In the Middle Ages,breakfasts were not the elaborate affairs ofVictorian times nor even the necessary and important meal of today;breakfastwas, in fact, practically nonexistent during the earlier medievalperiod,and quite sparse (by contemporary standards) in the latter years. To beable to have merely a "sop in wine" (bread or toast in wine)everyday for one's morning repast was considered luxurious. Here is whatTerenceScully, author of The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages, and P.W. Hammond, author of Food & Feast in Medieval England,haveto say about this subject:
"Most commonly only twomeals were eaten in a day. Normally the firstmeal of the day was the major meal. This was dinner. It must originallyhave been prepared to fit into a late-morning pause after the initialactivitiesof one's daily routine. Because this meal required so much preparation,particularly in affluent households, it could not usually be availablemuch before noon, the sixth hour of the day. By that time half of theday'swork - or play - could very well be done. To conclude one's active daya second meal was more easily prepared and served some six or eighthourslater, at or just after dusk. Because the original basis for this mealwas soup, or sops, it became known as supper. This meal too was subjectto elaboration at the hands of professional cooks, but universally itremaineda somewhat simpler meal than the midday dinner. According to Platina inthe second half of the fifteenth century, at supper 'we must eatfoodwhich our stomach can digest easily; however, we must eat rathersparingly,and especially those of melancholy humour whose ills usually areincreasedby nighttime dampness and food weighing them down with discomfort.'
"Following the teachings ofthe Medical School of Salerno, John ofMilan advised:
'Rise at5, dine at 9,
sup at 5, retire at 9,
for a long life.'
"Why were there normally just two meals rather than three or four?Or for that matter, rather than just one? The answer to any question isundoubtedly rooted largely in practical convenience, but for theMedievalphysician the justification for mealtimes involved in part a perceptionthat one felt healthier if one ate only when one became hungry. To eat,therefore, before a previous meal had made its way completely out ofthestomach was declared to be a most dangerous practice. Given that theaverage'modern' digestive system seems comfortably able to handle only twosubstantialmeals in a day, and given that the professional cook was required tolayon nothing less than substantial meals, the two-meal patternremainedthe norm for most of Medieval Europe.
"As cookery became complexand skilled an undertaking, dinner becameincreasingly more elaborate and its serving was pushed even past themiddleof the day. Supper, in turn, could be delayed until 7 or 8 o'clock,whenuseful daylight was past, but it seems to always have remained a mealofclearly secondary importance, at which the assortment of dishes wasbothmore limited and simpler. Toward the end of the period with which wearedealing, hunger became more unwilling to wait until noon or 1:00 pm tobe satisfied. Perhaps the delicious odours that began wafting from thekitchen at the earliest light of dawn excited people's appetite beyondreasonable restraint. And so it became acceptable to breakone'sovernight fast with a small bite at some time before dinner.
"Breakfast, at first aconcession, of an unseemly if not totallydissolute sort, became seen as less disgraceful to the extent that itwasjust an immaterial trifle. The license was justified - an excess, whichstrict Medieval morality might judge to be a variety of sin - bydesigningit on the one hand either to give the peasant and craftsman somethingtosustain their morning's labour, or, on the other, in the case of thearistocrat,merely to hold hunger awhile in abeyance until a meal that was reallyworthyof his or her status could be prepared. We find the morning collationjustifiedin particular in the case of the aristocrat who was forced so often tobe on the road visiting the various outlying parts of his estate, butwhowas unwilling to set out at daybreak on an empty stomach.
"The earliest breakfast wasundoubtedly just a chunk of bread anda mug of watered wine. Then we have evidence of anchovies and filletsofother fish being consumed, these like the famous British breakfast ofkipperedherring being always in a preserved state ready for eating at any time.The fatter fish, such as herring (and its small relative, the anchovy),salmon and trout lent themselves to particularly well preservation bysmoking,and came to be appreciated in certain circles as a tasty means to holdoff hunger pangs. Besides, if nibbling a breakfast could be censured ascontributing to the sin of gluttony, surely the fact that what wasnibbledwas fish could only help mitigate the sense of sin!"
Terence Scully, The Artof Cookery in the Middle Ages, pp119-120
"The very poor doubtless atewhen they could, but the slightly better-offpeasants seem generally to have eaten three times a day. These mealsconsistedof breakfast at a very early hour to allow for dinner at about 9:00 am,or not later than 10:00 am, and supper probably before it got dark,perhapsat 3:00 pm in the winter. Three meals a day were accepted as reasonableby most later sixteenth century writers, such as Andrew Borde, althoughhe thought that this was only good for the labouring man; anyone elseshouldbe content with two. It has been suggested that breakfast was onlyeatenby children and workmen, but certainly by the fifteenth century it wasquite commonly taken by everyone. Breakfast was regularly allowed forinthe accounts of Dame Alice de Bryene at the beginning of the fifteenthcentury, although the 1478 household ordinance of Edward IV specifiesthatonly residents down to the rank of squires should have breakfast,exceptby special order. Edward, Price of Wales, son of Edward IV, breakfastedafter morning mass. The time was only specified as 'a convenyenthower',although to break one's fast after devotions was the generallyrecommendedprocedure. Earlier references to breakfast sometimes meant dinner,literally,in these cases, the first meal of the day."
P. W. Hammond, Food& Feast in Medieval England, p. 105
Household records of thetime also punctuate the reality of a lightbreakfast and indicate what specific foods were served. In 1289,peasantsworking as carters on Ferring Manor in Sussex had a breakfast of ryebreadwith ale & cheese. In 1512, clerks and yeomen in the NorthumberlandHousehold received for breakfast on meat days a loaf of householdbread,a bottle of beer and a piece of boiled beef. The porters and stablestaffin the same household received a loaf of the same bread and a quart ofbeer. On fish days the clerks and yeomen received a piece of salt fishinstead of the beef.
Breakfast Foods List
Ale
Anchovies- smoked or preserved.
Beef
Beer
Bread -any variety.
Cheese
Herring- smoked or preserved.
Salmon- smoked or preserved.
Salt Fish- preserved pieces of filleted ling,hake, cod, or whiting.
Sop in Wine- toast or bread in wine.
Trout -smoked or preserved.
Wine
