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 * Medieval Food **

During the Middle Ages, a person’s social class and location determined their diet. During this time people’s meals consisted of a majority of bread. Also, the more prestige a person had the type better of food they consumed. When special occasions approached the horizon, they precipitated elaborate plans for a feast.

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In medieval times bread became one of the most imperative parts of a person's diet. The bread during the medieval times had two reasons of its essentiality. It was “heart smart” (high in fiber and low in fat) (Medieval-life.net) and almost always available. The multigrain mixture used it the bread helped it to be healthy for anyone who consumed it. The peasants had a tough time getting wheat for their personal bread and other products. Millers would often cheat them out of some of their wheat when they ground it. They would do this by taking some of the wheat out and replacing it with chalk (Schlitz 29). Also, their lords would limit the amount of wheat they could have for themselves. In response to this, the peasants would move the stones marking the boundary just to harvest a minute amount of more wheat. =====

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While the peasants struggled in the fields of the manor, the lords prospered from their strife. The diet of the lords, knights, king, and other wealthy beings consisted of red meat on the weekdays (Medieval-Spell.com), vegetables, and a portion of bread. T h e peasants ate mainly bread and rations of meat ("World Book" Bowers 324). Though the meat that they ate could not compare to the scrumptious meat that the lords ate, it fed them well. The meat came from the fields of the manor on which they labored all day. People ate fish if they lived in areas near the sea or even by lakes or streams. Salted fish became a necessity on the weekends because of the forbiddance of red meat on those days. When salted, the fish would stay fresh longer because of the salt acting as a preservative which assisted its versatility. People consumed eels also when they lived near the sea. Lentils and cabbage became regular vegetables on the table for dinner. All this took place while the peasants did the hard work as servants and the lords lived lavishly. =====

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During the medieval times feasts had many characteristics. Fancy and elaborate could describe them, but, while that, they could be considered bizarre by our culinary expectations today. Feasts often celebrated a special occasion such as a family member’s birthday or a wedding. When the king came to town the lord of that place became very anxious because he knew he had to prepare an extravagant feast. These feasts had not only a super abound amount of food, but they had very interesting and exciting things. Sometimes the cooks sculpted the pastries into elegant designs. They would even stick the feathers of a peacock in the cooked bird in order to decorate the feast. Also, when someone cut a pie a live bird flew out and astonished them if it did not die in the brick oven. Jugglers often did a similar task when they submerged themselves into pudding. =====

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All in all, in the medieval times food starred as an important part in the culture of the time. Bread played the essential part in the Middle Ages person’s diet. Social classes decided what a person consumed. And people prepared the castles for a feast by stocking up(MacDonald and Bergin 19). The medieval world seemed to be always hungry. =====