Feeding a family in a medieval cottage

Living in a village during Medieval times was not easy. The people were poor and they were mostly peasant farmers. Barter (2003) describes how there might be three rooms and the whole family would live in these rooms. One could be used for cooking food and eating, another for sleeping and the third for storage. In very cold winters animals would be kept in this room at night. Families had to work very hard and they were thrifty – they made much of what they needed.

Food eaten by poor cottagers was very simple compared with the feasts enjoyed by the Lord of the Manor and other wealthy folk. Bohte (2004) says that one of the staple foods was called Pottage. It was a thick soup which was made using beans and grains from the cottage garden (which was called a croft). Slocum (2005) describes the arable land of a manor, of which common tenants could use strips to grow crops. If they had vegetables those would be added to the soup and sometimes there would be small pieces of meat or fish as well. Siddorn 2005) tells us that the only vegetables available were very small carrots "Welsh carrots", parsnips and wild cabbage. Onions and leeks were grown and used for flavouring. It was all cooked in one pot which was suspended by chains over an open fire in the cottage. It might continue being cooked for nearly a week and as a result the pottage could be different each day as new ingredients were added. After that the pot would be cleaned out and another mixture started. Matterer (l997) remarks that peas and beans were staple foods of the poor and these would always used in the pottage. mortrews or quenelles (which were like a dumpling) were made of fish or meat pounded, mixed with breadcrumbs, stock and eggs, then poached in the soup. Barter (2003) relates that because the pottage was left in the pot for so many days, children made a rhyme up about it: "Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold,

Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old." (p.47)

Another method of cooking was by wrapping food in leaves and clay then baking it in the embers of the fire. Bread was a very important food which was baked in the village and made from beans, barley or rye which had been milled into flour by the miller. Barter (2003) describes this bread as being dark and heavy. (Only the nobility could afford to buy bread made from fine wheat flour). After a few days the bread became so hard that people would dip it into the soup so that they could eat it.

None of the cottages had a tap and water had to be fetched from either a well or a stream. Barter (2003) comments that much time was involved in fetching water. It was very hard work; wives and children were involved in this chore and had to fetch water two or three times a week. They used a barrel made of wood or a waterproof leather bag known as a "waterskin". Water from a well was clean but there was often a long time to wait at the well while people filled up a barrel so it was a slow and heavy process. Water from a stream could be dirty and when it was brought back to the cottage it must be emptied into a large container and left until the grit had settled to the bottom.

Barter (2003) explains that people did not drink water, rather they made ale from grain and also barley wine which was used in cooking for feasts. Families had hens which provided eggs and a cow for milk which was made into butter which could be sold. Buttermilk was left after the butter had been churned and this was another drink. They probably a pig which they would keep and fatten up. If they could afford to the pig might be killed and some of the meat preserved. Bhote (2004) describes the methods people used to preserve food: salt was used as a preservative (fish might be salted in brine, which is water with salt added) and alt was put into butter and cheese. Fish, meat and vegetables could all be pickled in vinegar and meat might be smoked by hanging it in the smoke from the fire.

An interesting fact about what happened if a pig was killed is mentioned by Levick (l992) who says that the blood was kept, stirred until cool then mixed with herbs and flour to make blood pudding.

Cooking was done over an open fire and poor homes had that fire in the centre of their houses. This made the house very smoky and was also quite dangerous. It was much safer to cook outside the cottage; the food could be put into a large metal pot and either hung above the fire or sometimes meat or fish might be cooked on a metal grid above the fire - almost like a barbecue. Rich people had utensils made of glass and metal, but poor people only had wooden spoons and their cups would be made from the horns of animals. They ate their food with spoons and their fingers.

It is mentioned in Amazon (2004) that the only sweet food in medieval times was found in the woods: berries, nuts and honey are examples. Levick (l992) tells us that honey was the only sweetener used by the poor. Crab apples (very small apples) might be used to make cider and that would be sweetened with honey. The only use of sugar was in medicine.

In medieval times, Bhote (2004) reminds us, almost everybody was a Christian and sometimes the priest would tell them they must fast, which meant eating no meat or dairy food . At other times there might be a church feast day and on those days people would eat some meat or fish if they could get it and thank God for giving them this food.

Despite their hard lives, poor villagers managed to use the vegetables, herbs and occasional meat or fish available to them to eke out their meals into a subsistence diet, often catering for quite large families.

REFERENCES

Amazon. (2004) http://www.historyonthenet.com/Medieval-Life/food.htm. (accessed

8.4.2006)

Barter, James (2003). Life in a Medieval Village. Farmington Mills Ml: Lucent Books..

Bhote, Tehmina (2004). Medieval feasts & banquets. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. Inc.

Levick, Ben (2004). http://www.regia.org/food.htm. Accessed 8/4/2006

Materer James L. (2005) http://www.godecookery. com/mtales/mtales14.htm retrieved 8/4/2006

Pollock, H.A. (Ed.). (undated) Newne’s pictorial knowledge. London: Newnes Ltd.

Pooley, Robert C. (Ed.) (l968). England in Literature. Glenview Ill. Scott Foresman & Co

Siddorn, Kim. (2005) http://www.regia.org/food.htm (accessed 8/4/2006).

Slocum, Kay (2005). Medieval Civilisation. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.