A question was posed on the wizards.com “What's a DM to Do” board, about what a medieval tavern might serve. Here are the most useful answers.
06-23-03 08:29 PM
Lessee…beer is a must..or at least some kind of alcohol…nothing special…nothing really pure either.
Mostly 'imported' beer won't cost that much..and will be bottom of the barrel type stuff.
I imagine most beer will be home brewed which isn't that hard to do. And will consist mainly of grain stuff..unless a place that has fruit is nearby. While I'm not an expert on beer…so not much more specific than that..I do know of a good one is called 'moonshine' pure stuff can be quite strong…made mainly from grains….I'm thinking even corn might work..not sure. Yes..I'm from Tennessee..how did you know ?
Foodwise..since it seems this will be one of the places to stop for food..as well as drink…
Depending, once again, on who is now running it (someone who enjoys the work..is doin it from kindness..or just wants money?). The type of food present will vary.
Baked goods might be possible….meat..about any old meat..
Meat pies of diff sorts are highly possible. Things like soups also…
I wouldn't be surprised if most food is somehow 'contaminated' stuff in there that shouldn't be in there…nothing life threatening..but you get the idea.
06-23-03 08:36 PM
Beer…maybe hard cider…maybe a couple choices of wine.
Bread (maybe with drippings from the roast, probably not butter), cheese, and bacon.
Some sort of roasted meat (beef, chicken, pork) and/or chops (pork, maybe lamb).
Meat pie and/or stew (probably made from the leftover meats from the previous day). Or maybe from a chicken or two not giving eggs anymore.
Possibly some sort of fruit pie (likely apple or local berries, depending on the season).
In season, roasted crab apples were a popular dish in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
For breakfast, maybe eggs and bacon, or cold leftover meat. Maybe sausages (bread and sausage - probably smoked, probably made locally might also be offered for those wanting a cheap, portable lunch).
06-24-03 01:24 AM
Root cellar veggies, carrots, potatos, turnips, winter squash, onions, garlic, dried herbs for flavor if the cook is good and creative, other wise boil it and mash it. Middle ages dental hygene, ya know.
06-24-03 02:14 AM
i understand beef was a rarity only reserved for the wealthy. common meats of the middle ages was pork, lamb, mutton and fowl. fish would be a common staple near port towns. practically all meats were salted and any type of food would be preseved in brine or vinegar.
vegetables were grown in the backyard, hearty, tough soil tubers like carrots and parshnips. cabbage was another vegetable that can grow in poor soil.
i like to be somewhat realistic in depicting common fare. in a fantasy setting only the gods know whats on the menu.
06-24-03 03:41 AM
Likely beverages: Beer, grog, mead, wine, local favorites like hard cider. Many brews might be served hot (heated with an iron kept in the fire).
Breakfast: Porridge, blanc mange (a gruel of gains with some poultry and spices), maybe bread and fruit.
Lunch/Dinner: A stew or soup of some sort is likely always on the fire and the cook probably throws odds and ends into it throughout the week to keep it going. A typical plowman's lunch is a hunk of farmer's cheese wraped in a cabbage leaf or served with a piece of bread. Roasted meats when available, sausages and cured meats at other times of the year. Root vegetables rather than leafy greens (they keep better). Of course, there is almost certain to be a regional dish that the locals just love but that travelers consider ineddible (like hagis). You can have fun when your players order what the bar maid recommends then find they are being served chicken heads stuffed in a pig's bladder.
Meals would be typically brought to the table all at once, not served in courses (that is a fairly modern convention). Even sweets and items we would consider as dessert fare might be served with the rest of the meal.
If you are playing in a historical medieval European setting and your culture has not yet had contact with your world's version of the Aztec culture (i.e., the New World hasn't been discovered) then your dinners will not find: Corn, potatos, tomatos, coffee, or chocolate. If your world is more cosmopolitan then such things may be readily available.
06-26-03 09:59 AM
Ok, the first thing is that DnD is not Medieval Europe, so that meat is going to be a lot more common than it was in reality.
For breakfast: You probably arranged something with the innkeeper the night before, probably at the same time you arranged for your food for the midday meal. Generally, it would be oatmeal or some other sort of cereal, some eggs, bacon, sausage and the like, not much else.
Lunch, usually meats, cheese, bread, ale, possibly wine.
Dinner:
Poor: Stew, probably made with the leftovers from lunch and the cuttings from the more expensive joints of meat, usually 1 bowl. Bread, Ale, drippings from the roast.
Moderate: Stew, but more of it. Bread, ale, maybe some chicken.
Rich: Even for the rich, stew would be a more common staple, since it can be cooked in advance and if not eaten tonight, served tomorrow for lunch. Besides, if you get more people than you expect, cut up and throw some more vegetbles in the pot, add some water to stretch it and so on. Cheese would be commonly served before the meal, often while cooking it, allowing the inn to stuff their clients bellies with something cheap and easy to find, while allowing the inn to make more of a profit.
Fruits would be more likely to be served to a high class customers, with the type depending upon the season, although DnD gets around that with 'Gentle Repose'.
Chicken would be a common staple as well, especially if you got word to the innkeeper before hand.
No matter what, you don't want too complicated a menu, since the innkeeper isn't going to want to buy lots of food, just in case somebody show up to buy it.
In fact, all an inn used to do, was take the food that their clients brought in, often bought at the local market and cooked it for them, at a small fee. They made their real money off the booze and that of course is still accurate today.
06-29-03 05:25 PM
Here ya go.
Found this a long time ago and saved it for using later on.
Dawnfry Oatmeal 1 cp Dried & Salted Fish 1 cp Biscuits and Butter 1 cp Frybread 1 cp Bacon 1 cp Eggs 1 cp Special Eggs Ask - We will cook any eggs you bring in. Fried Potatoes in Mushroom Broth 3 cp Fried Blood Pudding with Cranberry Sauce 4 sp Fry Plate - Bacon, Tomatoes, Sliced Almonds, Mushrooms, & Butter 2 cp Sausage Fry 3 cp Dawn Roast 9 sp Cream and Fruit 2 sp Highsunfeast Melted Cheeses Sandwiches Sprinkled with Spices 1 cp Cheese and Cucumber Buns 2 cp Cheese and Sausage Platter 6 sp Cold Potato Soup 2 cp Mussel and Basil Soup 6 cp Fried Eel Soup 2 cp Stew of Fowl 3 sp Stewed Hare 6 cp Roasted Wildfowl 2 sp Hot Bites 1 cp - Cheese, Mustard, and Leek Sandwiches Sprinkled with Basil, Pepper, and Wine Cooked Vegetables - Greens, Potatoes, & Carrots 2 cp Biscuits and Butter 1 cp Bustard in Clay 6 sp - Quail Encased in Clay and Baked (Ideal for Transport by Adventurers) Braised Bustard on Buns 2 sp - Roast Ground Quail on Bread Spread with Gravy Based on Onions and Meat Shepherds Pie 6 sp Kidney Pie 9 sp Chicken and Pheasant Pies 4 cp Pork Pastries 2 cp Oat Cakes 1 cp Fried Blood Pudding with Cranberry Sauce 4 sp A Trio of Trumpets - Crisp Crackers Stuffed with Melted Cheese, Chopped Nuts, & Fried Mushrooms 1 gp Eel 2 cp River Clams 6 cp Oysters with Cider & Vinigar Oyster Suace 5 cp Goudats - Panfried and Pepper-Spiced Mushrooms Rolled in Melted Cheese 1 sp Onion and Mushroom Fireside Tarts 1 cp Pate 2 cp Cream and Fruit 2 sp Eveningfeast Melted Cheeses Sandwiches Sprinkled with Spices 1 cp Cheese and Cucumber Buns 2 cp Cheese and Sausage Platter 6 sp Stew of Fowl 3 sp Stewed Hare 6 cp Roasted Wildfowl 2 sp Fried Blood Pudding with Cranberry Sauce 4 sp Hot Bites - Cheese, Mustard, and Leek Sandwiches Sprinkled with Basil, Pepper, and Wine 1 cp Cooked Vegetables - Greens, Potatoes, & Carrots 2 cp Biscuits and Butter 1 cp Bustard in Clay - Quail Encased in Clay and Baked (Ideal for Transport by Adventurers) 6 sp Braised Bustard on Buns - Roast Ground Quail on Bread Spread with Gravy Based on Onions and Meat 2 sp Shepherds Pie 6 sp Kidney Pie 9 sp Goudats - Panfried and Pepper-Spiced Mushrooms Rolled in Melted Cheese 1 sp Succulent Stag 1 gp Roast Boar 1 gp Venison 9 sp High Dale Lamb 8 sp Stuffed Snake 4 sp Special Roast Ask - We will cook a roast of any monster you kill. (No sentient beings please.) Wyveren Tail 2 gp Roasted Cockatrice 3 gp Turkey Pie - A Delicacy from Essembra 7 cp Boar and Chestnut Deep Pot 9 cp Variety Deep Pots 7 sp Old Tower Fowl 6 cp - Roast fowl in a delicate sauce of mushrooms and wine, from Highmoon Pork Pastries 2 cp Chicken and Pheasant Pies 4 cp Oyster and Wild Rice in Mushroom Soup 1 gp Oysters with Cider & Vinigar 5 cp Oyster Suace 5 cp Pate 2 cp Brassla - Rice with Eels, Onions, Fish, Oysters, and Frogs 4 sp Cold Potato Soup 2 cp Pheasant Tail Soup 8 sp Fried Eel Soup 2 cp Turtle Soup 3 sp Mussel and Basil Soup 6 cp Dragon Soup 9 gp Roast Gammon - Fruit Glazed Ham in a Pastry Shell 3 sp Mutton with Mint Jelly 7 sp Spiced River Fish 5 sp Three Crabs 1 sp - Softshelled Crabs Baked & Spread with White Sauce and Spices Wine Simmered Goose 6 cp A Trio of Trumpets 1 gp - Crisp Crackers Stuffed with Melted Cheese, Chopped Nuts, & Fried Mushrooms River Trout - On Toast With Sauce of Lemon, Cream, & Pepper 3 sp Salmon with White Wine Sauce 8 sp Onion and Mushroom Fireside Tarts 1 cp Eel 2 cp River Clams 6 cp Chicken Dumplings 1 sp Fresh Garden Salad 2 cp - Lettuce, Tomato, Radish, Spinach, Carrots, & Other Fresh Garden Vegetables Cream and Fruit 2 sp Rice Candies 1 gp Litchi Fruit 9 sp Drinks Mint or Lemon Water 1 cp Milk 5 cp Coffee 2 gp Cocoa 5 gp Tea -We have more types of tea than a Druid can name Herbs 1 sp Shoung Lou Tea 1gp Fruit Juice 1 sp House Ale 2 cp Iriaeboran North Brew 3 cp Bitter Black 3 cp Tantul's Dark 3 cp Dragon's Breath Beer 2 cp Elminster's Choice 2 cp Golden Sands Brew 3 cp Lurien's Best 6 cp Old One Eye 4 cp Old Smoke Ale 2 sp Blackwater Stout 4 cp Shadowdark Ale 3 cp Tanagyr's Stout 4 cp Arlho's Ashaben Ale 5 sp Black Boot Stout 7 sp Blackeagle Brew 6 cp Purple Dragon Ale 6 cp Highwater Ale 9 cp Suzale 6 cp Mead 3 cp Stout 4 cp Kneecracker Cider 4 cp Purple Hill Cider 8 cp Vilhon Cider 9 cp House Wine 5 cp Fern & Mint Wine 1 sp Westgate Ruby 8 cp Arabellan Dry 6 sp Berduskan Dark 3 gp Saerloonian Glowfire 2 sp Saerloonian Special Vat 3 sp Saerloonian Topaz 3 sp Blood Wine 4 sp Undermountain Alurlyath 1 gp Spiced Wine 1 sp Gluug 3 sp Pearls of the Moon - A Delightful Green Grape Wine 7 sp Karoph - A Blue, Floral, Sweet wine 1 sp Dandulus "Xoblob" Green Wine 4 sp Neverwinter Black Icewine 7 sp Winter Wine - A Delectable Blue Wine from Neverwinter 2 gp Firewine 2 gp Fruit Smoothwater 1 sp Coolthroat Sip 7 cp Fruit Liquers 2 sp Rollrum - Tastes Like Licorice 1 sp Sherry 7 cp Clarry 1 sp Sluth 3 cp Zzar - Tastes Like Amaretto 6 cp Brandy 2 sp Rubyfire 1 sp Whiskey 1 sp Rum 1 sp Best Old Mintarn Whisky 1 gp Wyvern Whisky 2 gp Tethyrian Distilled Dragonsblood 1 gp Elverquisst - A Fiery Elven Liquer 1 gp Evermead 5 gp Feywine 100 gp Breads Biscuits 1 cp Hard Tack 1 cp Crackers 3 cp Blackbread 9 cp Fruit Cakes 1 gp Ginger Bread 5 sp Sourdough 1 sp Sausage Bread 4 sp Corn Bread 5 sp Elven Bread 2gp Cheeses Cheddar Cheese 1 cp Arabellan Cheddar 4 cp Farmers Cheese 3 cp Damarite Red 6 cp Elturian Grey 6 cp Nut Cheese 1 sp Chessentan Lotus Cheese 1 sp Green Calishite 2 sp Waterdhavian 2 sp Pepper Cheese 2 sp Blackeagle Bold 2 sp Turmish Brick Cheese 2 sp Yak Butter- Very Much Like a Brie Cheese 3 sp Brie Cheese 5 sp Vilhon Blanc Cheese 3 sp Amaratha's Marbled Green 4 sp Mist Cheese 5 sp Death Cheese 1 gp Lurien Spring Cheese Sorry, none for Halflings 10 gp Smoking Products Cigars 10 gp Tobacco 5 gp Pipeweed 2 cp Pipes 2 sp
Sorry about the spacing. I've got in nice and neat in my file, but it inserted and deleted some spaces when I copied it.
And now it's time for lunch!