What Did Peasants Eat in Medieval Times?

They ate more than just bread. They were culinary innovators!

Sourced from Wikimedia Commons

When you think about a typical medieval peasant meal, what’s the first that comes to mind? Besides bread, probably not a whole lot, right? Well, you’d be surprised at how varied their diets were. Medieval peasants were like us in that they’d quickly got bored of eating the same bland food.

Since peasants lived very physical lives, they needed many calories to get them through the day. Depending on which region they came from, they had access to a wide range of foods by growing, foraging, and even fishing.

Many dishes were packed with nutrients and had everything that a balanced meal required. Peasant food wasn’t full of muck and grime; they were the epitome of a healthy diet.

Bread Was the Staple

Although today, brown bread is more expensive and considered a healthier choice, it required less effort to produce during medieval times, making it cheap and accessible for peasants.

In contrast, white bread was highly sought after, not only because it was more expensive and considered a status symbol, but because the colour of the bread meant that it was harder to cheat people as it could not be dyed or discoloured as easily.

Most of the bread eaten by peasant’s was a type of dark bread made from rye grain. This was often hard and difficult to chew with the Swedish botanist Carl Von Linnè noting the following:

“Soft bread is used mainly by the aristocracy and the rich, but it weakens the gums and teeth, which get too little exercise in chewing. However, the peasant folk who eat hard bread cakes generally have stronger teeth and firmer gums.”

The type of bread did vary, however. In France, most peasants ate a type of bread made from wheat and rye called meslin.

However, in the Polish city of Wroclaw, people could buy ordinary white bread, rye bread, wheat rolls, and even flat cakes. Living in an urban settlement provided more choice, but since most peasants lived in rural communities, these weren’t always available.

Even outside Europe, bread was widely consumed. In one of the earliest known…