Ancient Egyptian cuisine

The cuisine of ancient Egypt covers a span of over three thousand years, but still retained many consistent traits until well into Greco-Roman times.

The staples of both poor and wealthy Egyptians were bread and beer, often accompanied by green-shooted onions, other vegetables, and to a lesser extent meat, game and fish.

Before the food was served, basins were provided along with aromatics, and flower scented fat was burned to spread pleasant smells or to repel insects, depending on the type.

There were usually considerable amounts of alcohol and abundant quantities of foods; there were whole roast oxen, ducks, geese, pigeons, and at times fish.

It was then dried in the sun, winnowed and sieved and finally milled on a saddle quern, which functioned by moving the grindstone back and forth, rather than with a rotating motion.

In the New Kingdom a new type of a large open-topped clay oven, cylindrical in shape, was used, which was encased in thick mud bricks and mortar.

The grit from the quern stones used to grind the flour mixed in with bread was a major source of tooth decay due to the wear it produced on the enamel.

Globular-based vessels with a narrow neck that were used to store fermented beer[5] from pre-dynastic times have been found at Hierakonpolis and Abydos with emmer wheat residue that shows signs of gentle heating from below.

The resulting mixture was then sieved to remove chaff, and yeast (and probably lactic acid) was then added to begin a fermentation process that produced alcohol.

The excavations of the workers' village at Giza have revealed pottery vessels imported from the Middle East, which were used to store and transport olive oil[10] as early as the 4th Dynasty.

The most common fruit were dates and there were also figs, grapes (and raisins), dom palm nuts (eaten raw or steeped to make juice), certain species of Mimusops, and nabk berries (jujube or other members of the genus Ziziphus).

[11] 5th-century BC Greek historian Herodotus claimed that the Egyptians abstained from consuming female cows as they were sacred by association with Isis.

Ill or diseased male oxen that were not worthy of sacrifice and had died were buried ritually, and then dug up after the bones were clean and placed in a temple.

Only the heads of the male oxen that were cut off and then cursed were available to be eaten by the Greeks in Egypt, as they were not allowed the sacred sacrifice meat.

[12] Excavations at the Giza workers' village have uncovered evidence of massive slaughter of oxen, sheep and pigs, such that researchers estimate that the workforce building the Great Pyramid were fed beef every day.

The alternative protein sources would rather have been legumes, eggs, cheese and the amino acids available in the tandem[clarification needed] staples of bread and beer.