Posted on 05/17/2019 8:03:53 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Scientists from the University of Bristol have uncovered, for the first time, definitive evidence that determines what types of food medieval peasants ate and how they managed their animals.
Using chemical analysis of pottery fragments and animal bones found at one of England's earliest medieval villages, combined with detailed examination of a range of historical documents and accounts, the research has revealed the daily diet of peasants in the Middle Ages. The researchers were also able to look at butchery techniques, methods of food preparation and rubbish disposal at the settlement...
The OGU team used the technique of organic residue analysis to chemically extract food residues from the remains of cooking pots used by peasants in the small medieval village of West Cotton in Northamptonshire.
Organic residue analysis is a scientific technique commonly used in archaeology. It is mainly used on ancient pottery, which is the most common artefact found on archaeological sites worldwide.
Researchers used chemical and isotopic techniques to identify lipids, the fats, oils and natural waxes of the natural world, from the ceramics.
These can survive over thousands of years and the compounds found are one of the best ways scientists and archaeologists can determine what our ancestors ate.
The findings demonstrated that stews (or pottages) of meat (beef and mutton) and vegetables such as cabbage and leek, were the mainstay of the medieval peasant diet.
The research also showed that dairy products, likely the 'green cheeses' known to be eaten by the peasantry, also played an important role in their diet.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Fish was well-watched by the nobility. You took a fish from a river without getting permission and you were a dead man. In fact, game was controlled as well. I know that Richard the Third was anxious to reform some of the overly-restrictive laws about salmon fishing and may have done so.
Crackpots...
No, being on FR makes you a medieval peasant.
Oh yeah? What about iceberg lettuce, smartypants?
regarding “BS, vegetables do not grow in cold snow.” this was during the medieval warm period. and one would harvest and store veggies for the winter.
no, not news, except yo AOC & old folks like me who keep fprgetting that ‘pottage’ is what today we call ‘stew.’
“The findings demonstrated that stews (or pottages) of meat (beef and mutton) and vegetables such as cabbage and leek, were the mainstay of the medieval peasant diet.
The research also showed that dairy products, likely the ‘green cheeses’ known to be eaten by the peasantry, also played an important role in their diet.”
Healthy diet.
One of the two fat ladies, Clarissa Dickson-Wright has good medieval food shows up on You Tube. I have about 6 books on medieval cookery including the famous Forme of Curry (Method of Cooking) which belonged to King Richard 2.
*shrug* one who does enough pot will forget. uh. what were we talking about? oh yeah, will forget what pottage means...
That reminds me of the cook who was fired for favoring curry...
Dayum! Someone actually got paid to do a study on the obvious??
They didn’t put pineapple in theirs. :^)
They only planted it in hot snow.
I sometimes enjoy it when “Time Team” put in a bit about cooking in the time period of their archaeological dig.
The pioneer ancestors used to eat a lot of the local "weeds", some of which (corn, 'maters, peppers, squash, pole beans) wound up in the world's diet, but most of which get attacked by broadleaf chems used by the hirelings of urban and suburban homeowners. :^)
Leek pottage hot.
Leek pottage cold.
Leek pottage in the pot
Nine hundred years old.
I remember a discussion of some of the 'worts that were relied on during the Little Ice Age (not sure they referred to it as that, though).
Henry VIII's Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace (not Time Team)
:^)
another American “weed”:
Pawpaws: America’s Best Secret Fruit | Serious Eats
https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/what-are-pawpaws-wild-fruit-midwest-how-to-prep-and-eat-pawpaws.html
in Europe, still popular:
Medlar: The Best Fruit You’ve Never Heard Of | Root Simple
https://www.rootsimple.com/2010/12/medlar-the-best-fruit-youve-never-heard-of/
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