The Servants
Besides the servants who waited at table there were hundreds of others working as cooks and cook’s assistants, butchers and meat carvers, scullions, dispensers of wine, beer, ales, and brandy and other beverages. Water was not one of them, the drinking of water, especially during the taking of meals, was considered unhealthy and damaging to the digestive process. Tea was not yet a beverage well known in Europe, nor was coffee. Ciders were popular, both hard and soft, and would be offered to guests as an alternative to the more potent beverages.
Most larger cuts of meat, whole hogs and suckling pigs, and even most fowl were cooked over open fires, roasted on spits. The spits required constant and steady rotation, and this was accomplished by human hands. Some larger cuts of game animals required two servants or more to maintain the rotation of the spitted meat at a rate determined by his Lordship’s Master of the Kitchen. Other servants were required to maintain the temperature of the fires by adding wood in a manner which would neither increase nor decrease the heat significantly during the cooking process.
Contrary to popular belief, vegetables were a popular foodstuff in medieval Europe, though many of the more common vegetables today were absent from the table. Several different types of beans were popular, as were cabbages and leafy greens. These were collected and prepared by servants under the supervision of cooks, and brought to the table by the servers. Other servants brought cheeses from their storage cellars to the cooks for the creation of sauces, and to the tables for consumption of the diners. Grapes, in those regions where they could be grown, apples, and other fruits were popular, and grapes were usually consumed the day they were picked by the servants, otherwise they were destined to become wine.
The Church calendar dictated the menu throughout the year, with Lent being a season of fasting and all Fridays throughout the year were fast days. In medieval times, fasting meant no animal based foods, including dairy foods. Fish were allowed, and this put additional burdens on his Lordship’s servants, both in the preparation of the meals and its service. Often on fast days, when eggs were not allowed, eggshells would be stuffed, sometimes with roe, and offered at table. Fish, both fresh and salted, was prepared in ways in which they appeared as other than what they were, imitating other meats.
Because the vast amount of food prepared for a medieval feast was not completely consumed by his Lordship and his guests, the servants were expected to help eat it, ensuring that there was no waste, which was sinful in the eyes of the Church. Other than smoking and pickling, preservation of food was little understood and impractical. The practice of allowing the servants to share in the consumption of the meals they helped prepare and serve was common throughout the medieval period, and even on days when there were no invited guests in his Lordship’s home, they usually were fed the same meals that were prepared for their masters, though in lesser quantity.