MEDIAEVAL FEASTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21241, 23 January 1931, Page 10

MEDIAEVAL FEASTS.

BARONS AND THEIR DIET. FAST DAYS IN NAME ONLY. In hie “Live in a Mediaeval Barony” Dr ,W. S. Davis tells us about the . diet of - the upper classes in the thirteenth century. A State dinner' consisted of three courses. In the first there were seven kinds of meat. The only reference to breads or vegetables was “ pastry tarts.” The second course, or,, better called, division, began with a soup and then included four kinds of meats, mostly game Sirds, and. ended,with.,“pasties of small birds/ 1 'Next' fol}owed,the third course or division, ‘ which included five meats, but in the sauces there is more reference to-vegetables than in the earlier courses. For instance, . rabbits were served “in gravy heavily spiced with onion and saffron.” In addition to the meats noted as such, there were patties filled with yolk of egg and cheese- and pork pies. FILLING THEMSELVES WITH FOOD. This food was gourmandised—eaten in excessive ' quantities and washed, down with beers, wines, and other liquors. Dr Davis tells us they ate no salads, no ices, and no confectionery. On fast days they afe almost as.- great a variety of meats, though they were in the form of fish and sometimes fowl.’ , :t The menus of those days included rich soups,' roast apples, ■ stewed and ripe fruits, almonds, ginger, and saffron. But the core of the meals was fish, of which there were 13 kinds from which to choose. Dr Davis says: “To the minds of men of a later age this fast day dinner might seem only a little less gorging than the orthodox feasting upon meats.” This fashion for enormous gorges on a heavy, diet persisted for centuries after the year 1400. Before me there lies a menu of a banquet given to Professor S. S. Sherman-by the citizens of Marion, Ala., a few years after the Civil War. Professor Sherman had been an early president of a girls’ college founded in that town, almost 100 years ago. When he went back after a long absence his old friends were-glad-to see him, and they expressed their feelings by a banquet which could have been given in the days of the barons. OLD AND WORN OUT AT FORTY. The questions that interest us are:’ How did the people of that baron class in that day stand such heavy diets? How much Bright’s disease did they have? We will never know. It is true they died at an early average age. They were old and worn out at 40 as a rule. But how much of this can be charged to gorging and to, badly-balanced diets? Life was bal’d and subject to many hazards; the records are incomplete and unscientific. All in all, we can do nothing more than allow each man his guess as to .how much harm such eating and drinking did.