I Ate Only Medieval Food for a Week

I ate only medieval food for a week and it was... interesting. Join us on an adventure as my friend Brittany and I explore the world of medieval food, committing an entire 7 days to indulging in it. Let's just say that there were many unexpected moments and some dishes that truly surprised us (both delicious and not).
Thank you so much for watching and see you all in two weeks for another video!
The recipe books I use for the week-long challenge can be found here and it is an Amazon affiliate link, so I earn a small commission on every order placed. Thank you for your support!
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#medieval

[@VBirchwood]

EDIT: I'm getting a lot of comments mentioning how most of the things here would not have been accurate for every day people and that is correct. At the start of the video, I mention how the 2 books I utilised for the recipes are primarily upperclass recipes. These are what wealthy medieval people would have consumed, not your every day people. Additionally, this is not meant to be a historically accurate representation of how medieval people lived or ate dinner. I'm not a historian nor a reenactor. Rather, this is meant to be a fun week of experimenting eating only medieval food, hence my careful wording of the title. I’ve been planning this video for the past 6 months, and after 100 hours of work in total today is finally the day of release! I hope you all enjoy our adventure of exploring medieval food for an entire week. The cookbooks I used for the recipes can be found here, and it is an Amazon affilliate link so I earn a small commision on every order placed (I appreciate the support!): www.amazon.com/shop/v.birchwood/list/32F782WLSGWZ?ref_=aipsflist_aipsfv.birchwood Additionally, if you'd like to support my channel further, no obligation to of course, but please consider becoming a Patron and get access to exclusive, behind-the-scenes content: www.patreon.com/vbirchwood Also, a fun game to play along, take a sip of your preferred beverage every time one of us says “veg” or “vegetables” 😂 Thank you for watching and see you in two weeks for another video 😊

[@GroovlyDo]

Thumbs up for your stamina with the savoury cinnamon, I was wondering where the Veg went, the medieval menu had heaps of seasonal cooked veg and salads/herbs. Oh, the sugar would have been closer to Jaggery or palm sugar and it is not as sweet as processed sugar

[@brandonarkell5357]

It's amazing what time and energy you've invested in this. I've already liked, so I'm sharing.

[@goatfarmmb]

I have read somewhere that most folks in the country side ate only twice a day which kinda was known till to the early part of the 1800s in Central Europe, .. ya missed one Medieval meal Oat porridge ;) I heard that how we cook potatoes today was also the way Turnips where cooked back then especially when fried. Awesome video

[@hypnotherapy69]

more "pessant" /working class means more veggies....

[@goatfarmmb]

@@hypnotherapy69 they did have more meat the some people like to make ya believe, Peasants did hunt like small game and etc.

[@lisakilmer2667]

Medieval Europeans ate lots of greens that we generally don't: borage, sorrel, nettles, flowers, even ground ivy. Somewhere I think I learned that even carrot and radish tops were used, along with other vegetable tops. I was really surprised that there was nary a legume all week - I thought they were a big staple - yes?no? In any case, this experiment was very interesting.

[@ragnkja]

Ground ivy/goutweed makes a delicious pesto. It was introduced to Norway as a potherb but it’s now an invasive weed, so I like to be quite greedy when I harvest it.

[@ABC1701A]

Those same greens are still eaten in many countries, not least because they are available at the time of year (often winter/early spring) when there is a dearth of other options.

[@melenatorr]

Also, I do believe that it's believed lower class people would have eaten more vegetables than meats since they were cheaper and easier to come by. But that said, agreed there were more greens during those centuries (and in the various locations) than were represented here, and I do remember reading about a number of them in my various books. I do hope this experiment comes around again - it really was fun and interesting - because there were no actual instructions in most of the manuscripts, just a list of ingredients and general statement, you can give yourself some leeway in what and how (and how much) to use. So if you don't like the sweetness, for example, next time you can definitely reduce whatever made the dish sweet. We can definitely be grateful, as is stated in the vid, for the wonderful variety and abundance available to a good percentage of us; part of what can make this adventure even more fun is discovering variety within limits - most probably our ancestors would have been bored with the same, and really only, available spices, and I'm betting they allowed themselves to have some fun with them whenever possible.

[@melenatorr]

I think legumes, especially beans, became very important. Hazy memories of medieval history lessons conjure up concepts of bean growing helping in keeping soil productive and fertile, and in providing protein for people who couldn't afford meat on a regular basis. I remember learning that the increase in eating beans was responsible for increasing brain nourishment and inspiring the Twelfth Century Renaissance. Quite an accomplishment, I say!

[@lisakilmer2667]

@@ragnkja Here in the US many people try to eradicate all those interesting herbs. I have tried many, with varying reactions!

[@Art930]

I'm from East Germany and imagine my surprise that your first meal was something I grew up with: eggs poached in mustard sauce with a side of rye bread! Nowadays I serve parsleyed carrots alongside. Detailed recipes by German youtubers are easy to find ;-)

[@Hitsugix]

I only know this dish with hard boiled eggs. Nobody in my family likes poached eggs, maybe that's why. ^^ We also eat potatoes with the eggs instead of bread.

[@BloodSweatandFears]

I read “paralyzed carrots” and after a very strange google search, I re read your comment. 😅😅😅😂😂😂

[@user-xg9cl5rp4c]

That's hilarious! ​@@BloodSweatandFears

[@LysSylva]

Same here 🙂@@Hitsugix

[@HuSanNiang]

Servus I had that at my last visit in Berlin at Clärchens Ballhaus.

[@GaraksApprentice]

Note on the almond milk: It was used as a replacement for dairy milk during Lent, since eggs, milk, and many other foods were banned during the period. Medieval Lent was MUCH stricter than modern guidelines, so the fasting and the abstaining from certain foods was pretty much mandatory for most of the population. (This makes sense when you consider that Lent is in northern hemisphere spring, when eggs, milk and many of the other banned foods would have been in short supply anyway.)

[@arianewinter4266]

Also, lenting Rules applied Not only to the time before eastern, but also 3 days a week all year around. Vegan dishes really are Not a new Thing in the slightest

[@JewelBlueIbanez]

Those Lenten restrictions along with fasting existed up until the late 1960s. A lot of the Eastern Rite Catholics still follow their traditional Great Fast, which also includes olive oil and wine.

[@lemurlover7975]

I enjoyed learning about the vegan food and I was surprised when she said that she made chicken and lamb and cod after she said that she wasn't going to eat meat.

[@MiljaHahto]

​@@JewelBlueIbanez Just a huge part of the European had either ceased to be catholic way before that, or stopped lenting so strictly.

[@MoonChylde0622]

"Because I don't taste it while I'm cooking"...the chef soul in me just died, lol. Always taste as you cooooook. But for real, I LOVE medieval food and a lot of these look great. I've done a Christmas "feast" of more peasant-oriented food. One of my favorite memories! There was also a dinner party for friends where I did a roast chicken with mustard & mushroom sauce, thickened with egg yolk. Oh my. Mustard just hits! Food Factoid: Chowder is technically any thick soup with chunky vegetables (smaller chunks than a stew; and stews are typically understood to always have meat, whereas chowders can go either way). Modern chowders are totally associated with dairy, but that's more of a "recent" addition. This video was a LOT of work, but looks like you had fun! Thank you for producing it.

[@ragnkja]

One reason carrots was an upper-class vegetable is that it’s a somewhat unreliable crop, as there’s a pest that can take out the entire harvest, and most medieval people tried to min-max their harvest, so they grew crops that may be less bountiful in good years, but also less likely to fail completely.

[@iaw7406]

plus you can stick them up your ars* 😁

[@agent57]

This did make me wonder a bit about medieval foraging, though, since carrot has its edible wild relative.

[@gratituderanch9406]

Sure they would have eaten leftovers! “ peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot, nine days old. Some like it hot some like it cold, some like it in the pot nine days old.” Also- at least the cabbage chowder was vegetables! Hahahahaha

[@gypsydonovan]

I disagree. Since she’s talking specifically about the wealthy, extra foods left over would likely be gifted to the household staff to share with their own families. But the working class & below certainly wouldn’t have wasted a bite.

[@cerridwenmacleod4291]

I agree with you

[@cihunter4986]

Peas pudding not porridge

[@DJSockmonkeyMusic]

Was as is past tense veg.

[@RubyDoobieScoo]

@@cihunter4986 ikr, amateurs

[@anne-mariepaul958]

I think, there was a french king, who dictated, that people should grow about 7 kinds of Cale in their garden. The idea was to have greens for winter and to survive better. People ate a lot of cale cheap fish black bread, oatmeal baked into biscuits, for working people eggs, milk and butter were expensive and they ate a lot of porridge and drank light ale, warm in the winter. Almonds sugar and spices like cinnamon and others alike were exstremely expensive. Fun to watch and always interesting

[@nanapam6376]

You guys have such a cute friendship! I hope you get to see each others again soon. Can you imagine doing that 7 days a week for your whole life and take care of the children, clean the home, make the clothes, tend the garden and farm animals all without any modern conveniences? I have trouble loading my dishwasher and folding clothes! Lol Hats off to you for your accomplishment, but hats off to women throughout history!!

[@trenae77]

Can I just say the sheer undiluted joy you expressed in this video - the frank evidence of you just having fun and feeling free to be as silly as you like - is so heartwarming! ❤

[@VBirchwood]

Thank you so much!🥰

[@MervynRThomas]

I agree. I'm spending my 8th week in hospital and looking for videos to cheer me ip. This hit the spot :)

[@julianokleby1448]

@@MervynRThomas 8 Weeks, Wow!! I hope all is well now. I thought 4 weeks seemed like an eternity - especially these days when they consider a mastectomy as outpatient surgery and send you home the same day! Years ago, they kept women in the hospital for at least a week or more for that surgery. I pray you get to go home soon if you aren't already!!

[@langyd4518]

I fricken love cooked cabbage

[@julianokleby1448]

@@langyd4518 My husband hates cooked cabbage normally, but I make kluski with it, which is just hot sausage, cabbage and noodles, with salt and pepper, and it quickly became one of his favorite meals! I just made a vegetable beef soup and put quite a bit of cabbage in it too. He LOVED it and wants me to make it again tomorrow! Funny thing is he didn't realize it was even in there. It adds a really nice peppery but sweet flavor to the soup. I made a big batch and canned it so we could have it while I went through radiation treatments. It was a life saver! Cabbage is wonderful in all it's forms - slaw, sauerkraut, sweet and sour or cooked! Cabbage rocks!

[@biggestmirandafan5739]

I turned on the captions so I could watch while I brushed my teeth and was impressed by how professional they were! Thanks for putting that effort into a part of the video that isn’t often seen!

[@VBirchwood]

You’re very welcome! Quality captions are very important so I always take an extra couple hours to make them especially detailed after the initial corrections from the caption company I purchase from. Thank you for acknowledging the effort I put into them!

[@bubblegumplastic]

​@@VBirchwood I really appreciate you not relying on auto captions, which are pretty inaccessible. Thank you

[@gownerjones1450]

@@VBirchwood I see you went to the Tom Scott school of accessible video making (:

[@toms169]

Good captions are much appreciated, indeed! 😊

[@nrgltwrkr2225]

A great British documentary on life in Tudor England is called Tales From The Green Valley, where four historical anthropologists live the times. Super fun to watch.

[@maidsua4208]

Thank you!

[@nrgltwrkr2225]

@@maidsua4208 your welcome. ☺ There are a few more series as well with the same group. They do Victorian England, Tudor England, etc. Fun!

[@maidsua4208]

@@nrgltwrkr2225 Yes, tudor england knows and thanks again for the other channels. Lying with a broken leg and this will make the days a little better.

[@rakdoss8455]

@@nrgltwrkr2225 If that's the show i remember (i cant remember its name) but i think they said the Edwardian period was about 70% of your income would be spent on food. Absolutely mindblowing

[@nettagold]

This has to be the most special and elaborate KZbin production I have ever watched. Loved the details, the aesthetic, the historical nuances and anecdotes - Your labor totally paid off!

[@VBirchwood]

Thank you so much!! ♥️

[@renamcguire1866]

That was very interesting. I actually cook just like my late grandmother, and she adds a little sugar to most things as a spice. I didn't realize we were medieval cooks. lololol

[@sheiladavies7275]

I remember my Medieval English group in Cambridge University making a medieval dinner for us and the Master of one of the Colleges. We were paired up and each pair made a different dish to go to make up the full dinner. Our dish was honey chicken. Your challenge and some of the dishes brought back this memory for me from fifty years ago. Our dinner was absolutely delicious. I can’t remember anything I didn’t like except for the marzipan dishes but that’s just me not liking marzipan 😊

[@SavageBear_YT]

Excellent video! As someone who cooks but one meal a day (occasionally two) MAD PROPS for the energy it took to pull this off. Could you imagine cooking seven times a day, forget that noise! I'm glad that things didn't always go as planned, and I'm glad that sometimes meals were skipped or a day was taken easy, it's a testament to being human. It's not about being flawless, it's about giving it your best shot. It looks like you and B had a lot of fun, and at the end of the day, that's what matters most.

[@meacadwell]

Pottage was widely eaten as it was easy to keep a pot cooking over a fire and what gives us "Pease in a pot, 9 days old". They also would not have eaten a lot of raw fruit and vegetable - they thought it was bad to eat raw foods. If you think about it, it probably was. They'd have to wash it in water and, in too many cases the water, wasn't that great so it could have caused illness and is probably why they thought raw foods weren't good for you.

[@eyesofthecervino3366]

Additionally, if you're min-maxing for calories cooked veggies should take you farther. Cooking can destroy some nutrients, but I'm pretty sure it makes calories easier to absorb.

[@mikeromney4712]

The "Four Juice Theory" (Humoralpathology) decided whether raw fruits were advisable. Raw fruits were (mostly) “cold” and “moist”. So if you're a "warm" person with too much black bile... ;)

[@kierstendainton4521]

We regularly eat a slow cooked medieval roast, it is amazing and yes, has vegetables. There is a tutor farm re-enactment series on one of the you tube channels and they show many recipes for the common man.

[@ragnkja]

Tudor Monastery Farm, and there are two books that go with it as well: _How to be a Tudor_ by Ruth Goodman, and _Tudor Monastery Farm_ by Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold. Or three books if you count _How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain,_ also by Goodman.

[@kierstendainton4521]

Wow, I didn't know about the books thanks.

[@Teramis]

I not only enjoyed what you did here in this video, but also how much *you* enjoyed doing it. What fun! And now you have inspired me to do some medieval-ish cooking of my own. Thanks!☺

I remember reading that upper class people in this period didn't eat much in the way of vegetables as they were seen as a "poor person" food. So while peasants were eating pease pottage and suchlike, the upper classes had a lot of dairy and meat, leading to wealthy diseases like gout.

(Also I'm definitely going to try making jowtes after this, haha!)

[@chichou7]

@did you try

[@yadlajoie7757]

To make the brie dish a bit greenier: add some arugula salad and pears , it's delicious

[@sanjivjhangiani3243]

Actually, that's fair because pears were available in the Middle Ages.

[@yadlajoie7757]

@sanjivjhangiani3243 that's why I suggested it 😅

[@paconelious]

Arugula is the devil 😂🤢

[@liveeatsew]

I am definitely going to have to try apple omelette

[@melenatorr]

Almonds: I have a few medieval cookbooks, and one of the most informative ones explained that, in the days before refrigeration, milk didn't keep well. Almonds kept better. Almond milk was such a standard ingredient that the researchers for the books I had couldn't find more than one written set of instructions for the making of it - everyone knew how to make it, just like everyone today knows how to make instant coffee. Imagine how envious those people would be to see us, these days, with almond milk a-plenty, taken for granted, and as a luxury compared with dairy milk (there are some really nice salads in the books I have, hope you continue with this very fun experiment).

[@arianewinter4266]

Also, Milk often was Not allowed cause of lenting, Like 3 days every week

[@Sera-Chelle]

FYI cooking with alcohol based liquids, i.e. beer, wine, vodka, is not the same as drinking alcohol. The alcohol in the compound evaporates quickly and actually changes the way things cook, fry, bake/rise at certain temperatures. Cooking is like being a mad scientist in the kitchen. Wish you would have trusted the original recipes & tried them as is first, then made your own tweaked version for comparison. It may have expanded your palette and helped to hinder your worry about actually really trying medieval recipes and recipes. 😊

[@meeklyseeking6258]

I'm SO jealous! I LOVE trying new things, and seldom do I have an enthusiastic buddy with whom to share the experience. Well done both y'all!!!

[@chrysanthemum8233]

I kind of suspect that my peasant ancestors ate a pretty repetitive diet of mostly bread (probably not mostly wheat bread; they were poor people) with onions, cheese, beer, porridge, lentils, eggs & fish (they lived near the coasts), whatever veggies & fruits were seasonal, and heavy reliance on homegrown herbs rather than expensive nuts & spices. Meat and sweets were probably viewed as special, expensive treats.

[@teacheraprilrogers]

Your ancestors more then likely did eat wheat or whole grain bread. It was considered poor peoples food. The upper class wanted the more pure, white bread. The more white the better.

[@ragnkja]

Depending on where they lived, their grain corn was probably either maslin (a mix or wheat and rye) or dredge (a mix of oats and barley).

[@mikespangler98]

Wheat bread was more upper class, rye bread was for the commoners, it grew better in western (wetter) Europe. However, rye was susceptible to ergot, and that had interesting side effects. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot

[@lisam5744]

@@teacheraprilrogers And only peasants ate veggies. Upper class folks must have had some heckin' digestive issues without any ruffage.

[@langyd4518]

Bet they just had bread and any veggie they had cooked in a pot and they threw in some meat if they had it and cooked it all together I bet they were short on vitamin c most of the time

[@bekabell1]

I really enjoyed this video! Your meals looked so inviting! Just a couple of reflections, (and while I have read a few medieval cook books I am no expert, so consider this opinion not knowledge). I was surprised at the lack of potage, as it seems that was the most common food for the average working class (peasant) along with bread, cheese and ale. The term chowder has to do with the food being cooked in a cauldron rather than they type of food being cooked, so a clear soup could still be a chowder as much as it sounds wrong to our ears. While carrots might have been available i think people might not have snacked on them (or turnips) raw, as human night soils were still used to fertilize the soil. While they would not have had the scientific knowledge of the need to cook root vegetables grown in that soil I am sure the connection was made. That looked like a fun week. Thanks for sharing with us!

[@michelenorine3621]

Wow, thank you for the insight on the raw veggies.

[@StrongImaginationA]

I agree about the potage but that would have been a boring video! :D

[@trenae77]

I think on the pottage, we have to remember that cookbooks of the time were written by chefs for the benefit of other chefs. Simple meals like pottage would not be considered worthy of recording as everyone and their grandma would know how to do it 🤣. That said, the concept of having a pot continuously at the ready just makes sense when your life revolves around making a living, not cooking for a living.

[@tammyellison735]

I was going to mention they never ate raw vegetables. Ruth Goodwin, I think that is her name, has done some great videos on this kind of thing. Broad Bean aka fava beans were very common in the time. I loved the week of eating

[@jacqueline8559]

Such an annoying voice . 😏🥺

[@tknm729]

Randomly stumbled upon your video in my recommended, and I'm so glad! This was one of the most interesting videos I've seen in a good while, thank you for making it!

[@0903photography]

What an amazing video and I want to try most of these recipes. Thank you for all your work!

[@nomoreillusions]

less than 20 minutes in and I'm out in the garden at 6 o'clock with a flashlight picking kale and herbs and making soup (prevented from being medieval only by the presence of potatoes but alas)

[@ragnkja]

They would probably have eaten maslin (a mix of wheat and rye) or dredge (a mix of oat and barley). In both cases, the two species would be grown together in the same field, as an insurance against fluctuating growing conditions. Genetically homogeneous monoculture was the exact opposite of what a medieval farmer would do. They were choosing their crops to give them the best possible worst-case harvest.

[@janicegutshall653]

I think the one place that this experiment might have suffered was that some of the dishes you served as a meal were side dishes and not meant to be a meal in and of themselves. That is why some of them were only vegetables while others lack the vegetation at all. Overall I really appreciate this video. You two are fantastic on camera. You make it all very relatable. I would recommend to you the two book series "Take A Thousand Eggs Or More" as it has brilliant phrases like "and smite him to gobbets." One book just lays the recipes down semi translated into modern English, while the other has the recipe and then translate it into modern measurement. Thank you again for a lovely video.

[@MayaCreations95]

I love this vid! , The dedication you put in each and every dish you made really deserves my subscription, and it shows in your video😊. Between you and your friend’s chemistry it made the video even better💜👍🏽 great video and great job❤

[@positivelysimful1283]

Apple omelets are delicious, I make them once in a while (usually fall when there is an abundance of delicious apples around here). Just peel & slice & sauté gently in a pan w/some sweetener (honey, white or brown sugar, even artificial sweetener will do-- your choice), a knob of butter, and a splash of balsamic vinegar or ACV. If you wanna get fancy, try a splash of cherry brandy & flambe it. Add a pinch of salt and some seasonings like cinnamon, nutmeg, pinch of cloves, etc. Then set it aside and make your omelet, using the apple filling as the stuffing. Sooooo good.

[@tanikokishimoto1604]

Sounds great, taking notes. I don't think I'd add extra sweeteners, though. Perhaps because I lack a true sweet tooth.

[@aprilfarence4679]

The thing is meats, especially exotic, and breads, cheeses and spices were all expensive. The information we have about medieval food is almost exclusively from the very upper class like nobility. I’m sure the poorer people were eating more grains and vegetables. Also, almonds had really just reached England from northwestern Asia and that’s why they were so popular in those upper class dishes.

[@michalcynarski7321]

Most people including historical experts have zero understanding of history. Usually people are trained based on facts from the 1800s and keep learning the same thing and spreading mis information over and over but let me educate you. Bread was super cheap, only white bread was expensive. Spices from the east were expensive however plenty of poor people could afford things such as mustard and salt on mass. Cheese was very common in a peasants diet. There isn't too much info on the sale of cheese as cheese was mass produced by the peasant population and not expensive at all unless it's specific imported cheeses, but this wasn't really a thing for the most part depending on the period.

[@michalcynarski7321]

FYI the average peasant diet back then, depending on region would for the most part be considered fancy health food today, sold at a premium.

[@yuishizu2]

This was so fun and immersive to watch! Thank you for your hard work for this video, giving us such a great experience. Hope you got more rest after all that work.

[@LordZeebee]

I mean sugar IS used as a spice even today. It's not at all uncommon to add some sugar to Bolognese or similarly acidic/tart sauces in order to balance it out a bit.

[@vickilim1644]

Sharing the recipes of the ones you really liked might be very nice at some point. The brie with the herb/nut sauce would be nice. I would think that the lower classes would have had less meat than the upper classes.

[@VBirchwood]

I would have loved to share them but they are from two copyrighted books, so I’d rather that people go and support the authors of those books that I feature in the video 😊

[@samualaddams705]

Name of the books?@@VBirchwood

[@VBirchwood]

@@samualaddams705 in the description :)

[@forgingstrength6119]

Except recipes themselves cannot be copyrighted.

[@VBirchwood]

@@forgingstrength6119 they have been interpreted and modernised for the modern kitchen. Therefore it was the author’s interpretations I used. It is also just very poor practice to share another’s hard work online for free if they have released a book.

[@christinegallo4983]

This video was so much fun to watch 😊 I’m sure you already know about him, but Max Miller’s channel Tasting History recreates tons of historical recipes, and he explains the history of those recipes in each video. If people like this video definitely check him out

[@Circa2000s]

Yes! I love Max’s channel!!!!

[@artawhirler]

Hardtack! (Clack-clack!) 😅

[@GeologicalNerd]

Yep, that's the channel she should have watched.

[@-blackcherry3918]

He's amazing

[@Jessica_Costantini]

yeah i was pretty bummed watching this since she didn’t go further into more information about the food what ingredients she used, how she cooked it, the specific things she changed for her allergy or whatever and was bummed you couldn’t really get a good look at them as the lighting sucked

[@lorahassani7728]

I believe some variety of porridge or pottage would have been a typical anytime meal. Likely bread, butter, cheese or cold leftover meats would be grab and go foods for the working class. Lots of pulses would have been served too. If game, mutton, fowl or fish was available, that would have been the main meal of the day. Often meat wasn't always available, so stewed vegetables or broth-based soup with barley would be the meal.

[@dawnnewell237]

Watched the entire video. 👍🏻 It was informative and fun! Y’all are clearly close friends with similar food tastes. Thanks for sharing this novel cooking experience with us - I give the video 10 out of 5 kirtles. ☺️👍🏻👏🏻

[@catherinejustcatherine1778]

I am more joyful than I can describe to watch this video! Your cinematographic style, extensive research and gracefully wholesome self are so rejuvenating to watch and listen to. In honesty, I just finished breakfast, but, I hope to make a second pot of tea (or hot chocolate), and sip along with the 🥦🌽🥕🥔🍄 game. It's also the perfect motivation to help me progress on a crafting project.

[@VBirchwood]

Thank you so much Catherine! I’m so glad you enjoyed the video, and I hope you enjoy playing along with your second pot of tea 🥰

[@catherinejustcatherine1778]

@@VBirchwood I did. It was fun! And, I got some stuff done. (While drinking tea, and watching eating) I also got inspired to make some "kale stew", not as bland as the cabbage chowder, perhaps.

[@lurklingX]

lol. i was having breakfast as i watched. on bread i'd just made. (2nd ever in the bread machine. though i will be trying by hand once i get more time). i agree with everything you said in that first section. and yeah, it was also motivating for cooking and of alt menu of some sort.

[@jenniferlynn3537]

This was great fun! I really appreciated the diversity of your selections - in my opinion, the crowned chicken really captured the spirit of the age. Don’t be hard on yourself for how the sauces turned out! You weren’t tasting while cooking so as to preserve your honest reaction for the camera - but of course adjusting seasoning during a dish’s preparation is precisely how a good balance of flavor is achieved. Thanks to you & your dear friend for sharing mealtime with us!

[@jenncria]

This was such a pleasure to watch! I loved both of your dialogue, and honesty. Your meals looked nice, great job, and thank you!

[@Sweetrottenapple]

Those wonderful hand made little table cloths would be even more beautiful if you used to soak them in some starch and water after washing it. Dry it and iron it very carefully especially where the crochet-work is. Gently placing it in order with your fingers. It is going to look perfect ;) I really appreciate all the work you have put in this video. Thanks for sharing! ❤

[@ah5721]

Im honestly surprised you arent making pottage out of peas and stock with some kind of leafies. But it was facinating and The lighting was charming ❤❤

[@pippaseaspirit4415]

I really enjoyed this video 👍🏻 I mediaeval times a common mid-day meal would have been just bread, cheese, and an onion, with ale to help it down. Easy to prepare and easy to carry with you if you were out working all day.

[@April-sd8cz]

Stews and soups was also common, I've heard. It would have stretched what meat they did have, and would have been cooking all day. Most likely beans and some veggies.

[@ragnkja]

Stews and soups (pottages) were a significant part of most people’s diets, according to what I’ve heard.

[@sammarcum4931]

Awesome video! Thank you for enduring the daily grind of cooking so much food and experiencing it for us to see.

[@ryi5661]

this video is so good, its my first time stumbling upon your account and im quite shocked. i thought you had more subscribers because of how well your videos are made. the quality, the theme of your contents, and everything. i hope your continue making more of these kinds of videos. i will be here supporting! #justsubscribed.

[@StrongImaginationA]

Great video, I want to try that apple omelet omg! A note from a historian: written culture in the past wasn't as it is now in the sense that recipes were not necessarily 'complete' in what they would serve the dish with. You can assume that for a protein rich meal like the cheese with herbs and sauce would have been eaten with a chunk of bread. And given that vegetables were so seasonal, if they were eaten they would just serve whatever would be available.

[@TheGabygael]

a common view on food etiquette amongst the aristocracy in christian europe (i believe it stems back to royal feasts in medieval europe and i only have heard it from english sources so far and in regards to formal dining, might not even be representative of wealthy people on a daily basis) it's basically you wouldn't want to finish the dish at a royal baquet, finishing it all was seen as an act of selfishness it came down to the structure of ceremonial dining : people would eat in order of hierarchy, the monarch would be served first then the people next to them and so on until the end of the table, taking little food would then allow everyone below you to get enough food. At the end of the meal there should be leftovers for people hierarchaly lower than the guest : the servants of the castle and when all those people had sufficently eaten, any rest would be given to religious structures that would provide it to the "poor" community (which at that point would be anyone outside of the working system either due to age, elderly people would depend on their family to live on and in the absence on anyone surviving they would depend on those religious charities to survive, or due to illness or disabilities) now a lot of traditional dishes all over the world that are transmitted through speech tend to be ways to use up less than fresh ingredients

[@TheWilkReport]

Almond milk was used in lieu of dairy milk because unlike the dairy variety, it didn't spoil too quickly and during Lent when dairy, eggs, and meat were forbidden, it made an adequate substitute. Almonds were plentiful enough they could be used in many recipes for many dishes. Marzipan was also a frequent appearance at noble tables, where the confection was used in a variety of shapes and colors. Contrary to popular belief, Medieval peasants did eat their share fresh fruits and vegetables. Nobles didn't, apparently, because they believed fresh fruits and vegetables were bad for the health and could cause dysentery. Bread tended to be made from a number of grain flours. Poorer folk had to make do with barley flour for their bread, and when potatoes were introduced from the New World, potato flour. Peasant flour mills ground the flour rather coarsely, so it had a lot of grit in it that wore teeth down to a flat plane that prevented food from settling in to cause tooth decay. Bad breath was very much a thing, but among the peasants, tooth decay was not much of a problem. Peasant laborers ate pottage, which had a simple recipe: take whatever you had on hand, throw it into a pot with some water, and boil it until it became a sort of porridge. It was rather disgusting, but herbs from the garden could be used to flavor it and when dried out it could be taken to the field and re-hydrated with a bit of beer to make a sort of instant lunch. Table beer, which was the type most consumed at home, was extremely low in alcohol content.

[@ExtraordinaryMachine333]

Loved this video! I'm new to your channel and was impressed how much work and effort you put into this experiment :)

[@VBirchwood]

Thank you so much! Welcome to the channel 😊

[@miiol7018]

the jowtes with almond milk reminds me of the Finnish spinach soup (pinaattikeitto, spenatsoppa in Swedish)! it's a true staple of school lunches over here. we usually put boiled eggs in there (not while cooking, after). Pinaattikeitto is usually made with dairy milk at least today, no idea what they wouls have used back in the day, or even how old the dish is. but it was really cool seeing something even vaguely familiar in a video like this!!

[@maidsua4208]

Spinach soup with boiled egg is also eaten in Norway and Denmark.

[@jldisme]

To eat more greens and vegetables, you need to move down the social scale. They were considered peasant food. The wealthy wanted to have only the most inexpensive foods on their table - heavy on meat (which was a luxury item), expensive spices (mace, pepper, grains of paradise, dried ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg) and anything & everything else imported: almonds, wine, cheeses, dried fruit (raisins, lemons, oranges), and the most expensive of all -sugar! The poor were mostly vegan, but not by choice. They ate a LOT of bread, root vegetables like turnips, cabbage ,a mess of pottage or frumenty (grain cooked with whatever was on hand - herbs, nettles, seasonal vegetables), and peas porridge. In general, meat, eggs, milk and butter were probably sold rather than eaten by the lower classes. Bread for the poor would resemble a little modern-day whole wheat. The rich had bread made from the whitest flour they could afford. It's false that medieval upper class people used so many spices in meat dishes to cover up meat that had gone off. They put spices in almost everything to show their wealth.

[@TheGlamorousLifeofNae]

This was so fun to watch!!! Very beautiful setting, & your friend is so pretty! Both of you are so lovely. 💖

[@DocBree13]

This was wonderful! I’m so glad it came up in my feed - subscribed.

[@ragnkja]

Historically, the alternative to eating your leftovers was to give them as alms, which was seen as the more charitable thing to do. They certainly wouldn’t have let any leftover food go to waste.

[@annerigby4400]

great video and I cannot help but think that if you had made it about what commoners ate, it'd be a lot simpler: soup and bread, bread and soup and on special occasions something else like a chicken perhaps roasted. From what I have gathered from light research and family members, common people ate basically what was available - so seasonal fruit and veg and meat (from the annual pig) salted, dried and perhaps a chicken or a goose on the spit for festivities), beans, fish if they were near a river or the sea, etc. and the occasional egg from their hen(s). I was told that there was not meat at every meal or in all seasons. The soup would have a bit of meat in it (it was used sparingly because it had to last) and beans or lentils. Cheese and butter would have either been homemade or again eaten sparingly. More likely lard instead of butter. Well, that's the impression I have and so your video is way more interesting than that!

[@ABC1701A]

There is a series of books written - set in the late 1300s - by Susanna Gregory who has done a lot of research for writing them. In it she gives a good list of the basic foods ''enjoyed'' by the poorer classes (which definitely describes the protagonist and colleagues) through the year. Often not very appealing shall we say. If you are interested in that sort of thing they are worth leafing through - if you like mystery books then you might enjoy them for the storylines as well - simply for the snippets about the food available between the richer parts of society and the poorer ones.

[@annerigby4400]

@@ABC1701A that sounds really interesting! thanks for the information.

[@whatreallyisart5898]

I love the love for veggies!! the dedication to candle light is really good too. such a fun and interesting video that you can tell a lot of work went into

[@bookswithb2684]

This was so fun to watch! I can not even imagine the amount of work that went into this project!!

[@TheASMRCottage_]

This is so fun I love it! Also the medieval asmr😂 I love it!

[@VBirchwood]

Glad you enjoyed! The medieval ASMR joke is very fitting with your channel name! 😂

[@TheASMRCottage_]

🤣😂@@VBirchwood

[@jessisamess4062]

This was so much fun to watch! Your cinematography style is so fresh and enjoyable.

[@lindseybotelho]

My biggest takeaway from this video is that I definitely need a "Cheese Person"!

[@kimberlydominguez8370]

Thank you for doing this! It was so interesting. I appreciate all your efforts.

[@anieth]

There are a number of older spices that would have been used by commoners like alexanders and nigella, not to mention radishes and different flowers like safflower. Nettles! But this was so much fun, your friend is very beautiful! Bravo!!

[@brandonarkell5357]

This video vas so enjoyable to watch. You invested your time and hard work into it. I love the conversation at the end between you and your friend. Sharing.

[@deborahhernandez7785]

I loved the interactions with her friend the most. Sharing meals and time adventuring during the day with people you love is something that makes life worth living! ❤

[@ravioliravioligivemeareaso4447]

Can I just say that I adore this close up camera angle! It’s so fun and really brings across how intensely passionate you are :)

[@indiiiGo1223]

Jus found this and thanking the algorithm so much so. Love the energy and editing and can’t wait to binge more 🙏👁🙏

[@katienewell7350]

This was so cool!! I own The Medieval Cookbook but haven't tried any recipes from it yet so it was awesome to see your reactions to some of them. Thank you for sharing this experiment and well done!

[@KellySmithDavis]

I also own The Medieval Cookbook. I made the Jowtes with Almond Milk after watching this and I can confirm, it's delicious!

[@katienewell7350]

@@KellySmithDavis I think I will definitely try that one!

[@Noel.Chmielowiec]

I love everything about this video. Your joy while talking about food is so heartwarming to watch. And please, tell me, where can I find the spinach soup recipe? It sounds delightful and your reaction got me interested 😊 Oh, and if you are planning on making 'I ate food from (some era) for a week' series, I think we all would be so happy to watch it ❤

[@TigaFeva]

so proud of you. i made spaghetti sauce today and am cooked out for the week. idk how you did this every day. definitely subscribing!

[@ukkalns]

Only just came across your videos, your videomaking skills are fantastic, its such a pleasure to watch your videos! Absolutely anxiety free content, I love it :D

[@Jip-en-Janne]

THIS IS FUCKING WONDERFUL. You are a joy to watch, the shorts and editing are great

[@melsmith5833]

Truly a committed task! I agree about the lack of vegetables, though I enjoy rice and love bread and butter. Not so sure about the soups and sauces...However, it was quite interesting and good to see you and your friend enjoying time together.

[@ragnkja]

The aristocracy definitely ate less root vegetables and more meat than the average person, and a lot of the things they ate back then are no longer common, and if a weed was edible and tasted nice it was basically considered a vegetable you didn’t have to expend effort on.

[@nickname2446]

I enjoyed your video very much but more so that you shared your cooking with an important friend. I liked and subscribed today. keep making fascinating videos. ❤❤❤

[@fpoiana]

First time I saw your videos, and I love it! so you have a new subscriber. I have no idea where in the world are you, but I loved this video. Please keep them coming. Cheers from summery Argentina. Fede

[@tenaoconnor7510]

I love that you tried so many dishes. They all looked interesting, (breakfast) and yummy. I think the common folk ate more vegetables, bread and cheese than the upper classes. It was what they could grow. Lentils and beans, oats and other grains for pottage. Turnips and such. Leafy garden greens and herbs and wild greens that they foraged and a lot of fish and eels. I don’t think I would like eel but ya don’t know till ya try it.

[@riverAmazonNZ]

Eel is wonderful as long as you skin it. The skin is gross but the meat is great. Japanese grilled eel is excellent, hot smoked eel is good too.

[@annedonker4795]

eel is now mostly endangered so let's not go there! leave it in the middle ages @@riverAmazonNZ

[@eliseferrier3019]

I love your videos, you make me feel safe and creative

[@VBirchwood]

Awww this is the best compliment, thank you so much! 😊

[@jh2309]

Just found the channel and liked as a historian and chef I can tell that it would be hard to cook from an entirely different time period if not used to it. That's why O have a lot of respect for the reenactors especially those who do the Medieval and Viking periods as they didn't have much knowledge or technology to work. But they got the job done. You did a great job cooking some difficult dishes, you should be proud of what you did for a whole week.

[@partciudgam8478]

pretty intresting video! it was pretty intresting to see the food you cooked, I wasn't expecting such a variation on medieval food (kinda expecting oat porridge and roots, then roots and oat porridge, then oat porridge, then roots), you made my understanding better thank you!

[@jodireid1467]

As someone who is allergic to all types of onion , leek, chives and garlic … and lactose intolerant I think this would be a challenge

[@ragnkja]

The lactose intolerance could be dealt with by choosing recipes suitable for advent and lent, but avoiding all alliums would be hard given how much of a staple onions have always been.

[@jodireid1467]

@@ragnkja i know that alliums were such a major ingredient and flavouring 😫

[@elizabethrobles9934]

I praise your adventure. Modern appreciation of the limited kitchen people had in the past is so limited. Even your week is posh for normal Medieval kitchens

[@user-gx6cl9ks4k]

Thank you for your experimentation and reviews! I think getting back to the basics is a healthier choice for all of us and we will soon see many people following that simpler sort of life.. even though it was upper class... all foods are basically available to us so those of us looking to get out of the processed fast food modern way of eating will embrace your recipes. Great job!

[@dorianmilam3519]

I loved the "cod in a tasty sauce", due to not having haddock!!!! Living in a small town, my recipes get changed (often to where they hardly resemble the original). Really neat videos!!!

[@autumnmoon5014]

Loved watching this! The dishes were interesting ❤

[@VBirchwood]

Thanks so much! 😊 glad you enjoyed the video!!

[@scifirocks]

They would have had access to plenty of vegetables- poor people would have eaten a lot of them. As far as I'm aware they have had cabbage, carrots, parsnips, peas, beans, lentils, turnips, onions, garlic and various leafy greens and herbs. You'd be able to make a really tasty soup or stew with those ingredients and have it be period appropriate.

[@jazzygallegos87]

This was such a wonderful video. You guys did such an amazing job! I watched all the way to the end, and every recipe was interesting. It made me picture what it would be like to live back then. I also loved your outfits lol so cute

[@BeautifulShaving]

I'd love to get the recipe for the rose pudding with chopped dates. You did a wonderful job doing this video & you survived! Thank you for making content like this. I love historical stuff, but especially anything & everything medieval. I'd love to learn medieval cooking & how to actually sew my own medieval clothes that are suitable to wear at Ren Faires (especially a kirtle, love the color of yours).

[@angelanice]

This was a pleasure to watch, it's the first of your videos I've seen and I'm instantly subscribing!

[@VBirchwood]

Thank you!! Welcome to the channel!

[@petradegroot3578]

I think there weren’t a lot of vegetables in the recipes because the recipes were for higher class/richter people. For example: for a lower class peasant, a chicken is really valuable. it gives eggs to eat or can be bred to get more chickens. So cooking one is a special occasion because the chickens are expensive. The richer people could pay for more chickens, so eating meat was a way to show their status and money. Same with cows and sheep, they gave milk and wool. Pigs could be raised for meat but that takes time and recourses. Maybe you could try this again, but then with only vegetables and fruits that are originally from the aria you live in? I loved the video😄

[@bethmclenaghan989]

What a joy it was to stumble across this delightful video! It was so engaging and utterly fascinating and I'd ordered both cookbooks by the time the brie with nuts and herbs sauce was set on the table. Great job!!!

[@amyleefan85]

Cabbage is much better when you put it in a pan with some butter after cooking it. Add some onions and you have a nice side-dish. My mom makes this together with what we call "Krautroulade" or "Krautwickel" here in Lausatia, basically minced meat wrapped in blanched cabbage. Then you stew it in the oven for some time, add some gravy and you have this nice traditional, savory food from Germany :) Ok I am hungry now. xD Edit: I just did a little research and found out that this dish's roots actually go back to the middle ages aswell. I think you should try that out ;)

[@jldisme]

I don't have specific documentation on this, but I think the upper class would never eat leftovers. I believe leftovers were distributed as alms to the poor (after the lower servants picked them over).

[@ragnkja]

Indeed, they’d give the leftovers as charity, so eating the leftovers would be seen as selfish.

[@LadyWiggin]

This was a lot of fun to watch. The meals looked really good. Needing to try the jowtis

[@SandiByrd]

I'm here for the medieval asmr 🤣🥰 newly subscribed - your voice is so soothing! 🥰

[@shinashayesteh1057]

This was so fun and interesting to watch! I'm intrigued by the golden sauce with the eggs; definitely going to be trying that out for myself. Props for doing so much cooking in one week: even if you enjoy cooking, that's still a LOT of work.

[@hurraynature7449]

This looks so fun! I'd love to try this, but in addition to not eating meat, I also don't eat eggs or dairy, so I don't think this would be very easy for me 😅 It would have been fun if you'd also included medieval dining methods such as only eating with a spoon, a knife, and your hands (apparently you could only eat with a specific hand, though, as one hand was considered to be clean and the other was considered to be dirty. I don't remember which is which but they talk about it in a video created by Modern History TV)

[@anja8595]

Haha yeah. My animal welfare self did freeze up a bit at the video title. But, it was indeed so fun to watch!

[@amblyommaamericanum6590]

Same. If only Abu al-Ma'arri, (look him up if you don't know him, really fascinating guy), left us a cookbook. It'd be Lent everyday for us.

[@iainmc9859]

You eat with your right hand, which is why we hold the knife in the right hand ( in the old world ), as you said the fork was really a renaissance addition spreading out from the French aristocracy. In Arabic culture, where a lot of eating is still done with the hand, you always and only use the right hand (the left hand is used for 'unclean' tasks - use your imagination !)

[@emeraldoracle8706]

Oh what a fun video!!! I want to try so many of those dishes. I think I will make the apple omelette first as I have those items. Also I love the grape candle holders.

[@astartesol7720]

I resonate with all these meals, probably remembering a medieval past life. I’m going to dive into these recipes. This is awesome!

[@passionfruitfruit]

''Where are the vegetables?'' One should remember that back then fruits and vegetables were available only in season, so for a relatively short period of time during the year, depending on the type of the vegetable/fruit. Root vegetables could be stored in sand boxes for almost the entire winter, and apples keep in hay boxes for quite a while as well. But other than that, people relied on salting, pickling, sour-pickling, sugar-preserving, and drying as ways of preserving food. Thus, out of season, menus would rely on grains, grouts, dried legumes, a bit of meat/fish, dairy and eggs (also more difficult to get in winter!), root veggies, and some sauces. Due to the issues with keeping it fresh (and the price), meat wouldn't be eaten frequently either, hence salting, drying, and smoking 😃

[@VBirchwood]

Indeed! I meant it more so as a statement regarding the lack of vegetables within these specific recipe books (since those were the ones I was using). I’m really involved in organic gardening and permaculture so understanding seasonality of food is super important 😊