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The Middle Ages saw a strong change in cuisine and eating habits to different combinations of tastes such as savoury with sweet elements, sour
or bitter. The ruling class had endless possibilities to make more and more elaborate meals with leagues of servants at hand, and new found ingredients to tantalise their
guests whilst putting on a show of upmanship. Some instruction exists on how to prepare certain special dishes, recorded on rotulus, similar to a scroll of rolled parchment
on a rod written in Latin, or early French or Italian.
This information was mostly used by the head of the house to instruct the male servants. Etiquette was already distinct from Roman customs and
seated guests would share a piece of bread or a wooden board on which the food would be placed and it was good manners to leave the better piece to the other. A woman
was not supposed to cut meat or divide, as the male in the couple would do this job. If two males were sitting next to one another they would divide everything equally.
