Food and Meals in the Teutonic Territories of Prussia and Livonia

Food in the Teutonic Order’s Prussian and Livonian territories came from cultivated land, livestock, fishing and trade. Its availability differed between a rural household, a town and a castle convent. Written rules describe what the brothers were supposed to eat; account books and excavated animal and plant remains show what some establishments actually obtained. Early fifteenth-century Malbork is especially well documented, showing how everyday provisions and hospitality for important guests drew on different supplies.

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Farming, livestock and fishing in Prussia

The Order encouraged new agricultural settlements in Prussia and reclaimed wet land in the Vistula delta. Grain was a major export in the fourteenth century. A village charter could give families fields and fishing rights while requiring dues in money or produce. This meant that the harvest fed households and also supplied an institution that drew income from the countryside.

Animals supplied meat, dairy products and labour. Excavations at six Order castles in Prussia show a preference for domestic mammals among the discarded bones, with smaller quantities of game, birds and fish. Bird bones and eggshells often came from food preparation, although some birds were kept for other purposes.

Livonia offers evidence of its own. At Karksi Castle in present-day Estonia, thirteenth-century deposits include freshwater fish from nearby rivers and lakes. Studies of plant and animal remains at Karksi and Elbląg in Prussia complement written records of provisioning. The two territories shared an institution but had different environments and supply routes.

Trade and access to food

Prussian towns were connected to Baltic trade. Grain and timber moved outward, while salt, honey, spices and wine entered through commercial networks. Salt also mattered for keeping food. Merchants could bring costly ingredients to towns, but access depended on price and status. The grand master’s household at Malbork could serve visitors differently from the brothers’ ordinary refectory, and both differed from a tenant family’s table.

Accounts from Order houses show that beer and mead were important drinks; imported wine was a less regular purchase and was concentrated in particular households. Malbork’s early fifteenth-century accounts record expenditure on food for both routine provisioning and high-status hospitality. Buying grain and beer for regular meals was a different expense from obtaining rare ingredients for prestigious guests.

Cooking and preserving food

The Order’s rules, compiled around 1250, describe a regular meal as bread and a grain-based soup prepared with milk or water. The same rule set placed meat on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; cheese and eggs were assigned to other days, while Fridays brought fasting food. The brothers normally ate together twice a day, with a more restricted schedule during fasts. The refectory, the common dining hall, gathered professed members around this prescribed routine.

Kitchens, storage spaces and refectories at Order castles supported preparation for a sizeable resident community. Fishing rights and the archaeological remains from castles show that fish could be obtained locally, while imported salt helped preserve food. Boiling grain in milk or water produced the soup prescribed for the brothers; bread supplied another regular grain food.

Meals, religious rules and convent life

The brothers’ food followed a Catholic calendar of fasts as well as the practical needs of a military house. The statutes distinguished meat days from fast days and controlled when the community gathered to eat. This provided a shared routine for members who also worked as priests, administrators and fighters.

The grand master’s court at Malbork reveals a second use of food. Early fifteenth-century accounts record almonds, rice, figs, raisins, pepper and saffron for the castle. Purchases for the grand master’s private chambers also included sugar, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and dates. Apothecaries prepared spiced confections known as krude. Imported sweets and spices distinguished elite hospitality from the grain-based routine of the convent. Serving them to visitors displayed the leader’s resources and political standing, while kitchens and purchasing officials had to organise their supply.

For rural families and townspeople, harvests, wages and market prices shaped access to food. A tenant’s fields supplied grain, while fishing rights could supplement it; town households could buy produce brought in from the surrounding countryside. The same agricultural and commercial networks that sustained ordinary meals also enabled the grand master’s more costly hospitality.