 |
|
Thirteen Things about Ancient Cooking
2… Milk was a seasonal food. (A complete d’oh moment for me. Of course it would be, LOL) 3… Wild-picked food was looked down upon. Only the poor foraged. 4… Cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves were so expensive they were used for medicine and perfume, not cooking. (The reason I started investigating ancient cooking was a WIP called Alchemy – and I was using cinnamon for medicine. Happy to see I was right, LOL) 5… Sugar was unknown in the west before fourth century BCE – and then again for medicine. 6… Only the Romans had lunch. *grin* 7… Grain-based food was considered a sign of civilisation. 8… In the Greco-Roman period, sitting up to eat was a sign of social inferiority. 9… Carrots ranged in colour from purple to red, yellow to white. 10… The Greeks didn’t have chicken in their diet until the sixth century BCE 11… And another fun chicken fact. The Romans invented chicken soup for nursing the unwell.
12… And some yucky facts. Sow’s womb was a Roman gormet treat. Yum 13… Fermenting fish brine was the key ingredient in ancient cooking, made from salting fish for weeks or months and allowing the flesh to rot down… |
KIM KNOX 
A little thread necromancy. Tripped across here looking for info on Roman cuisine.
Regarding #13, look up how Worcestershire sauce is made. Yep. Anchovies fermented for 18 months or so.
*Lesley is very behind* I LOVE this one! So many things I didn’t know. Thanks for the enlightenment!
My fave disgusting Roman food is the licker fish that lived in the Tiber. Insanely expensive and super-gourmet, but what did the licker fish eat? Poo. Mmm tasty! (but tell this fact to a class of Year 7s and they LOVE it)
I love this list..very creative! I didn’t know cinnamon was used for meds…that’s neat!
“Only the poor foraged.” LOL
And I can’t wait to be out picking raspberries from my little backyard patch. How plebeian of me!
Nice to have found you!
Good Lord, how did people not get sicker than they did back in the day?? The fish brine one had me gagging. LOL
~~Becka
I think the modern equivalent of “only the poor foraged” would be those who use generic mayonnaise and buy beef jerky in bulk from Costco!
Interesting! Good to know! *grin*
Im guessing that Rachael Ray would not have done well back in the ancient times
Of all that, I have to say ewwwwwwww to purple carrots. lol
Interesting. I didn’t know many of those facts. Great TT
I saw red and white carrots for the first time when I was in India in Jan/Feb of this year. I’ve even got a picture of them on a vendor’s cart close to the bottom of this post – http://daemon-ink.net/blog/?p=286 – if you’re interested in seeing them. The red ones are much sweeter than the orange ones I’m used to.
Yes, the Romans…I learned a lot about their diet from watching Rome; evidently dormouse cooked in some sort of pastry was a big treat. Imagine eating rodents.
Purple Carrots? Cool!
Very interesting list.
Purple carrots, ew! This was really interesting.
Very cool stuff!
I knew a few of these things. I have to admit I learned them from reading historical romances set in medieval times! Very interesting list. Thanks for sharing.
What’s the name of the book and what period does it cover? I’d like to check it out.
Happy TT. I’m up.
Go Romans 😉
Happy TT!
Interesting! I have a recipe book that lists foodstuffs from medieval times that are just dreadful sounding, and another from the Georgian period that is equally yucky! Great list, and Happy TT!
Fermenting fish brine… sounds like good fishing bait
Happy TT
very interesting! My TT is also posted.
I didn’t know lots of those things. I knew they didn’t have sugar as we know it now. And, maybe that was a good thing.
Check out my TT
Which book did you get?
You know me and my obsession with including food in stories. Any source of more food history will keep me off the streets for a few hours 😉
Some things I knew, but definitely not all. Interesting stuff! I like it when an author is thorough!
I listed 13 favourite food / snacks this week.