Among the Salian Franks of the 5th century, there is no separation of starter, main course and dessert. The meal is organized around a hearth or long wooden table: a large piece of roasted or boiled meat in the center, filling cereal porridges and dark bread, dairy products, fruits and honey to sweeten, all washed down with beer or mead. People eat with their fingers and a knife, share the drinking horn, and one's rank is read in the amount of meat served to them.

Lacking Roman wine in quantity among the northern Franks, it is honey that marks this cuisine: it sweetens porridges, preserves fruits, perfumes meat and, fermented with water, becomes the mead of royal banquets. A sweetness that speaks of wealth as much as celebration.