EATING UTENSILS AND TABLEWARE
Some food was made into self-contained packages, such as pasties and pies. Soups would have had 'sops' - pieces of bread or meat floating in it Most people had knives and spoons, but a fork was very rare, and still considered an oddity in most of Europe until the 1700s.
Usually only the wealthy would have had their own plates and cups. Lower classes would have shared plates in pairs. People would also have trenchers - thick unleavened bread about 6 x 4 inches, which was essentially a bread plate. Sometimes the left over trencher would be given to the poor, sometimes the dogs, and sometimes eaten by the diner himself. In the late Middle Ages, the trenchers began to be replaced by a square piece of wood with a circular depression in the middle. Most food would be eaten with the fingers, although some people would use their knives. The food would be taken from the serving plate and then placed on the trencher and then eaten.