Anglo Saxons ate a variety of foods comprising of different vegetables, fruits, meats, and grains. They ate meat drawn from a number of sources, from farmed animals, domestic livestock as well as hunting and fishing.
The Anglo Saxon cuisine also included different drinks mostly produced from the fruits available at the time.
The food itself was cooked on open hearths which were usually located at the center of a household.
When Anglo Saxons dominated over the local Breton population, barley was the staple grain. The Anglo Saxon continued consuming barley but in time, shifted over to the use of wheat.
They grew wheat and rye and then used these grains to make bread from them. Wheat was ground to flour with huge stones and this flour was then used to create small and round loaves which were cooked in hearths made of stone.
The wheat was also consumed in the form of pottage where it was boiled and mixed with different beans and vegetables.
Red meat was a popular dietary option among the rich Anglo Saxons. The source of red meat is usually hunting or farming. Other types of meats consumed by the Anglo Saxons included bacon and chicken.
Typically, animals were usually kept for different purposes and only occasionally used as a source of meat. Only pigs were definitely grown and consumed as a direct meat source.
Although cows were primarily kept as a source of milk, they also served as an important meat source.
Fishing was also a popular source of meat with Anglo Saxons consuming a large variety of freshwater and sea fish.
The freshwater fish consumed by the Anglo Saxons included:
Sea fish consumed by them included cod, salmon, and plaice.
Seafood such as lobsters, oysters, flounders, and crabs was also popularly consumed. The Anglo Saxons also ate dried fish which they imported from Norway.
Anglo Saxon diet largely comprised of vegetables. These included cabbages, turnips, leeks, carrots, beans, peas, garlic, and onions among others. Vegetables were often boiled with a grain like wheat or barley to be consumed as a pottage.
Vegetables were often complemented with different flavoring ingredients such as pepper, ginger, even honey, and coriander.
A large variety of fruits were consumed by the Anglo Saxons. These included plums, cherries, apples, different kinds of berries, and grapes.
Many of these fruits were also used to create different kinds of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
Mead was a popular type of alcoholic drink that was often flavored with honey and herbs.
Mead
Beer was also popularly produced with barley and it is probable that the Anglo Saxons laced the beer with different flavorings. Since beer was rather inexpensive to produce, it was more common than other drinks such as wine.
Apples were used to produce a kind of cider popularly consumed.
Fruits were also used to produce wines which were usually produced at home and were mostly limited to the households of the rich.