by Sarah Phillips
Doubtless, ancient Egypt's probably eat better than many others in the ancient world. After all, KMT, a name for ancient Egypt refers to its rich, dark, fertile soil and we have no doubt that since the invention of agriculture, Egyptians, with the Nile Valley and Delta, had a distinct advantage over many others when it came to food. Of course, there were lean times, when the inundation of the Nile failed them, but most often, this was not the case. In fact, we find many statues and pictures of ancient Egyptians who are well overweight.
However, it is very easy to describe any process in ancient Egypt in too broad of terms. We also must keep in mind that ancient Egypt spans thousands of years, and during that period their diets varied to some extent, while new foods were also added to their menus.
Bread and Cereal Food
Agriculture existed from an early date in Egypt. For the common people of Egypt, cereal foods formed the main backbone of their diet from the predynastic period onward Even for the rich, this staple mean generally consisted of a variety of different breads, often with other ingredients mixed in.
Sometimes these ingredients were purposeful, while at other times not. Because of the crude utensils used to make bread, quartz, felspar, mica, ferro magnesium minerals and other foreign bodies, including germs were almost always present in the flour. bread was made by mixing the dough, kneading it with both hands or sometimes with the feet in large containers. Yeast, salt, spices, milk and sometimes butter and eggs were then added, before the bread was placed in a baking form or patted into various shapes.
At first it was cooked in open fires or even on the embers. But from the Old Kingdom on, bread-moulds were used which were preheated, wiped with fat and filled with the dough. Slowly this process became more sophisticated.
In the Middle Kingdom, tall, tapered bread ovens with a firebox at the bottom, a grating and domed, upper compartment which was open at the top were used. At first, and really for even later common consumption, bread was usually cooked in the shape of a pancake. However, later bread was made in long or round rolls, and sometimes even shaped into figures, particularly for ceremonial purposes. Large, soft griddle cakes were also made, just as in Nubia today.
Sometimes thick loaves were made, with a hollow center that was then filled with beans, vegetables or other items. Sometimes flat bread was made with raised edges in order to hold eggs, or other fillings. Eventually, bread was made with various other ingredients, but there was no distinction between bread and pastries. Yet bread was often sweetened with honey or dates, or flavored with sesame, aniseed or fruit.
Vegetables
Obviously, even for the poor, other items such as vegetables, fruit and fish were consumed, all gifts of the Nile. They often ate beans, chick peas, lentils and green peas, just as modern Egyptians do today. Leeks and Egyptian lettuce was also popular. garlic were eaten, as well as thought to repel agents of diseases, and onions were popular, as well as being used for medical purposes. Though Herodotus tells us otherwise, radishes do not appear to have been consumed much.
Fruit
Chances are we do not know all the different types of fruit consumed. The most popular fruit in ancient Egypt was probably dates, which are rich in sugar and protein. While the rich used honey as a sweetener, the poor more often employed dates. They were also dried for later consumption, and were sometimes fermented to make wine.
We know that figs were eaten, but mostly from illustrations and references. Grapes were popular when available, and were also sun-dried to make raisins. Persea Mimusops laurifolia we know from the food left in tombs, as well as pomegranates, which have been found as far back as the 12th Dynasty.
We have even found a watermelon in the New Kingdom tomb of Nebseni. We only know of Egyptian plums from the New Kingdom, and the peach does not show up until the Ptolemaic (Greek) period. Olives were probably bought into Egypt with the Hyksos in the Second Intermediate Period, but walnuts and carob pods (St. John's bread) are only known from the New Kingdom onward.
Meat, Fish and Poultry
While it is difficult to believe that certain meats, such as fish and wild poultry did not show up fairly frequently on the tables of common people, we are told by Egyptologists that it was for the most part only the rich who regularly feasted on most meat. The poor ate geese, ducks, quails, cranes and other species, and from the New Kingdom onward raised domesticated fowl. Most edible fish from the Nile were consumed, though some fish, such as the genera Lepidotus and Phragus and a few others were forbidden because of their connection with the myth of Osiris.
In some locations, even the Nile perch was worshipped, and therefore never eaten. While fish were roasted or boiled, most frequently they were salted and preserved and dried in the sun.
Beef from cattle was frequently eaten by the rich, but appeared on the tables of common people usually only during festive occasions, when a sheep or goat might be slaughtered. We also see from tomb paintings, the preparation of wild game such as antelope, ibex, gazelles and deer. Pork was eaten, though the animal was associated with the evil god Seth. Early on it was widely consumed in Lower Egypt, but rarely in Upper Egypt. Yet we know that pigs were later bred and pork widely eaten throughout Egypt.
Dairy Products
While milk, cheese and butter are not well attested to, at least in text, we certainly believe that the early Egyptians were familiar with all of these dairy products. We do find a number of scenes showing men carrying what appears to be pots of milk or cream, and in one Theban tomb from the 19th dynasty, we find a seated woman pulling white cones of what is probably butter or cheese out of a large vessel.
Fats and Oil
There were also a number of different oils and fat used in the preparation of food. We know of beef, goat and other fats, and the Egyptian language had 21 different names for vegetable oils obtained from sesame, caster-oil plants, flax seed, radish seed, horseradish, safflower and colocynth. Horseradish oil was particularly popular. Oil and fat was mostly used for frying meat and vegetables, though food was also cooked in milk or butter.
Seasonings and Sweeteners
Sea salt, because of its connection to the evil Seth, was not consumed but salt from the Siwa Oasis was available. Pepper, however, only appears from the Greek period, but other spices were also used, including aniseed, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, fenugreek, marjoram, mustard and thyme. Sugar itself does not appear in the Egyptian diet until late in history, though honey was used by the rich for a sweetener, but was probably too expensive for the poor.
Common people used various fruits as sweeteners, though the most popular seems to have been dates. Without doubt, because of Egypt's rich soil and lush vegetation, the rich of Egypt probably always ate well, even during times of drought. In the worst of times, common people probably suffered to some extent, but mostly they were probably fed well, though not as lavishly as the rich.
Banquets were frequent, as were various festivals and other celebrations, and at these times, it is likely that everyone enjoyed the bounty of the Black Land. In fact, it is likely that their superior nutrition had much to do with their success in the ancient world.
Common bakeries were not known until the New Kingdom, but larger kitchens were manned for work gangs, the military as well as the royal household and temple personnel. Common meals were often served with beer, or for the very rich, wine. Beer was fermented mostly from wheat, though occasionally stale bread was utilized. Notation: While one may discover "ancient Egyptian recipes" on the internet, text for recipes on cooking food are notoriously absent from the archaeological record.
Ancient Egyptian Alcohol
By Caroline Seawright
Serving girl, pouring wine at a banquet
The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with beer.
-- 2200 BC inscription
[She] sent you to school when you were ready to be taught writing, and she waited for you daily at home with bread and beer.
-- Instructions of Ani, regarding his mother
Beer, called hqt by the ancients and zythus by the Greeks, was a very important Egyptian drink. It was a drink for adults and children alike. It was the staple drink of the poor (wages were sometimes paid in beer), it was a drink of the rich and wealthy, and a drink offered to the gods and placed in the tombs of the dead.
Beer in the morning, beer in the afternoon and beer at night. A little wine thrown in for good measure. And after a hard day of cutting stones for the pharaoh, time and energy left for a bit of hanky-panky.
Workmen at the pyramids of the Giza Plateau were given beer, thrice daily -five kinds of beer and four kinds of wine were found by archaeologists "poking through dumps, examining skeletons, probing texts and studying remains of beer jars, and wine vats" at Giza.
In 1990, the Egyptian Exploration Society approached Scottish and Newcastle Breweries for help. This was the beginning of a partnership which, over the past five years, has considerably increased the understanding of the brewing process as it was at the time of Tutankhamun.
Beer was depicted on the walls of the tombs, as were scenes of the ancient Egyptian brewery. It was probably very similar to the way beer is still produced in Sudan today. Traditionally, beer was regarded as a female activity as it was an off-shoot of bread making - the basis of the beer were loaves of specially made bread.
Most likely, the beer was not very intoxicating, nutritious, sweet, without bubbles, and thick (the beer had to be strained with wooden syphons, used as a straw, because it was filled with impurities). Though the later Greek accounts suggest that the beer, instead, was as intoxicating as the strongest wine, and it is clear that the worshipers of Bast , Sekhmet and Hathor got drunk on beer as part of their worship of these goddesses, because of their aspect of the Eye of Ra. Tenenit was another ancient Egyptian goddess of beer.
Broadly speaking, the established view of ancient Egyptian brewing, drawn from tomb scenes, is as follows. Beer loaves were made from a richly yeasted dough. Malt may or may not have been used. This dough was lightly baked and the resulting bread was crumbled and strained through a sieve with water. Ingredients like dates or extra yeast might have been added. The dissolved mixture was fermented in large vats and then the liquid was decanted into jars which were sealed for storage or transport.
There is a lot missing, but an important question is what did the beer taste like? Thanks to the work done by the Egyptian Exploration Society and the Scottish and Newcastle Breweries, the ancient beer was probably "strongly influenced by the addition of fruit or spices as flavouring." The word 'bnr'
causes some problem - it is usually translated as 'date', but it may have referred to a different (or to any other) sweet-tasting food the Egyptians used in their beer. Although the dregs from ancient beer jars do show what ingredients were used, further work is needed before the exact flavour of the different beers can be established. In hieroglyphs, the
determinative of the beer jug
were used in words associated with beer - short for 'beer', 'tribute', 'to be drunk', 'food and drink' and 'butler'. The importance of beer in ancient Egypt can not be overlooked. 9 February 1996, the Herald-Sun reported that 'Tutankhamon Ale' will be based on sediment from jars found in a brewery housed in the Sun Temple of Nefertiti, and the team involved has gathered enough of the correct raw materials to produce "just 1000 bottles of the ale".
"We are about to unveil a great Tutankhamon secret," said Jim Merrington, commercial director at Newcastle Breweries, "The liquid gold of the pharaohs. It's a really amazing inheritance they have left us, the origins of beer itself."
The beer was reported to have an alcoholic content of between 5 and 6 percent and was to be produced in April, 1996. They were sold at Harrods for £50 per bottle, the proceeds going towards further research into Egyptian beer making.
Wine
May he (Osiris) give water, a cool breeze and wine to the spirit ...
-- 18th Dynasty, from the stela of Thuthmose the doorkeeper
Wine, known as yrp to the Egyptians, was very expensive. It was drunk by those who could afford it, used as offerings to the gods and to the dead. The resurrected pharaoh was known as one "one of the four gods ... who live on figs and who drink wine." Even in later times, the Greek tourists report that wine was confines to the wealthy. Though wine, too, was occasionally given out as pay - the workmen at the pyramids at Giza had four kinds of wine to drink, along with five kinds of beer.
The word wine, funnily enough, predates the word for vine, so it seems that the Egyptians imported wine long before they imported grapes to the Nile valley.
The Egyptians has several different kinds of wine, some of which have been commended by ancient authors for their excellent qualities. That of Mareotis was the most esteemed, and in the greatest quantity.
Athenæus tells us that the Mareotic wine was "white, its quality excellent, and it is sweet and light with a fragrant bouquet; it is by no means astringent, nor does it affect the head." Strabo wrote that the wine was also known for its long shelf-life.
Other wines of note to the Greeks were Teniotic, Thebiad, Sebennytic, Thasian, Manfesian, Ecbolada (forbidden to newly married brides!) This was only a small sample of wines made throughout Egypt. It seems, though, that the favourite wine from the Old Kingdom onwards was red wine. The white wine that the Greeks favoured was only produced from the Middle Kingdom onwards.
In ancient party scenes on the tomb walls, wine is seen offered to the guests. It seems that a lot of wine was consumed at the banquets, because there are a number of images depicting the guests throwing up or being carried home because of their drunken state - drunkenness was seen as an amusement to the ancient Egyptians!
At celebrations of drunkenness to the Eye of Ra, wine was also drunk by those who could afford it. The temples associated with the goddesses had their own vineyards to make sure that the celebrants had enough wine for the rituals. Wine was also an acceptable offering to the gods.
The search for the recipes and wine types of the Egyptians have yielded mixed results within the delta region of the Nile. Due to the climatic changes since the time of ancient Egypt, quests for the right vine, the right mixture of materials, and other factors, have left the modern renditions of ancient Egyptian wine with something to be desired ... It was not until 1931 that the first modern rendition of ancient Egyptian wine was produced. This rendition of the ancient wine continues to be made in the present day, however, many wine connoisseurs consider it of poor taste. Regardless, the taste of the ancients is still present 3,500 years later.
Egypt had vineyards all over the country, though most of them were in the Nile delta. Grapes were hand picked, then placed in a vat for traditional treading on the grapes, or in special wine presses. The resultant juice was captured in open jars, where the fermentation process took place. When ready, these jugs were sealed and marked with the date, name of the vineyard and the person in charge of the wine. Aged in these earthenware jars, they had to be broken when it was time to decant the wine, and then poured into yet another earthen jar. When the wine was ready to be served, it was poured into shallow vessels with a short stem.
In the Pyramid Texts the god Shezmu (Sesmu) brings the king grape juice for wine production. Although he was a god of wine and of the wine press, he was also a vengeful god - in a papyrus from the XXI Dynasty, Shezmu his cruel side was shown by two hawk deities twisting the net of the wine press which contains three human heads instead of grapes. Hathor , another deity of wine (and beer), was also both a goddess of love and a goddess of destruction.
