09 May 2007

Thursday Thirteen #9 - Ancient Cooking


I write fantasy. The problem of food often comes up so I finally bought a book on ancient cooking last week. So, without further ado here are...

Thirteen Things about Ancient Cooking


1…
Food was thought as a way to preserve health and a treatment for sickness.

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...


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posted by Kim Knox at 6:50 pm

23 Comments:

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.

Wednesday, 09 May, 2007  

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 ;-)

Wednesday, 09 May, 2007  

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

Wednesday, 09 May, 2007  

very interesting! My TT is also posted.

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

Fermenting fish brine... sounds like good fishing bait
Happy TT

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

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!

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

Go Romans ;)

Happy TT!

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

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.

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

Very cool stuff!

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

Purple carrots, ew! This was really interesting.

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

Purple Carrots? Cool!
Very interesting list.

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

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.

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

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.

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

Interesting. I didn't know many of those facts. Great TT

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

Of all that, I have to say ewwwwwwww to purple carrots. lol

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

Im guessing that Rachael Ray would not have done well back in the ancient times

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

Interesting! Good to know! *grin*

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

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!

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

Good Lord, how did people not get sicker than they did back in the day?? The fish brine one had me gagging. LOL

~~Becka

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

"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!

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

I love this list..very creative! I didn't know cinnamon was used for meds...that's neat!

Thursday, 10 May, 2007  

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)

Friday, 11 May, 2007  

*Lesley is very behind* I LOVE this one! So many things I didn't know. Thanks for the enlightenment!

Tuesday, 15 May, 2007  

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