Lesson 2: Ingredients and techniques
Things people did not eat
At any time, and in any place, there will be some available foods which are regarded as things that should not be eaten as a general rule. Food has its own culture that changes over time and place.
We do not know everything we would like about Medieval food lore, which is why it is easier to make a short list of what fruits and vegetables were unlikely to be eaten than give an explanation of all foods and when they were eaten and when not. For instance, bananas, tomatoes, asparagus, melons and pumpkin were known but seldom eaten in Europe during the Middle Ages.
This list of fruit and vegetables has nothing to do with religious belief (which is dealt with elsewhere in the course) and everything to do with what people regarded as edible or decent food. Tomatoes, for instance, were often regarded as potentially poisonous.
This applies as much to meats and grains as to other foods. A very few curious stories have survived that indicate that Medieval food was not simply a matter of "eat everything in sight". For instance, the English did not eat horse in the Middle Ages. English people were known to accuse the French of eating horse, however, as a national insult.
Some very common modern substances were not known at all in Europe during the Middle Ages, or were very rare. These included tea, coffee, potatoes, pineapple, chocolate, string beans, green peas (though white peas were known and eaten), capsicum (including chilis), maize and turkey. Most of these come from the New World, and were not introduced to Europe until after 1492.
