Foods And The Ancient Egyptian Culture

Foods and the Ancient Egyptian Culture

By Joseph Parish

Being the amateur archaeologist that I am, with an interest in ancient Egypt, I tend to do a lot of reading in that specific area. In fact, I have come to really appreciate their abilities to preserve food and be ready for emergencies similar to how our modern-day Preppers or survivalist do.

Since most of the fertile areas of land in the vicinity of the Nile River were scarce, it had to be used mostly for growing crops, with little being utilized for livestock. Some meats were available; however, they were mostly reserved for the more affluent families.

Although the common man would unlikely indulge in cattle, goats or sheep they may occasionally eat some pigs or fish. This was actually a taboo action on their part, as the priests continually instructed the masses that pork and fish were an unclean food. Like most of the people around the Eastern Mediterranean such as the Jews or the Phoenicians, the Egyptians also forbid the eating of pigs because it was believed that they spread the disease of leprosy.

The birds were a permitted food and often were eaten by the rich and poor alike. Generally, the birds were caught alive and were force fed with bread soaked in oil or wine to fatten them up. The ducks, geese and pelicans were maintained for the meat as well as their eggs. At banquets the rich would have pigeons or quails placed upon their tables.

Usually the meals of the lower cast consisted of bread and vegetables. Their meals would be composed of cucumbers, garlic, onions or radishes, with various fruits as dates, figs, melons or pomegranates often grown in the local area. Archaeologists have discovered containers of seeds in the tombs indicating that these early people grew and consumed watermelons and other types of melon.

The bread was unlike our modern-day loaves and was usually rough and gritty as a result of the corn being ground by hand. It was not an easy task attempting to keep food fresh in those days. They would salt the products, dried them in the hot Egyptian sun or pickled them in order to preserve them. The foods generally appeared overly spiced in order to hide the taste of the spoiled meat.

Since milk was unable to be kept for a long period of time the housewives would make it into cheese. The Egyptians were well versed in cheese making, and they would create a creamy type of cheese known as “Labna” and the harder variety called “Gebna”. Contrary to popular beliefs the ancient Egyptians did not raise olive trees, so there was no olive oil in this early nation. Their oil was composed of a mixture of sesame seed, and linseed oils. They would often cook their foods with animal fat.

Salt was a popular ingredient in both their menu selections, and as a preservative for their food. Since there were no types of citrus fruits available, sour wine was used in place of lemon juice. It was common to use honey as a sweetener.

Egypt was located in a dry and arid location, with few food growing areas available other than along the Nile River, so they were restricted as to what crops could be grown. Frequently, the Egyptian farmers would plant wheat and barley. They would make the wheat into their usually bread, or soup while adding some hops to transform the barley into a beer of sorts.

Now that you understand the problems presented to these early Egyptians in preserving the foods, our next article will deal with their early methods of food preservation.

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