Ancient Egyptian Food
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Although the ancient Egyptians left no recipes, their staple diet, according to Magda Mehdawy, author of “The Pharaoh’s Kitchen”, consists like today, mainly of bread and whatever produce the land yields that is onions, garlic, lentils, leeks, turnips, radish , lettuce, and cucumbers. Most of these vegetables were eaten raw.
Bread was a staple food in ancient Egypt as it is today; there were up to 15 kinds of bread in the Old Kingdom and nearly 40 in the New Kingdom and they were baked from wheat, barley or corn, in a number of shapes, from oval to round, twisted, concave and even in the form of animals like the crocodile which is traditionally believed to bring good luck and is still made by the Nubians.
In ancient Egypt, bread was mostly a thin sheet of dough similar to the “roqaq” or a thick loaf like the “shamsi”, the sun bread, which is still made in Upper Egypt. The ancient Egyptians would make the “shamsi” bread by leaving a ball to rise in the sun; however, like most bread baked during those times, it was hard and chewy. Early wheat strains were heated before threshing so that the husk could be removed but this process destroyed the gluten-forming proteins essentials to make a light-textured bread.
The ancient Egyptians developed a strain of wheat which could be threshed without preliminary heating, taking a huge step toward the improvement of bread. They also introduced leavening into their bread and, in the third millenium, began using yeast.
Grains and pulse were popular in ancient Egypt and still are today. Besara, a wholesome broad bean puree is still made the same way by boiling skinned dried broad beans (ful nabbed), mashing them into a smooth thick paste, then adding spices and herbs such as cumin, dry and fresh coriander, salt, parsley.
The traditional dish of ful medammes, simmered fava beans, is made in the same urn or “idra” used in the Pharaonic era. This special pot tapers to a narrow neck. The shape is deliberate since it helps retain the small amount of water. As steam condenses on the upper sloping side, it drops back into the pot.
Lentils were also used in ancient Egypt. A depiction in the temple of Rameses III shows a female servant preparing a meal of lentils. Today, lentils are prepared into a soup and are cooked along with macaroni and rice in the famous “Koushari”, a popular dish eaten with a spicy tomato sauce and fried onions.
Excerpted from an article by Lisa Kaaki for Arab News
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