Liquorice in Ancient Times

Liquorice is sourced from the roots of the Glycyrrhiza Glabra plant, with its historical usage tracing back to prehistoric times in Europe, particularly well-documented among ancient Greeks. The plant's botanical name, derived from Greek words meaning "sweet root," underscores the recognition of liquorice's natural medicinal attributes across various ancient civilizations, including the Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese, and Hindus.

Greek historian Herodotus lauded the Scythians for their military prowess, horsemanship, and efficiency in cavalry, noting their ability to endure prolonged thirst by consuming liquorice root and mare's milk.

Theophrastus, a Greek botanist of the IV–III century BC, chronicled the early medicinal use of liquorice in Europe and speculated that the Greeks might have acquired knowledge of its pharmacological properties from the Scythians, who inhabited the region north and east of Greece.

In the first century AD, ancient Greek physician and botanist Pedanius Dioscorides featured liquorice among the medicinal substances in his influential work, De Materia Medica. This compilation, encompassing approximately 650 plant-based remedies, served as a standard reference for over a millennium.

Throughout ancient Roman times, liquorice retained its status as a well-known remedy, as attested by Roman authors like Aulus Cornelius Celsus, Scribonius Largus, Claudius Galen, Marcellus Empiricus, and Cassius Felix. Pliny the Elder, in the first century B.C., detailed various functions of licorice root, asserting its efficacy in lozenge form for voice clearing and delaying hunger and thirst. Romans even integrated liquorice into their military routines, with troops chewing the root as a medicinal stick while marching, recognizing its thirst-quenching properties.
Liquorice in Ancient Times

History of lemongrass

Botanical name for lemongrass is Cymbopogon citrates. The genus name, Cymbopogon, comes from the Greek “kymbe” meaning boat and pogon, meaning beard. The original use of lemongrass was probably as a food flavoring agent in Asia. The leaves are cooked with foods especially curries.

Lemongrass provides a milder, sweeter, and far less sour lemon flavor to soups, teas and a variety of dishes.

The origin of lemongrass is unknown, but the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians have use lemongrass for centuries as a flavoring agent in medicines and as an aromatic in cosmetics. Dioscorides and Pliny the Elder reported in the use of aromatic grasses in the first century.

Ancient palm-leaf manuscripts found in India were preserved with lemongrass oil. Systematic cultivation and distillation of essential oil began in Kerala, India in the 1880s.
History of lemongrass

Origin of saffron

Saffron (Crocus sativus) has an ancient origin and is well known as a cultivated crop. Crocus sativus was probably selected and domesticated in Crete during the Late Bronze. However latest studies suggested that saffron may have originated in Mesopotamian (Alavi-Kia 2008).

In ancient Greece, the people of Minoan and Cretan origin painted beautiful paintings of saffron collectors on their walls. Santorini, excavations, going back to the Bronze Age, - more than 5000 years ago have extremely well defined frescoes of saffron collectors, wearing their native garb.

From Crete, it spread to India, China and the Middle Eastern countries. Saffron is cultivated mostly in Iran, Spain and India. The word saffron probably comes from the Persian sahafaran that derives from asfar, meaning yellow.

Cultivation of saffron in Iran dates back to before Christ. It is believed that this plant has been cultivated in Palestine during the prophet Solomon and during Jesus they took it from Jerusalem to England.

In some Assyrian medicinal books going back to 7th century BC, 90 illness were supposed to be cured with the use of saffron.

The Romans praised the saffron of Cilicia, which they preferred to that grown in Italy. Asia Minor, Persia and Kashmir have been for a long time the courtiers which export the most.
Origin of saffron

Lemon uses in history

Lemon have been known, used and traded since approximately 600 BC when Arab traders brought them to Asia.

The Athenians received lemon from the Persians, who ere neighbors of the Medes and from Attica its spread all over Greece.

Lemons were only known to the Romans at a very late period and at first were used only in cupboards and drawers to protect wool from moths.

There was also a belief that boiling a whole lemon in Attic honey until the lemon completely dissolved made syrup that both Greeks and Romans believed to be a protections against every poison, if taken medicinally in the morning.

The first widespread use of lemons was in possets, hot spicy drinks which developed from the fifteenth century onwards. From the sixteenth century they usually contained lemon or orange juice mixed with sugar, cream and spices.

The lemon has been prized for its numerous medical uses, many of which are still used today. One such example is the use of lemons by the British Navy in the 1800s to fight the effects of scurvy.
Lemon uses in history

History of leavened bread

Unleavened bread was the primitive food of man, in the early stages of civilization and before he learned to leaven it. It was adopted by the Jews on their departure across the desert from Goshen, as the simplest mode of preparing bread in the wilderness; and has ever been the daily food of the Arabian nomad.

In the ancient Near East leaven was known from the third millennium BC onwards. Egyptians discovered that a mixture of flour and water left for about of time to ferment, increased in volume, and, after baking along with other fresh dough, it produced soft and light breads.

In Greece, bread was a food solely for consumption on wealthy homes. The Greeks used leavening for sourdough was adopted from Egypt about 800 BC. The Roman derived it from the Greeks, and until about 200 BC, when bakers were first established in Rome, the term ‘pulse eating nation’ was applied to the Romans by way of reproach.

The first time that leaven in its negative form, occurs in the Bible is in Genesis 19:3 where that Lot ‘did baked unleavened bread’ for the angels and ‘they did eat’, which shows most plainly that leaven, a common commodity , was the appropriate food doomed, wicked Sodom.

Leaven was forbidden to the Hebrews during the seven days of the Passover, in memory of their ancestor who when they went out of Egypt, were obliged to carry unleavened meal with them and to make bread in haste.
History of leavened bread

History of dill seed

Dill is native to the Mediterranean countries and southern Russia, grown for thousands of years and it is now cultivated widely in Europe, India and North America. Dill has been used since classical times in herbalism to aid digestion.

The name comes from the Norse word ‘dilla’, meaning ‘lull’ apparently because the seeds were believed to be good for insomnia.

The ancient Greeks used dill as a remedy for hiccups as well as for culinary purposes, and it has been a part of Mediterranean cuisines ever since. According to Dioscurides, ancient Greeks sued dill to flavor wine and in the preparation of the ‘anethinon myron’ and the ‘anthinon wine’.

The Romans credited the plant with fortifying qualities and made certain that gladiators were well fortified with it.

The Romans also classified dill as a plant of Bacchus, and fashioned it into wreaths and balls as a symbol of joy.

Dill seed is used as a condiment and can be used to flavor root vegetables. In Medieval Europe dill could not be grown fast enough to satisfy consumer demand for its uses in love potions, for casting spells and for protection against witchcraft.
History of dill seed

Origin of pears

Pears (pyrus communis, Rosaceae) have been cultivated for thousands of years. The fruit originated in prehistoric times as a fruit crop. Native to Middle East, pears toady also grow world across of Europe and Asia. They do not seem to have been known to the ancient Greeks or Egyptians, but were to the Romans, who spread pear cultivation throughout their empire.

The Romans ate pears,  both raw and cooked. The less exquisite fruits were made into perry, or into pear vinegar, for which Pliny, Varro, Columella and other Roman authors on such subjects all had their own recipes.

The Byzantines feasted on pears in jelly, pear preserves, pears cooked in wine or in oxymel (a syrup of vinegar and honey).

It was in the seventeenth century that the European pear became much more widely distributed.

English and French settlers took the pear to East Coats America and Canada. Probably, the Spanish took pears to South America. In North America it has emerged as the most widely grown and a pear much used in canning.

Dutch traders introduced operas to South Africa, and British explorers took pears to Australia and New Zealand in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In these centuries, as in Europe the pear became a garden orchard and market fruit, and also an export fruit shipped around the globe.

Second only to apples in world production of deciduous tree fruits; pears are consumed fresh, cooked, dried or as preserves. In Europe some are used for making perry or pear wine.
Origin of pears

Cumin in ancient times

Cumin has a history over 5000 years old. Cumin has been grown in Egypt, Arabia and the Mediterranean regions since ancient times.

The genus Cuminum is derived from the Greek kuminon, itself probably derived from the Babylonian ka-mu-na.  The ancient Mesopotamian civilizations of the Euphrates and Tigris valleys used its fruits for flavoring.

The Myceanes used cumin to season food around 2000 BC. It was used in Egypt during the time of the Pharaohs not only as a food spice but also to mummify the deceased kings, including King Tut around 1323 BC.

Pharaonic Egypt used cumin as a medicine around 1550 BC as the Ebers Papyrus states.

In India, since ancient times, cumin was used for its medicinal properties to aid digestion and to treat dysentery. Egyptians and Indians took it to relieve stress and lower blood pressure.

It was carried to Greece and Rome, who used it both as a medicine and as a cosmetic to induce a pale complexion. Ancient Greeks kept cumin at the dining table in its own container and this practice continues in Morocco.

The Roman scientist Pliny considered cumin an appetite stimulant. The cumin seeds, which are really fruits, have a warm, bitter flavor.

According to a rather humorous anecdote about this particular effect of cumin, students in ancient Greece and Rome would drink large quantities of cumin oil to induce a pallid complexion that was regarded as the mark of a great scholar! The student would become pale and therefore, appear to have studied late into the night.

It was introduced to the western world including Britain by the Romans and later to North America by the Spanish.
Cumin in ancient times

Bread in the Roman Empire

In the early days of Rome, most people made their bread from grain they produced.

In the later times in the Roman Empire, bread replaced porridge as the most important part of the Roman diet. Bread was the food of ‘citizens’ of Rome, a status commonly achieved by successful military service.

The ancient Roman bread was a flat, hard cake called ‘libum’ which was baked in hot embers and ashes and which continued in favor even when wheat-bread and leaven was introduced.

In later days of the Roman Empire, bread was distributed as a right to the citizens of Rome.

The professional baker appears around 174 BC and by that time throughout the Empire most middle and lower class Romans relied upon commercial bakeries for their bread. Also, Rome began to important grain from territories in its empire because Rome could not produce enough grain for its growing population.

Rome politicians used bread from the centralized bakeries as political capital to buy votes of the plebeians.

According to Pliny the Elder and Seneca that the poor ate inferior kinds of bread, while the rich consumed bread of the finest quality. The poorer citizens would have to grind their own corn, preferred wheat meal porridge or groats to bread.

In Roman Palestine, the poor often ate nothing but cheap bread. For them bread seems to have been more important than gruel or porridge.

In fact, both cereal products were often eaten in combination, i.e. gruel was scooped out of the pot with a piece of bread.

Romans in Gauls (modern French) discovered that adding the froth from beer to bread dough made especially light, well leavened bread. This is the beginning of the use of a controlled yeast source for making bread doughs.
Bread in the Roman Empire

The History of flour in Romans times

The advent of agriculture changed the lives of the people. The Nomads started to settle, built villages and kept cattle. But even in the advanced civilizations the grains were still ground by hand between simple grindstones.

In earlier times, of baked bread was wanted it would first be necessary to grind grains of wheat into flour at home. It was a laborious job and in Roman republic, the women had of the household had to grind out flour.

They did it very simply; by spreading wheat grains on a large flat or slightly concave stone and rubbing them over with a smaller stone which might either be round, long and narrow like a roller. Romans called it ‘thrusting mill’.

The Romans were no longer satisfied with this: in order to supply the growing urban population with flour they ground the corn on cone mills – massive, heavy structures turned by slaves or animals. By the first century Romans were producing flour with water mills.

Later they applied gearing so that a vertical water-wheel could drive a horizontal stone. A Roman mill of sixteen water-wheels capable of producing up to nine tones of flour per day is known.

The construction of machines for such mills was described by Vitruvius, architect and engineer in his Ten Books of Architecture around 25 BC.

The largest complex of the Roman Empire appears to have been at Barbegal, near Arles, and it was estimated that it could produce twenty-five tons of flour a day.

During the later Republic and throughout the Empire most middle and lower class Romans relied upon commercial bakeries for their bread. Some bakeries used their own mills to grind grain into flour.
The History of flour in Romans times

Ancient history of bay leaves

Bay leaves are bitter and sweet in taste. Bay leaves come from the ancient Mediterranean bay laurel tree, and are one of the most widely used culinary herbs on Europe and North America.

Used since Roman times, when it symbolize victory and greatness and was used to crown emperors, poets, and writers, the bay leaves is a compulsory ingredient in all European and Mediterranean cooking for flavoring stocks, sauces, soups , pickles , preserves, meats and vegetables.

The term baccalaureate and bachelor for academic degrees is derived from baccalaures (laurel berry), because of the ancient Greek and Roman practice of honoring scholars and poets with garlands of bay branches.

The Roman generals crowned themselves with bay leaves when they returned home victorious from battles. The soldiers added the leaves to their baths to sooths fatigue and injuries.

In Biblical times, during the Roman Empire and also in the Middle Ages, people associated bay leaves with goodness and saw it as a protection against evil.
Ancient history of bay leaves

Food of ancient Roman

The daily food of the early Romans consisted of cereals, pulses and vegetables and plunder became the exception rather than the rule.

Public life began at dawn so that Romans had little time to prepare breakfast. They nibbled a bit of bread, dipped in milk or undiluted wine. A heavy breakfast was considered unhealthy and vulgar.

The diet of most people was frugal, based on corn (grain), oil and wine, but exotic foods and recipes were available for the dinner parties of the wealthy.

Cereals, mainly wheat, provided the staple food. The main wheat of the Romans was emmer. Later emmer was supplanted by durum wheat and bread wheat which had the advantage that these produced finer flour. 

Emmer grains were ground to provide meal for pottage and for alica (emmer groat) which was use to make a wide variety of bread and cakes. Bread, cakes and pastries were produced commercially and at home. 

Cooking was done in the kitchen, and smoke from fires escaped though the roof or a vent in the wall.

Food was often cooked with fruit, honey and vinegar, to give a sweet and sour flavor.

Beans and peas were a major vegetable and a basis for pottage. Vegetables and salad produce were widely eaten. Other vegetables included onion, lettuce, cabbage celery and cucumbers.

A large variety of fruit was available. Figs, grapes, apple, and pears were staples. Pliny noted more than 100 new varieties of fruit trees and Columella gave about 50.

Meat was generally too expensive for most household budgets to afford on a regular basis; pork and veal were the two most readily available meat products.
Food of ancient Roman

Grape Juice and Wine

Grape Juice and Wine
Ancient Egyptian inscription indicate that the grape was grown there in 2375 B.C. Murals to Egyptian tombs carry depictions of grape vines, grape harvesting, and trampling to obtain the juice.

By way of classical Greece and later Rome, the grape vine expanded into all the lands of Europe and North Africa where it will grow.

The Greeks cultivated the grape vine wherever they went; Italy, north Africa, southern France and southern Spain, including the best known wine regions of the world, Bordeaux and Burgundy. The Greeks called Italy the Land of Vines.

Romans grew different varieties and appreciated their diversity. Grapes were grown on trees and trellises, preferentially on terraced hills and banks surrounding river valleys. Romans aged wine in barrels, which they invented. Before then it had been kept in earthenware amphorae.

Grape juice changes naturally into wine when sugar fermenting yeast is present. When grapes are crushed with the skins, yeast comes in contact with the juice. It grows in the juice, using the sugar as its source of energy, and in process transforms the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Alcohol in high concentrations is toxic, and when it reaches a certain level (between 12 and 14 percent), most strains of yeasts cannot grow any more. The wine is now ready. It is young wine and tastes very much likes grape juice alcohol. When the first fermentation is completed (sometimes even before), and especially if the wine is in a warm palace and exposed to the air, special bacteria start growing on the alcohol and transforming it into acetic acid. The wine spoils and turns to vinegar.

Since remotest antiquity, the principal problem was not to make wine but to keep it from spoiling. In classical Greece wines were drunk young and most were probably vinegary. To counter the acid taste a variety of methods were employed. Greeks learned that air speeds up the spoiling process. Amphorae had narrow necks to reduce the contact of wine with air, and they were kept tightly stoppered.

Because air could penetrate earthenware surfaces, the Greeks line their amphorae with resin. This preserved wine for use in commerce. The Romans took a step forward when they invented wooden barrels. They could be stoppered better than amphorae, and the oak imparted flavor from the wine. Some Roman wines apparently kept very well. There are reports of vintages that lasted to a hundred years.
Grape Juice and Wine