Medieval Dishes

[Gangrell]

I'm in the works of writing a book, and I've come to another stop. I was wondering on what kinds of foods, really hardy, that dwarves, elves and such eat. Not high classed or anything, just what they consider to be a great meal.

[Firestormalpha]

Hmmm, depends, how specific do you wanna be? are going down to the detail of woodelf, and sea elf?, or Mountain dwarves vs. Hill dwarves? Or just the these groups in general.

[The Hierophant]

Since fantasy books come from the imaginations of their respective authors, you're just going to have to use yours [img]smile.gif[/img] If you want genuine, historic human medieval dishes then I might be able to help you out. Particularly for regions of the Mediterranean.

[Gangrell]

Hmm, I think I'd go for some medieval dishes in general Hierophant as dwarves and humans don't really make it a habit of eating mythical creatures. Adds more of a reality to the story I'd think.

[SpiritWarrior]

Why not work with what you pick up from other established D&D novels? Although for some reason deer seems all too common here...

[Gabrielles blades]

From what ive heard, in medieval times, people didnt usually eat very well unless they were a part of the ruling class or close behind them.
Most of the peasants had a meager soup like mixture with whatever they could find to put in it.

the price of a loaf of bread was of great importance in france. I forget the exact time period but it was one of their revolutions the price of bread sparked revolt - im fairly sure that for a long time before that bread was a major portion of a peasants diet and so its pricing was very important to the majority of the populace.

[The Hierophant]

As Gabrielles Blades has pointed out medieval dishes were very basic, at least for the majority of the population. Since most people were peasants with little land of their own they ate a bland diet consisting of food they could harvest from the land: wheat (bread), olives, cheese, butter, apples etc. Meat was only eaten very occasionally by the lower class, as lifestock were expensive to keep and seldom slaughtered. Of course, the ruling classes could afford to eat a much more varied diet, with meat factoring in quite significantly. Basically, for your average joe farmer you're looking at a staple of bread, with a few bland toppings to put on such as butter and cheese (nowhere near as flavoursome as today's cheeses though). Not incredibly nutritious. People were nowhere NEAR as healthy and well fed as they are in the modern industrialised world.
Additionally, most bread would have been gritty/sandy and not terribly appetising. Viking graves (dated to the period of about 800-1000 AD) have provided evidence of peasants with incredibly worn teeth. This is becasue the flour for bread was stone-ground, and alot of the stone that was used to grind the flour ended up in the bread itself, yuck! Also, mummified Viking corpses preserved in peat bogs have shown a great deal of intestinal parasites present, so many people must have been in a constant state of digestive discomfort.

The medieval age was not an incredibly luxurious time to be alive, even if you were a noble.

[johnny]

Chicken.... everyone likes chicken. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[Firestormalpha]

Chicken would indeed have been the most affordable form of meat for the non-noble class. Afterall, the nobles were busy eating pheasant, and quail, etc.
As for the noble classes? Well anything edible so long as it's better than what the peasants are getting would be my guess.

[Zuvio]

Well you can start by thinking up small things they eat.

ELves: most likely berries and water, a loaf of bread. I dont think they eat meat since they are so one with nature and all that.

Dwarves: large chunks of meat and ALE! Mountain dwarves will fancy the ocassional lump of rock with dust-sauce on it