Unveiling the Culinary Secrets of Medieval Europe: From Exquisite Game to Hearty Delicacies

　　When you think of Western food, what comes to your mind? Nowadays, the stereotype of food in developed countries in Europe and America seems to be “good and greasy”. So in ancient dark medieval Europe, what did European people generally eat?
　　To cook a typical modern Western meal, whether it is a Michelin-star chef or an ordinary housewife, most of them cannot do without tomatoes, potatoes, corn, peppers, sweet potatoes, chocolate, etc. However, almost all of these ingredients were introduced from the Americas after the discovery of geography. Entering Europe, Europe was no longer in the Middle Ages.
　　The upper class of Europe in the Middle Ages loved wild game. After cooking beautiful birds, swans or peacocks, they glued the feathers back together and decorated them beautifully, making them the centerpiece of a feast. Therefore, at that time, swans and peacocks were specially raised to provide banquets for the upper class. Monks and nobles also liked to eat cranes, considering the birds a supreme delicacy.
　　Times have changed, and if these delicacies of medieval game were put on the dining tables of modern wealthy people, at worst they would be exposed and criticized by netizens, at worst the guests would be frightened and dare not eat them.
　　If we traveled back in time to the Middle Ages, would we be able to see the dishes that are common on Westerners’ tables today? No doubt you’ll find cured meats, sausages and aspic.
　　The climate in most parts of Europe is mild, which is suitable for making air-dried meat products. Salami can be eaten raw, grilled or put into pasta. There are variations in different regions of Europe. Cut a few slices of salami and eat it with bread. It’s a hearty meal. In “The Three Musketeers”, Athos and his squire were injured in the battle to protect d’Artagnan, and they both hid in the cellar of an inn. The cellar contains the innkeeper’s rich collection – large bunches of sausages, hams, wine, and olive oil. The master and servant Athos lived very happily here. In the Middle Ages, Europeans used wine and vinegar to cook meat and offal, and used a large amount of collagen in the head and hoof as a coagulant to make aspic. Today, there are still similar cooked foods in Central and Eastern Europe, such as “pig head cheese” and “tongue jelly”—— Transparent cylinders contain chunks of pork head or chunks of beef tongue, which delis slice into thin slices like sausages and sell to customers.
　　The rich in medieval Europe ate and drank, but what did the poor eat? The answer is to eat whatever is available – all kinds of cabbage, the minced meat offal of livestock, etc., which can be cooked to satisfy hunger. At that time, poor people often relied on poaching to supplement their meat supply. However, all wild animals, poultry and livestock, whether flying in the sky, running on the ground, or swimming in the water, were owned by the lord. Poaching on the lord’s land may lead to severe punishment. punishment. Therefore, soups made from vegetables and pastes made from bread and grains are the main foods of the poor.
　　Refined white wheat flour was used to make bread for the upper class, while the poor mainly ate coarse brown bread. But today, thick brown bread can only be bought in high-end and fashionable bakeries. Nutritionists believe that thick brown bread is rich in vitamins and fiber and is much more nutritious than machine-produced refined white bread. It needs to use local products. The grains produced are made by hand, so they are expensive.
　　It’s not just thick black bread that puts the cart before the horse. Today, the upper class in Europe and America no longer eat and drink as much as they did in the Middle Ages. They all pay attention to health, low-calorie, and healthy diets, so all kinds of pickled red meat, fried Fried delicious and delicious desserts have become a daily routine for ordinary people.
　　This is why you can see many ordinary people who are severely obese and have limited mobility on the streets of European and American countries today, while the well-known figures in politics, business, film and television who attend important occasions all have strong and well-proportioned figures.