More like a medieval king.
Peasants? Even many nobles didn’t eat like that every day.
People think that the typical nobleman in the Middle Ages ate like King Henry VIII. That isn’t true. Did you know that they determined that at least at a few points in Vlad the Impaler’s life he was basically living on a vegan diet? They ate a hell of a lot of vegetables and grains because meat was still expensive for everyone involved.
This. You had a steady diet of vegetables and bread. Maybe eggs if you had chickens and some small bit of land. Those times were harsh as fuck
Or our lives are abundant as fuck, which makes everything else look like absolute poverty.
Also they weren’t guzzling wine and ale at all hours and when they did drink it was usually cut with water or what they called ‘small beer’ and very young wine (which didn’t have time to properly fermented and reach full potency) that had limited alcohol content. Also they did drink water. In the same way that in places in the world where they have limited water treatment facilities they still drink water even if it isn’t the best.
Again… they weren’t stupid. They might not have had the depth and breadth of modern medical technology on how alcohol affects you, but people knew what it did and they know what addiction is (even if they made it out to be a personal weakness) and how terrible it was.
Hell no, he had brochettes almost every day…
Vlad, the real inventor of gyros/kebab
Humans on a stick don’t count!
Skyrim ass meal. need a wheel of cheese with it.
Try a ploughmans meal - bread, cheese and pickle. Awesome as a lunch.
Btw, that “ploughman’s lunch” was created in the 1960s by british marketing executives. It has nothing to do with medieval times, it’s just meant to evoque that vague feeling.
The branding of ploughman’s lunch was invented in the 60s but that same Wikipedia page states it had been a common meal for rural labourers for centuries.
The pickle is probably the new aspect. Farm workers have obviously been eating cheese, bread, pasties, cold meats etc. since forever.
Fermenting veggies has been around a long time too. It might not have been a pickled cucumber, but something pickled wouldn’t be unheard of.
Thank you for this info. I wouldn’t have thought to look into such a thing. It reads to me like it was created by marketers, though, not politicians. It says “the Cheese Bureau, a marketing body affiliated with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency” created it in the '50s.
You’re right, I misremembered the article. Corrected, thanks!
Is that a pickle or some pickle?
Tangy pickle yes. Branston, piccalilli. Or pickled onions, relish, or somesuch.
Neither. It’s just pickle.
And a wineskin full of barley water, chilled in the stream
Nah, just a pint of beer
Even in the 1960s eating a whole chicken would have been a luxury, this isn’t peasant food, that’s the gout inducing diet of a king
I doubt anyone today eats a whole chicken for lunch.
I used to work at Boston Market, and there were definitely customers that would order a whole chicken just for themselves and eat it. Not every day or anything, but it wasn’t rare enough to raise eyebrows either.
deleted by creator
The roast chicken is usually not an egg creating machine though.
They are fairly young male chickens, that have been raised just past their maximum growth rates.I guess that wouldn’t have been that much different in medieval times. The difference nowadays is, that we have specialized breeds for egg-laying or meat production vice versa and the respective ‘wrong’ sex of each will just be ‘discarded’ right after hatching.
deleted by creator
Soft white bread? Nobody but rich upper class people could afford soft white bread until well past the industrial revolution.
That’s also a pretty large roasted bird that’s being eaten in complete absence of stew.
Roast chicken on a nice crusty sourdough is amazing. Get some butter or gravy in there it’s a hell of a meal
fun fact: whole-grain bread is probably healthier than soft white bread anyways due to an increased content in fiber, so there’s that …
I thought this was common knowledge?
it might be, but it still fits into the context. especially considering how peasants unintentionally might have been healthier simply due to their poverty, which might seem paradoxical.
No one before the 1930s had access to such a large breed of chicken lol.
They probably would have confused this picture with a miniature Turkey.
or a very lean goose
HA! A mini Anatolian peninsula, you say?
“What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent chicken meal?”, “Get your hand off my baguette!”
I had to scroll way too far for this.
Oh damn, that’s a fucking feast! Peasents can’t afford that shit.
He stole the chicken and bread, calm down Mr medieval economy
All Javerts are bastards.
A medieval peasant would be wishing they could est like this.
You’re eating like Final Fight.
(Hits a trashcan)
Roasted chicken.
(Hits some tires)
Bread.
100% health let’s go!!!Oh look, a lead pipe!
Haggard:
Oh yes I’m tournament viable now!Just don’t drink out of it and you’ll be okay.
Needs more golden carrot
A lazy supermarket special - a roast chicken in a bag and a baguette roll picked up on the way to the checkout. We’ve all been there and I’m sure it makes a passable meal, but cooking is a skill everyone should endeavour to be proficient in.
Yeah but lets face it, a supermarket rotisserie chicken is generally cheaper and better than a chicken roasted at home. I dont understand the economic of it, but its true. I have up roasting chicken at home because its just never as succulent
$5 at Costco babyyyyyy
I’ve had good results with spatchcocking, which as a bonus also cuts the cook time in half.
The bachelor’s handbag.
If by “peasant” you mean “knight of the fucking round table” then yes
A few things to unpack here.
- That chicken is roasted nicely, but I completely understand if that was bought in that condition at the grocer’s.
- Plain bread is a travesty. it needs to be either toasted and/or you need some melted butter or gravy to sop up.
- Pair this with some fruit or pan seared/roasted vegetables. Even microwaved beans would make this nutritious. Takes very little effort, very easy to do.
- Even peasants had access to beer, ale, or home-made short-beer/kvass. Gotta calorie-max so you can work in the field tomorrow. Plus, the alcohol helps with the constant muscle-aches and fatigue from endless labor.
There are innumerable ways to elevate this meal, but I’ll keep this comment short. Anyone, feel free to message me or reply here if you want tips for that.
Plain bread is perfectly fine as long as it’s not one of those super dry breads
super dry breads
Technically that’s not bread. That’s… Hm… Wheat buttscratcher? Anywho, a proper bread with no industrial processing is moist. :)
The 0.62€ industrial baguette I buy at Despar Is fine and not dry despite being industrial
How long does it keep the moistness? Is it still moist the next day? What about day after that?
The day after it’s fine. The next day it’s meh. Provided you keep it in a paper bag and not out in the air
Then it’s slightly better industrial bread (was it baguette?), but yeah. Leavens or emulsifiers or weird making process lead to it. Like they also used one of the water retaining emusifiers instead of proper starch content - those tend to keep moistness for up to 48h since baking and then it evaporates instantly.
Non industrial bread keeps water longer, but more importantly loses it more gradually and from the outside in (so that at least the “core” is still moist).
(I’m not arguing pro/against breads here, or trying to, idk, shame you for buying baguettes lol, honestly just trying spread the knowledge)
Anywho, a proper bread with no industrial processing is moist. :)
how so?
Crumb must be crumby, but “flesh” of the bread should be moist (do not confuse it with soft). Properly made bread shouldn’t be wet or chewy.
When making bread you add water to the dough. Starch will keep the water and when baking, the flesh should retain it spread evenly. Industrial bread often dehydrates/dries it, as that’s how it works with their emulsifiers or leavens - don’t ask me why though, it’s just my observation.
And you can be sure that dry bread is either old stale bread or fresh industrial breas.
a friend of mine brought me some self-made bread yesterday, and it was indeed moist, and i instantly loved it. i wish there’s more bread like that one. idk why industrial bread tastes differently.
might be that they intentionally dessicate it for hygienic reasons? i.e. i imagine a higher water content might make it spoil faster.
imagine a higher water content might make it spoil faster.
No, on the contrary, but if improperly stored in the store it could get mold, and it’s more expensive to make.
No, on the contrary,
how so?
Plain bread is a travesty
This isn’t plain bread, good sir, this is a baguette! Well, rather small one, but still.
Lol no. How about porridge with water every day of the week.
More like porridge with beer…made out of old porridge.
