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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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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."
---Food in the Ancient World, Joan P. Alcock [Greenwood Press:Westport CT]
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
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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
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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."
---Food in the Ancient World, Joan P. Alcock [Greenwood Press:Westport CT]
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."
---Food in the Ancient World, Joan P. Alcock [Greenwood Press:Westport CT]
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
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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
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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
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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.]
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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
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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
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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
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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.shtml7/24/2019 Meal Prep History
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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.html7/24/2019 Meal Prep History
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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.htm7/24/2019 Meal Prep History
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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#viking7/24/2019 Meal Prep History
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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#medievalfeasts7/24/2019 Meal Prep History
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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:/