From strange pie fillings to a serious lack of vegetables, the dangers of medieval fast
food are jaw-dropping. While you might think that eating modern-day fast food carries a risk,
can you imagine what medieval fast food must have been like?
Just as people in modern society often don't have enough time, money, or interest when
it comes to making home-cooked meals, those living in medieval times had similar issues.
And much like today, their solution to these problems was fast food.
Throughout history, people have needed quick, easy, portable food that can effortlessly be
consumed on the go. As noted by the Pennsylvania State University Center for Medieval Studies,
the concept of fast food has been around since Roman times. Adults living in urban areas in
small dwellings often didn't have access to food storage, fuel with which to cook, or tools such as
pots, pans, or utensils. Many didn’t even have actual meat or vegetables to cook in the first
place. As early as the late 12th century, there was a "fast food restaurant" located on the banks
of the Thames river in London. Hungry travelers or city dwellers could stop in at any time
day or night and find a variety of foods ready to eat at a range of price points.
For centuries, it remained relatively rare for people to have access to home cooking necessities.
One study of life in 14th-century Colchester,
England concluded that just 3% of tax-paying households had their own kitchen. Artisans,
workers, and poor widows often lived in dwellings without hearths, let alone cooking stoves.
Money had to be reserved for crucial expenses such as rent and milk.
As for the kinds of fast food medieval diners enjoyed, according to the Penn State University
Center for Medieval Studies, meat pies and pasties were popular. Like a Big Mac,
these fold-over filled crusts were portable and easy to eat on the go.
Bread was the mainstay of medieval diets because it was inexpensive,
lasted a while, and was made from readily available flour. Fast food consisted of lots
of bread products, including hotcakes, pancakes, wafers, pies, and pasties.
Furthermore, historians have found evidence of regulations forbidding
bakers to charge more than a penny to put a customer's meat
into a pastry and bake it. This made it even more of a bargain for people with limited funds.
Another similarity between medieval fast food and modern fast food
is the bad reputation with which these eateries were saddled. In medieval times,
the cooks themselves who prepared and sold these foods were often seen as dirty and dishonest.
Sources indicate that some cooks made food from tainted meats, reheated and served days-old
pasties that were on the verge of spoiling, and sold beef pasties as venison. To make matters
worse, many cooks were reportedly disguising tainted dishes with an abundance of spices
and herbs. In William Langland's Middle English poem "Piers Plowman," cooks are listed as a group
regularly punished by authorities because, quote, "they poison the people privily and oft."
Fast food during that era had questionable preparation practices and wasn't regulated. Today,
it’s still considered an unhealthy option, though we generally have better food practices now.
But whatever social class someone occupied during that time, a meat pie here and there
didn't stand a chance against their overall poor diets. So in the long run, those quick
eats at riverside cookshops wouldn't have made much of a difference. The medieval diet was
lacking in many areas, and the poor and elite all suffered by not getting adequate vitamins and
nutrients for proper bodily functions. It resulted in several health conditions common at that time.
Lucky for the poor, due to social attitudes that said fruits and vegetables
were for peasants, they had better access and opportunities to eat them.
But another attitude of that time also said that fresh produce couldn't be eaten raw
and had to be cooked. This meant that a lot of significant nutrients were lost.
For the most part, the medieval diet mostly consisted of what we call
carbohydrates today. But even with the health risks that came with their food practices,
some experts say it fares better than what people actually eat today.
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