Raw Materials: barely
wheat, millet, chickpeas (garbanza beans),
lentils, turnips, onions, garlic,
leeks, cucumbers, water cress, hogs,
chickens and some beans.
The Sumerians may have been the first people to brew beer.
A typical meal for a common
family: barely paste or bread, beans,
onions, cheese, & beer.
The Egyptians (4000-1100 BC):
Raw Materials:
barely wheat, millet, chickpeas (garbanza beans),
lentils, turnips, onions, garlic,
leeks, cucumbers, water cress, hogs,
chickens and some beans.
Typical meal:
bread beer, barely paste, and occasionally fish and
dates. Meat was rarely eaten.
The Greeks (1500-300 BC):
Raw Materials:
barely wheat, grapes, figs, onions, leeks, olives,
greens, beans, sheep, goats,
beef, & artichokes.
The Greeks, although they probably
did not invent the product,
were the best wine makers of
ancient times.
Typical Meal:
barely paste or bread, cheese, olives, figs, grapes,
wine or water.
Generally meat was served only on special occasions.
The Romans (500 BC-476 AD):
Raw Materials:
barely wheat millet, fish, olives, figs, eggs, goats,
sheep, cattle, grapes, cheese,
chickens, cabbage, leeks.
The Romans were fond of eggs
and probably invented the omelet.
But it was not recorded until
1100 France.
Typical Meal:
Breakfast was most often bread ducked in wine.
Other meals included barely
paste bread olives, cheese, olive oil,
grapes, water, wine.
Special Sauce: The
Romans were fond of a sauce they called
liquamen.
Recipe: take several pounds of fish, cover with thick layer
of salt, seal in earthenware
jar, let stand in sun for three months The
result was a clear fermented
liquid which rose to the top where it
was skimmed off and strained
through cloth. The Romans used it in
cooking and as a sauce for dipping
bread in or pouring over cooked
grains, meals, or beans. Imagine
the smell.
Miscellaneous:
The most common sweetener used by ancient civilizations was honey.
A basic staple food of all civilizations
was something called barely
paste.
Roughly, it was barely with the rough inedible husk removed.
The grain was lightly toasted
then ground into about the consistency
of corn meal. It was then mixed
with water, salt, and perhaps some
other seasonings, into a paste.
The toasting it received before
grinding was all the cooking
it received. People ate this for
thousands of years.
Because the main ingredient in
their diets was grain, and because
that grain was ground using
stone, most ancient peoples had their
teeth worn down to the gums
by middle age due to eating the
powdered stone that mixed with
grain during grinding.
Olive oil was more widely used
than butter. Butter spoiled too
quickly, milk was better used
to make cheese, which lasted longer.
Note:
The meals listed above were for the common person.
Someone of great prominence
or wealth (such as a pharaoh, king or wealthy merchant) might dine a little
better, with meat being served
more often. But daily consumption
of meat, fish, of poultry was
almost unheard of.
An FYI
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