What did kings eat for lunch in medieval times?

Answer 1

In medieval times, breakfast was usually a very simple meal, just bread washed down with wine or ale.

The main meal of the day was dinner, served between ten in the morning and noon, comprising two or three courses, each of several separate dishes, all repeating the same kinds of food, except the last course which consisted of fruits, nuts, cheese, wafers, and spiced wine.

In 'Life in a Medieval Castle' Frances and Joseph Gies write:

'In the kitchen, the cook and his staff turned the meat - pork, beef, mutton, poultry, game - on a spit and prepared stews and soups in a great iron cauldrons hung over the fire.

In addition to roasting and stewing, meat might be pounded to a paste, mixed with other ingredients, and served as a kind of custard. A dish of this kind was blankmanger, consisting of a paste of chicken blended with rice boiled in almond milk, seasoned with sugar, cooked until very thick, and garnished with fried almonds and anise. Another was a mortrews, of fish or meat that was pounded, mixed with breadcrumbs, stock, and eggs, and poached, producing a king of quenelle, or dumpling. Both meat and fish were also made into pies, pastries, and fritters.

Sauces were made from herbs from the castle garden, that were ground to a paste, mixed with wine, verjuice (the juice of unripe grapes) vinegar, onions, pepper, saffron, cloves, and cinnamon. Mustard, a favourite ingredient, was used by the gallon.

In Lent or on fast days fish was served fresh from the castle's own pond, from a nearby river, or from the sea, nearly always with a highly seasoned sauce. Fresh herring, flavoured with ginger, pepper and cinnamon, might be made into a pie. Other popular fish included mullet, shad, sole, flounder, plaice, ray mackerel, salmon and trout. Sturgeon, whale, and porpoise were rare seafood delicacies, the first two 'royal fish' fit for kings and queens. Pike, crab, crayfish, oysters and eels were also favourites.

The most common vegetables, besides onions and garlic, were peas and beans. Staples of the diet of the poor, for the rich they might be served with onions and saffron. Honey, commonly used for sweetening, came from the castle or manor bees, fruit from the castle orchard - apples, pears plums, and peaches - was supplemented by wild fruit and nuts from the lord's woods(fruit was always served cooked, raw fruit was considered unhealthy). In addition to these local products thee were imported luxuries such as sugar (including a special kind made with roses and violets), rice, almonds, figs, dates, raisins, Oranges, and pomegranates. Ordinary sugar was bought by the loaf and had to be pounded, powdered white sugar was more expensive.

Wine was bought by the barrel and decanted into jugs. Some was spiced and sweetened by the butlers to go with the final course.

On such festive occasions as holidays and weddings, fantastic quantities of food were consumed. When Henry III's daughter married the king of Scotland on Christmas Day 1252 at York, Matthew Paris reported that "more than sixty pasture cattle formed the first and principal course at table . . .the gift of the archbishop. The guest feasted by turns with one king at one time, at another time with the other, who vied with one another in preparing costly meals.' Such feast included boars heads, venison, peacocks, swans, suckling pigs, cranes, plovers, and larks.'

Between courses at feasts dishes called subtleties were presented, partly for entertainment, elaborate decorated sugar and marzipan scupltures.

Supper was served in the late afternoon. Robert Grosseteste recommended 'one dish not so substantial, and also light dishes, and then cheese.'

Answer 2

Every thing that you can imagine. Plenty of meat like fowls, chicken, partridge, lamb, beef, pork, wheat, barley, rice, oranges, grapes, apples, peaches, milk and honey and of course lots of beer and wine.