What the Average Diet Was Like in Medieval Times

It may be a trendy "alt-milk" popular among vegetarians and vegans in the 21st century, but during medieval times, almond milk was prepared for pretty practical reasons. When the Church declared a fast day, for example, people couldn't eat meat or animal milk, so cooks turned to almond or walnut "milk" as an alternative, and even used it to make butter. It was also handy because it could be stored "with no danger of degeneration," unlike animal milk, which spoils quickly. Almond milk was such a common ingredient, in fact, that all existing cookbooks from the period call for it.

Sure, knights weren't riding their horses up to little windows and buying cheap food after a long day of jousting or anything, but there was a form of "fast food" in the Middle Ages. There weren't any Big Macs (or White Castle burgers!) to be had, but people did enjoy meat pies, hotcakes, pancakes and wafers prepared "for immediate consumption." Medieval fast food joints, like modern ones, had pretty poor reputations. Researchers at Penn State say that "the common view of them was that they were dishonest and dirty" and that some made "meat pies from tainted rabbit, geese and offal" or tried to "pass beef pasties off as venison." 

So this is like the opposite of paleo, right? Most people in medieval Europe ate 2-3 pounds of bread and grains per day, including up to a gallon of (low-alcohol) ale. Grains such as wheat, rye, oats, and barley were boiled into porridge, made into bread, and, alas, only occasionally paired with poultry, pork, or beef (medieval folk instead ate peas, lentils, and fish to get their protein fix). For the record, 2.5 pounds of rye bread is a whopping 3,000 calories and a gallon of ale is an additional 1,500 calories... but considering that work days in the summer for a medieval peasant lasted as long as 12 hours, it was pretty easy to burn through all that bread.

Eating exclusively raw food is a modern trend that would have confounded medieval folks. Researchers from The British Library Board say, in fact, "All fruit and vegetables were cooked - it was believed that raw fruit and vegetables caused disease." The Boke of Kervynge ("The Book of Carving") from 1500, for example, warned against salads and raw fruit in particular: "Beware of green sallettes and rawe fruytes for they wyll make your soverayne seke." ("Beware of green salads and raw fruits, for they will make your master sick.")  Fresh herbs were fair game for medicine and cooking, but all other greenery needed the disease cooked out of it.

The stereotype of a whole roasted pig or boar as part of a medieval feast is actually historically accurate. Pigs were considered "one of the most important sources of meat and fat" in medieval Europe. One the most sought-after types of pig? The suckling pig, which is just like it sounds: it's a baby pig that was probably sucking on its momma's teat just hours before it was roasted. It was considered to be a delicacy akin to how modern folks think of lobster or veal (which is basically "suckling cow," when you think about it). Historians, in fact, say that "the meat of the suckling young in general" was "in high esteem" at the time. The momma pig was considered a delicacy, too - or at least part of her was. Historians say "sow's womb" was a delicacy that appeared in medieval cookbooks.

You might think that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but according to medieval brainiac priest Thomas Aquinas, you're wrong and you're a big ol' glutton. Aquinas thought praepropere (eating too soon in the day) was one way to commit the deadly sin of gluttony. Breakfast, basically, was an "affront against God and the self."

The ideal meal plan in the Middle Ages was to not "break the fast," but instead skip breakfast, have a light midday dinner, and have a hearty evening supper. Some rebels had a sneaky Taco Bell-like "Third Meal" called reresoper ("rear supper") with wine and ale, too, but that was frowned upon. Laborers, apparently, ate something like breakfast, but it was literally just a small chunk of something to put in their stomachs so they didn't pass out in the fields. It wasn't exactly a full "English Breakfast."