Thursday, May 22, 2014

What's on the Boil?



A handy table to determine what the commoners are eating whenever someone is curious enough to ask or a DM wishes to add a little color.

What are they eating in the village?  Roll 1d20 on Meat Days and 1d10 on other days.
1.      Dark Bread and Cheese
2.      Oat Pottage
3.      Boiled Cabbage and Rye Bread
4.      Leek Pottage with Maislin Bread
5.      Vegetable Pottage (mostly turnips and parsnips) with Wheat Bread
6.      Oat Pottage with Beans
7.      Pea Porridge and Rye Bread
8.      Boiled Eggs, with Wheat Bread and Cheese
9.      Gudgeon Pie
10.   Roast Dace with Maslin Bread
11.   Oat Pottage with Ham and Wheat Bread
12.   Boiled Tripe with Turnip and Wheat Bread
13.   Leek Pottage and Roast Pork with Maslin Bread
14.   Boiled Cabbage and Bacon with Rye Bread
15.   Stewed Rabbit and Wheat Bread
16.   Pauper’s Pie of Turnip, Leeks and whatever meat possible (Likely Squirrel or Hedgehog)
17.   Turnip and Cabbage Mash with fried bacon and White Bread
18.   Roast Pigeon with Maslin Bread and Cheese
19.   Pork with peas porridge, Rye bread and Cheese
20.   Kidney Pie with Cheese and Fruit

Maslin is a mixture of rye and wheat. Pottage is a boiled stew. Dace and Gudgeon are fish.
All meals would be served with locally made fresh Ale, Beer, Perry, Cider, or Wine depending on the region.

In the fields or on the road commoners will usually have a lunch of Bread and Cheese they are carrying and possibly a couple of onions and a bit of sausage or fruit along with a flask or jug of local beverage.

Meat Days came to be in some regions when for religious and practical reasons consumption of meat is banned by custom and law, in some regions and times only half or less of the days in a month would be meat days where meat would be prepared. Animal produce of the rivers and seas were not usually considered meat.

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