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An
archeologist has realized that food residues were included in the tomb of
Midas in western Turkey from 2700 years ago. These residues were analyzed
to produce a menu for the burial banquet for Midas. For appetizers Turkish
meze of goat cheese, juliened cucumbers, asparagus, arugula, olive and
garbanzo spread, dried figs, and cornelian cherry vinaigrette. The entree
was a spicy lamb and lentil stew. The drink was a mixture of honey mead,
beer, and wine with saffron added as a spice. The desert was a honey-carmelized
fennel desert tart. The book by Robert Garland contains a discussion of
ancient Greek foods starting on page 91. Libations could be performed with
either olive oil or wine. Sacrifices involved animals which usually
resulted in cooked meat. Harvest festivals would involve the harvested
food, perhaps wine, olives, barley, or wheat. Staples of the diet
included cereals and vegetables, such as lentils, peas, beans, cabbages,
asparagus, and garlic. Fish was plentiful but other meat was scarce. Honey
was used but sugar was unknown. Flocks of goats and sheep furnished milk
and cheese. Figs, and of course grapes, were the principal fruits but
mention is made of apples, pears, pomegranates, and quinces. Citrus
fruits, such as oranges and lemons, were unknown.
An example meal from ancient Greece could consist of a flatbread
containing barley and a shishkabob with lamb, beans, cabbage, apples, and
pears would work. Use olive oil and red wine to marinate the lamb. Thyme
is a likely herb. Baklava for dessert. Here is the oldest surviving
recipe: "Take a wrasse. Wash it and cut into slices. Pour cheese and oil
over it." Now cook it. (A wrasse is a fish).
In Book IX
of the Illiad Achilles has a meal prepared for Aias (Ajax) and Odysseus.
He instructs Patroclus "Bring out a bigger bowl,..., put less later in the
wine, and give every man a cup." Later (Patroclus) "put down a big bench
in the firelight, and laid on it the backs of a sheep and a fat goat and
the chine of a great hog rich in lard. Automedon held these for him, while
Achilles jointed them, and then carved up the joints and spitted the
slices. Meanwhile, Patroclus, the royal son of Monoetius, made the fire
blaze up. When it had burnt down again and the flames had dissapeared, he
scattered the embers and laid the spits above them, resting them on dogs,
after he had sprinkled the meat with holy salt.
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A statuette of a group of four
women bakers being entertained by a flute player |
When he had
roasted it and heap it on platters, Patroclus fetched some bread and set
it out on the table in handsome baskets; and Achilles divided the meat
into portions.
In Book XXIV of the Illiad Achilles has a meal prepared for Priam. "The
swift Achilles now bestirred himself and slaughtered a white sheep, which
his men flayed and prepared in the usual manner. They deftly chopped it
up, spitted the pieces, roasted them carefully and then withdrew them from
the fire.
Automedon fetched some bread and set it out on the table in handsome
baskets..." Then a handmaid bare water for the washing of hands in a
goodly golden ewer, and poured it forth over a silver basin to wash
withal, and drew to their side a polished table. And a grave dame bare
wheaten bread and set it by them, and laid on the board many dainties,
giving freely of such things as she had by her. And a carver lifted and
placed by them platters of divers kinds of flesh, and nigh them he set
golden bowls, and a henchman walked to and fro pouring out to them the
wine.(Book I, Odyssey)
Even so they
spake one to another, while the guests came to the palace of the divine
king. They drave their sheep, and brought wine that maketh glad the heart
of man: and their wives with fair tire sent them wheaten bread. Thus were
these men preparing the feast in the halls. (Book IV, Odyssey)
And a handmaid bare water for the hands in a goodly golden ewer, and
poured it forth over a silver basin to wash withal, and drew to his side a
polished table. And a grave dame bare wheaten bread and set it by him and
laid upon the board many dainties, giving freely of such things as she had
by her. (Book VII, Odyssey)
Moreover a woman, a grinder at the mill, uttered a voice of women from
within the house hard by, where stood the mills of the shepherd of the
people. At these handmills twelve women in all plied their task, making
meal of barley and of wheat, the marrow of men. (Book XX, Odyssey)
Men seemed to cook meat and women seemed to prepare bread, at least during
the period of the Trojan war.
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