meal prep history

7/24/2019 Meal Prep History

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meal

prepI am sure you have all heard this saying before failing to prepare is

preparing to fail. I know this may sound a bit harsh but it is SO true,

especially when it comes to preparing your meals. Most of us are

pretty busy in our daytoday lives. !hether you are a mum, student

or working full time, it can be hard "or absolutely impossible#$ to

cook all of your meals at home each day. %his is where meal

preparation "aka meal prep&$ can 'uickly become your best friend#!ithout meal prep, you increase your chances of eating (unk or

convenience foods if you get busy or caught out without food.

So what is meal prep) Meal prep can mean di*erent things to each

person, so it is important you +nd a routine that works for you.


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ssentially, it should save you time in the kitchen and make it easier

for you to eat healthier during the week. -ou may choose to prepare

only breakfasts, dinners or even all of your meals, including your

snacks. -ou may need to use a little bit of trial and error to getsettled into a routine that suits your lifestyle and preferences. If you

always +nd yourself in a hurry to get out of the door in the morning

and your breakfast consists of a takeaway croissant, then preparing

breakfast will help you. ikewise, if you struggle to get dinner

together because you work late, you should focus on preparing

dinners.

How To Meal Prep

%he +rst thing you need to do is invest in some good 'uality

containers these can be tupperware or the glass variety. /eep in

mind that if you are going to be reheating your food in these you

want to choose ones that are 012 free and won3t fall apart in the

microwave4oven. If you are going to be prepping for a few days in a

row, it can be a good idea to buy containers that are the same si5esso they can be easily stacked and you aren3t playing tetris in your

fridge.

Plan

0efore actually starting your meal prep, the +rst thing you need to

do is 126. If you are (ust starting out with meal prep, don3t

overwhelm yourself# 7ooking up a whole week3s worth of meals is abig task and even the best of us can struggle with that. My biggest

tip is to ensure that it is manageable# I recommend sticking to a few

days at a time to help you get you used to the process.

8aving a meal plan is super important, there is no use going to

the grocery store chucking random things in your cart and hoping


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for the best when you come out. In order for your meal prep to work

you need to know what you are cooking and when. ike I mentioned

before, organising a whole week can be intimidating, so try and stick

to 9: days at a time if that seems more manageable. !rite downeach breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack you will be eating, then

break that down into a list of ingredients, and how much of each you

will need to last over that 9: day period. It is best to stick to tried

and tested recipes so that you don3t end up cooking a bunch of food

you don3t really like the taste of.

It is also a good idea to use recipes that can be prepared in advance

and won3t spoil "for the most part$. ;or e kilos of plain chicken breast and

steamed broccoli probably won3t ?oat your boat. I love

e


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would recommend preparing a few days3 meals at a time. 8ow much

time that you dedicate to this is completely up to you#

-ou can choose to dedicate a whole day to this or spread it out

nightly. 1ersonally, I prefer to take a few hours out of my Sundaynight (ust so it is done and out of the way. 8ow much prep I actually

do will also depend on what it is I am actually preparing. ;or

e


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rice, and wholemeal pasta, I recommend cooking these upfront as

these do take a little longer to prepare.

Planning meals in advance, learning a few cooking shortcuts, and understanding thebasics of food safety will enable you to eat better with less effort spent in mealpreparation.

Our fast-paced modern lives seem to leave less and less time for planning and cookingmeals at home. This explains the proliferation of fast food outlets across the country andthe consequent epidemic of obesity. steady diet of fast foods is not particularly healthyand even cheap food becomes an expensive habit if eaten on a regular basis.

!usy homemakers, students and young people starting careers and families can certainlybenefit by learning ways to simplify meal preparation. These skills will last a lifetime andresult in healthier meals at lower cost.

http://eartheasy.com/eat_simplify_meal_preparation.ht

ml


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world

food

historyFood TimelineFAQs: Mesopotamia through

Shakespeare .....Have Questions? Ask!

Safe to eat?

Cooking begins

First recipes

Ancient Egypt Bible food: New

Testament

Ancient Rome

Ancient Celts

Viking fare

Anglo-Saxon/Norman food Robin Hood foodways

Medieval fare

Marco Polo & the Merchants of Venice

Shakespeare's food(includes Romeo &

Juliet)
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Oldest menu

Mesopotamia

Safe to eat?

How did the first peoples know which foods were "safe" to eat? Excellent

question!

Food historians make educated guesses based on ancient records and modern

practices. Based on this evidence, they presume foods were selected or rejected

based on observation (they were avoided by the other animals in the area) in

conjuction with basic trial and error (if it made the taster sick, it was unlikely

others partook). Berries, nuts, fungus, and water sources were especially

complicated and concernful.

Myths and legends perpetuated the warnings against consuming known

poisonous foods. Advances in technology eventually resulted in the ability

(again, probably a matter of trial and error) to modify potentially harmful foods

into consumable staples. Meat was preserved; nuts were boiled, vegetables

were peeled. Explorers throughout history employed similar techniques when

foraging edibles in new environments.

"Considering how few plants are used by the great apes...as food, in

comparison with the very great number eaten by primitive peoples in recenttimes, the experimental consumption of an ever-increasing variety of food-

stuffs may be regarded as one of the important conquests of human evolution.

Before the domestication of animals, it is unlikely that potential vegetable food

would have been given to any other animal species first, to see what effect

these would have (perhaps one of the earliest functions of the dog, besides

scavenging, was an 'experimental' animal to test 'new' foods--a procedure

known to have been practiced in some recent African communities). Thus, even

with the exercise of considerable caution, it is likely that many degrees of food

poisoning, from mild stomach disorders to death, occurred before man becamefully aware of the limits of his food resources-- both plant and animal. It is, of

course, impossible to gauge with any certainty as what stage in the million of

years of human evolution the quest for a much wider food horizon began.

Probably the utilization of new vegetable foodstuffs was a gradual

development; it would obviously vary according to the plants available in a

particular area. Although a simple knowledge of edible plant resources could be
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transmitted easily enough in Pleistocene times, it seems unlikely that special

methods of food preparation were devised before the Neolithic cultural level. In

the case of manioc tubers, for example, which are rich in starch, fat and protein,

it is necessary to eliminate...hydrogen cyanide. In order to render them non-

toxic, the roots need to be sliced or pulped, soaked in water for a day and the

juice then expressed. Such a long, complicated procedure seems unlikely to be

pre- Mesothilic in date..."

---Food in Antiquity, Don Brothwell and Patricia Brothwell [Johns Hopkins

University Press:Baltimore] expanded edition, 1998 (p. 189-190)

First cooks

Why did humans start cooking their food?Food historians, archaeologists,

and paleontolgists do not have exact an answer due to the age of the evidence.

They do, however, have theories. While roasting over an open fire appears to

be the first method, boilingwas not far behind.

"For hundreds of thousands of years the evolving human race had eaten its food

raw, but at some time between the first deliberate use of fire--in Africa in

1,400,000BC or Asia in 500,000BC (depending on which theory happens to be

the flavour of the month)-and the appearance of the Neanderthals on the

prehistoric scene, cooking was discovered. Whether or not it came as a

gastronomic revelation can only be guessed at, but since heat helps to release

protein and carbohydrate as well as break down fibre, cooking increases thenutritive value of many foods and makes edible some that would otherwise be

inedible. Improved health must certainly have been one result of the discovery

of cooking, and it has even been argued, by the late Carleton Coon, that

cooking was the decisive factor in leading man from a primarily animal

existence into one that was more fully human'. Whatever the case, by all the

laws of probability roasting must have been the first method used, its discovery

accidental. The concept of roast meat could scarcely have existed without

knowledge of cooking, nor the concept of cooking without knowledge of roast

meat. Charles Lamb's imaginary tale of the discovery of roast pork is not,

perhaps, too far off the mark. A litter of Chinese piglets, some stray sparks

from the fire, a dwelling reduced to ashes, and unfamiliar but interesting smell,

a crisp and delectable assault on the taste buds... Taken back a few millennia

and relocated in Europe this would translate into a piece of mammoth, venison

or something of the sort falling in the campfire and having to be left there until

the flames died down. But however palatable a sizzling steak in ice-age
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conditions, the shrinkage that resuts from direct roasting would scarcely

recommend itself to the hard-worked hunter, so that a natural next step, for

tough roots... as for meat, would be slower cooking in the embers or on a flat

stone by the side of the fire. Although the accidental discovery of roasting

would have been perfectly feasible in the primitive world, boiling was a more

sophisticated proposition."

---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers:New York] 1988 (p. 13-14)

[NOTE: This book contains much more information on early cooking

techniques than can be paraphrased here. Your librarian will be happy to help

you find a copy.]

"Homo erecutus may have used fire to a very limited extent some 300,000

years ago, but the evidence is sparse and questionable. Fire's general use,

according to both paleontological and archaeolgical records, began only about

40,000 to 50,000 years ago...The use of fire, extended to food preparation,resulted in a great increas of plant food supply. All of the major domesticated

plant foods, such as wheat, barley, rice, millet, rye, and potatoes, require

cooking before they are suitable for human consumption. In fact, in a raw state,

many plants contain toxic or indigestible substances or antinutrients. But after

cooking, many of these undesirable substances are deactivated, neutralized,

reduced, or released; and starch and other nutrients in the plants are rendered

absorbable by the digestive tract. Thus, the use of fire to cook plant foods

doubtless encouraged the domsetication of these foods and, thus, was a vitally

important factor in human cultural advancement."---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple and Kriemhild Conee

Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000 (p. 1571)

"Just as we do not know how, where or by whome fire was first domesticated,

we cannot really tell anything about the way food was cooked in the most

distant Paleolothic period. We can only base conjectures on the customs of

existing primitive peoples. Bones and walnut or hazelnut shells have been

found on excavated sites, but there is no means of knowing whether they are

the remains of cooked meals, the debris of fires lit for heat, or even the

remnants of incincerated raw waste matter...[researchers] are inclined to thinkthe meat was roasted, from the evidence of Mousterain sites in Spain and the

Dordogne..."

---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat [Barnes & Noble:New York]

1992 (p. 90)


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"Food has long been baked in coals or under heated rocks, steamed inside

animal stomachs and leaves, boiled in rockpots by heated stones, and so forth.

An oven could be as simple as a hole in the ground, or a covering of heated

stones. However, improved textures and flavours may not have been the reason

fire was first controlled. People could have employed fire to keep wild beasts at

bay, to trap them, to scare them out or to create open grassland, where tender

shoots and leaves would be more accessible. People have long used fire to

harden wooden weapons, and to keep warm at night. But even these uses, while

not cooking in the narrow sense, improve the cooks' supplies, expanding the

human niche."

---A History of Cooks and Cooking, Michael Symons [University of

Chicago:Urbana] 2000 (p. 221)

"French prehistorian Catherine Perles accepts that we share many aspects of

feeding with other animals: other animals carry food to their lairs or transformit before consumption. However, she says, we transform food on a different

level. The human species prepares its food by heat...and combines

ingredients...She proposes that the culinary act distinguishes the human species,

and is not just a symbol of, but a factor in, that very humanisation...Cooking is

highly intentional...the culinary act is essentially sharing."

---A History of Cooks(p. 213)

Boiling

Food historians generally agree the first cooking method was roastingover anopen fire. Discovery is attributed to happy accident. Boiling was no accident. It

was a carefully considered process achieved with tools crafted specifically for

the purpose.

Discovery & early primitive methods

"Although the accidental discovery of roasting would have been perfectly

feasible in the primitive world, boiling was a more sophisticated proposition.

According to conventional wisdom, prehistoric man went to a good deal of

trouble for his boiled dinner. First he dug a large pit in the ground and lined it

with flat, overlapping stones to prevent seepage. Then he poured in largequantities of water, presumably transported in skin bags. Other stones were

heated in the campfire and manhandled by some unspecified means (possibly

on the bat-and-ball principle) into the water to bring it to a simmer. The food

was then added and, while it was cooking, more hot stones were tipped in from

time to time to keep the water at the desired temperature. it is possible. There is

no law that says thing have to be done the easy way, and the method is still
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used by modern tribals. But, in terms of discover, it makes sense only if the

idea evolved, imitatively, in some isolated part or parts of the world blessed

with hot springs--as in New Zealand's North Island. Hot water being a rare

natural phenomenon, both idea and method would subsequently have to be

disseminated by migrating tribes--which could explain why there is no

indication of the technique being used before 5000 BC. One reason for the

anthropological popularity of the pit-boiling theory is the belief that until the

advent of pottery, cooking potential was severely restricted; that, lacking

containers that were both heat-proof and waterproof, boiling was impossible

except by the pit method. But that is not the case. Several perfectly viable

alternative containers have been available for thousands of years, and the idea

of boiling could well have been suggested by the fact that when meat or

vegetables with a high water content were crammed into one of these

containers over the fire, they sweated out an appetizing liquid. In many parts of

the world large mollusc or reptile shells were used for cooking in, as they stillwere on the Amazon in the nineteenth century...In Asia the versatile bamboo

supplied hollow sections of stem that could be stoppered with clay and one eng,

filled with chopped-up raw ingredients and a little liquid, then stoppered again

at the other. The method is still used in Indonesia today. In the Tehuacan

Valley of Central America, in about 7000 BC, the people who lived in rock

shelters and gathered wild maize for their food had already begun to use stone

cooking pots. These, once made, were cited in the centre of the hearth and, too

heavy to move, left there permanently. Long before the advent of pottery and

bronze there was one kind of container that was widely distributed, naturallywaterproof, and heatproof enough to be hung over, if not in, the fire. This was

an animal stomach...With the advent of cooking, the notion of simmering the

contents of the stomach in the stomach-bag itself would emerge quite

naturally...By about 13,000 BC leatherworking techniques had improved so

much that skins had come to replace many of the older containers. After skins

same pottery, which was succeeded by bronze and then iron, from which most

cooking pots continued to be made until the twentieth century."

---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers Press:New York] 1988 (p.

14-16)

Ancient civilizations

"Boiling or stewing was done in small pots placed near the fire or in cauldrons

suspended over a fire by chains attached to a beam or hung from a tripod

formed by three poles joined at the apex. Meat was probably boiled first, with

the vegetables added later. A basic peasant dish was pottage made from grains,


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beans, or lentils. A large cauldron could easily hold a pig, which was a desired

dish of the Celts. Apicius [Ancient Roman cookbook writer] advised that

cranes should be boiled in a 'large saucepan.' A cauldron would be idea...The

Egyptians used cauldrons or large straight-sided pots supported on stones, or a

tripod set over a pan of glowing charcoal."

---Food in the Ancient World, Joan P. Alcock [Greenwood Press:Westport CT]

2006 (p. 105-106)

Native American

"'...before the Europeans brought them kettles or pots from across the ocean

they made use of earthen vessels, which they manufactured with some skill,

giving them a spherical form at the bottom and considerable width at the top;

and after having dried them in the sun, they burnt them in a slow fire made with

bark. The more migratory tribes possessed only wooden cooking utensils, less

fragile, but easier of transportation. They cooked their food in these bythrowing into the water, one after the other, heated stones. This gradually

heated the water, and caused it to boil sufficiently to satisfy people who were

accustomed to partly-cooked food.'...Informants at Grande River and elsewhere

state that boiling was sometimes practiced by placing a bark vessel in direct

contact with the fire...'they cooked their meat in a bark kettle, which they made

by using a flint axe or chisel to separate the bark from an elm tree. They tied

the large pieces of bark together at the ends with strips of inner bark, making a

dish large enough to hold the meat, with water enough to boil it. This bark

kettle was suspended between two sticks over the fire, and before the kettle wasburnt through the meat was cooked.'...the greater part of the foods used by the

Iroquois seems to have been prepared by boiling."

---Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation, F. W. Waugh, facsimile 1916 edition

[University Press of the Pacific: Honolulu HI] 2003 (p. 54-55)

Recommended reading (general history of cooking):

Food in History/Reay Tannahill

History of Food/Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat

Food: A Culinary History/Flandrin & Montanari

Cambridge World History of Food/Kiple & Ornelas

The Kitchen in History/Molly Harrison


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Ancient Mesopotamian foods

There are several sources you can use to find information on the foods,

agricultural practices, and dining customs of ancient Mesopotamia. Most of this

information (the credible sources your teacher will accept) is still contained inbooks. Did you know Ancient Mesopotamia is also credited for the first written

recipes?

Some notes to get you started:

"The raw materials of the Sumerian diet...were barley, wheat and millet; chick

peas, lentils and beans; onions, garlic and leeks; cucumbers, cress, mustard and

fresh green lettuce. By the time Sumer was succeeded by Babylon a special

delicacy had been discovered that was dispatched to the royal palace by the

basketful. Truffles. Everyday meals probably consisted of barley paste or

barleycake, accompanied by onions or a handful of beans and washed down

with barley ale, but the fish that swarmed in the rivers of Mesopotamia were a

not-too-rare luxury. Over fifty different types are mentioned in texts dating

before 2300 BC, and although the number of types had diminished in

Babylonian times, the fried-fish vendors still did a thriving trade in the narrow,

winding streets of Ur. Onions, cucumbers, freshly grilled goat, mutton and pork

(not yet taboo in the Near East) were to be had from other food stalls. Meat was

commoner in the cities than in the more sparsley populated countryside, since it

spoiled so quickly in the heat, but beef and veal were everywhere popular withpeople who could afford them...although most beef is likely to have been tough

and stringy. Cattle were not usually slaughtered until the end of their working

lives...Probably tenderer and certainly more common was mutton. The

incomers who had first put the Sumerian state on its feet were originally sheep

herders..."

---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers:New York] 1988 (p. 47)

[NOTE: This book has much more information than can be transcribed here.

Your librarian can help you find a copy.]

"Mesopotamian food is known from archaeology and written records on

cuneiform tablets, including bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian word lists. These

sources indicate the importance of barley bread, of which many kinds are

named, and barley and wheat cakes, and grain and legume soups; of onions,

leeks and garlic; of vegetables including chate melon, and of fruits including

apple, fig and grape; of honey and cheese; of several culinary herbs; and of
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butter and vegetable oil. Sumerians drank beer often, wine seldom if at all;

wine was better known in northern Mesopotamia and in later items. Animal

foods included pork, mutton, beef, fowl including ducks and pigeons, and many

kinds of fish. Meats were salted; fruits were conserved in honey; various foods,

including apples, were dried. A kind of fermented cause is identified in

Akkadian texts."

---Food in the Ancient World From A-Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London]

2003 (p. 216)

"Gardens in fertile Mesopotamia flourished, and onions and leeks and garlic

were amongst the most frequently cultivated plants. They were grown in the

gardens of King Merodach Maladan II of Babylon, and Ur-Nammu of Ur (2100

BC) records that by constructing a temple to Nannar he saved his garden,

wherein grew onions and leeks...The cucumber was much cultivated in Egypt

in Pliny's day and known in early Mesopotamia far earlier, being recorded asgrowing in the garden of Ur-Nammu at Ur."

---Food in Antiquity: A Survey of the Diet of Early Peoples, Don Brothwell and

Patricia Brothwell [Johns Hopkins University Press:Baltimore] expanded

edition 1998 (p. 109, 124)

"The staple crop of ancient farmers around the world was always grain...In

Mesopotamia, the chief crop was barley. Rice and corn were unknown, and

wheat flourished on a soil less saline than exists in most of Mesopotamia. Thus

barley, and the bread baked from its flour, became the staff of life.

Mesopotamian bread was ordinarilly coarse, flat, and unleavened, but a more

expensive bread could be baked from finer flour. Pieces of just such a bread

were...found in the tomb of Queen Puabi of Ur, stored there to provide her

spirit with sustenence in the afterlife. Bread could also be enriched with animal

and vegetable fat; milk, butter, and cheese; fruit and fruit juice; and sesame

seeds....The gardens of Mesopotamia, watered by irrigation canals, were lush

with fruits and vegetables...Among the fruits were apples, apricots, cherries,

figs, melons, mulberries, pears, plums, pomegranats, and quinces. The most

important fruit crop, especially in southern Mesopotamia, was the date. Rich in

sugar and iron, dates were easily preserved. Like barley, the date-palm thrivedon relatively saline soil and was one of the first plants farmers

domesticated...As for vegetables, the onion was king, along with its cousin,

garlic. Other vegetables included lettuce, cabbage, and cucumbers; carrots and

radishes; beets and turnips; and a variety of legumes, including beans, peas, and

chickpeas...Curiously, two mainstays of the Mediterranean diet--olives and

grapes...were seldom found in Mesopotamian cuisine...to appreciate


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Mesopotamian daily life our imagination must breath in the pungent aroma of

the seasonings that once rose from ancient stoves and filled the air...Coriander,

cress, and sumin; fennel, fenugrek, and leek; marjoram, mint, and mustard;

rosemary and rue; saffrom and thyme...Cumin...Sheep played an important role

in the Mesopotamian economy...Like goats and cows, ewes produced milk that

was converted into butter and cheese, but sheep were also slaughtered for meat.

Beef was in short supply...pork from pigs [suppelmentd]...Game birds, deer,

and gazelle were hunted as well. On farms, domesticated geese and ducks

supplied eggs...and from canals and private ponds, came some 50 types of fish,

a staple of the Mesopotamian diet. Generally, meats were either dried, smoked,

or salted for safekeeping, or they were cooked by roasting, boiling, broiling, or

barbecuing."

---Handbook of Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, Stephen Bertman [Facts on

File:New York NY] 2003 (p. 291-293)

RECOMMENDED READING

Cooking in Ancient Civilizations/Cathy K. Kaufman (includes

modernized recipes)

Flannery, Kent V. 1965. The ecology of early food production in

Mesopotamia. Science[magazine] 147: 1247-1256.

Food: A Culinary History, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Massimo Montanari,chapter 2: The Social Functions of Banquets in the Earliest Civilizations

(Mesopotamian feasts) (p. 32-7)

The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia, Jean Bottero

(includes modernized recipes)

WEB SITES

Sumeria, Babylonia, Judea, Purdue University lecture notes

Babylonia, Catholic Encyclopedia

About Mesopotmia banquets(with picture)

ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN RECIPES

Food historians trace the earliest written recipes to the second milennium BC.

However, it was many centuries afterward that usable recipes (lists of

ingredients, really, no cooking times and measurements like we have today)

were transcribed for posterity. This means what we know about the foods of
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Mesopotamia are educated guesses based on scientific archaeological and

biological evidence. Notes here:

"Mesopotamian recipe collections, three cuneiform tablets at Yale University

containing recipes in Akkadian. Probably originating from southern

Mesopotamia in the seventeenth century BC, these are the oldest known food

recipes anywhere in the world."

---Food in the Ancient World From A-Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London]

2003 (p. 217)

"The earliest known recipes date from Mesopotamia in the second millennium

BCE. It would be rash, however, to conclude that the Mesopotamians invented

cooking. They simply had reasons to write down their recipes and were the

first, along with the Egyptians, to possess the means to do so; without writing,

recipes cannot survive. Yet the absence of written recipes does not rule out aninterest in gastronomic matters of the existence of sophisticated culinary

techniquees. For example, the ancient Egyptians apparently felt no need to

write down their recipes, yet we find instructive traces of their cooking

methods in tombs dating from as early as the fourth millennium."

---Food: A Culinary History, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Massimo Montanari

[Columbia University Press:New York] 1999 (p. 16-17)

"Babylonian cookery by which is meant that of the Mesopotamians in what is

called the Old Babylonian period, has been the subject of recent resarch, based

on a study of three tablets of ancient cuneiform text. These, which are dated to

around 1700BC and were probably found in the south of Mesopotamia,

constitute between them a collection of recipes, perhaps the oldest surviving

one. Eveline van der Steen gives reasons for thinking that these recipes were

intended for use in a religious context; and that what would otherwise be

puzzling reatures of them can be explained on the assumption that they are all

for versions of a meat-in-sauce dish which would be served to a god in his

temple, accompanied by bread (probably mixed barley and wheat) and date

cakes, etc. The god (probably Marduk in this instance, as he was the city god of

Babylon) would eat behind closed curtains. Leftovers would go to the king. Itwas only in 1995 that Bottero published a full translation and commentary; and

discussion will no doubt continue. It does seem clear, however, that these

fragments of evidence should not be interpreted as reflecting the food of the

common people of the time."

---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University

Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 47)


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What was the oldest menu? First recipes on the Internet?

Need to make something for class?

"Sasqu (Porridge with Dates)

Sasqu is a cream porridge described in the palace records at Mari. It could be

made from ground emmer or barley cooked of a soupy consistency with milk,

oil, or water. Dates were added on ritual occasion for elite tables...

2 cups milk or water

3/4 cup barley flour

Salt and date syrup to taste

3/4 cup chopped dates

1. Place the barley flour in a saucepan. Slowly whisk in the milk, stirring

constantly. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and cook for 5 minutes.

2. Season with salt and date syrup. Turn into serving cups and scatter with thechopped dates."

---Cooking in Ancient Civilizations, Cathy K. Kaufman [Greenwood

Press:Westport CT] 2006 (p. 14)

"Palace Cake

Records from Ur identify cakes 'for the palace' as containing 1 sila of butter,

1/3 sila of white cheese, 3 sila of first-quality dates, and 1/3 sila of raisins. A

sila equaled a little more than 3 cups. This recipe has been scaled back by one-

third to make the quantities more manageable, but it is extremely rich due tothe large portions of butter. Presumably there would be flour and other

ingredients that a competent baker would infer to assemble this cake. The dried

fruits will stick to the bottom of the pan; if you want to unmold the cake after it

cools (rather than serve it from the pan), line the bottom of the pan with baker's

parchment, or, to be more authentic, grape leaves. Invert the cake onto a plate

and peel off the leaves...

3 cups dates, finely chopped

1/3 cup raisins

2 teaspoons ground fennel or aniseed

1/3 cup cottage cheese

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted and at room temperature

2 eggs, beaten together, at room temperature

2/3 cup milk, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Combine the dates, raisins, and spice and
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18/89

scatter in a 10-inch cake pan.

2.Press the cottage cheese through a strainer to break up the curds. Combine

the cheese with the melted butter, eggs, and milk and slowly stir into the flour,

moistening thoroughly. Pour the batter over the dried fruits and bake for 45-55

minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean."---ibid(p. 32-22)

"Dried Fruit Compote

Dates, figs, and grapes and something called candy were offered every day to

the gods of Uruk. Softening dried fruits would make them easier to chew, and

advantage in an era of primitive dentistry.

1/2 cup dried figs, quartered

1/2 cup dried sour cherries

3/4 cup dried apricots, sliced

2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses2 tablespoons date syrup

Water, as needed, to cover the dried fruits.

Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer until

tender, about 10 minutes. Remove the fruit with a slotted spoon and reserve.

Reduce the cooking liquid by boiling to a light syrup. Combine with the

poached fruits."

---ibid(p. 34)

About Ancient Mesopotamian recipes(includes two)

Ancient Egypt

"Egyptian civilization probably began about 3100 B.C., following a predynastic

period from 5500 B.C. during which time hunter-gatherers settled in

agricultural villages and animals and people migrated into the region from

western Asia...During this time, as revealed by evidence from sites in the

Fayum region, the population supported itself first by hunting the many wild

species that lived in and around the Nile. These included wild fowl, fish, pigs,

cattle, antelope, and gazelle. As the population began to establish agricultural

communities, the wild pigs and wild cattle were domesticated. Hunting became

more of a sport for the wealthy than a means for obtaining food, although

poorer people continued to hunt game and wild fowl, and to snare fish to

augement their mainly cereal and leguminous diet. Cattle, sheep, and goats

were more useful to the poor for their milk, cheese, and butter than for their
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meat. Agricultural communities grew grains as well as legumes, and these

became the major crops of the Nile valley. They provided the two main staples

of Egyptian life--bread and beer. Grain was used as a currency, something with

which to barter or to pay taxes and wages. The main grain cultivated in Egypt

until the fourth century B.C. was emmer; barley was also grown and was

probably the grain of the poor. Production of these grains throughout Egyptian

history was the main agricultural activity and provided the basic diet of bread

for the Egyptians...Grain was also used to make pottage or thicken soup or

added to pulses, for lentils, peas, and fenugreek were also common at this time,

and were the most important pulses until fava beans were introduced in the

Fifth Dynasty. Honey or dates might be used to sweeten the bread...dates were

culitvated and...also used to produce a sugary drink...other sources of food were

lotus and aquatic plant seeds...Melons, watermelons, and chufa, or yellow

nutgrass, were grown. Bread as also used to make the other staple, beer, which

was part of the daily ration given to soldiers and workers....The making of beerwas woman's work...Wine seems also to have been drunk at this early period."


2005 (p. 136-8)

"It is clear that the Egyptians enjoyed their food. Nobles and priests were

particularly well served, with at least forty different kinds of bread and pastries,

some raised, some flat, some round, some conical, some plaited. There were

some varieties made with honey. Others with milk, still others with eggs. And

tomb excavations show what a wide range of other foodstuffs the great had setbefore them even as early as the beginning of the the third millennium BC--

barley porridge, quail, kidneys, pigeon stew, fish, ribs of beef, cakes, stewed

figs, fresh berries, cheese...Much time was spent organizing supplies. Until

about 2200BC the Egyptians perservered with attempts to domesticate a

number of animals like the ibex, oryx, antelope and gazelle, and then,

abandoning this fruitless occupation, turned to the more entertaining pursuits of

hunting in the marshland preserves, collecting exotic vegetables like wild

celery, papyrus stalks and lotus roots, trapping birds and going fishing. The

Nile marshes and canals contained eel, mullet, carp, perch and tigerfish...The

origins of salting as a preservation process remain obscure. Although in Egypt

there was a positive link between salt's use in preserving food for the living and

embalming the bodies of the dead. Preservation by drying presents fewer

questions, if only because figs, dates and grapes fallen from the tree or vine

would dry themselves on the hot sandy soil, and no lengthy period of

experiment would be needed to establish that fish, for example, responded well


20/89

to the same treatment...The peasants' food, like their way of life, was more

circumscribed than that of the great officials...Their standard fare may have

been ale, onions and common flatbread... bought from a stall in the village

street, but they could look forward to quite frequent days of plenty when they

feasted on the surplus from temple sacrifices or one of the great high festivals.

They ate pork, too."

---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers Press:New York] 1988 (p.

53-4)

[NOTE: These books contain much more information than can be paraphrased

here. Your librarian will be happy to help you find a copies.]

How did Ancient Egyptians preserve their food?

Ancient Egyptians employed a variety of methods for food preservation. Great

silos were constructed to preserve grain for long periods of time. Fish, meat,

vegetables and fruits were were preserved by drying and salting. Grains werefermented to create beer.

"There is evidence that as early as 12,000 B.C., Egyptian tribespeople on the

lower Nile dried fish and poultry using the hot desert sun. Areas with similar

hot and dry climates found drying to be an effective method of

preservation...Herodutus, writing in the fifth century B.C., describes how the

Egyptians and their neighbors still dried fish in the sun and wind and then

strored them for long periods."

---Pickled, Potted and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food ProcessingChanged the World, Sue Shepard [Simon & Schuster:New York] 2000 (p. 31)

"...the Babylonians and Egyptians pickled fish such as sturgeon, salmon, and

catfish, as well as poultry and geese. Sometimes salt was relatively easy to

extract; in other parts it was more difficult."

---ibid (p. 76)

"Salt has been used to preserve fish since ancient times, possibly even before

meat was cured. The early Mesopotamian civilizations relied on a staple diet of

salt fish and barley proridge...Fish curing, depicted in the tombs of ancientEgypt, was so highly regarded that only temple officials were entrusted with

the knowledge of the art, and it is significant that the Egyptian word for fish

preserving was the same as that used to denote the process of embalming the

dead."

---ibid (p. 79)


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"For thousands of years the survival and power of a tribe or country depended

on its stocks in grain. Harvesting, processing, and storing grain stocks was of

huge importance, and war was declared only after harvest...One of the earliest

records of large-scale food preserving was in ancient Egypt, where it was

enourmously important to create adequate stocks of dried grain to insure

against the failure of the Nile to flood seasonally. Huge quantities of grain were

stored in sealed silo, where they could be kept for several years if necessary.

Records from 2600 B.C. show that the annual flooding of the Nile produced

surpluses of grain that were stored and kept to feed builders of irrigation

schemes and pyramid tombs. The Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza was built

around 2900 B.C. by slaves fed with stores of grain and chickpeas, onions, and

garlic."

---ibid (p. 51)

"Dried saltfish was part of a soldier's rations. Roe from the mullet, a periodicvisitor to the canals of the Nile, was also extracted during the drying process of

the fish, to be pressed into large flat cakes and preserved."

---Food: A Culinary History, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Masimo Montanari

[Columbia University Press:New York] 1999 (p. 42)

Meals & dining customs

"In Egypt banquets started in the early or middle afternoon, but few details are

available about the eating of ordinary meals. The basic Egyptian meal was beer,

bread, and onions, which the peasants ate daily, probably as a morning mealbefore they left to work in the fields or on works commanded by the pharaohs.

Another simple meal would be eaten in the cool of the evening, probably boiled

vegetables, bread, and beer; possibly wild fowl...The wealthy would expect to

eat two or een three meals a day comprising vegetables, wild fowl, fish, eggs,

and beef. Butter, milk, and cheese were also easily obtainable. Dessert would c

onsits of fruit--grapes, figs, dates, and watermelons. In a Saqqara tomb of the

Second Dynasty, a full meal was found that had been laid out for an unnamed

noble. It included pottery and alabaster dishes containing a porridge of ground

barley, a spit-roasted quail, two cooked lamb's kidney's, pigeon casserole,

stewed dish, barbecued beef ribs, trianguar loaves of bread made from groundemmer, small round cakes, a dish of stewed figs, a plate of sidder berries, and

cheese, all accompanied by jars that had once contained wint and beer. In the

Old Kingdom, the Egyptians are around a small table a few inches high, using

their fingers to eat. Normally dishes were placed in the center of the table, and

each person sitting around dipped berad or a spoon into it. The lower classes


22/89

continued this form of eating in the New Kingdom, but the upper classes then

preferred to sit on tall cushioned chairs. Servants brought around water in small

bowls to that guests could wash their hands before and during the meal."


2005 (p. 181-2)

"The Egyptian Banquet. For Egyptian peasants there were some feast days, as

at the New Year and after harvest and local religious festivals, but the peasants

preferred to be offered sports and pastimes rather than elaborate dining. Meat

was probably given to them after religious sacrifices. Dinner parties or

banquets appear to have been one of the favorite entertainments for the middle

and upper classes of the Egyptians, but literary evidence is scarce. There is no

word for banquet in Egyptian...The information for feasts or banquets comes

almost entierly from scenes found in tombs. In the Old Kingdom they seemed

to be mainly family gatherings...Banquets in the New Kingdom were moreelaborate, with family and guests enjoying the meal. Pharaohs gave official

banquets...Banquets usually began in midafternoon...The tomb scenes show the

guests being greeted by their hosts and servants coming forward to offer

garlands of flowers. Next basins of water are offered for the guests to wash

their hands...Tomb scenes show men and women on alternate panels as if they

ate in separate groups or in separate rooms...Guests could...be seated on...

[chairs]... stools or cusions...They ate from small tables, but side tables were

seemingly loaded with food in the almost buffet style, although servants would

bring the food to the guests and offer them napkins to wipe their mouths. Jugsand basins were placed on stands nearby, ready for washing of hands and

feet...The main food would be bread, fruits, pulses, and vegetables. Fruits

would have included dates, figs, melons, and possibly fruits imported from

other countries. Meat could be in abundance at banquets. Whole oxen were

roasted; ducks, chickens, geese, and pigeons were served. Fish seems to have

been less popular...Honey was a precious food, mainly the preserve of the

wealthy, and therefore expected at feasts. Jars underneath the table held beer,

wine, and fermented fruit dirnks...Toasts were drunk to the goddess

Hathor...The meal would be accompanied by music...After the meal there might

be storytelling or acrobats."


2005 (p. 188-191)

"Cuisine and Social Class. Elite Egyptians ate three daily meals: morning,

evening, and night. Laborers probably ate twice daily...Social superiors might

include lower-status diners at banquets, with different foods offered to each


23/89

guest dependign on his or her rank. tablewares varied from magnificent gold,

alabaster, and class for the elites to earthenware and base metals for workers.

Spoons and knives appeared the table. High-status banquets were often

segregated by gener...The genders mixed at family meals, regardless of status.

Egyptians buried food with their dead to ensure a comfortable afterlife.

Diversity in diet was a mark of wealth...Beer and bread appeared on everyone's

table and were the most common form of payment..."

---Cooking in Ancient Civilizations, Cathy K. Kaufman [Greenwood

Press:Westport CT] 2006 (p. 43-44)

In ancient Egypt, what would pharaoh feed his guests?

Same as most rulers, the very best his land and wealth had to offer. And???

Plenty of it!

"The Ancient Egyptians lived well. Although they left no recipe books, we canstill get a good idea of what the pharaohs and their people may have eaten from

the wall paintings in their tombs, the meals they buried with the dead to ensure

that they did not go hungry in the next world, and from the tales of travellers

such as the Greek Herodotus."

---Food Fit for Pharaohs: An Ancient Egyptian Cookbook, Michelle

Berriedale-Johnson [British Museum Press:London] 1999 (p. 7)

The feast given by King Mereptah in his eighth year for the Festival of Opet

served these items: fish (filleted and salted), oxen, ducks (spit roasted), oryx,

gazelle (basted in honey), beans, sweet oils (for sauces), celery, parsley, leeks,

lettuce, bread, pommegranates, grapes, jujubes, honey cakes, heads of garlic,

figs, beer and wine.

---Ancient Lives: Daily Life in Egypt of the Pharaohs, John Romer [Holt,

Rinehart and Winston:New York] 1984 (p. 51-3)

"A typical, lavish banquet consisted of a group sitting on the floor or at

individual round tables. Often they reposed on low chairs or stools under which

lay a basin for washing their hands, sometimes with a pet cat or monkey beside

it. Men and women ate together, both dressed in flowing linen gowns thatreached the floor The women held lotus flowers in one hand for the perfume

and wore a perfume cone on their head made of a fatty substance that released a

pleasing aroma as heat from the head slowly melted it during the course of the

evening. Heaps of food completely covered the small tables There were breads

of several shapes and varieties, whole roasted trussed fowl and joints of meat,

several kinds of vegetables and assorted fruit...At an actual banquet...various


24/89

courses would have been served one after another in containers. Plates were not

used, but ceramic bowls, or more likely at such formal affairs, blue glazed and

painted faience dishes would have held the food. Cups of similar material stood

ready for wine and were continually refilled from large pitchers carried by

circulating servant girls."

---Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians, Bob Brier and Hoyt Hobbs [Greenwood

Press:Westport CT] 1999 (p. 111-2)

[NOTE: this book has a "meaty" chapter on period foodstuffs (p. 99-115) and

several references for further study.]

Recommended reading

Cooking in Ancient Civilizations/Cathy K. Kaufman (includes

modernized recipes)

"The Ancient Egyptians' Diet,"Life of the Ancient Egyptians, Eugene

Strouhal (general notes)

"Food Culture of Ancient Egypt," Food: A Culinary History, Jean-Louis

Flandrin & Massimo Montanari (scholarly observations)

Food Fit for Pharaohs: A Ancient Egyptian Cookbook/Michelle

Berriedale-Johnson (modernized recipes)

Food in the Ancient World, Joan P. Alcock (ingredients & dining

customs...excellent for grades 6-12)

Pharaoh's Kitchen/Magda Mehdawy and Amr Hussein (historic

ingredient notes & modernized recipes)

Egyptian Flat Bread

Makes about 8 pitta

500 g /1 1/2 lb spelt or other strong bread flour (brown or white)

1/2 tsp salt7-g/ 1/3-oz sachet easy-blend dried yeast (1 packet)

300 ml /1/2 pint/ 1 1/2 cups tepid water (one-third boiling to two-thirds cold)

Mix the flour with the salt and yeast in a large bols. Make a well in the centre

and our in the water. Gradually draw the flour into the water and mix to a soft

dough. Knead by hand on a floured board for 15 minutes, or for 10 minutes in a

food processor fitted with a dough hook. Pour a little oil into the bottom of a


25/89

bowl, roll the dough in it and cover the bowl with a clean damp cloth or cling

film. Put in a warm place for 1 1/2-2 hours or until the dough has almost

doubled in size. Remove the dough from the bowl and 'knock back' or punch it

down. Knead it again for another 3-4 minutes, then cut into eight pieces. On a

floured board, flatten out each piece into a round (about 5 mm / 1/2 inch thick)

with your hand or a rolling pin. Transfer to a floured baking tray and bake in a

preheated hot oven (220 degrees C/ 425 degrees F/ Gas mark 7) for 8-10

minutes. Do not open the oven door while the bread is baking. each bread

should puff up, leaving a pocket in the middle. Remove from the oven and cool

slightly on a wire rack." ---Food Fit for Pharaohs: An Ancient Egyptian

Cookbook, Michelle Berridale-Johnson [British Museum Press:London] 1999

(p. 61)

Sesame Rings

Makes 2 rings500 g /1 1/2 lb strong white bread flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

7-g/ 1/3-oz sachet easy-blend dried yeast (1 packet)

300 ml/ 1/2 pint/ 1 1/2 cups tepid water (one-third boiling to two thirds cold)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 egg

sesame seeds for sprinkling

Mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl and make a well in thecentre. Pour in the water and oil and gradually draw in the flour. Knead on a

floured board for 15 minutes, or for 10 minutes in a food processor fitted with a

dough hook. Pour a little oil into a bowl, roll the dough in it and cover the bowl

with a clean damp cloth or cling film. Put in a warm place for 1 1/2 -2 hours or

until the dough has almost doubled in size. Take the dough out of the bowl,

'knock back' or punch it down and knead again for a further 5 minutes. Cut the

dough in half and roll each half into a sausage shape that you can form into a

ring with a diameter of about 20 cm/ 8 in, about 5 cm/ 2 in thick. Lay the rings

on an oiled baking tray. Beat the egg wtih 2 tbsp water and glaze the tops of the

rings. Sprinkle generously with sesame seeds and bake in a preheated hot oven

(220 degrees C/ 425 degrees F/ Gas Mark 7) for 10 minutes, then reduce the

heat to 150 degrees C/ 300 degrees F/ Gas Mark 23 for a further 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack."

---ibid(p. 62) [OUR NOTE: You can also knead this bread yourself. You do

not have to have a food processor and/or dough hook.]


26/89

Bible foods: New & Old Testaments

Bible based cook books(history notes & modernized recipes)

The Good Book Cookbook, Naomi Goodman et al.

The Bible Cookbook: Lore of Food in Biblical Times plus Adaptations of

Ancient Recipes, Daniel S. Cutler

Food and Feasts of Jesus: Inside the World of First-Century Fare with

Menus and Recipes, Douglas E. Neel and Joel A. Puch

Loaves & Fishes: Foods from Bible Times, Malvina Kinard & Janet

Crisler

Cooking with the Bible: Biblical Food, Feasts, and Lore, Anthony F.

Chiffolo & Rayner W. Hesse, Jr....includes extensive notes on

ingredients

Scholarly reading (Christian)

[all of these works are scholarly and contain extensive footnotes/bibliographies

for further study]

Food & Faith in Christian Culture, edited by Ken Albala and TrudyEden

Grace Before Meals: Food Ritual and Body Discipline in Convent

Culture, Patricia Curran


27/89

Food: A Culinary History, Flandrin & Montanari

---several chapters on classical food

Food in the Ancient World From A-Z, Andrew Dalby

---alphabetical arrangement, notes to classical authors, biblicalreferences and contemporary studies. Also includes general notes on

agricutlure and trade.

Bible plants (edible & not)

Dictionary of Bible Plants, Musselman

Figs, Dates, Laurel and Myrrh: Plants of the Bible and the Qu'ran,

Musselman

Plants of the Bible.

What did the Vikings eat?

Common foods & farming techniques

Food preservation

Everyday meals

Viking feasts

Additional resources(online & books)

Common foods & farming

"The main items in the Vikings' diet were wholemeal bread made from rye and

oats, porridge containing oatmeal and barley, eggs, milk, cream, butter and

cheese. They ate mutton, goats' flesh, horseflesh, beef and pork; in the far

north, the meat of reindeer, polar bears, whales and seals could be obtained.Herring, haddock, cod and eels were favourite delicacies. The most commonly

eaten vegetables were cabbages, wild greens, and onions. For fruit they had

apples and all kinds of berries and nuts. They drank great quantities of milk,

buttermilk and whey, as well as a weak beer brewed from barley and a much

stronger mead made from fermented hone and water. Many kinds of wine were

imported from Europe and faraway Byzantium. The food was cooked over the
http://ww2.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/bible/allbibleplantslist.phphttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#vikingcommonhttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#vikingpreservationhttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#vikingmealshttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#vikingfeastshttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#vikingresourceshttp://ww2.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/bible/allbibleplantslist.phphttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#vikingcommonhttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#vikingpreservationhttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#vikingmealshttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#vikingfeastshttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#vikingresources


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open fire in the middle of the hall. Meats were either roasted on the spit, boiled

in great cauldrons or fried in deep pans. Bread the oatcakes were baked on flat

stones laid across the firepit...archaeologists have found stone ovens where

food was cooked between layers of red hot stones. The Vikings enjoyed plain

food and preferred boiled to roast or fried meat--the heroes in Valhalla feasted

off boiled pork. They loved rich stews made up of all the scraps and leftovers.

Their food was sweetened with honey and flavored with pepper and many other

spices, imported from the East...Farming took much of the time of most

Vikings. They grew rye, barley and oats in small homefields which were

enclosed by dry stone walls...They had small vegetable patches and orchards of

apple trees...They bred sheep, goats, cattle and chickens. Cattle were by far the

most important as they provided so much of their food as well as hides for

boots and clothes...they went out hunting for elk, wild boar, deer and even

bear...Fowling was another favourite pasttime, and source of food. Much of

their time was spent fishing in the fjords or at sea. They caught herring in theBaltic, cod and haddock in the Atlantic, and whales, seals and walruses in the

cold northern seas...They collected seaweed and spread it over their fields as a

manure. Seaweed was also stored and given to the cattle during the winter, and

when times were bad, the Vikings ate it themselves."

---The Vikings, Michael Gibson [Wayland Publishers:London] 1972 (p. 29-33)

"Milk from cows, sheep, or goats was drunk or used in the preparation of

various dishes or processed. It was often separated into curds and whey or

buttermilk and made into butter or cheese...meat came primarily from domesticanimals: pigs, cows, sheep, lambs, boats, and horses. The slaughtering of

animals typically took place in the fall, so that they would not have to be fed

during the winter. Hens and geese offered the possibility of fresh meat

throughout the year and...provided eggs. Other birds and animals were hunted.

These included seabirds of all kinds, hares, rabbits, wild boar, elk, deer, seals,

whales...reindeer. Both whale and seal meat were considered delicacies...The

meat was prepared in a variety of ways. It might be boiled in a cauldron of iron

or soapstone suspended over the open fire from a tripod or hung on chains from

a roof beam. For preservation, meat was pickled in whey or brine, smoked,

dried, or salted. Salt was obtained from boiling sea water or seaweed after

which the crystals were gathered...fish played an important part in the diet. Cod

and coalfish were the most important fish in Norway, western Jutland in

Denmark, and the Norse colonies in the North Atlantic. In the Baltic and in the

Danish waters, herring was the most important fish. When not eaten fresh,

herring was typically salted, whereas cod was...wind dried. The dried cod was


29/89

called stockfish because it hung over a rod, or stock, while drying...Freshwater

fish...salmon, perch, and pike was also consumed, as was shellfish...shrimp,

mussels, and oysters... Barley as the main cereal...in Iceland it was probably the

only grain cultivated. It was used for making porridge and for baking bread.

Malted barley was used for making ale, to which hops might be added for

flavor. Rye...was commonly used for baking bread, as was oat, which was also

used for porridge. Although wheat was grown in Scandinavia, it appears to

have been rare and expensive, and 'white bread' was probably a luxury reserved

for the wealthy...Some breads were unleavened while others were leavened

with yeast. Barley is the main ingredient, but some breads are mixed with other

grains, linseed, pea flour, or pine bark...Vegetables, fruits, berries, and nuts

provided important nutritional supplements. The most common vegetables

were probably cabbages, onions, peas, beans, beets, and endives, which were

all locally grown...fruits, such as apples, pears, cherries, plums, blueberries,

cloudberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries, were found in largeareas of Scandinavia and could be picked wherever they grew. The were eaten

raw or dried and may also have been used to make fruit wine...The only wild

nut known in Scandinavia in the Viking age was hazelnut. Shells of walnuts

have been found in excavations, but these nuts are believed to have been

imported. ...To season the foods, salt, herbs, and spices were used. Cumin,

mustard, and horseradish...parsley, dill, cress, mint, marjoram, thyme, angelica,

and wild garlic may probably have been added. Other more exotic species

would have been imported. Honey was the traditional sweetener and was used

as a base for sweet, fermented mead."---Daily Life of the Vikings, Kirsten Wolf [Greenwood Press:Westport CT]

2004(p. 82-83)

How did the Vikings preserve their food?

"The Viking invaders came from a region where conditions had favored drying

as a method of food preservation form the earliest times of settlement in

Scandinavia. The long, cold winters had made food preservation a priority, and

the abundant supply of fish, together with the cold, dry air, fostered a long and

resilient practice of drying fish. Even while at sea, the Vikings crucified their

catches of cod in the rigging of their ships to dry in the freezing sea winds until

the fish were as hard a planks. In the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway,

where the Gulf Stream delivers giant shoals of fish, they still hang sides of cod

on high hurdles in the cold, spring air to dry until exceedingly hard and amost

indestructible. The Norwegians have successfully exported this resulting

stokkfisk (stockfish) for many years."


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---Pickled, Potted and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving

Changed the World, Sue Shepard [Simon & Schuster:New York] 2000 (p. 37)

"Meat and fish were preserved by smoking (the smoky upper reaches of the

longhouse helped to keep meat hung there from spoiling), pickling in brine or

whey (in which the lactic acid prevented food spoilage), salting, or drying.

Smoked lamb hanging from the kitchen beams in the longhouse at Eirkssta ir

is shown to the left. Despite its thoroughly unappetizing appearance, the meat is

delicious. On the right are fish drying outdoors in an open shed in modern

Iceland. The dry, cold winds remove the moisture and preserve the fish."

SOURCE: Hurstwic

"With no fridges or freezers our Viking family has to take special measures to

stop their food going bad. Meat and fish can be smoked or rubbed with salt.

Fruit can be dried; grains are made into bread or ale. Dairy produce such asmilk is made into cheese. Cooking the meat will make it last a little longer,

making sausages will make it last longer still."

SOURCE: Viking Food/Russell Scott [BBC]

Everyday meals

"Viking-age Scandinavians ate two meals a day, one on the morning and one in

the evening. The food was served in the main hall, and people ate sitting in the

raised platforms along the long walls of the house. Well-to-do people probably

had tables and tablecloths. People normally ate with their fingers off flat

wooden trenchers. A sort-bladed knife, which they typically carried around

with them, was used to chop up food. Some foods, such as porridge, soups, and

stews, were served in wooden bowls and eaten with spoons of wood or antler.

Ale and mead were drunk from the horns of cattle, which might be ornamented

with metal mounts...Other beverages were drink from wooden cups or silver

bowls. The latter were probably reserved for wine. Glasses, which had to be

imported, were uncommon and used only by wealthy people. The types of food

consumed...varied from region to region and depended upon available

resources, but it is reasonable to assume that the diet was based primarily on

dairy produce, meat, and fish."---Daily Life of the Vikings, Kirsten Wolf [Greenwood Press:Westport CT]

2004(p. 81)

Feasting time

"Feasts called for more elaborate preparation: 'The lady of the house spread an

embroidered cloth of white linen on the table and placed loaves of white
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/food_and_diet.htmhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/food_03.shtmlhttp://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/food_and_diet.htmhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/food_03.shtml


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wheaten bread on it. Then she set out many dishes of fine ham and roasted

fowls as well as silver jugs containing wine. They ate, drank and talked until

the day was done."

---The Vikings, Michael Gibson [Wayland Publishers:London] 1972 (p. 31)

"Feasting was the most common social diversion in the Viking age. It provided

respite from labor and opportunities for physical relaxation. The feasts included

seasonal celebrations and commemorations of personal events. In origin both

were associated with pagan sacrifices, and although Christian leaders tried to

purge these ceremonial feasts of pagan elements, they retained the timing of

them and associate with commemorative days of Christianity or the feast days

of saints...the size and grandeur of the feast depended on the occasion and the

host's social and economic status. A royal feast would no doubt have been quite

extravagant with an elaborate spread of food and drink and lasted several

days...The feasts probably did not differ substantially from those heldelsewhere in Europe, but there is reason to believe that they were rowdier and

involved heavier drinking...When the drinking horn was passed, a man could

not refuse unless he was old or sick."

---Daily Life of the Vikings, Kirsten Wolf [Greenwood Press:Westport CT]

2004(p. 144-145)

Additional history

Viking Food/BBC (includes feast notes)

Viking cooking/Hurstwic

Archaeological Findings of Ninth- and Tenth-Century Viking

Foodstuffs/SCA

What did the Vikings eat?/Viking answer lady

Running a household in the Viking era(with modernized recipes)

Recommended reading

An Early Meal: A Viking Age Cookbook & Culinary Odyssey/Daniel Serra &

Hanna Tunberg

...excellent introduction to the ingredients, cooking technology, and dining

customs of the Vikings. Includes modernized recipes. Food Culture in

Scandinavia/Henry Notaker
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/food_01.shtmlhttp://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/food_and_diet.htmhttp://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikfood.htmlhttp://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikfood.htmlhttp://www.vikinganswerlady.com/food.shtmlhttp://www.viking.no/e/life/food/index.htmlhttp://www.viking.no/e/life/food/index.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/food_01.shtmlhttp://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/food_and_diet.htmhttp://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikfood.htmlhttp://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikfood.htmlhttp://www.vikinganswerlady.com/food.shtmlhttp://www.viking.no/e/life/food/index.html


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...basic overview of cooking methods, ingredients & dining customs

Libellus de arte coquinaria: An Early Northern Cookery Book/edited and

translated by Rudolf Grewe & Constance B. Hieatt

...Academic treatise featuring commentary of a medieval Scandinavian

cookbook. Includes index of utensils, procedures, ingredients and dishes.

Original (transcribed) recipes here.

Anglo-Saxon and Norman BritainFoods

The food of Anglo-Saxon England was an ecclectic mix of invader cuisine.

Bronze-age Celts, Ancient Romans, Scandinaviansand

conquering Normansplayed major roles.

About Anglo-Saxon food

Food and drink

Feasting and fasting

Oven building& bread making

RECOMENDED READING:

British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History, Colin

Spencer

---Chapter 2: "Anglo-Saxon Gastronomy

A Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food: Processing and Consumption, AnnHagen

---commodities, preservation techniques, cooking methods, dining

customs & feast instructions

A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink: Production and

Distribution, Ann Hagen

---agricultural methods, food supply, food taboos, trade/imports,

measures, hospitality

Tastes of Anglo-Saxon England, Mary Savelli

---recipes adapted for modern kitchens

A Taste of History: 10,000 Years of Food in Britain, Peter Brears et al

---good for Roman-era foods and cooking techniques
http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/harp-kkr.htmhttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#normanhttp://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/arl_roman_cooking-pt1.htmhttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#scandinavianshttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#normanshttp://www.regia.org/food.htmhttp://www.regia.org/feasting.htmhttp://www.regia.org/ovens.htmhttp://www.regia.org/wulfwyn.htmhttp://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/harp-kkr.htmhttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#normanhttp://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/arl_roman_cooking-pt1.htmhttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#scandinavianshttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#normanshttp://www.regia.org/food.htmhttp://www.regia.org/feasting.htmhttp://www.regia.org/ovens.htmhttp://www.regia.org/wulfwyn.htm


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Food and Drink in Britain From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C.

Anne Wilson

---arranged by general food categories (cereals, dairy, etc.)

Food: A Culinary History, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Massimo Montanari---Part Three: Late Classical to the Early Middle Ages, 5th-10th

centuries)

Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson

---entries on Celtic feasting

Scandinavian foods in Scotland

According to the food historians, at some point Scottish and Scandinavian food

and diet (think: Vikings) converged, creating some notable culinary

similarities:

"Scotland to venture an understatement, is not at all difficult to distinguish from

England; the difference leap to the eye in many different aspects of the two

cultures, including notably food and cookery. In these and other respects the

people of Scotland have closer links with Scandinavia and France...than do the

English...The Scottish links with Scandinavia are most visible in Orkney and

Shetland, but continue to be evident down to the Border Country (and indeed

into the north of England, which has much in common with the Lowlands of

Scotland). The contrast is heightened the further north one goes, partly because

of changing geographical features."

---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University

Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 706)

"Scottish food derives from several cultures. First the Celtic culture, which

makes good use of oatmeal and the griddle or girdle...There countries, too,

were visited by Norsemen and this led to Scandinavian methods of curing and

salting fish and also pork. Salted and smoked mutton is a traditional food both

in Scotland and Scandinavia. It is probably that the original Aberdeen Angus

cattle were of Viking stock."---Traditional Scottish Cookery, Theodora Fitzgibbon [Fontana:Suffolk] 1980

(p. vii) [NOTE: Theodora Fitzgibbon has written several books on Scottish

cookery.]

Recommended reading (general)
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#vikinghttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#viking


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Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University

Press:Oxford] 1999

---separate entries for each countries (including Celtic cooking),

ingredients and recipes; points to major culinary treatises in each.

Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple and Kriemhild

Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:2000]

---entries by region and specific food items; extensive bibliography for

further study

In the Shadow of the Brochs, Beverly Ballin Smith

Food in Norman Britian

The Normans were ancient Scandinavian peoples. They began invading

England (from the North) in the 9th century. In 1066 they conquered England,installing William, Duke of Normandy, to the throne. What kind of food did the

Normans eat? Most likely an ecclectic mix of ancient Scandinavian recipes and

local fare. Major culinary influences of this era were the Romans and the Celts.

"The Normans were acquisitve, greedy and ambitious; they absorbed the

culture of others, whether it was France, Sicily, England or North Africa...It

was clear then that if these peoples liked a new food, flavourings or ingredient,

they would take it over and make it their own...The earliest extant recipes were

written down sometime before 1280, and are likely to have been court favorites

passed down from master cook to apprentices over decades, if not for almost

200 years, from the time of the Conqueror...These early recipes show a high

degree of gastronomic sophistication...Of course, these dishes were made for

the nobility so this is food for only two per cent of the population. Animal

protein comprised a third to a half of their consumption, for everyone in a

magnate household would have had about a pound of meat of fish per day. The

fact that these recipes were written down at all shows that they were used for

special celebrations. Here is a description of a selection of them:

noodles, ravioli, oranges, white pancakes, jelly (made from animals, not fruit),

sage sauce, nag's tail, white elder (chicken chunks cooked in soup stock), vealstews, poached chicken, chicken, mawmenny (minced chicken and pork

poached with wine flavoured with spices including cloves and fried almonds),

nut tarts (small pastries with almond milk custard), rose pottage (almond milk

flavoured with ground rose petals sprinkled with sugar), and food of Cyprus

(almond milk flavoured with ground ginger and pistachio nuts, thickened with

rice flour)."


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---British Food: An Extraodinary Thousand Years of History, Colin Spencer

[Columbia University Press:New York] 2002 (p. 36-41)

[NOTE: This book contains information on common foods, courtly feasts,

peasant fare, and preservation techniques.]

What did Robin Hood & His Merry Men eat?

Robin Hood is generally thought to be set in late 12th century England, during

the reign of Richard I (the Lionhearted). Food plays a central role in these tales;

poor people were starving with wealthy landowners enjoyed abundance. Robin

Hood and his Merry Men celebrated their victories by feasting. In this context,

a "feast" meant having enough to eat.

Literature provides a wealth of detail when it comes to telling us what peopleate. From this tale, we find the Merry Men typically ate bread, cheese and

portable meat pies (pastys). They ate their entire meal at one sitting, no courses.

They dined outside and in local inns. Presumably, pies were purchased (or

stolen?) from bakeshops or street vendors. Foods were roasted, baked, boiled,

and stewed. Everyone washed everything down with beer, ale, and fortified

wine.

Robin Hood's foods:

"WHEN THE four yeomen had traveled for a long time toward Sherwoodagain, high noontide being past, they began to wax hungry. Quoth Robin Hood,

"I would that I had somewhat to eat. Methinks a good loaf of white bread, with

a piece of snow-white cheese, washed down with a draught of humming ale,

were a feast for a king.""

"So Robin straightway left the Beggar, who, upon his part, went to a budding

lime bush back of the hedge, and there spread his feast upon the grass and

roasted his eggs upon a little fagot fire, with a deftness gained by long labor in

that line. After a while back came Robin bearing a goodly skin of ale upon his

shoulder, which he laid upon the grass...So the one seized upon the ale and theother upon the pigeon pie, and nothing was heard for a while but the munching

of food and the gurgle of ale as it left the skin."

"He saw a great venison pasty and two roasted capons, beside which was a

platter of plover's eggs; moreover, there was a flask of sack and one of canary

a sweet sight to a hungry man."


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"After a time he came back, bearing with him a great brown loaf of bread, and

a fair, round cheese, and a goatskin full of stout March beer, slung over his

shoulders."

"...boiled capons, Malmsey, white bread, and the like, with great tenderness.

Quoth he to himself, "I would I had Willie Wynkin's wishing coat; I know right

well what I should wish for, and this it should be." Here he marked upon the

fingers of his left hand with the forefinger of his right hand those things which

he wished for. "Firstly, I would have a sweet brown pie of tender larks; mark

ye, not dry cooked, but with a good sop of gravy to moisten it withal. Next, I

would have a pretty pullet, fairly boiled, with tender pigeons' eggs, cunningly

sliced, garnishing the platter around. With these I would have a long, slim loaf

of wheaten bread that hath been baked upon the hearth..." [NOTE: Malmsey is

"A strong sweet wine, originally the product of the neighborhood of

Monemvasia (Napoli di Malvasia) in the MOrea; but now obtained from Spainand the Azores (Oxford English Dictionary)]

""I find here a goodly piece of pigeon pie, wrapped in a cabbage leaf to hold

the gravy. Here I behold a dainty streaked piece of brawn, and here a fair lump

of white bread. Here I find four oaten cakes and a cold knuckle of ham. Ha! In

sooth, 'tis strange; but here I behold six eggs that must have come by accident

from some poultry yard hereabouts. They are raw, but roasted upon the coals

and spread with a piece of butter that I see"

"Thou shalt eat sweet venison and quaff the stoutest ale..."

"...feed upon venison and sweet oaten cakes, and curds and honey."

"Then, while beyond in the forest bright fires crackled and savory smells of

sweetly roasting venison and fat capons filled the glade, and brown pasties

warmed beside the blaze, did Robin Hood entertain the Sheriff right royally."

"At the fire were roasting juicy steaks of venison, pheasants, capons, and fresh

fish from the river."

"a venison pasty with suet and raisins is to stout King Harry."

""Firstly, I would have a sweet brown pie of tender larks; mark ye, not dry

cooked, but with a good sop of gravy to moisten it withal. Next, I would have a

pretty pullet, fairly boiled, with tender pigeons' eggs, cunningly sliced,


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garnishing the platter around. With these I would have a long, slim loaf of

wheaten bread that hath been baked upon the hearth..."

"Brown ale lies ripening in the cellar, hams and bacon hang in the smoke-shed,

and crabs are stowed away in the straw for roasting in the wintertime..."

"sweet cakes and barley sugar were sold..."

"So presently a savory stew of tripe and onions, with sweet little fat dumplings,

was set before him, likewise a good stout pottle of Malmsey..."

"...while roasted crabs[Small sour apples] bobbed in bowls of ale upon the

hearthstone."

"...sweetly roasting venison and fat capons filled the glade, and brown pasties

warmed beside the blaze, did Robin Hood entertain the Sheriff right royally."

" Then some built great fires and roasted the steers..."

"...roasting chestnuts..."

"...I smelled the steam of a boiled pullet just now..."

SOURCE: Project Gutenberg's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by

Howard Pyle

[NOTE: There are several versions of this tale. Modern interpretations can varythrough time. Project Gutenbergoffers several. We used our browser's "find"

feature to identify the food references. Search terms: feast, food, pie, meat,

eggs, stew, soup, roast, boil, cake, bake, chicken, ham, bacon, beef.]

Medieval fare

The study of Medieval culture and cuisine is a complicated and facinating

topic. There is plenty of information available, from comprehensive academic

sources to simple children's books. The sources cited here are selected

primarily for teachers and students who want to learn the basics of European

Medieval cuisine, find out what was eaten by the rich and poor, try cooking

some authentic recipes, or recreate a feastfor class.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10148/10148-h/10148-h.htmhttp://www.gutenberg.org/http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#richandpoorhttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#medievalfeastshttp://www.gutenberg.org/files/10148/10148-h/10148-h.htmhttp://www.gutenberg.org/http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#richandpoorhttp://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq3.html#medievalfeasts


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Web sites with authentic Medieval recipes, modern redactions and general

information:

A Boke of Gode Cookery, medieval customs and cuisine

Medieval English fare

Cariadoc's Miscellany, European & Islamic cultures 13th-17th centuries

Medieval/Renaissance Food Homepage

Cindy Renfrow's Links Page--primary sources, SCA cookery, supplies &

original articles

Gastronomie Medievale, Biblioteque Nationale de France (en Francais)

Food and Feud in Saga Iceland

Mongolian food, William of Rubruk.

Digitized period cookbooks

A Form of Cury, 1390

Maitre Chiquart, European survey, chronological arrangement (in

French)

Historic culinary and brewing documents online, Cindy Renfrow's

comprehensive list

Medieval and early culinary texts, Martha Carlin, University of

Wisconsin

German, French, & Latin texts, in the original languages

Dutch texts, in Dutch and English

Irish food before the potato
http://www.godecookery.com/gcooktoc/gcooktoc.htmhttp://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/booksforcooks/med/medievalfood.htmlhttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/miscellany.htmlhttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food.htmlhttp://www.thousandeggs.com/http://expositions.bnf.fr/gastro/index.htmhttp://www.hss.adelaide.edu.au/centrefooddrink/publications/articles/garymartinfoodandfeud0paper.htmlhttp://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/rubruck.htmlhttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/http://www.oldcook.com/chronologie_livres_cuisine.htmhttp:/

meal prep history

Documents