The Egyptians and the food
Since the Paleolithic, in the area around the Nile valley, men exploited wild cereals,
as evidenced by the apparitions of millstones and lithic plates mounted on sickles.
In the Mesolithic, species were exploited, such as wild barley, barley used for beer,
spelt, buckwheat, panic, and sorghum, which soon led to Neolithic agriculture.
In historical times the exploitation of cereals developed more and more, thanks to the organization of large-scale agriculture,
so much so that Egypt, already famous for its cereal wealth, became famous as a granary.
The fertile mud deposited every year by the Nile flooding
allowed farmers to grow barley and spelt the Egyptian diet’s staple foods.
Stored in the granaries, the crops were then used for the production of bread and beer.
The floodplain was also suitable for growing vegetables, such as onions, garlic, leeks, beans, lentils, and lettuce.
In addition, there were pumpkins, dates and figs, cucumbers, and melons, but no citrus.
The Egyptian diet was very moderate, and the dishes available can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Most of the population ate bread, onion, and fish, with side dishes of salads, peas, lentils, and fruit: figs, dates, and grapes.
Bread and beer were the main food, and they were also the wages with which the pharaohs compensated the workers since money did not exist.
It seems that the first to discover the leavening of bread were the Jews, but the Egyptians used it on a large scale.
White, refined, and leavened Egyptian bread was called Hori.
The discovery of leavening conditioned the consumption of unleavened bread (unleavened), which never completely disappeared since the Egyptians continued to offer unleavened cakes to the gods in ancient religious rites.
The high priests then had to eat only unleavened bread.
In both Egypt and Israel, white bread was eaten by nobles
while the people ate focaccia made with mixed flours
of wheat, spelt, bran and legumes.
In the richest families, it was the servants who had the task of crushing the grains in the mortar
and to separate the nutritive part of the grains with the sieve
from the casing that encloses it, to then grind them between two stones.
The flour thus obtained was mixed with water, seasoned with sea salt, knead for a long time with the feet, then gave shape to the bread they baked on red-hot stones.
Later the baking of the bread improved because the stone was closed with a vase.
The bread was also baked in a hole dug in the ground and covered with stone, in which a fire was lit.
When the temperature was high enough, the fire was extinguished, the ash removed, and bread was placed.
The hole was closed with a large stone while the bread inside it cooked slowly.
The first clay ovens were cone-shaped, and the bread was placed on the outside, which, when cooked, fell to the ground.
After discovering leavening, the Egyptians invented a new oven.
Internally the oven was divided into two parts; in the lower part, the fire was burning, and in the upper part, they baked bread.
It seems that there were about thirty or forty types of bread with different shapes: triangular, round oval, etc., and with various ingredients: barley, spelt, wheat …
It was eaten plain or enriched with fat and eggs,
or sweetened with honey and fruit.
There were also focaccias, on which honey or a kind of date jam could be spread.
But there were almost always unwelcome ingredients in the bread:
sand, pebbles, and insects.
The fine sand of the desert could not be avoided, so it mixed with the flour and produced an early erosion of the teeth.
The bread that was prepared in the third millennium BC was very similar to the traditional one,
round, which the peasants of Upper Egypt still do today
and which is called aysh sham or bread of the sun.
Remains of mummified loaves have been found in several tombs, such as Mentuhotep II in Deir el-Bahari.
For many centuries in ancient Egypt, bread was used as a currency;
wage-earners received enough of it every day for the whole family,
while important officials had on hand daily
hundreds if not thousands of loaves of bread
which they used to pay their subordinates.
On the tables of the pharaohs, in addition to bread, there was “ful medames,” the Egyptian national dish;
they were small beans boiled for hours and flavoured with oil and various aromas.
Of course, the fish was abundant, and everyone could eat it,
both fresh and saltwater: carp, fate fish, mullet, eels.
It was also present in the most modest houses, preserved in brine.
During the floods, there was no need to fish as when the waters receded, they left a large number of fish on the ground.
At other times of the year, the fish, caught with harpoons,
was reserved for the richest and, of course, for the pharaohs.
A food that the ancient Egyptians were particularly fond of was batarekh, the mullet bottarga, dried fish eggs.
But the typical dish of pharaohs and peasants was a soup with many vegetables and little meat of chicken, duck or lamb, garlic, onion, oil, and pepper, based on molokhia, a vegetable similar to spinach, still used today.
There were large poultry and cattle farms that supplied all kinds of meat.
The fertile banks of the Nile provided plenty of fodder for farm animals.
Oxen and cows were mainly used for ploughing and not as meat animals;
this was provided by the smaller species such as goats, sheep, and pigs.
Sheep and goats mainly supplied the milk used mainly to produce cheeses.
From breeding and hunting in the swamps came ducks,
geese, pigeons, quail, and pelicans with their eggs.
Marsh game, especially ducks, birds of passage, and herons, was roasted or stewed.
The most used tool for this type of cooking was what is now called “tagline,”
an earthenware jar with a narrow neck allowed food to be cooked over low heat while keeping it moist, as only a little steam was dispersed.
Pork and sheep meat was then consumed, more rarely beef.
There were pots made of earthenware in the kitchen heated with wood or charcoal, pans, plates, bowls, and clay glasses.
The meat was cooked, boiled, roasted, or on a spit.
The diet was supplemented with dairy products, vegetables, and fruit.
The Egyptians ate three meals a day.
Dinner was the main one.
The day began with a broad bean breakfast,
simmered and flavoured with garlic and lemon.
The midday meal followed: meat and vegetable pie with mashed bread
(now called “Arab bread” or pita), which also served as a plate,
accompanied by fresh legumes, especially peas, raw vegetables
such as onions, garlic, cucumbers, celery, radicchio and olives, and then lots of fruit.
The latter usually consisted of dates, plums, figs, pomegranates, grapes, almonds, and walnuts.
The parents sat on the chairs while the children sat on the cushions.
At the end of the working day, the evening banquet was served in the garden under a tent; they ate roasted geese and stewed meats with sauces, and finally, the fruit was served.
The table was richly set.
They did not use the knife (which, however, existed) nor fork at the table.
(which was completely unknown): they brought food to their mouths with their hands, cleaned in special basins full of water.
The table services were made of precious materials in the richest houses, such as alabaster, and elegant maids served the food.
However, kings and courtiers sometimes had gold or silver table sets.
The meal was eaten seated on mats and pillows.
In the New Kingdom, representatives of the upper classes were introduced, sitting on chairs in front of high tables.
In the homes of the rich, food was served by numerous maids and young men.
And there was no shortage of music and fascinating dancers.
Various foods were offered profusion at banquets, from ducks, geese, and beef to oryx and gazelle,
sheep and goats boiled and roasted.
They drank wine, beer, and a liqueur made from pomegranate juice;
all this while playing and dancing.
The wine was produced only for the aristocrats and the wealthiest.
The people never tasted it; he drank beer and, as it turns out, occasionally got himself solemn intoxications, which, however, according to some texts that have come down to us, were not considered unbecoming.
The poor ate dried fish, bread, and vegetables;
the meat was expensive because it was in short supply, so it was eaten on festive occasions.
Only sheep or beef was eaten because the cow was sacred.
Beer was the most popular drink, while wine was largely imported.
Grapes grown in the Nile delta or western desert oases were harvested to make wine or left to dry and used as raisins.
Less affluent people ate less meat and poultry but more fish.
On the table of both the rich and the poor, there was no shortage of cereals.
Vegetable soups were the recurring dish, enriched with bread cakes.
To complete the menu, desserts are made with almonds and tropical fruits such as mango and avocado.
The hot climate created some problems for preserving the meat, which was reserved for special occasions.
Typical products were also leeks, radishes, melons, dates, cucumbers, and walnuts.