History

Pre-historic humans would have acted very much like omnivorous animal, hunting for, picking or killing and consuming their food. This method may be used by some humanoid creatures in fantasy worlds or even used by human races and player characters. But historically by the end of the Ice Age (10,000 BC) humans had shifted to a cultivating culture. Which means that in most fantasy worlds this early type of diet would be replaced with a more historic method of food preparation.

It is also important to remember that food has historical origins. Some now common foods would not have been used or known in medieval Europe. Columbus’s discovery of the New World made some new foods available and modern understanding has made more foods available. Turkey, for instance, is a new world food that did not reach Europe until the late 16th century. Potatoes are also new world food, despite its association with Ireland potatoes did not reach Europe until after the mid 1500s, It wasn’t until the mid 1600’s that potatoes were established as a crop in Ireland. Corn followed a similar timetable from the new world. Green beans, green peppers, and yams are also not found in medieval Europe. Tomatoes are part of the nightshade family and were considered poisonous.

It would be too extensive to go into detail of history of foods. This information is only to illustrate that what we eat today is not necessarily what was eaten throughout history.

Bread can be found dating back to around 10,000 BC, and leavening of the bread (raising) dates back to before Christ. Yeast is used to raise bread. Powdered commercial yeast is a modern convince. Historically yeast would have been gotten from a brewer (yes alcohol) and would have been a yellow liquid. In most fantasy world’s bread would be an important part of a diet. This is true historically, in fact it was so important that bread making was subject to government control as far back as Roman culture. In times of famine, bread could be the difference between life and death. More importantly bread could also mean the difference between a governing body staying in control or being overthrown.