Medieval Feasting: A Dinner Theatre

By the fifteenth century, more manuscript recipe books were written, or more survived, and therefore we have more data to interpret. These writings, however, are mainly focused on the food of the elite, while peasants would mostly have survived on their daily pottage which was made with grains or pulses and flavoured with herbs.

Meals of the upper class were not defined by a system of courses as we know them today. Nor was division made between sweet and savoury. Meat dishes often contained sugar and dried fruits, and sweet puddings could contain some form of meat or fish, often used as a thickener. Savoury meat puddings were made in intestines, but so, too, were custards and rice puddings.