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The types of grains cultivated in thirteenth-century Germany were barley, oats, rye, wheat, spelt, buckwheat, and millet. Barley and oats were the most popular, and millet was the grain eaten by the poor and in times of famine. Archaeologists have found evidence of a wide variety of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and herbs that were grown in medieval Germany. They include cherries, plums, damsons, peaches, sloeberries (small, bitter, wild European plums, the fruits of the blackthorn), apples, walnuts, hazelnuts, grapes, elderberries, blackberries, beechnuts, chestnuts, medlars, pears, strawberries, roses, raspberries, bloodwort, amaranth, dill, celery, hemp, carrots, linseed, peas, lamb’s lettuce, and rose hip. This information points to a diet that was substantially more varied than what medieval German literature of the time would have the reader believe. Disregarding the upwardly mobile urban middle class that already existed around A.D. 1200, literary texts invariably list game, fish, white bread, and wine as aristocratic food, and dark bread, porridge, turnips, side meat, water, milk, cider, and beer as peasant food. At times also, blanc manger is mentioned as upper-class food, and hemp, lentils, and beans as lower-class food.
Bread was by far the most cost-effective of the foodstuffs in terms of the calories it provided, and many people in late-medieval Germany, as elsewhere in Europe, depended on it for their survival. Bad harvests brought on by natural disasters or wars often led to a steep rise in grain prices that easily pushed the less well-off into starvation. But not only availability and affordability determined what Germans were eating in the Middle Ages. Norms were also imposed by different authorities, including town councils, the church, and the medical community. Sumptuary laws were intended to curb conspicuous consumption among the nouveau riche burghers who were trying to flaunt their wealth. In the area of food, these laws prescribed, for instance, how many courses were allowed at a festive banquet, and how many platters of food in total. For wedding banquets in early fourteenth-century Berlin, the limit was five courses and 40 platters for the bourgeoisie. At that time, only the aristocracy was allowed eight courses, but by 1500, this rule was no longer observed.
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