Medieval Meal

The kids made up the meal planner for the next week, and one of their requests for dinner is our Medieval Meal. This consists of a beef roast, heavy bread, and some side veggie. What makes it medieval is using the bread as a trencher to hold the meat and juices, and only using a knife or hands with which to eat!

We have read from different sources that the bread was used as a plate and then discarded, or that the bread was used as a plate and then eaten. Bread can be very cheap to make, so the kids choose what they want to do. But either way, we still use a real plate on the bottom!

Beef roast, whole grain bread and green beans.
The meat is placed on a chunk of bread, or on a 'trencher'.

Food in medieval times was often eaten with bare hands.

Medieval foods would have been what was readily available in that season. Here in December, we would not have been eating green beans. I wonder if people even had green beans in Europe at that time! And of course our cow meat would have been deer or rabbit or fowl. The bread is pretty close, though. Lots of whole wheat in a coarse, heavy loaf. Big Sister particularly enjoyed the nutty, wheaty bread sopped with meat juices! Little Brother enjoyed the beans with meat juices.

Tonight, we have left less than a cup of meat and some juice. So I will make beef and barley soup after sauteeing some onions and stretching out the broth. In fact Little Brother is requesting beef and barley right now, so off I go!