TheCastleKitchen

The Castle Kitchen

In the castle kitchen the cook and his staff turned the meat - pork, beef, mutton, poultry, game - on a spit and prepared stews and soups in great iron cauldrons hung over the fire on a hook and chain that could be raised and lowered to regulate the temperature. Boiled meat was lifted out of the pot with an iron meat hook, a long fork with a wooden handle and prongs attached to the side. Soup was stirred with a long-handled slotted spoon. 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 mortrews, of fish or meat that was pounded, mixed with bread crumbs, stock, and eggs, and poached, producing a kind of quenelle, or dumpling. Both meat and fish were also made into pies, pasties, and fritters.

Updated November 2004AD

Fresh game when it was available, caught by the lord's trappers or by the lord himself. These meats were usually coneys, geese, wild boar, pigeons, or the occasional deer. There was no means of preserving meat, so it was always fresh. During the hog slaughtering season, peasants would eat pork and bacon, but usually fish was the primary source of meat.

The most common vegetables eaten were onions, peas, beans, cabbage, parsely, shallots and potherbs. Cucumbers and leeks were avoided since most considered them unhealthy. Fruits in the Middle Ages were smaller and usually grown in the wild. Raw fruits were thought unwholesome and were seldom served. Citrus fruits, such as oranges and lemons, were not found in England until the Crusades, and even then they were rare treats to all classes.

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"Shepards Hey"
by Curtis Clark
(A traditional Morris Dance tune)