'COOKLET' PART II

Upon Alexander the Great’s death, one of his guards, Ptolemy I Soter, became king, ushering in the Ptolemaic Period. Spanning almost three centuries, the reign of the Ptolemies ended with Queen Cleopatra VII, when Egypt became a province of the Roman (and eventually the Byzantine) Empire.

With the Ptolemaic Period, Greek-speaking settlers brought in new technologies, triggering many advances in agriculture that had a direct effect on diet. The water wheel and the Archimedes screw, for example, allowed the introduction of an entirely new irrigation system not dependant on the seasonality of flooding. New species introduced included bread wheat, which was easier to clean and process and largely replaced emmer wheat. Textual evidence is richer in its food content during this period. A larger variety of pulses, especially beans, became known, though which exactly is difficult to tell. It seems likely that fava beans started gaining popularity in the Greek—or later in the Roman—Period.

New fruits were one of the marks of the Greek settlers: peaches, pears, plums, apricots, and sour cherries were all introduced in Graeco-Roman times, as were nuts. They also introduced olive cultivation on a wide scale, in addition to olive oil production. Wine and viticulture attained new heights. The Greeks did not know beer or drink it, and eventually wine took over as the beverage people consumed across classes, replacing beer. Chicken became a common foodstuff. Although images of chickens were found in the New Kingdom, it was not until much later that their bones started to be frequent finds on archaeological sites. Expansion of trade networks with Asia meant that a wide variety of crops, such as rice, black pepper, and aubergines were present in Red Sea port cities during Roman times, but it took a few more centuries for these foods to become part of the mainstream diet.

While salting and picking were known from earlier times, they reached a new level with the introduction of ‘garum’, a pungent fermented sauce of raw fish, salt, and spices, beloved by the Greeks and Romans. This is also the time when we get the very first example of what we can define as a cookbook. Only a fragment survives, but it shows a recipe of a lentil purée, suggesting that mashed up pulses have long been a staple in Egypt. Greek and Roman culinary traditions also affected some of the structure of meals, with symposia or social gatherings with a rich offering of food and drink becoming more and more common.

***

ALEXANDRIA STYLE GOURD/SQUASH

Source: De Re Coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking), attributed to Apicius

Date: 1st century CE

Developed by Harald Froschauer, Cornelia Römer

A cookbook with recipes from around the Roman Empire, including a few from Egypt.

Original Recipe: Mash the cooked gourd, salt, and put in pan. Add crushed pepper, cumin, coriander seeds and fresh mint and silphium [a now extinct plant used often in classical antiquity]. Mix in vinegar, add dates and pine nuts and crush everything. Season with honey, vinegar, liquamen [Roman fish sauce], defrutum [concentrated grape syrup], and olive oil. Bring to boil, season with pepper and serve.

Developed Recipe:

Ingredients

• 800 g gourd segments
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• ½ tsp coriander seeds
• 2 tsp chopped fresh mint
• 2 fried spring onions
• ½ tsp anchovy paste
• 10 pitted dates
• 2 tbsp pine nuts
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp dessert wine like Marsala
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• pepper

Method

Boil gourd segments in a pot of water until cooked through but still firm. Strain and return to pot. In a bowl, mix remaining ingredients into a sauce and add to the gourd. Bring mixture to a boil, season to taste with pepper, and serve.

***

LENTIL PURÉE

Source: Papyrus (Heidelberg Institute for Papyrology) Inv. G 1701

Date: 3rd century CE

Developed by Harald Froschauer, Cornelia Römer

The papyrus on which this Greek recipe is written was found somewhere in Egypt, but its exact provenance is unknown. The papyrus breaks off leaving the recipe incomplete.

Original recipe: Beat the lentil purée in poultry broth very well, and cook in wine, water, annesos [anise], cumin, dried dill, but cook the lentils separately, grate onions [Papyrus cuts off here].

Developed recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups red lentils
• 2 ½ cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp anise
• 1 medium onion (shallot)
• 1 tsp dried dill

Method

Wash lentils and cook in chicken broth with crushed anise and cumin. Simmer for 15 minutes on low heat. Add grated or finely chopped onions. Add dried dill towards the end. Season to taste. Serve with a mixed salad.

***

APRICOT DIP

Source: De Re Coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking), possibly attributed to Apicius

Date: 1st century CE

Developed by Harald Froschauer, Cornelia Römer

Original recipe: Clean fresh, hard, apricots, remove stone, and soak apricots in cold water and then add to a pan. Crush black pepper and dried mint, pour liquamen [Roman fish sauce], honey, passum [raisin wine], wine, and vinegar. Pour sauce over apricots in pan, add oil and cook on low heat. When it is cooked, bind with amulum [Roman starch used to bind sauces]. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.

Developed Recipe:

The recipe is especially good when soft dried apricots are used, as fresh apricots get watery too quickly, perhaps due to a mistranslation of the cold-water soak.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp honey
• 4 tbsp marsala wine
• 4 tbsp white wine
• 1 tsp herb vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 tbsp mint
• 800 g apricots (preferably dried)
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• Some salt and pepper

Method

Add the first six ingredients to a pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the pitted apricots and continue to boil for 10 minutes. Add cornflour (which intensifies the orange colour!) to thicken. Season and serve.