The material life of medieval Europe was not unlike that of antiquity in several important respects and would remain substantially unchanged until the industrial revolution. The biological regime established by the Neolithic revolution remained in effect. Grain remained the basic food. Wheat was preferred, but millet, spelt, barley, oats, and rye were also staples, especially among the poor. Ground into flour and then baked as bread or served in the form of gruels and porridges, grains were the staff of life and provided most of the calories in the average person's diet.

Bread was commonly baked outside the home because medieval ovens were large brick affairs that consumed great quantities of fuel. Several hours were required to heat them to the proper temperature, and economies of scale demanded that many loaves be baked at the same time. Only the households of the very rich, with their dozens of servants and retainers, required ovens of their own or could afford to dispense with the services of the village baker. Many different kinds of bread existed, ranging from the fine white loaves and cakes prized by the nobles and high-ranking clergy to coarse breads made of rye or of oats and mixed grains. An important consideration in the grading of bread was the proportion of bran left in the flour. This created a strange paradox: The lower grades of bread consumed by the poor were often higher in nutritional quality than was the bread of the rich with its bleached, highly refined, wheaten flour. Another oddity of the baker's trade was that in many countries the price of a loaf of bread was fixed by law or custom but the size was not. A ha'penny loaf in England always cost 1/2 d., but its weight might vary radically according to the price of grain. The shape and appearance of loaves was a matter of local preference and differed widely from region to region. Whatever its form or content, baked bread was often too expensive for the very poor, especially on a regular basis. Unbaked bread, or gruel, could be cooked at home and was commonly eaten by all classes for its economy and ease of preparation.

Baked or unbaked, bread accounted for at least 50 percent of a rich family's diet and for more than 80 percent of the calories consumed by poor people. The price and availability of grain was therefore a valid measure of living standards because few substitutes were available and a bad harvest brought widespread misery. Rice was expensive and little known outside parts of Spain and the Middle East until the fifteenth century. It seems to have been consumed largely by wealthy invalids. In some upland areas, chestnuts were ground and baked into a coarse but nutritious bread. In most areas the best insurance against hunger was to grow several kinds of grain at different seasons.

A diet of bread was monotonous and poor in virtually every nutritional element save carbohydrates. Whenever possible, people tried to supplement it with other foods, but their choices were limited. Protein was provided mainly by dried peas, beans, lentils, or chickpeas that were cooked into a wide variety of soups and stews. Meat was rare except on the tables of the feudal aristocracy. Their chief leisure pastime was hunting, and they tended to consume vast quantities of game, seasoned after the twelfth century with powerful spices from the East and washed down with great drafts of wine or beer. Many peasants could not afford to keep animals at all, though ducks and chickens were raised for their eggs and stewed or made into soup when they had passed their prime. Those with capital or excess land might have some hogs or a cow. Even for them, meat was likely to be a seasonal delicacy. The cost of feeding livestock over the winter was high, and even the wealthier peasants slaughtered their animals in the fall, eating some and preserving the rest by smoking or salting. . .

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