Food and the Table

The Bulgarian lands produced fruits such as hazelnuts, peaches, strawberries, melons, and watermelons. Fine-woolled sheep, good breeds of cattle, and numerous goats grazed on the pastures, while village and urban yards contained pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, and pigeons. Viticulture was widespread. Beekeeping was also important: honey was stored in leather skins and was a valuable export. The Brașov Menaion even mentions the office of “royal beekeeper,” showing that the court maintained its own organized production.

Fishing supplied an important part of the food available. Royal charters list protected “fishing grounds,” while Byzantine writers praised the large Danube fish, which seldom reached Constantinople. Fish from the clear waters of Lake Ohrid enjoyed a special reputation. As early as the eleventh century, Theophylact of Ohrid sent it as a prestigious gift to influential acquaintances in the capital, sometimes in consignments of two hundred fish. Fishermen used nets, bag nets, and lines; large hooks discovered near the Yantra suggest that sizeable river fish were present. In winter, the water beneath the ice was disturbed so that suffocating fish would rise towards the surface. The Life of Romylos of Vidin presents this as the saint’s invention, although the method was far older.

Hunting also supplemented the food supply. Bones of deer, roe deer, and wild boar have been found in the royal palace, but substantial quantities of such remains also occur beside poor dwellings in Tarnovo. This shows that game was not reserved exclusively for the court and aristocracy, despite restrictions on hunting. It is uncertain how the meat reached ordinary people, but the volume of bones is difficult to explain as the result of only occasional violations of the prohibitions.

The wide range of food that could be produced did not mean that everyday meals were rich. People normally ate once or twice a day, while the poorest often had only one meal. Bread was the foundation of the diet. Some accounts describe exceptionally large Bulgarian loaves capable of feeding ten men. Theophylact of Ohrid also tells of a renowned glutton who could consume eight such loaves or an entire ram, though this anecdote was clearly an extreme example. Wheat bread was expensive; the poor used rye, millet, and barley, adding bran and sometimes acorns. George Akropolites and Gregory of Antioch describe this bread as coarse, underbaked, blackened with soot, and full of husks and chaff. Their language reflects aristocratic contempt and is probably exaggerated. Another Byzantine writer of the fourteenth century fondly remembered a sweet, oval loaf baked in ashes—perhaps a kind of pogacha, or round flat loaf.

In most households, the woman of the family kneaded and baked enough bread to last for about ten days. Towns, however, also had larger-scale production. On the northwestern slope of Tsarevets, archaeologists uncovered an oven with an opening about 1.10 metres wide, together with charred grain and rotary hand mills known as querns. The installation is generally interpreted as a public or commercial bakery from which some residents of Tarnovo bought bread. Traces of another similar oven survive on the hill, in addition to a separate palace bakery.

Bulgur and various pulses added variety to the food of the poor, while fruit and vegetables were eaten in the evening. Meat was rare and was usually grilled over embers, roasted, or seared over a flame. Pastirma, or dried cured meat, was regarded as an uncommon delicacy. Fish baked inside bread was well liked, but fish was more often eaten fresh and salted. Salted sea and marsh fish reached the interior, although the latter could have an unpleasant muddy smell. Byzantine visitors were surprised that fish in Bulgaria cost less than meat.

A household might occasionally prepare a simple stew or boiled dish. During years of famine, people survived on small quantities of rye boiled in water. Milk was very cheap around Sofia in the twelfth century, with sheep’s milk valued more highly than cow’s milk. It was used to make butter and cheese. Butter served not only as food but also to grease and protect weapons and armour. Sheep’s and cow’s milk were mixed to produce a soft fresh cheese. Goat’s cheese had a poor reputation because of its strong smell. By contrast, the different cheeses of Thrace were prestigious enough to be sent to senior officials in Constantinople as costly gifts.

The poorest depended mainly on bread and zlak, a general term for greens and edible wild plants. Ivaylo was said to have lived solely on bread and gathered plants while tending other people’s pigs for pay. Greens were seasoned with salt and sour juice; people also ate a plant called slatunchak, grass roots, and soaked lentils. Onions and garlic were so common that Byzantine writers maliciously associated their smell with the Bulgarians. Aristocrats also used garlic, though as a remedy after overeating. Cold water was the principal drink of the poor. A spring was sometimes called an oko, or “eye,” and one old explanation connected the term with the reflection visible in clear water. The well, also known as a studenets, inspired beliefs about proximity to the subterranean abyss and the sea; its water was consequently considered heavy, slightly salty, and less pleasant than spring water.

Wine was seldom found in a poor household and was often of low quality. Gregory of Antioch portrays it as cloudy, incompletely fermented, sour, and lacking a pleasant aroma, probably because it had been stored badly. Wine kept best in large earthenware jars buried in the ground, but it was usually held in barrels or leather skins. Crusaders sometimes discovered buried vessels containing good, strong wine. In 1366 the treasurer of Amadeus VI of Savoy paid nine gold florins even for a quantity of spoiled wine, probably intended for the soldiers. Wine was a regular part of military rations, and chroniclers complained that its absence weakened an army. Physicians also recommended it for bodily ailments. Theophylact of Ohrid called Ohrid wine “blessed” and, despite its sour and astringent taste, considered it refined.

Literary sources repeatedly contrast the fertility of the country with hunger in poor households. Constantine of Kostenets praised the land for its abundance, while apocryphal works insist on giving “bread to the hungry” and condemn wealthy people who can help but refuse to do so. In the Book of Enoch, ideal abundance takes the form of springs flowing with honey, milk, oil, and wine. An Old Bulgarian translation of a homily by John Chrysostom presents food as the poor person’s first concern. Such moral texts cannot provide exact quantities, but they clearly reveal the persistent insecurity surrounding subsistence.

The position of the boyars, or aristocrats, was entirely different. Instructions to limit themselves to two meals a day, together with numerous recipes for diets and weight loss, suggest frequent eating and overindulgence. Translated advice attributed to Galen recommended warm vegetables in spring and restraint in consuming too much fish, heated wine, and late suppers. Kekaumenos likewise advised the well-fed to avoid banquets and to fast after excessive eating. For the aristocracy, the morning meal was the most substantial and included several hot dishes. Earthenware vessels with double bottoms allowed embers to be placed in the lower compartment, keeping food warm. Expensive seasonings provided the aromas that religious writers associated with the lordly table.

Courtly and aristocratic etiquette called for a hot bath before eating, a covered table, and wine cups of a suitably large size. Luxury was most visible during celebrations. Henry of Valenciennes describes the marriage of Despot Alexios Slav to an illegitimate daughter of the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders. The feast continued for an entire week, and its food and drink seemed almost inexhaustible to the chronicler. This was an exceptional princely event rather than a model of ordinary aristocratic dining, but it shows how a banquet could display power and generosity.

Archaeology also reveals the utensils of the wealthy. A silver service from Nikopol includes two objects inscribed “Balin’s spoon.” Comparable finds support the literary idea that wealth was recognized by vessels of gold and silver. No forks dating from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, however, have yet been discovered in Bulgaria. The two-pronged fork was known in Byzantium by the eleventh century and appears in manuscript miniatures, but its absence from the local archaeological record suggests that both poor people and boyars normally ate with their hands.

Service rooms containing three large kitchen ovens have been uncovered in the southern wing of the palace at Tarnovo. Their size shows that substantial quantities of food were prepared there for the court. Gold and silver vessels were brought out on major feast days and also served a ceremonial purpose. Part of the palace treasure probably included booty taken by Ivan Asen I after the defeat of Emperor Isaac II Angelos in the Tryavna Pass in 1190. Royal bread was made from wheat, while wine was served in tall cups and valued for its aroma, clarity, and taste.

Food was stored and distributed primarily within the family, which usually included two and sometimes three generations. The exact size of households is unknown. A grain pit found in a sunken dwelling below the Momina Krepost hill near Tarnovo had a capacity of 5.65 cubic metres. At an estimated 700 kilograms of grain per cubic metre, it could have held almost four tonnes. Calculations based on an assumed normal level of consumption suggest a household of about ten to twelve people, but the result depends on uncertain assumptions about the storage period and daily rations.