potatoes with the eggs instead of bread.
Can I just say the sheer undiluted joy you expressed in this video - the frank evidence of you just having fun and feeling free to be as silly as you like - is so heartwarming! ❤
@@MervynRThomas 8 Weeks, Wow!! I hope all is well now. I thought 4 weeks seemed like an eternity - especially these days when they consider a mastectomy as outpatient surgery and send you home the same day! Years ago, they kept women in the hospital for at least a week or more for that surgery. I pray you get to go home soon if you aren't already!!
@@langyd4518 My husband hates cooked cabbage normally, but I make kluski with it, which is just hot sausage, cabbage and noodles, with salt and pepper, and it quickly became one of his favorite meals! I just made a vegetable beef soup and put quite a bit of cabbage in it too. He LOVED it and wants me to make it again tomorrow! Funny thing is he didn't realize it was even in there. It adds a really nice peppery but sweet flavor to the soup. I made a big batch and canned it so we could have it while I went through radiation treatments. It was a life saver! Cabbage is wonderful in all it's forms - slaw, sauerkraut, sweet and sour or cooked! Cabbage rocks!
I turned on the captions so I could watch while I brushed my teeth and was impressed by how professional they were! Thanks for putting that effort into a part of the video that isn’t often seen!
You’re very welcome! Quality captions are very important so I always take an extra couple hours to make them especially detailed after the initial corrections from the caption company I purchase from. Thank you for acknowledging the effort I put into them!
historical reenactor here, just wanted to let you know that they would have absolutely had and used vegetables like spinach and various wild greens (dandelion, nettles, elder, centaury, mint, basil, wood sorrel etc), cabbage, and carrots (though they would've been those fancy heirloom purple and black carrots), parsnip, and turnips and celery, and celeriac (celery root), beets etc, and they would have likely cooked them in those stews alongside the meat, but just didn't list specific vegetables because it was whatever they could find seasonally, also likely added grains like barley to bulk out stews. Also bread and cheese would've been a common simple meal, with fresh fruit and nuts if it was summer, and dried fruit and nuts if it was winter.
Medieval folks ate a lot of veggies, but there aren't many recipes from the period that specify how to cook them. The idea was that cooking vegetables was something that "everyone knew" how to do (mostly it involved "seething" or boiling them in water or almond milk, seasoning as desired and serving). They would also have had plenty of fruits in season.
I came here to say this! I'm a reenactor and have done feast for events. Vegetables even for the upper classes were common. There are several websites and cookbooks where you can find recipes for young housewives that include a lot of vegetables. Carrots, Parsnips, turnups, onions, mushrooms, fennel, leeks, spinach, garlic, beet leaves, cress, various greens that we don't consider anymore, peas, simple salads, vegetable tarts, root stews. All so common that every medieval person should know how to prepare, or simply serve with a simple dressing.
should add more specific words in the title.. "medieval European foods" because, even in medieval Chinese or medieval indian-arabic times, they still eat good. but just.. no tomato and peanuts yet. the two things that make their modern foods more superb. Indonesian archipelago full with spices. India subcontinent main spice is like pepper. like blackpepper. combine both, and that's how Chinese medieval cuisine still good. cloves, cumin, saffron, nutmeg, etc. you still got those ingredients in the eastern world. only in the europe that everything suck. there is no 'dark ages' in medieval era. only in Europe. so please, don't call medieval era as "dark age' era. majority of the world not in their dark era... even Chinese empire, the recently conquered by mongols, not even in their dark ages.
@@DBT1007the dark ages were never a thing in europe as well, that's a myth invented after the middle ages ended, medieval europe was very diverse and culturally rich(economically too in the late middle ages, especially the italian states) and most people could afford to eat fairly decently, sure, they couldn't afford to eat the fancy, expensive and spiced foods the wealthy were eating but they were still eating pretty decently, in the late middle ages a good percentage of the population could even afford meat at least once a week. Also, poor people are poor people everywhere, I doubt the average worker in China or other Asian countries could afford to eat like their rulers or the rich part of the population, which most surely included various types of expensive meats and spices hard to obtain cause of their costly production, like saffron.
Yeah, I made a stew with chicken legs, carrots, turnips, garlic, thyme, sage, and rosemary, then realized I made something that a common person might have made for a festival meal
Note on the almond milk: It was used as a replacement for dairy milk during Lent, since eggs, milk, and many other foods were banned during the period. Medieval Lent was MUCH stricter than modern guidelines, so the fasting and the abstaining from certain foods was pretty much mandatory for most of the population. (This makes sense when you consider that Lent is in northern hemisphere spring, when eggs, milk and many of the other banned foods would have been in short supply anyway.)
Also, lenting Rules applied Not only to the time before eastern, but also 3 days a week all year around. Vegan dishes really are Not a new Thing in the slightest
Those Lenten restrictions along with fasting existed up until the late 1960s. A lot of the Eastern Rite Catholics still follow their traditional Great Fast, which also includes olive oil and wine.
I enjoyed learning about the vegan food and I was surprised when she said that she made chicken and lamb and cod after she said that she wasn't going to eat meat.
Sure they would have eaten leftovers! “ peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot, nine days old. Some like it hot some like it cold, some like it in the pot nine days old.” Also- at least the cabbage chowder was vegetables! Hahahahaha
I disagree. Since she’s talking specifically about the wealthy, extra foods left over would likely be gifted to the household staff to share with their own families. But the working class & below certainly wouldn’t have wasted a bite.
This has to be the most special and elaborate UA-cam production I have ever watched. Loved the details, the aesthetic, the historical nuances and anecdotes - Your labor totally paid off!
A great British documentary on life in Tudor England is called Tales From The Green Valley, where four historical anthropologists live the times. Super fun to watch.
@@nrgltwrkr2225 If that's the show i remember (i cant remember its name) but i think they said the Edwardian period was about 70% of your income would be spent on food. Absolutely mindblowing
Almonds: I have a few medieval cookbooks, and one of the most informative ones explained that, in the days before refrigeration, milk didn't keep well. Almonds kept better. Almond milk was such a standard ingredient that the researchers for the books I had couldn't find more than one written set of instructions for the making of it - everyone knew how to make it, just like everyone today knows how to make instant coffee. Imagine how envious those people would be to see us, these days, with almond milk a-plenty, taken for granted, and as a luxury compared with dairy milk (there are some really nice salads in the books I have, hope you continue with this very fun experiment).
Milk was turned into cottage cheese and butter soon after millking so they didn't have to worry about it going off, the reason for almond milk was in winter milk production slows down when cows aren't subjected to artificial light like they are nowadays.
"Because I don't taste it while I'm cooking"...the chef soul in me just died, lol. Always taste as you cooooook. But for real, I LOVE medieval food and a lot of these look great. I've done a Christmas "feast" of more peasant-oriented food. One of my favorite memories! There was also a dinner party for friends where I did a roast chicken with mustard & mushroom sauce, thickened with egg yolk. Oh my. Mustard just hits! Food Factoid: Chowder is technically any thick soup with chunky vegetables (smaller chunks than a stew; and stews are typically understood to always have meat, whereas chowders can go either way). Modern chowders are totally associated with dairy, but that's more of a "recent" addition. This video was a LOT of work, but looks like you had fun! Thank you for producing it.
Lol I NEVER taste as I cook. And the food always ends up being delicious and perfectly salted. I do have a very very sensitive sense of smell, so I rely on it a lot. Maybe let people cook however they want and are comfortable...
I did a natural dye workshop and the instructor told us that you’d have to gather and boil thousands of foul-smelling sea snails to process the purple dye that was used from Ancient Rome onwards til someone invented a synthetic purple during the reign of Victoria.
You guys have such a cute friendship! I hope you get to see each others again soon. Can you imagine doing that 7 days a week for your whole life and take care of the children, clean the home, make the clothes, tend the garden and farm animals all without any modern conveniences? I have trouble loading my dishwasher and folding clothes! Lol Hats off to you for your accomplishment, but hats off to women throughout history!!
Randomly stumbled upon your video in my recommended, and I'm so glad! This was one of the most interesting videos I've seen in a good while, thank you for making it!
That was very interesting. I actually cook just like my late grandmother, and she adds a little sugar to most things as a spice. I didn't realize we were medieval cooks. lololol
Pottage was widely eaten as it was easy to keep a pot cooking over a fire and what gives us "Pease in a pot, 9 days old". They also would not have eaten a lot of raw fruit and vegetable - they thought it was bad to eat raw foods. If you think about it, it probably was. They'd have to wash it in water and, in too many cases the water, wasn't that great so it could have caused illness and is probably why they thought raw foods weren't good for you.
Additionally, if you're min-maxing for calories cooked veggies should take you farther. Cooking can destroy some nutrients, but I'm pretty sure it makes calories easier to absorb.
The "Four Juice Theory" (Humoralpathology) decided whether raw fruits were advisable. Raw fruits were (mostly) “cold” and “moist”. So if you're a "warm" person with too much black bile... ;)
I remember my Medieval English group in Cambridge University making a medieval dinner for us and the Master of one of the Colleges. We were paired up and each pair made a different dish to go to make up the full dinner. Our dish was honey chicken. Your challenge and some of the dishes brought back this memory for me from fifty years ago. Our dinner was absolutely delicious. I can’t remember anything I didn’t like except for the marzipan dishes but that’s just me not liking marzipan 😊
This is so cool! Years ago I found a medieval recipe for pasties and made the hand pies, half meat and half berry. It was so fun and good! Your normal diet shows, your skin is lovely!
This video was so fun! It reminds me of my life growing up while my mom wrote historical cookbooks. No medieval one, but she wrote Shakespeare's Kitchen, about the Elizabethan era. I was surprised to see so much "sallet" considering that common wisdom seemed to avoid raw vegetables. The turnip love was real and I loved learning about some of the crazy showstopper banquet pieces. Like... putting live birds into a pie so they'd break out was REAL! Wild.
less than 20 minutes in and I'm out in the garden at 6 o'clock with a flashlight picking kale and herbs and making soup (prevented from being medieval only by the presence of potatoes but alas)
Are you a super taster? I know I am. Arugula and cilantro and fresh basil and watercress all taste absolutely horrible to me. There are a few others too like perilla leaf. It's an extra tastebud.
We regularly eat a slow cooked medieval roast, it is amazing and yes, has vegetables. There is a tutor farm re-enactment series on one of the you tube channels and they show many recipes for the common man.
Tudor Monastery Farm, and there are two books that go with it as well: _How to be a Tudor_ by Ruth Goodman, and _Tudor Monastery Farm_ by Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold. Or three books if you count _How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain,_ also by Goodman.
@@ragnkjaI love watching her videos. All the different eras that she's researched. It's my favorite winter past time. It's even better now that I have a big internet ready tv as youtube is fascinating on the TV
Onions fried in butter or lard. Mushrooms are stewed on fried onions and an egg is added. This is a Slavic dish - smaszhenica. Salt, cumin and pepper are used as spices.
I think, there was a french king, who dictated, that people should grow about 7 kinds of Cale in their garden. The idea was to have greens for winter and to survive better. People ate a lot of cale cheap fish black bread, oatmeal baked into biscuits, for working people eggs, milk and butter were expensive and they ate a lot of porridge and drank light ale, warm in the winter. Almonds sugar and spices like cinnamon and others alike were exstremely expensive. Fun to watch and always interesting
I thought butter was extremely common among the average people in the middle ages, especially in continental and northern europe where olive oil was too expensive to get. At some point they even had to exclude it from the lent banned foods cause the common people were strongly opposing it since it was an important part of what they ate
I kind of suspect that my peasant ancestors ate a pretty repetitive diet of mostly bread (probably not mostly wheat bread; they were poor people) with onions, cheese, beer, porridge, lentils, eggs & fish (they lived near the coasts), whatever veggies & fruits were seasonal, and heavy reliance on homegrown herbs rather than expensive nuts & spices. Meat and sweets were probably viewed as special, expensive treats.
Your ancestors more then likely did eat wheat or whole grain bread. It was considered poor peoples food. The upper class wanted the more pure, white bread. The more white the better.
Wheat bread was more upper class, rye bread was for the commoners, it grew better in western (wetter) Europe. However, rye was susceptible to ergot, and that had interesting side effects. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot
Bet they just had bread and any veggie they had cooked in a pot and they threw in some meat if they had it and cooked it all together I bet they were short on vitamin c most of the time
Apple omelets are delicious, I make them once in a while (usually fall when there is an abundance of delicious apples around here). Just peel & slice & sauté gently in a pan w/some sweetener (honey, white or brown sugar, even artificial sweetener will do-- your choice), a knob of butter, and a splash of balsamic vinegar or ACV. If you wanna get fancy, try a splash of cherry brandy & flambe it. Add a pinch of salt and some seasonings like cinnamon, nutmeg, pinch of cloves, etc. Then set it aside and make your omelet, using the apple filling as the stuffing. Sooooo good.
@@xejelah old fashioned term my grandmother used for not worrying about exact butter measurement lol. I just cut off a piece and throw it to lightly coat the apples, around a tablespoon more or less depending on the size of apples/how many I'm cooking.
my great great grandparents were still alive when i was 10 and the stories i heard from my parents was that meat was only a thing once a week and turnips were more common than potatoes. not the medieval era but close enough i guess.
I find that absolutely hilarious that your message implies that your grandparents' youth (I assume max 100 years ago, up to 150 if you're older) is closer to medieval than current times LMAO
@@boreum789meet being cheap is very recent in history. I guess that’s the point. People ate only what they could grow, hunt or collect for most of history.
@@Amateur_Pianist_472true, but also, till not too long ago most families had their own livestock of all kinds(pigs, chickens, sheeps...) so they could still get meat, just way less often then we do, meat 1 times a week was still pretty common though
Excellent video! As someone who cooks but one meal a day (occasionally two) MAD PROPS for the energy it took to pull this off. Could you imagine cooking seven times a day, forget that noise! I'm glad that things didn't always go as planned, and I'm glad that sometimes meals were skipped or a day was taken easy, it's a testament to being human. It's not about being flawless, it's about giving it your best shot. It looks like you and B had a lot of fun, and at the end of the day, that's what matters most.
They would probably have eaten maslin (a mix of wheat and rye) or dredge (a mix of oat and barley). In both cases, the two species would be grown together in the same field, as an insurance against fluctuating growing conditions. Genetically homogeneous monoculture was the exact opposite of what a medieval farmer would do. They were choosing their crops to give them the best possible worst-case harvest.
Yes, even more cause they didn't have any chemical fertilizers and pesticides so the production was much lower and at risk of weather changes and parasites
This was great fun! I really appreciated the diversity of your selections - in my opinion, the crowned chicken really captured the spirit of the age. Don’t be hard on yourself for how the sauces turned out! You weren’t tasting while cooking so as to preserve your honest reaction for the camera - but of course adjusting seasoning during a dish’s preparation is precisely how a good balance of flavor is achieved. Thanks to you & your dear friend for sharing mealtime with us!
Food from the mediaeval really excites me, I don't know if it is because I am British or not, but the simplicity really speaks to me. Cooking normally gives me a huge dopamine hit, but seeing the food in your video intrigues me! The combination of the set pieces, the dress and the food creates an awesome environment - it looks like fun!
I really enjoyed this video! Your meals looked so inviting! Just a couple of reflections, (and while I have read a few medieval cook books I am no expert, so consider this opinion not knowledge). I was surprised at the lack of potage, as it seems that was the most common food for the average working class (peasant) along with bread, cheese and ale. The term chowder has to do with the food being cooked in a cauldron rather than they type of food being cooked, so a clear soup could still be a chowder as much as it sounds wrong to our ears. While carrots might have been available i think people might not have snacked on them (or turnips) raw, as human night soils were still used to fertilize the soil. While they would not have had the scientific knowledge of the need to cook root vegetables grown in that soil I am sure the connection was made. That looked like a fun week. Thanks for sharing with us!
I think on the pottage, we have to remember that cookbooks of the time were written by chefs for the benefit of other chefs. Simple meals like pottage would not be considered worthy of recording as everyone and their grandma would know how to do it 🤣. That said, the concept of having a pot continuously at the ready just makes sense when your life revolves around making a living, not cooking for a living.
I was going to mention they never ate raw vegetables. Ruth Goodwin, I think that is her name, has done some great videos on this kind of thing. Broad Bean aka fava beans were very common in the time. I loved the week of eating
I am more joyful than I can describe to watch this video! Your cinematographic style, extensive research and gracefully wholesome self are so rejuvenating to watch and listen to. In honesty, I just finished breakfast, but, I hope to make a second pot of tea (or hot chocolate), and sip along with the 🥦🌽🥕🥔🍄 game. It's also the perfect motivation to help me progress on a crafting project.
@@VBirchwood I did. It was fun! And, I got some stuff done. (While drinking tea, and watching eating) I also got inspired to make some "kale stew", not as bland as the cabbage chowder, perhaps.
lol. i was having breakfast as i watched. on bread i'd just made. (2nd ever in the bread machine. though i will be trying by hand once i get more time). i agree with everything you said in that first section. and yeah, it was also motivating for cooking and of alt menu of some sort.
Sharing the recipes of the ones you really liked might be very nice at some point. The brie with the herb/nut sauce would be nice. I would think that the lower classes would have had less meat than the upper classes.
I would have loved to share them but they are from two copyrighted books, so I’d rather that people go and support the authors of those books that I feature in the video 😊
@forgingstrength6119 they have been interpreted and modernised for the modern kitchen. Therefore it was the author’s interpretations I used. It is also just very poor practice to share another’s hard work online for free if they have released a book.
thhhaaats not true. If it contains any sort of creativity, it's copyrighted. and these most likely are, since they are not from 100 year old cookbooks, but modern reinterpretations. so the creativity factor is in. @forgingstrength6119
Apple tansey! Sauté thinly sliced apples in butter until browned (like you would bacon), then add a slightly sweetened custard base with hints of rosewater and nutmeg. Cook on the stovetop until mostly done and then finish under the broiler until the egg is just set. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
I not only enjoyed what you did here in this video, but also how much *you* enjoyed doing it. What fun! And now you have inspired me to do some medieval-ish cooking of my own. Thanks!☺
Great video, I want to try that apple omelet omg! A note from a historian: written culture in the past wasn't as it is now in the sense that recipes were not necessarily 'complete' in what they would serve the dish with. You can assume that for a protein rich meal like the cheese with herbs and sauce would have been eaten with a chunk of bread. And given that vegetables were so seasonal, if they were eaten they would just serve whatever would be available.
Almond milk was used in lieu of dairy milk because unlike the dairy variety, it didn't spoil too quickly and during Lent when dairy, eggs, and meat were forbidden, it made an adequate substitute. Almonds were plentiful enough they could be used in many recipes for many dishes. Marzipan was also a frequent appearance at noble tables, where the confection was used in a variety of shapes and colors. Contrary to popular belief, Medieval peasants did eat their share fresh fruits and vegetables. Nobles didn't, apparently, because they believed fresh fruits and vegetables were bad for the health and could cause dysentery. Bread tended to be made from a number of grain flours. Poorer folk had to make do with barley flour for their bread, and when potatoes were introduced from the New World, potato flour. Peasant flour mills ground the flour rather coarsely, so it had a lot of grit in it that wore teeth down to a flat plane that prevented food from settling in to cause tooth decay. Bad breath was very much a thing, but among the peasants, tooth decay was not much of a problem. Peasant laborers ate pottage, which had a simple recipe: take whatever you had on hand, throw it into a pot with some water, and boil it until it became a sort of porridge. It was rather disgusting, but herbs from the garden could be used to flavor it and when dried out it could be taken to the field and re-hydrated with a bit of beer to make a sort of instant lunch. Table beer, which was the type most consumed at home, was extremely low in alcohol content.
I'd love to get the recipe for the rose pudding with chopped dates. You did a wonderful job doing this video & you survived! Thank you for making content like this. I love historical stuff, but especially anything & everything medieval. I'd love to learn medieval cooking & how to actually sew my own medieval clothes that are suitable to wear at Ren Faires (especially a kirtle, love the color of yours).
The thing is meats, especially exotic, and breads, cheeses and spices were all expensive. The information we have about medieval food is almost exclusively from the very upper class like nobility. I’m sure the poorer people were eating more grains and vegetables. Also, almonds had really just reached England from northwestern Asia and that’s why they were so popular in those upper class dishes.
Most people including historical experts have zero understanding of history. Usually people are trained based on facts from the 1800s and keep learning the same thing and spreading mis information over and over but let me educate you. Bread was super cheap, only white bread was expensive. Spices from the east were expensive however plenty of poor people could afford things such as mustard and salt on mass. Cheese was very common in a peasants diet. There isn't too much info on the sale of cheese as cheese was mass produced by the peasant population and not expensive at all unless it's specific imported cheeses, but this wasn't really a thing for the most part depending on the period.
@@michalcynarski7321also another misconception I see spread a lot: peasants (never) rarely ate meat. They didn't eat the Lord's deer yeah, however they had access to pigs, chickens and various other birds, rabbits, goats, sheep and cows. Did they eat meat as often as we do today? Ofc not, but if you ever worked on a farm you know how important the nutrition is you can get from meat. Nothing like Vitamin-B tablets around that time either.
@@rickymartin4457 Depending on the time and place, they actually ate more meat than usual today. The extremely high grain consumption was predominantly a thing towards the end of the Early and the High Middle Ages and especially around the Mediterranean basin.
@@michalcynarski7321 Yes, although it is worth noting that records indicate that most of the grain was consumed in the form of gruel (especially in the High Middle Ages). Mind, gruel often included ingredients besides grain, salt, and water, such as dairy, fruit, nuts, animal proteins, beans/legumes, vegetables, etc.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video! You two are adorable and I am so happy I was recommended this channel. I am curious and wonder why so many in the comments seem to be picking on the supposed inaccuracies of the video when she clearly says this was simply a fun experiment. Chill out folks. Thanks for your dedication and hard work on this 💕😉
I really enjoyed this video 👍🏻 I mediaeval times a common mid-day meal would have been just bread, cheese, and an onion, with ale to help it down. Easy to prepare and easy to carry with you if you were out working all day.
Stews and soups was also common, I've heard. It would have stretched what meat they did have, and would have been cooking all day. Most likely beans and some veggies.
This was a great video! I love history. I love food. Well done! I love how you stuck to some "rules" and didnt deviate. Truly a medieval experience. I imagines you were the maid and your friend was the princess lol
This was such a lovely video. The itchy nose thing that I recall was indicating you were going to kiss a fool. And I’ve instantly subbed because I was witness to your honor and integrity in the comments regarding your protectiveness of the authors’ work! You are a good person and I’m happy to support you.
Leftovers would usually go to the servants or peasants, which would often turn into pottage, a kind of stew that was different depending on the leftover food that's in it.
I like your dedication to sewing a medieval dress especially for this occasion. Congratulations and a special thanks for sacrificing so much of your time for your viewers.
You are both so pretty and charming. This was a delightful watch! I think you actually ate pretty accurately for servants in a wealthy house who would eat the leftovers from the multi-course meals.
This video was so much fun to watch 😊 I’m sure you already know about him, but Max Miller’s channel Tasting History recreates tons of historical recipes, and he explains the history of those recipes in each video. If people like this video definitely check him out
yeah i was pretty bummed watching this since she didn’t go further into more information about the food what ingredients she used, how she cooked it, the specific things she changed for her allergy or whatever and was bummed you couldn’t really get a good look at them as the lighting sucked
I just found your channel, and what a delight you are! I look forward to more videos.
11 місяців тому+69
I remember reading that upper class people in this period didn't eat much in the way of vegetables as they were seen as a "poor person" food. So while peasants were eating pease pottage and suchlike, the upper classes had a lot of dairy and meat, leading to wealthy diseases like gout.
11 місяців тому+2
(Also I'm definitely going to try making jowtes after this, haha!)
I praise your adventure. Modern appreciation of the limited kitchen people had in the past is so limited. Even your week is posh for normal Medieval kitchens
I really love your channel. I think it's fascinating. Well I think that you're fascinating actually. I like all subjects so what you do with dressing the way you do and living the way you do falls into that for sure. But really I don't see too many other people have compassion like this for what they do. I just really like it and I'm super glad you do it. Great work!
Just working my way through your videos. I know it was a while ago but it was lovely to see you spending time with someone who you really care about. Really generous of her to join you for the adventure and agree to be filmed! What a full on week for you both!
To eat more greens and vegetables, you need to move down the social scale. They were considered peasant food. The wealthy wanted to have only the most inexpensive foods on their table - heavy on meat (which was a luxury item), expensive spices (mace, pepper, grains of paradise, dried ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg) and anything & everything else imported: almonds, wine, cheeses, dried fruit (raisins, lemons, oranges), and the most expensive of all -sugar! The poor were mostly vegan, but not by choice. They ate a LOT of bread, root vegetables like turnips, cabbage ,a mess of pottage or frumenty (grain cooked with whatever was on hand - herbs, nettles, seasonal vegetables), and peas porridge. In general, meat, eggs, milk and butter were probably sold rather than eaten by the lower classes. Bread for the poor would resemble a little modern-day whole wheat. The rich had bread made from the whitest flour they could afford. It's false that medieval upper class people used so many spices in meat dishes to cover up meat that had gone off. They put spices in almost everything to show their wealth.
There are a number of older spices that would have been used by commoners like alexanders and nigella, not to mention radishes and different flowers like safflower. Nettles! But this was so much fun, your friend is very beautiful! Bravo!!
most people everywhere that were working class mostly ate mashed or boiled vegetables and broths and soups. meat was once a week, usually a quail or chicken. eggs were also very rarely afforded.
Those wonderful hand made little table cloths would be even more beautiful if you used to soak them in some starch and water after washing it. Dry it and iron it very carefully especially where the crochet-work is. Gently placing it in order with your fingers. It is going to look perfect ;) I really appreciate all the work you have put in this video. Thanks for sharing! ❤
This was so cool!! I own The Medieval Cookbook but haven't tried any recipes from it yet so it was awesome to see your reactions to some of them. Thank you for sharing this experiment and well done!
I mean sugar IS used as a spice even today. It's not at all uncommon to add some sugar to Bolognese or similarly acidic/tart sauces in order to balance it out a bit.
@@2adamastthat is not where they got it from..... Maybe look into the history of sugar, max miller has 2 great vids on the topoc on his channel tasting history
This video vas so enjoyable to watch. You invested your time and hard work into it. I love the conversation at the end between you and your friend. Sharing.
I loved the interactions with her friend the most. Sharing meals and time adventuring during the day with people you love is something that makes life worth living! ❤
Truly a committed task! I agree about the lack of vegetables, though I enjoy rice and love bread and butter. Not so sure about the soups and sauces...However, it was quite interesting and good to see you and your friend enjoying time together.
The aristocracy definitely ate less root vegetables and more meat than the average person, and a lot of the things they ate back then are no longer common, and if a weed was edible and tasted nice it was basically considered a vegetable you didn’t have to expend effort on.
This is the first video of yours I've seen, and it was wonderful! You have great aesthetic taste and it was so enjoyable watching and hearing your experience. Thank you so much for sharing!
the jowtes with almond milk reminds me of the Finnish spinach soup (pinaattikeitto, spenatsoppa in Swedish)! it's a true staple of school lunches over here. we usually put boiled eggs in there (not while cooking, after). Pinaattikeitto is usually made with dairy milk at least today, no idea what they wouls have used back in the day, or even how old the dish is. but it was really cool seeing something even vaguely familiar in a video like this!!
a common view on food etiquette amongst the aristocracy in christian europe (i believe it stems back to royal feasts in medieval europe and i only have heard it from english sources so far and in regards to formal dining, might not even be representative of wealthy people on a daily basis) it's basically you wouldn't want to finish the dish at a royal baquet, finishing it all was seen as an act of selfishness it came down to the structure of ceremonial dining : people would eat in order of hierarchy, the monarch would be served first then the people next to them and so on until the end of the table, taking little food would then allow everyone below you to get enough food. At the end of the meal there should be leftovers for people hierarchaly lower than the guest : the servants of the castle and when all those people had sufficently eaten, any rest would be given to religious structures that would provide it to the "poor" community (which at that point would be anyone outside of the working system either due to age, elderly people would depend on their family to live on and in the absence on anyone surviving they would depend on those religious charities to survive, or due to illness or disabilities) now a lot of traditional dishes all over the world that are transmitted through speech tend to be ways to use up less than fresh ingredients
Historically, the alternative to eating your leftovers was to give them as alms, which was seen as the more charitable thing to do. They certainly wouldn’t have let any leftover food go to waste.
great video and I cannot help but think that if you had made it about what commoners ate, it'd be a lot simpler: soup and bread, bread and soup and on special occasions something else like a chicken perhaps roasted. From what I have gathered from light research and family members, common people ate basically what was available - so seasonal fruit and veg and meat (from the annual pig) salted, dried and perhaps a chicken or a goose on the spit for festivities), beans, fish if they were near a river or the sea, etc. and the occasional egg from their hen(s). I was told that there was not meat at every meal or in all seasons. The soup would have a bit of meat in it (it was used sparingly because it had to last) and beans or lentils. Cheese and butter would have either been homemade or again eaten sparingly. More likely lard instead of butter. Well, that's the impression I have and so your video is way more interesting than that!
There is a series of books written - set in the late 1300s - by Susanna Gregory who has done a lot of research for writing them. In it she gives a good list of the basic foods ''enjoyed'' by the poorer classes (which definitely describes the protagonist and colleagues) through the year. Often not very appealing shall we say. If you are interested in that sort of thing they are worth leafing through - if you like mystery books then you might enjoy them for the storylines as well - simply for the snippets about the food available between the richer parts of society and the poorer ones.
I believe some variety of porridge or pottage would have been a typical anytime meal. Likely bread, butter, cheese or cold leftover meats would be grab and go foods for the working class. Lots of pulses would have been served too. If game, mutton, fowl or fish was available, that would have been the main meal of the day. Often meat wasn't always available, so stewed vegetables or broth-based soup with barley would be the meal.
EDIT: A lot of comments think I’m saying I can’t eat meat and there’s meat throughout the video. I can’t eat WHEAT. I'm also getting a lot of comments mentioning how most of the things here would not have been accurate for every day people and that is correct. At the start of the video, I mention how the 2 books I utilised for the recipes are primarily upperclass recipes. These are what wealthy medieval people would have consumed, not your every day people. Additionally, this is not meant to be a historically accurate representation of how medieval people lived or ate dinner. I'm not a historian nor a reenactor. Rather, this is meant to be a fun week of experimenting eating only medieval food, hence my careful wording of the title.
I’ve been planning this video for the past 6 months, and after 100 hours of work in total today is finally the day of release! I hope you all enjoy our adventure of exploring medieval food for an entire week. The cookbooks I used for the recipes can be found here, and it is an Amazon affilliate link so I earn a small commision on every order placed (I appreciate the support!): www.amazon.com/shop/v.birchwood/list/32F782WLSGWZ?ref_=aipsflist_aipsfv.birchwood
Additionally, if you'd like to support my channel further, no obligation to of course, but please consider becoming a Patron and get access to exclusive, behind-the-scenes content: www.patreon.com/vbirchwood
Also, a fun game to play along, take a sip of your preferred beverage every time one of us says “veg” or “vegetables” 😂
Thank you for watching and see you in two weeks for another video 😊
Thumbs up for your stamina with the savoury cinnamon, I was wondering where the Veg went, the medieval menu had heaps of seasonal cooked veg and salads/herbs.
Oh, the sugar would have been closer to Jaggery or palm sugar and it is not as sweet as processed sugar
It's amazing what time and energy you've invested in this. I've already liked, so I'm sharing.
I have read somewhere that most folks in the country side ate only twice a day which kinda was known till to the early part of the 1800s in Central Europe, .. ya missed one Medieval meal Oat porridge ;) I heard that how we cook potatoes today was also the way Turnips where cooked back then especially when fried. Awesome video
more "pessant" /working class means more veggies....
@@hypnotherapy69 they did have more meat the some people like to make ya believe, Peasants did hunt like small game and etc.
Medieval Europeans ate lots of greens that we generally don't: borage, sorrel, nettles, flowers, even ground ivy. Somewhere I think I learned that even carrot and radish tops were used, along with other vegetable tops. I was really surprised that there was nary a legume all week - I thought they were a big staple - yes?no? In any case, this experiment was very interesting.
Ground ivy/goutweed makes a delicious pesto. It was introduced to Norway as a potherb but it’s now an invasive weed, so I like to be quite greedy when I harvest it.
Those same greens are still eaten in many countries, not least because they are available at the time of year (often winter/early spring) when there is a dearth of other options.
Also, I do believe that it's believed lower class people would have eaten more vegetables than meats since they were cheaper and easier to come by. But that said, agreed there were more greens during those centuries (and in the various locations) than were represented here, and I do remember reading about a number of them in my various books. I do hope this experiment comes around again - it really was fun and interesting - because there were no actual instructions in most of the manuscripts, just a list of ingredients and general statement, you can give yourself some leeway in what and how (and how much) to use. So if you don't like the sweetness, for example, next time you can definitely reduce whatever made the dish sweet. We can definitely be grateful, as is stated in the vid, for the wonderful variety and abundance available to a good percentage of us; part of what can make this adventure even more fun is discovering variety within limits - most probably our ancestors would have been bored with the same, and really only, available spices, and I'm betting they allowed themselves to have some fun with them whenever possible.
I think legumes, especially beans, became very important. Hazy memories of medieval history lessons conjure up concepts of bean growing helping in keeping soil productive and fertile, and in providing protein for people who couldn't afford meat on a regular basis. I remember learning that the increase in eating beans was responsible for increasing brain nourishment and inspiring the Twelfth Century Renaissance. Quite an accomplishment, I say!
@@ragnkja Here in the US many people try to eradicate all those interesting herbs. I have tried many, with varying reactions!
"its not fun" is the most authentic medieval experience to have.
One reason carrots was an upper-class vegetable is that it’s a somewhat unreliable crop, as there’s a pest that can take out the entire harvest, and most medieval people tried to min-max their harvest, so they grew crops that may be less bountiful in good years, but also less likely to fail completely.
plus you can stick them up your ars* 😁
This did make me wonder a bit about medieval foraging, though, since carrot has its edible wild relative.
Bugs Bunny?
As someone growing carrots, I approve of this comment. If you grow vegetables, companion plants like certain herbs are great for protecting your garden. I thank my rosemary.
Carrots are also just more difficult to sow to begin with. If they don't blow or wash away, they're finicky to sprout because they want exactly the right amount of moisture at all times. Gardeners today get around the difficulty by sowing thousands of carrot seeds to increase the odds of getting enough to sprout.
If the pudding tastes "starchy," it is because you didn't bring the mixture to the boil. Bring it to the boil, and stir like mad for a full minute. The starch will cook and the dish will be delicious.
You worked so hard. Well-done. I hope you get to see your friend again soon.
This is fantastic! I can't wait to watch more of these.
This is a well deserved shout out from my favorite historical food blogger! You must feel so special! I'd love to see a collab one day!
I'm from East Germany and imagine my surprise that your first meal was something I grew up with: eggs poached in mustard sauce with a side of rye bread! Nowadays I serve parsleyed carrots alongside. Detailed recipes by German youtubers are easy to find ;-)
I only know this dish with hard boiled eggs. Nobody in my family likes poached eggs, maybe that's why. ^^ We also eat potatoes with the eggs instead of bread.
I read “paralyzed carrots” and after a very strange google search, I re read your comment. 😅😅😅😂😂😂
That's hilarious! @@BloodSweatandFears
Same here 🙂@@Hitsugix
Servus I had that at my last visit in Berlin at Clärchens Ballhaus.
Can I just say the sheer undiluted joy you expressed in this video - the frank evidence of you just having fun and feeling free to be as silly as you like - is so heartwarming! ❤
Thank you so much!🥰
I agree. I'm spending my 8th week in hospital and looking for videos to cheer me ip. This hit the spot :)
@@MervynRThomas 8 Weeks, Wow!! I hope all is well now. I thought 4 weeks seemed like an eternity - especially these days when they consider a mastectomy as outpatient surgery and send you home the same day! Years ago, they kept women in the hospital for at least a week or more for that surgery. I pray you get to go home soon if you aren't already!!
I fricken love cooked cabbage
@@langyd4518 My husband hates cooked cabbage normally, but I make kluski with it, which is just hot sausage, cabbage and noodles, with salt and pepper, and it quickly became one of his favorite meals! I just made a vegetable beef soup and put quite a bit of cabbage in it too. He LOVED it and wants me to make it again tomorrow! Funny thing is he didn't realize it was even in there. It adds a really nice peppery but sweet flavor to the soup. I made a big batch and canned it so we could have it while I went through radiation treatments. It was a life saver! Cabbage is wonderful in all it's forms - slaw, sauerkraut, sweet and sour or cooked! Cabbage rocks!
I turned on the captions so I could watch while I brushed my teeth and was impressed by how professional they were! Thanks for putting that effort into a part of the video that isn’t often seen!
You’re very welcome!
Quality captions are very important so I always take an extra couple hours to make them especially detailed after the initial corrections from the caption company I purchase from. Thank you for acknowledging the effort I put into them!
@@VBirchwood I really appreciate you not relying on auto captions, which are pretty inaccessible. Thank you
@@VBirchwood I see you went to the Tom Scott school of accessible video making (:
Good captions are much appreciated, indeed! 😊
This comment amused me as I was also watching this while brushing my teeth and therefore has subtitles on 😂
historical reenactor here, just wanted to let you know that they would have absolutely had and used vegetables like spinach and various wild greens (dandelion, nettles, elder, centaury, mint, basil, wood sorrel etc), cabbage, and carrots (though they would've been those fancy heirloom purple and black carrots), parsnip, and turnips and celery, and celeriac (celery root), beets etc, and they would have likely cooked them in those stews alongside the meat, but just didn't list specific vegetables because it was whatever they could find seasonally, also likely added grains like barley to bulk out stews. Also bread and cheese would've been a common simple meal, with fresh fruit and nuts if it was summer, and dried fruit and nuts if it was winter.
I always find it so funny how stuff we find fancy now like rocket and purple carrots were just commonplace back then!
Medieval folks ate a lot of veggies, but there aren't many recipes from the period that specify how to cook them. The idea was that cooking vegetables was something that "everyone knew" how to do (mostly it involved "seething" or boiling them in water or almond milk, seasoning as desired and serving). They would also have had plenty of fruits in season.
I came here to say this! I'm a reenactor and have done feast for events. Vegetables even for the upper classes were common. There are several websites and cookbooks where you can find recipes for young housewives that include a lot of vegetables. Carrots, Parsnips, turnups, onions, mushrooms, fennel, leeks, spinach, garlic, beet leaves, cress, various greens that we don't consider anymore, peas, simple salads, vegetable tarts, root stews. All so common that every medieval person should know how to prepare, or simply serve with a simple dressing.
should add more specific words in the title..
"medieval European foods"
because, even in medieval Chinese or medieval indian-arabic times, they still eat good. but just.. no tomato and peanuts yet. the two things that make their modern foods more superb.
Indonesian archipelago full with spices. India subcontinent main spice is like pepper. like blackpepper.
combine both, and that's how Chinese medieval cuisine still good.
cloves, cumin, saffron, nutmeg, etc. you still got those ingredients in the eastern world.
only in the europe that everything suck.
there is no 'dark ages' in medieval era. only in Europe. so please, don't call medieval era as "dark age' era. majority of the world not in their dark era...
even Chinese empire, the recently conquered by mongols, not even in their dark ages.
@@DBT1007the dark ages were never a thing in europe as well, that's a myth invented after the middle ages ended, medieval europe was very diverse and culturally rich(economically too in the late middle ages, especially the italian states) and most people could afford to eat fairly decently, sure, they couldn't afford to eat the fancy, expensive and spiced foods the wealthy were eating but they were still eating pretty decently, in the late middle ages a good percentage of the population could even afford meat at least once a week.
Also, poor people are poor people everywhere, I doubt the average worker in China or other Asian countries could afford to eat like their rulers or the rich part of the population, which most surely included various types of expensive meats and spices hard to obtain cause of their costly production, like saffron.
@@DBT1007 only in Europe everything sucks.... right🙄🙄🤣🤣😑😑☠☠
Yeah, I made a stew with chicken legs, carrots, turnips, garlic, thyme, sage, and rosemary, then realized I made something that a common person might have made for a festival meal
Note on the almond milk: It was used as a replacement for dairy milk during Lent, since eggs, milk, and many other foods were banned during the period. Medieval Lent was MUCH stricter than modern guidelines, so the fasting and the abstaining from certain foods was pretty much mandatory for most of the population. (This makes sense when you consider that Lent is in northern hemisphere spring, when eggs, milk and many of the other banned foods would have been in short supply anyway.)
Also, lenting Rules applied Not only to the time before eastern, but also 3 days a week all year around. Vegan dishes really are Not a new Thing in the slightest
Those Lenten restrictions along with fasting existed up until the late 1960s. A lot of the Eastern Rite Catholics still follow their traditional Great Fast, which also includes olive oil and wine.
I enjoyed learning about the vegan food and I was surprised when she said that she made chicken and lamb and cod after she said that she wasn't going to eat meat.
@@JewelBlueIbanez Just a huge part of the European had either ceased to be catholic way before that, or stopped lenting so strictly.
@@lemurlover7975 she said no wheat, not meat (for gluten intollerance)
Sure they would have eaten leftovers! “
peas porridge hot,
peas porridge cold,
peas porridge in the pot, nine days old.
Some like it hot
some like it cold,
some like it in the pot nine days old.”
Also- at least the cabbage chowder was vegetables! Hahahahaha
I disagree. Since she’s talking specifically about the wealthy, extra foods left over would likely be gifted to the household staff to share with their own families.
But the working class & below certainly wouldn’t have wasted a bite.
I agree with you
Peas pudding not porridge
Was as is past tense veg.
@@cihunter4986 ikr, amateurs
This has to be the most special and elaborate UA-cam production I have ever watched. Loved the details, the aesthetic, the historical nuances and anecdotes - Your labor totally paid off!
Thank you so much!! ♥️
A great British documentary on life in Tudor England is called Tales From The Green Valley, where four historical anthropologists live the times. Super fun to watch.
Thank you!
@@maidsua4208 your welcome. ☺ There are a few more series as well with the same group. They do Victorian England, Tudor England, etc. Fun!
@@nrgltwrkr2225 Yes, tudor england knows and thanks again for the other channels. Lying with a broken leg and this will make the days a little better.
@@nrgltwrkr2225 If that's the show i remember (i cant remember its name) but i think they said the Edwardian period was about 70% of your income would be spent on food. Absolutely mindblowing
Thank you so much for sharing this!
Almonds: I have a few medieval cookbooks, and one of the most informative ones explained that, in the days before refrigeration, milk didn't keep well. Almonds kept better. Almond milk was such a standard ingredient that the researchers for the books I had couldn't find more than one written set of instructions for the making of it - everyone knew how to make it, just like everyone today knows how to make instant coffee. Imagine how envious those people would be to see us, these days, with almond milk a-plenty, taken for granted, and as a luxury compared with dairy milk (there are some really nice salads in the books I have, hope you continue with this very fun experiment).
Also, Milk often was Not allowed cause of lenting, Like 3 days every week
Milk was turned into cottage cheese and butter soon after millking so they didn't have to worry about it going off, the reason for almond milk was in winter milk production slows down when cows aren't subjected to artificial light like they are nowadays.
"Because I don't taste it while I'm cooking"...the chef soul in me just died, lol. Always taste as you cooooook. But for real, I LOVE medieval food and a lot of these look great. I've done a Christmas "feast" of more peasant-oriented food. One of my favorite memories! There was also a dinner party for friends where I did a roast chicken with mustard & mushroom sauce, thickened with egg yolk. Oh my. Mustard just hits!
Food Factoid: Chowder is technically any thick soup with chunky vegetables (smaller chunks than a stew; and stews are typically understood to always have meat, whereas chowders can go either way). Modern chowders are totally associated with dairy, but that's more of a "recent" addition.
This video was a LOT of work, but looks like you had fun! Thank you for producing it.
Let me improve your form as you've tried (apparently) to improve someone else's: never lead with a complaint
@@MegaZetaHer comment was perfectly 👌 fine. And I AGREE. ALWAYS TASTE AS YOU COOK...
Lol I NEVER taste as I cook. And the food always ends up being delicious and perfectly salted. I do have a very very sensitive sense of smell, so I rely on it a lot. Maybe let people cook however they want and are comfortable...
Mostly it's a good way to burn my tongue.
the way purple back then used to cost millions not even kings could afford, so obviouly this girl is RICH
Purple was usually associated with royals
@@Grandudchesstatiannayep, thats what they said
I did a natural dye workshop and the instructor told us that you’d have to gather and boil thousands of foul-smelling sea snails to process the purple dye that was used from Ancient Rome onwards til someone invented a synthetic purple during the reign of Victoria.
You guys have such a cute friendship! I hope you get to see each others again soon. Can you imagine doing that 7 days a week for your whole life and take care of the children, clean the home, make the clothes, tend the garden and farm animals all without any modern conveniences? I have trouble loading my dishwasher and folding clothes! Lol Hats off to you for your accomplishment, but hats off to women throughout history!!
Randomly stumbled upon your video in my recommended, and I'm so glad! This was one of the most interesting videos I've seen in a good while, thank you for making it!
That was very interesting. I actually cook just like my late grandmother, and she adds a little sugar to most things as a spice. I didn't realize we were medieval cooks. lololol
Pottage was widely eaten as it was easy to keep a pot cooking over a fire and what gives us "Pease in a pot, 9 days old".
They also would not have eaten a lot of raw fruit and vegetable - they thought it was bad to eat raw foods. If you think about it, it probably was. They'd have to wash it in water and, in too many cases the water, wasn't that great so it could have caused illness and is probably why they thought raw foods weren't good for you.
Additionally, if you're min-maxing for calories cooked veggies should take you farther. Cooking can destroy some nutrients, but I'm pretty sure it makes calories easier to absorb.
The "Four Juice Theory" (Humoralpathology) decided whether raw fruits were advisable.
Raw fruits were (mostly) “cold” and “moist”. So if you're a "warm" person with too much black bile... ;)
Vegetables back then were fertilised with manure (sometimes human waste too) so they had to be cooked to destroy the bacteria.
I remember my Medieval English group in Cambridge University making a medieval dinner for us and the Master of one of the Colleges. We were paired up and each pair made a different dish to go to make up the full dinner. Our dish was honey chicken. Your challenge and some of the dishes brought back this memory for me from fifty years ago. Our dinner was absolutely delicious. I can’t remember anything I didn’t like except for the marzipan dishes but that’s just me not liking marzipan 😊
This is so cool! Years ago I found a medieval recipe for pasties and made the hand pies, half meat and half berry. It was so fun and good! Your normal diet shows, your skin is lovely!
This video was so fun! It reminds me of my life growing up while my mom wrote historical cookbooks. No medieval one, but she wrote Shakespeare's Kitchen, about the Elizabethan era. I was surprised to see so much "sallet" considering that common wisdom seemed to avoid raw vegetables. The turnip love was real and I loved learning about some of the crazy showstopper banquet pieces. Like... putting live birds into a pie so they'd break out was REAL! Wild.
less than 20 minutes in and I'm out in the garden at 6 o'clock with a flashlight picking kale and herbs and making soup (prevented from being medieval only by the presence of potatoes but alas)
To make the brie dish a bit greenier: add some arugula salad and pears , it's delicious
Actually, that's fair because pears were available in the Middle Ages.
@sanjivjhangiani3243 that's why I suggested it 😅
Arugula is the devil 😂🤢
I am definitely going to have to try apple omelette
Are you a super taster? I know I am. Arugula and cilantro and fresh basil and watercress all taste absolutely horrible to me. There are a few others too like perilla leaf. It's an extra tastebud.
We regularly eat a slow cooked medieval roast, it is amazing and yes, has vegetables. There is a tutor farm re-enactment series on one of the you tube channels and they show many recipes for the common man.
Tudor Monastery Farm, and there are two books that go with it as well: _How to be a Tudor_ by Ruth Goodman, and _Tudor Monastery Farm_ by Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold. Or three books if you count _How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain,_ also by Goodman.
Wow, I didn't know about the books thanks.
Tales from the green valley also is from that time period and has Ruth in it.
@@ragnkjaI love watching her videos. All the different eras that she's researched. It's my favorite winter past time. It's even better now that I have a big internet ready tv as youtube is fascinating on the TV
Onions fried in butter or lard. Mushrooms are stewed on fried onions and an egg is added. This is a Slavic dish - smaszhenica. Salt, cumin and pepper are used as spices.
yeah its great
first time I’ve encountered this channel and wow- your video making skills are so soothing to watch
Thank you!! :)
I think, there was a french king, who dictated, that people should grow about 7 kinds of Cale in their garden. The idea was to have greens for winter and to survive better. People ate a lot of cale cheap fish black bread, oatmeal baked into biscuits, for working people eggs, milk and butter were expensive and they ate a lot of porridge and drank light ale, warm in the winter. Almonds sugar and spices like cinnamon and others alike were exstremely expensive. Fun to watch and always interesting
I thought butter was extremely common among the average people in the middle ages, especially in continental and northern europe where olive oil was too expensive to get.
At some point they even had to exclude it from the lent banned foods cause the common people were strongly opposing it since it was an important part of what they ate
Butter was expensive. Most peasants in colder parts od Europe would use linseed or hemp oil. Or lard/tallow.
I kind of suspect that my peasant ancestors ate a pretty repetitive diet of mostly bread (probably not mostly wheat bread; they were poor people) with onions, cheese, beer, porridge, lentils, eggs & fish (they lived near the coasts), whatever veggies & fruits were seasonal, and heavy reliance on homegrown herbs rather than expensive nuts & spices. Meat and sweets were probably viewed as special, expensive treats.
Your ancestors more then likely did eat wheat or whole grain bread. It was considered poor peoples food. The upper class wanted the more pure, white bread. The more white the better.
Depending on where they lived, their grain corn was probably either maslin (a mix or wheat and rye) or dredge (a mix of oats and barley).
Wheat bread was more upper class, rye bread was for the commoners, it grew better in western (wetter) Europe. However, rye was susceptible to ergot, and that had interesting side effects.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot
@@teacheraprilrogers And only peasants ate veggies. Upper class folks must have had some heckin' digestive issues without any ruffage.
Bet they just had bread and any veggie they had cooked in a pot and they threw in some meat if they had it and cooked it all together I bet they were short on vitamin c most of the time
Apple omelets are delicious, I make them once in a while (usually fall when there is an abundance of delicious apples around here). Just peel & slice & sauté gently in a pan w/some sweetener (honey, white or brown sugar, even artificial sweetener will do-- your choice), a knob of butter, and a splash of balsamic vinegar or ACV. If you wanna get fancy, try a splash of cherry brandy & flambe it. Add a pinch of salt and some seasonings like cinnamon, nutmeg, pinch of cloves, etc. Then set it aside and make your omelet, using the apple filling as the stuffing. Sooooo good.
Sounds great, taking notes. I don't think I'd add extra sweeteners, though. Perhaps because I lack a true sweet tooth.
what is' knob' in term of measurement?
@@xejelah old fashioned term my grandmother used for not worrying about exact butter measurement lol. I just cut off a piece and throw it to lightly coat the apples, around a tablespoon more or less depending on the size of apples/how many I'm cooking.
This is my new favorite channel. I'm binge watching and I had no idea I needed this.
my great great grandparents were still alive when i was 10 and the stories i heard from my parents was that meat was only a thing once a week and turnips were more common than potatoes. not the medieval era but close enough i guess.
I find that absolutely hilarious that your message implies that your grandparents' youth (I assume max 100 years ago, up to 150 if you're older) is closer to medieval than current times LMAO
@@boreum789meet being cheap is very recent in history. I guess that’s the point. People ate only what they could grow, hunt or collect for most of history.
Not close enough, not even nearly close 😅
@@Amateur_Pianist_472true, but also, till not too long ago most families had their own livestock of all kinds(pigs, chickens, sheeps...) so they could still get meat, just way less often then we do, meat 1 times a week was still pretty common though
Excellent video! As someone who cooks but one meal a day (occasionally two) MAD PROPS for the energy it took to pull this off. Could you imagine cooking seven times a day, forget that noise! I'm glad that things didn't always go as planned, and I'm glad that sometimes meals were skipped or a day was taken easy, it's a testament to being human. It's not about being flawless, it's about giving it your best shot. It looks like you and B had a lot of fun, and at the end of the day, that's what matters most.
They would probably have eaten maslin (a mix of wheat and rye) or dredge (a mix of oat and barley). In both cases, the two species would be grown together in the same field, as an insurance against fluctuating growing conditions. Genetically homogeneous monoculture was the exact opposite of what a medieval farmer would do. They were choosing their crops to give them the best possible worst-case harvest.
Yes, even more cause they didn't have any chemical fertilizers and pesticides so the production was much lower and at risk of weather changes and parasites
This was great fun! I really appreciated the diversity of your selections - in my opinion, the crowned chicken really captured the spirit of the age. Don’t be hard on yourself for how the sauces turned out! You weren’t tasting while cooking so as to preserve your honest reaction for the camera - but of course adjusting seasoning during a dish’s preparation is precisely how a good balance of flavor is achieved. Thanks to you & your dear friend for sharing mealtime with us!
You both are wonderful! This episode was ultra-cozy and oozing with golden sause :)
Food from the mediaeval really excites me, I don't know if it is because I am British or not, but the simplicity really speaks to me. Cooking normally gives me a huge dopamine hit, but seeing the food in your video intrigues me! The combination of the set pieces, the dress and the food creates an awesome environment - it looks like fun!
I really enjoyed this video! Your meals looked so inviting!
Just a couple of reflections, (and while I have read a few medieval cook books I am no expert, so consider this opinion not knowledge). I was surprised at the lack of potage, as it seems that was the most common food for the average working class (peasant) along with bread, cheese and ale.
The term chowder has to do with the food being cooked in a cauldron rather than they type of food being cooked, so a clear soup could still be a chowder as much as it sounds wrong to our ears.
While carrots might have been available i think people might not have snacked on them (or turnips) raw, as human night soils were still used to fertilize the soil. While they would not have had the scientific knowledge of the need to cook root vegetables grown in that soil I am sure the connection was made.
That looked like a fun week. Thanks for sharing with us!
Wow, thank you for the insight on the raw veggies.
I agree about the potage but that would have been a boring video! :D
I think on the pottage, we have to remember that cookbooks of the time were written by chefs for the benefit of other chefs. Simple meals like pottage would not be considered worthy of recording as everyone and their grandma would know how to do it 🤣. That said, the concept of having a pot continuously at the ready just makes sense when your life revolves around making a living, not cooking for a living.
I was going to mention they never ate raw vegetables. Ruth Goodwin, I think that is her name, has done some great videos on this kind of thing. Broad Bean aka fava beans were very common in the time. I loved the week of eating
Such an annoying voice . 😏🥺
I am more joyful than I can describe to watch this video! Your cinematographic style, extensive research and gracefully wholesome self are so rejuvenating to watch and listen to.
In honesty, I just finished breakfast, but, I hope to make a second pot of tea (or hot chocolate), and sip along with the 🥦🌽🥕🥔🍄 game.
It's also the perfect motivation to help me progress on a crafting project.
Thank you so much Catherine! I’m so glad you enjoyed the video, and I hope you enjoy playing along with your second pot of tea 🥰
@@VBirchwood I did. It was fun! And, I got some stuff done. (While drinking tea, and watching eating) I also got inspired to make some "kale stew", not as bland as the cabbage chowder, perhaps.
lol. i was having breakfast as i watched. on bread i'd just made. (2nd ever in the bread machine. though i will be trying by hand once i get more time). i agree with everything you said in that first section. and yeah, it was also motivating for cooking and of alt menu of some sort.
Sharing the recipes of the ones you really liked might be very nice at some point. The brie with the herb/nut sauce would be nice. I would think that the lower classes would have had less meat than the upper classes.
I would have loved to share them but they are from two copyrighted books, so I’d rather that people go and support the authors of those books that I feature in the video 😊
Name of the books?@@VBirchwood
@@samualaddams705 in the description :)
@forgingstrength6119 they have been interpreted and modernised for the modern kitchen. Therefore it was the author’s interpretations I used. It is also just very poor practice to share another’s hard work online for free if they have released a book.
thhhaaats not true. If it contains any sort of creativity, it's copyrighted. and these most likely are, since they are not from 100 year old cookbooks, but modern reinterpretations. so the creativity factor is in. @forgingstrength6119
Apple tansey! Sauté thinly sliced apples in butter until browned (like you would bacon), then add a slightly sweetened custard base with hints of rosewater and nutmeg. Cook on the stovetop until mostly done and then finish under the broiler until the egg is just set. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
31:35 - Chicken and egg served over rice is called oyako donburi (parent and child rice bowl) in Japan.
I not only enjoyed what you did here in this video, but also how much *you* enjoyed doing it. What fun! And now you have inspired me to do some medieval-ish cooking of my own. Thanks!☺
Great video, I want to try that apple omelet omg! A note from a historian: written culture in the past wasn't as it is now in the sense that recipes were not necessarily 'complete' in what they would serve the dish with. You can assume that for a protein rich meal like the cheese with herbs and sauce would have been eaten with a chunk of bread. And given that vegetables were so seasonal, if they were eaten they would just serve whatever would be available.
Almond milk was used in lieu of dairy milk because unlike the dairy variety, it didn't spoil too quickly and during Lent when dairy, eggs, and meat were forbidden, it made an adequate substitute. Almonds were plentiful enough they could be used in many recipes for many dishes. Marzipan was also a frequent appearance at noble tables, where the confection was used in a variety of shapes and colors.
Contrary to popular belief, Medieval peasants did eat their share fresh fruits and vegetables. Nobles didn't, apparently, because they believed fresh fruits and vegetables were bad for the health and could cause dysentery. Bread tended to be made from a number of grain flours. Poorer folk had to make do with barley flour for their bread, and when potatoes were introduced from the New World, potato flour. Peasant flour mills ground the flour rather coarsely, so it had a lot of grit in it that wore teeth down to a flat plane that prevented food from settling in to cause tooth decay. Bad breath was very much a thing, but among the peasants, tooth decay was not much of a problem.
Peasant laborers ate pottage, which had a simple recipe: take whatever you had on hand, throw it into a pot with some water, and boil it until it became a sort of porridge. It was rather disgusting, but herbs from the garden could be used to flavor it and when dried out it could be taken to the field and re-hydrated with a bit of beer to make a sort of instant lunch. Table beer, which was the type most consumed at home, was extremely low in alcohol content.
Ooooh, yes!!!!! Fiddleheads are sooooo good - just wish their growing season was longer.
I'd love to get the recipe for the rose pudding with chopped dates. You did a wonderful job doing this video & you survived! Thank you for making content like this. I love historical stuff, but especially anything & everything medieval. I'd love to learn medieval cooking & how to actually sew my own medieval clothes that are suitable to wear at Ren Faires (especially a kirtle, love the color of yours).
The thing is meats, especially exotic, and breads, cheeses and spices were all expensive. The information we have about medieval food is almost exclusively from the very upper class like nobility. I’m sure the poorer people were eating more grains and vegetables. Also, almonds had really just reached England from northwestern Asia and that’s why they were so popular in those upper class dishes.
Most people including historical experts have zero understanding of history. Usually people are trained based on facts from the 1800s and keep learning the same thing and spreading mis information over and over but let me educate you.
Bread was super cheap, only white bread was expensive. Spices from the east were expensive however plenty of poor people could afford things such as mustard and salt on mass. Cheese was very common in a peasants diet. There isn't too much info on the sale of cheese as cheese was mass produced by the peasant population and not expensive at all unless it's specific imported cheeses, but this wasn't really a thing for the most part depending on the period.
FYI the average peasant diet back then, depending on region would for the most part be considered fancy health food today, sold at a premium.
@@michalcynarski7321also another misconception I see spread a lot: peasants (never) rarely ate meat.
They didn't eat the Lord's deer yeah, however they had access to pigs, chickens and various other birds, rabbits, goats, sheep and cows. Did they eat meat as often as we do today? Ofc not, but if you ever worked on a farm you know how important the nutrition is you can get from meat. Nothing like Vitamin-B tablets around that time either.
@@rickymartin4457 Depending on the time and place, they actually ate more meat than usual today. The extremely high grain consumption was predominantly a thing towards the end of the Early and the High Middle Ages and especially around the Mediterranean basin.
@@michalcynarski7321 Yes, although it is worth noting that records indicate that most of the grain was consumed in the form of gruel (especially in the High Middle Ages). Mind, gruel often included ingredients besides grain, salt, and water, such as dairy, fruit, nuts, animal proteins, beans/legumes, vegetables, etc.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video! You two are adorable and I am so happy I was recommended this channel. I am curious and wonder why so many in the comments seem to be picking on the supposed inaccuracies of the video when she clearly says this was simply a fun experiment. Chill out folks. Thanks for your dedication and hard work on this 💕😉
i agree totally. she did a fantabulous job.
I really enjoyed this video 👍🏻 I mediaeval times a common mid-day meal would have been just bread, cheese, and an onion, with ale to help it down. Easy to prepare and easy to carry with you if you were out working all day.
Stews and soups was also common, I've heard. It would have stretched what meat they did have, and would have been cooking all day. Most likely beans and some veggies.
Stews and soups (pottages) were a significant part of most people’s diets, according to what I’ve heard.
I loved watching this adventure of yours. The banter between you and your friend was sweet.
This was a great video! I love history. I love food. Well done! I love how you stuck to some "rules" and didnt deviate. Truly a medieval experience.
I imagines you were the maid and your friend was the princess lol
THIS IS FUCKING WONDERFUL. You are a joy to watch, the shorts and editing are great
This was such a lovely video.
The itchy nose thing that I recall was indicating you were going to kiss a fool.
And I’ve instantly subbed because I was witness to your honor and integrity in the comments regarding your protectiveness of the authors’ work! You are a good person and I’m happy to support you.
Leftovers would usually go to the servants or peasants, which would often turn into pottage, a kind of stew that was different depending on the leftover food that's in it.
I like your dedication to sewing a medieval dress especially for this occasion.
Congratulations and a special thanks for sacrificing so much of your time for your viewers.
You are both so pretty and charming. This was a delightful watch! I think you actually ate pretty accurately for servants in a wealthy house who would eat the leftovers from the multi-course meals.
Im honestly surprised you arent making pottage out of peas and stock with some kind of leafies. But it was facinating and The lighting was charming ❤❤
Fun fact medieval nobles and higher upper classes thought of most vegetables and greens as considered peasant food or common folks food.
This video was so much fun to watch 😊 I’m sure you already know about him, but Max Miller’s channel Tasting History recreates tons of historical recipes, and he explains the history of those recipes in each video. If people like this video definitely check him out
Yes! I love Max’s channel!!!!
Hardtack! (Clack-clack!) 😅
Yep, that's the channel she should have watched.
He's amazing
yeah i was pretty bummed watching this since she didn’t go further into more information about the food what ingredients she used, how she cooked it, the specific things she changed for her allergy or whatever and was bummed you couldn’t really get a good look at them as the lighting sucked
I seem to recall reading that non royals were were prohibited from wearing purple!
I just found your channel, and what a delight you are! I look forward to more videos.
I remember reading that upper class people in this period didn't eat much in the way of vegetables as they were seen as a "poor person" food. So while peasants were eating pease pottage and suchlike, the upper classes had a lot of dairy and meat, leading to wealthy diseases like gout.
(Also I'm definitely going to try making jowtes after this, haha!)
@did you try
Yep, gout was pretty common
My biggest takeaway from this video is that I definitely need a "Cheese Person"!
I praise your adventure. Modern appreciation of the limited kitchen people had in the past is so limited. Even your week is posh for normal
Medieval kitchens
I really love your channel. I think it's fascinating. Well I think that you're fascinating actually. I like all subjects so what you do with dressing the way you do and living the way you do falls into that for sure. But really I don't see too many other people have compassion like this for what they do. I just really like it and I'm super glad you do it. Great work!
Just working my way through your videos. I know it was a while ago but it was lovely to see you spending time with someone who you really care about. Really generous of her to join you for the adventure and agree to be filmed! What a full on week for you both!
This was a pleasure to watch, it's the first of your videos I've seen and I'm instantly subscribing!
Thank you!! Welcome to the channel!
To eat more greens and vegetables, you need to move down the social scale. They were considered peasant food. The wealthy wanted to have only the most inexpensive foods on their table - heavy on meat (which was a luxury item), expensive spices (mace, pepper, grains of paradise, dried ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg) and anything & everything else imported: almonds, wine, cheeses, dried fruit (raisins, lemons, oranges), and the most expensive of all -sugar! The poor were mostly vegan, but not by choice. They ate a LOT of bread, root vegetables like turnips, cabbage ,a mess of pottage or frumenty (grain cooked with whatever was on hand - herbs, nettles, seasonal vegetables), and peas porridge. In general, meat, eggs, milk and butter were probably sold rather than eaten by the lower classes. Bread for the poor would resemble a little modern-day whole wheat. The rich had bread made from the whitest flour they could afford. It's false that medieval upper class people used so many spices in meat dishes to cover up meat that had gone off. They put spices in almost everything to show their wealth.
you definitely didyour research. thanks for the read, it was interesting.
There are a number of older spices that would have been used by commoners like alexanders and nigella, not to mention radishes and different flowers like safflower. Nettles! But this was so much fun, your friend is very beautiful! Bravo!!
most people everywhere that were working class mostly ate mashed or boiled vegetables and broths and soups. meat was once a week, usually a quail or chicken. eggs were also very rarely afforded.
I heard chicken was very rare, since they produce eggs... (or maybe they kept male chickens)
Iirc pig meat was more common
Chicken was a luxury, as they produced eggs. But nearly every family had pigs.
@alth000 you gotta do something with all the rooster chicks
Enjoyed that. Thank you for tha hard work in planning and preparing...and eating these meals.
Those wonderful hand made little table cloths would be even more beautiful if you used to soak them in some starch and water after washing it. Dry it and iron it very carefully especially where the crochet-work is. Gently placing it in order with your fingers. It is going to look perfect ;) I really appreciate all the work you have put in this video. Thanks for sharing! ❤
Also note, medieval people never ate 3 meals, only 2 and the heavier meal was eaten earlier in the day.
As a current day peasant... Same.
she said she was modernizing the consumption tho
Uplerclass as well huh?
This was so cool!! I own The Medieval Cookbook but haven't tried any recipes from it yet so it was awesome to see your reactions to some of them. Thank you for sharing this experiment and well done!
I also own The Medieval Cookbook. I made the Jowtes with Almond Milk after watching this and I can confirm, it's delicious!
@@KellySmithDavis I think I will definitely try that one!
This was a very fun video to watch. Thanks so much for making it!
I mean sugar IS used as a spice even today. It's not at all uncommon to add some sugar to Bolognese or similarly acidic/tart sauces in order to balance it out a bit.
You mean they already imported cane sugar from the Caribbean back then?
@@2adamast Sugarcane is originally from the region around India and New Guinea, the word sugar itself is derived from Sanskrit.
If ur American …
Yeah, but in way lower quantities and diffetent dishes. Like we do not add it to every dish like chicken soup!
@@2adamastthat is not where they got it from..... Maybe look into the history of sugar, max miller has 2 great vids on the topoc on his channel tasting history
This video vas so enjoyable to watch. You invested your time and hard work into it. I love the conversation at the end between you and your friend. Sharing.
I loved the interactions with her friend the most. Sharing meals and time adventuring during the day with people you love is something that makes life worth living! ❤
Truly a committed task! I agree about the lack of vegetables, though I enjoy rice and love bread and butter. Not so sure about the soups and sauces...However, it was quite interesting and good to see you and your friend enjoying time together.
The aristocracy definitely ate less root vegetables and more meat than the average person, and a lot of the things they ate back then are no longer common, and if a weed was edible and tasted nice it was basically considered a vegetable you didn’t have to expend effort on.
That green soup looked amazing. With the almonds it reminded me of a pesto recipe I sometimes do.
This is the first video of yours I've seen, and it was wonderful! You have great aesthetic taste and it was so enjoyable watching and hearing your experience. Thank you so much for sharing!
Can I just say that I adore this close up camera angle! It’s so fun and really brings across how intensely passionate you are :)
the jowtes with almond milk reminds me of the Finnish spinach soup (pinaattikeitto, spenatsoppa in Swedish)! it's a true staple of school lunches over here. we usually put boiled eggs in there (not while cooking, after). Pinaattikeitto is usually made with dairy milk at least today, no idea what they wouls have used back in the day, or even how old the dish is. but it was really cool seeing something even vaguely familiar in a video like this!!
Spinach soup with boiled egg is also eaten in Norway and Denmark.
This is so fun I love it! Also the medieval asmr😂 I love it!
Glad you enjoyed! The medieval ASMR joke is very fitting with your channel name! 😂
🤣😂@@VBirchwood
a common view on food etiquette amongst the aristocracy in christian europe (i believe it stems back to royal feasts in medieval europe and i only have heard it from english sources so far and in regards to formal dining, might not even be representative of wealthy people on a daily basis) it's basically you wouldn't want to finish the dish at a royal baquet, finishing it all was seen as an act of selfishness it came down to the structure of ceremonial dining : people would eat in order of hierarchy, the monarch would be served first then the people next to them and so on until the end of the table, taking little food would then allow everyone below you to get enough food. At the end of the meal there should be leftovers for people hierarchaly lower than the guest : the servants of the castle and when all those people had sufficently eaten, any rest would be given to religious structures that would provide it to the "poor" community (which at that point would be anyone outside of the working system either due to age, elderly people would depend on their family to live on and in the absence on anyone surviving they would depend on those religious charities to survive, or due to illness or disabilities)
now a lot of traditional dishes all over the world that are transmitted through speech tend to be ways to use up less than fresh ingredients
This was SO much fun! And I love the way you filmed it
I love this video. It's so calming and just peaceful. THank you for sharing this.
I used to be in the Cooks Guild of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). So I did a bit of medieval cooking. It is interesting!
Historically, the alternative to eating your leftovers was to give them as alms, which was seen as the more charitable thing to do. They certainly wouldn’t have let any leftover food go to waste.
great video and I cannot help but think that if you had made it about what commoners ate, it'd be a lot simpler: soup and bread, bread and soup and on special occasions something else like a chicken perhaps roasted. From what I have gathered from light research and family members, common people ate basically what was available - so seasonal fruit and veg and meat (from the annual pig) salted, dried and perhaps a chicken or a goose on the spit for festivities), beans, fish if they were near a river or the sea, etc. and the occasional egg from their hen(s). I was told that there was not meat at every meal or in all seasons. The soup would have a bit of meat in it (it was used sparingly because it had to last) and beans or lentils. Cheese and butter would have either been homemade or again eaten sparingly. More likely lard instead of butter. Well, that's the impression I have and so your video is way more interesting than that!
There is a series of books written - set in the late 1300s - by Susanna Gregory who has done a lot of research for writing them. In it she gives a good list of the basic foods ''enjoyed'' by the poorer classes (which definitely describes the protagonist and colleagues) through the year. Often not very appealing shall we say. If you are interested in that sort of thing they are worth leafing through - if you like mystery books then you might enjoy them for the storylines as well - simply for the snippets about the food available between the richer parts of society and the poorer ones.
@@AveCaesar2025 that sounds really interesting! thanks for the information.
You two have great banter and chemistry, was a joy to watch you to simply interact while discussing these meals.
I haven’t even finish the video but I’m enjoying it so much. This is way more interesting than I thought. Also, you have a beeeeaautiful skin
I love your videos, you make me feel safe and creative
Awww this is the best compliment, thank you so much! 😊
Perfectly stated I agree. It was inspirational 🙂🥰
I believe some variety of porridge or pottage would have been a typical anytime meal. Likely bread, butter, cheese or cold leftover meats would be grab and go foods for the working class. Lots of pulses would have been served too. If game, mutton, fowl or fish was available, that would have been the main meal of the day. Often meat wasn't always available, so stewed vegetables or broth-based soup with barley would be the meal.
Loved watching this! The dishes were interesting ❤
Thanks so much! 😊 glad you enjoyed the video!!
This was such a pleasure to watch! I loved both of your dialogue, and honesty. Your meals looked nice, great job, and thank you!
What an amazing video and I want to try most of these recipes. Thank you for all your work!