Pottage was a common stew eaten by peasants in medieval Europe, made with whatever ingredients were available. As more herbs and spices became available, it evolved into modern soups. Wealthier people ate a thicker version with more meat and vegetables, cooked in a cauldron over a fire.
Pottage is a name for a type of stew. A peasant food, it was a common meal across Europe in medieval times. Most peasants ate whatever foods were available to them at the time, so pottage became something of a catch-all term that has since come to mean something that has little or no value. Modern soups and stews can trace their roots back to pots.
Pottage was, as the name suggests, often cooked in a pot over an open fire. When prepared and eaten by the lower class, the primary ingredient was usually water. As the water boiled, they would add whatever other ingredients were available at the time. This often included vegetables such as carrots, cabbage and onions, along with any game that had been hunted that day. Freshly harvested herbs were also frequently used to flavor the meal.
Originally, herbs such as parsley and thyme were used alongside the vegetables usually grown in the home garden. As more herbs and spices became available, cooks began adding new ingredients, from saffron and pomegranates to pistachios and almonds. The high-end ingredients have made what was originally a peasant meal a more popular dish among the middle and upper classes; eventually, this led to the development of several types of modern soups. The most popular soup recipes were recorded and replicated as they became more sophisticated foods. Queen’s Pottage is a favorite recipe in many European countries and was made with mushrooms, lemons, almonds and partridges.
Most of the pot made by the peasants was thin, as it was mostly water. Wealthier people also ate pottage, but their version was made thicker by more meat and vegetables. Depending on the quality of the pot, it could be hardly nutritious or very abundant; most of the time, the wealthy ate healthier meals. This thick stew most commonly eaten by those who could afford better ingredients was often referred to as a stew.
The primary source of heat for most homes in the medieval era was a central hearth or hearth. This often doubles for the stove. Houses belonging to wealthier families might often have a cauldron over a fire, suspended from an iron bar. Pottage would be boiled in this and left to simmer throughout the day. Poorer families had to find another way to cook. This usually involved a simple fire in the middle of the room, with the ashes burned and hollowed out to make a place to set an earthen pot.
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