Page 36 - British Museum: SYTYGIB Medieval Castle

Of course, there were no fridges back then, due to a distinct lack of plug sockets.
Instead meat and fish were salted to preserve them, while sauces could be used to mask the yucky taste of meat that was past its best.
And what would you drink to wash down your meal if you were a kid back then? Well, you’d certainly drink water, but what else? Orange squash? Banana milkshake? A zingy isotonic sports drink?
Naaah. You’d sip a nice low-alcohol beer called small beer.
That’s right – even the kids drank beer! And before you ask, no, you’re not having any for supper.
Somebody had to make all this stuff of course, and the castle kitchens – which were hot, noisy places with huge fireplaces and ovens – would have been staffed with cooks, sauce makers and butlers and their child helpers. Pantlers were in charge of the pantry, not making pies filled with pants – although given some of the other dishes on offer that wouldn’t have been that surprising.
36
FANCY THAT!
Some castles had huge numbers of staff working in them. At Goodrich Castle in England, the Lady who owned it, Countess Joan de Valence, had nearly 100 servants. And there’s you having to make do with zero servants. It’s just not fair!