Who's eating? The average peasant, a petty noble, or the King himself?

So, my answer is actually from Mercia, since it's based on archaeological evidence from the burh at Stafford built by Æthelflæd in 914, but cross-border culinary differences in the intervening 15 years are unlikely to have been that noticable.

Central to the diet for any class is bread. A common feature of both West Saxon and Mercian burhs built in rhe late ninth and early tenth centuries are bread ovens. At sites like Wallingford, Stafford and Eddisbury, bread ovens were built as permanent structures near to the settlement ramparts. For the wealthier classes, and perhaps luckier members of the fyrd garrison, the bread is likely to have been a loaf of bread made from wheat flour as we might recognise it today. For the lower classes and particularly for labourers, 'bread' is likely to have taken the forms of 'bannocks' made from oat or barley. These are essentially like baked loaves of porridge - oatmeal to an American audience - with a much rougher grind and much more chaff than the wheat bread, but also much more calorie-dense.

Meat was also an important part of the diet, in increasing proportions as one moved up the social scale. Excavations at Stafford have found vast amounts of animal bones dumped in what was a swamp from the burh's butchery district. Compared to under the strict forestry laws which came in after the Norman Conquest of 1066, hunted game was an important part of the supply and constituted up to 30% of the meat diet. The principle meat among the nobility was beef from cattle, although venison and game fowl were also common. Before the Conquest, hunted game was an important if occasional source of meat for the peasantry. Mutton was typically eaten rather than lamb, but this would have been largely as a by-product of the wool trade - a significant part of the Anglo-Saxon economy - rather than sheep raised for meat. Pork would also have been commonplace.

Depending on your location in the country, dairy products, especially cheese, would have also been commonplace as an important source of fat and also of calcium. Near the coasts, fishery was also popular. The keeping of bees was a popular monastic pass-time, so honey would have been available at least in these communities, and possibly used as a payment in kind for peasant labour on monastic land.

This food would have been accompanied by a variety of root and other vegetables. Cabbage and other leafy greens would have been common in the UK, and sources suggest that nettles - often used to brew medicinal drinks - may also have been eaten. For the lower classes, meals are likely to have taken the form of a pottage or stew, most likely left almost constantly slow-cooking over a hearth and simply topped up when necessary. This had the benefit of not only eking out a more meagre supply of meat and making less choice cuts far more palatable, but was also highly calorific. For the upper classes, meat is likely to have been spit-roasted over a hearth. For all classes, meals are likely to have been washed down with ale, although this was likely to have been both weakier and 'breadier' than our modern ales. For the wealthier and for religious communities, wine is likely to have been a more common feature. Mead, which has entered popular culture as the medieval drink of choice, is distilled from honey, and as such is more likely to have been the preserve of monastic communities, although would likely have also been enjoyed by the local elite, and perhaps by wealthier freemen.