Salt was the only thing they had to preserve food.
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Nothing. Dude it was the black death during the middle ages.
salt and spices
For the most part foods were stored by cooking and salting them, like making beef jerky for example. This allowed the foods to last through the winter.
Spices in the middle ages were expensive because the spices were carried overland and took years to reach Europe. After the crusades, the Arabs did not allow spices to reach Europe.
Spices were desirable to the wealthy because it gave them a chance to show off their wealth by adding new exotic flavors to food. Spices were imported from other countries and quite expensive so the low class did nit have much access to them.