Food and Drink
The peasants’ fields are used to produce grain, which is the staple food of all the social classes. Peasants mostly eat gruel, since bread would require paying a miller to mill the grain and a baker to bake the loaf. Bread is more common in towns and among the wealthy. Peasants supplement their grain with vegetables from their cottage garden. Excess produce — grain or vegetables — can be sold in town.
Meat is a rarity among the lower classes. Animals are not generally raised for meat — rather, they are eaten when they are no longer useful (e.g., when an ox is too old to plow, a cow stops giving milk, or a hen stops laying). As a result, meat is tough, gamy, and often boiled or stewed. The only animal raised primarily for meat is the pig, and only because pigs require very little care — in the country, they can forage for themselves; in town, they can eat garbage. Only the nobility can supplement their meat by hunting, as only nobles have the right to hunt. Very rich nobles employ free game wardens to put game meat on their tables (though they likely still hunt themselves, for sport). Game animals, by their nature, are often tough and ... umm ... gamy, so they are also often served stewed.
Spices are imported from far away, and are crushingly expensive. Most people have no idea what the origin of spice is, and bizarre myths are told about them (peppercorns, for example, are black because they are burned with dragonfire). Herbs, however, are grown in most villages. Sugar, like spices, is an exotic and expensive rarity. Christendom has no idea how to grow or refine sugar. Honey is produced locally, and is the only non-imported sweetener, but is harvested in small amounts and remains a luxury.
The most common beverage consumed is ale. It is made locally in every village and town. Ale is flavored with a local blend of herbs, fruit, and spices. Hops are not in general use. Wine is also produced, but its use is mostly restricted to the middle-class townsmen and the wealthy. It is often sweeter than the wines of the modern world. Neither ale nor wine is bottled, so they cannot be stored or shipped. They are locally consumed, perishable products. Both have a lower alcohol content than modern alcoholic beverages, and both are often full of sediment (wine is strained through one's teeth; the sediment in ale is chewed). Ale is served mostly flat. Distilled alcohol is unknown.