Daily Life in Chaucer's England: Food and Drink
By Jeffrey L. Singman, Will McLean

Geoffrey Chauser - 1343 - 1400

As with other aspects of medieval life, people's social and economic status determined the food they ate. Ironically, the diet of working commoners may actually have been healthier than that of the aristocracy, at least in terms of nutritional balance. The wealthy were able to indulge a taste for fine and rich foods with higher proportions of red meat, sugar, and fat, while the common people consumed more fiber and vegetables.

Bread was a staple food for all people, but aristocratic taste favored the whitest wheat bread possible (although it was less white than modern white bread--Wonder Bread might well have been considered the ultimate treat on the table of Edward III). The aristocratic diet also included a great deal of meat, principally beef, followed by pork and mutton, with game and poultry as the smallest component. Dairy and egg products were found in the aristocratic diet, but not particularly favored. Neither were vegetables, which mostly appeared as flavorings in the form of leeks, onions, garlic, or herbs. Sweets, including conserves and sugar candy, were also a feature of the aristocratic diet. The daily ration for a person living in an aristocratic household typically included 2 to 3 lbs. of wheat bread, 2 to 3 lbs. of meat or fish, and a gallon of ale.

A prosperous peasant might consume 2 to 3 lbs. of bread, 8 oz. of meat or fish, and 2 to 3 pints of ale per day. The bread was not likely to be fine white bread. Wheat was relatively expensive, so poorer people made use of rye, oats, barley, and even beans and peas. Meat was also expensive and was not necessarily a regular part of a commoner's diet. Those who could afford it ate the same sorts of meats as the aristocracy.

Chaucerian cooking has been the subject of a few modern cookbooks, including Pleyn Delit, Maggie Black's A Medieval Cookbook, and Fabulous Feasts, and it's possible to plan a Chaucerian feast based simply on the material in these books. Those new to Medieval cooking should begin with the recipes found there. Pleyn Delit also features several model Chaucerian feasts, both small and large, while Fabulous Feasts has a chapter entitled "A Chicken for Chaucer's Kitchen," where Squire Geoffrey embarks on a fictional journey through the food sellers and markets of London in order to procure ingredients for a farsed chicken. The chapter is rich in information and details on 14th c. London and its food districts.

However, going directly to period sources for research should be the goal of any historical food recreationist, and to accomplish this task one can rely on several medieval cookbooks available today which were also around during Chaucer's time. The primary recipe source for Chaucer is The Forme of Curye, compiled by the cooks of Richard II. Chaucer would certainly have eaten some of the dishes prepared by these very cooks, and such recipes as blankmanger and mortreux are found here. The Forme of Curye is available today as part of a 14th c. recipe collection called Curye on Inglish, which also contains 3 other manuscripts from Chaucer's time: Diuersa Cibaria, Diuersa Servicia, & Utilis Coquinario. These four main resources provide a wealth of Chaucerian material.

Appearing shortly after the arrival of The Forme of Curye, a collection known today as An Ordinance of Pottage may have been modeled on Curye, and contains corresponding recipes. It is in print today, with redactions by Constance B. Hieatt.

Other invaluable books that are contemporary with Chaucer are Le Viandier de Taillevent, the cookbook of Guillame Taillevent written in the 1370's and recently edited for publication by Terence Scully; Chiquart's On Cookery, also written in the 1300s; and Le Menagier de Paris, a set of domestic instructions & recipes written around 1393 by a wealthy Parisian householder, a man very similar to Chaucer's Franklin.

In addition, Terence Scully's The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages provides an excellent background in understanding the nature of cooking & food production in Chaucer's time, as well as detailing the presentation of courses in period banquets.