Misconceptions of medieval feasts
A common image of the medieval period is one of the idle wealthy lords and dukes of the realm, drunkenly gorging themselves with joints of meat and fowl, and tossing the bones over their shoulders to their dogs. This is a false one, at least on those occasions when food was consumed in the company of guests. The great banquets and feasts of the middle ages were, as much as they could be, genteel gatherings where manners and consideration of others was paramount. The rigid social structure of the medieval world held sway inside the banquet halls and during the feasts, all under the authoritarian eye of the Church.
Another misconception is that food was heavily spiced and thus spices were cherished despite their expense because they helped cover the smell of already spoiled meats and other foods. This too is false. The methods of preserving meat through smoking, pickling, and drying were well known and practiced. Fresh meat, both domestic and from game, was widely available for those who had the money to buy it. Spices were valued for the same reasons that they are valued today, because they enhanced the flavor of various dishes in ways that made them special, different, and regional. Spices enhanced standing.
Many of the dishes which are common today made their first appearances as the ideas of cooks preparing medieval feasts and banquets. Meatballs made from finely chopped pork and game were not strangers to the medieval table. Neither were meatloaf, although the loaf could be in the shape of an exotic animal such as an Egyptian crocodile, or a mythical dragon. The fasting imposed by the Church led to accepted foods such as fish to be finely shredded and shaped into an appearance of being something else entirely when presented at the table.
Another misconception of the medieval feast is that beef was the most often served meat, supplemented by fowl. Cattle were valued as draft animals and cows were a source of milk, which was mostly preserved in the form of highly salted butter and as cheese. Beef was considered to be a lesser dish, for consumption by those who could not afford better. Because cattle consumed grain they were expensive to raise, and sheep were considered a more economical food source, both as lamb and as mutton. The most common domesticated meat source was pork, as pigs ate anything, included waste, and largely ran free in medieval communities.
Because the great medieval feasts were largely contained within the estates of the nobility and accessible to only their fellow nobles, the clergy, and the wealthy, they were intended to enhance the stature of the host. They were representative of the wealth and power of the host, and the ostentatious displays of the food were part of this demonstration of his wealth. But the feasts were also demonstrations of his gentility and noble stature. Both were far removed from the perception of a medieval feast as a bacchanalian affair.