What Did Medieval Peasants Actually Eat? (Not What You Think)

Grey gruel, rotten meat and nothing but beer? Not quite. Archaeologists scraped the inside of medieval cooking pots, and what they found surprised everyone. Here's what an ordinary English peasant really ate 700 years ago, from thick pottage and "horsebread" to the goose that legally counted as fish. In this video: 🍲 Why one pot sat on every peasant's fire 🍞 Dark bread, and the bread made for horses 💧 The "they only drank beer" myth 🐟 Fish days, and the barnacle goose loophole 🌶️ Did spices really hide rotten meat? 🌧️ The Great Famine of 1315, when even the king couldn't buy bread ☠️ How the Black Death made peasants eat better ⚖️ The 1363 law that told servants what to eat Chapters: 0:00 Waking up as a medieval peasant 0:41 What's for breakfast? 0:58 The pot that never went cold 2:36 Daily bread (and horsebread) 3:17 What did they drink? 4:09 Fish days and the goose that was a fish 5:09 The spice myth 5:52 The Great Famine of 1315 6:54 The plague that changed the menu 8:19 The law on your plate 9:01 So what did they actually eat? Next up: what Henry VIII was eating. Subscribe so you don't miss it. Sources: University of Bristol / Journal of Archaeological Science (2019, West Cotton, Raunds); Christopher Dyer, "Changes in Diet in the Late Middle Ages"; Statute of Labourers (1351); Sumptuary Law of 1363; William Jordan, "The Great Famine". #MedievalHistory #History #MiddleAges