Egyptian Bread and Cakes

The Egyptians grew a variety of crops, including grains, vegetables, and fruits, for consumption. However, their main focus in terms of diet revolved around essential crops, particularly barley, along with significant grains like einkorn wheat and emmer wheat, primarily used for making bread.

It is suggested that the Egyptians learned the art of baking from the Babylonians. In their bread-making process, the Ancient Egyptians incorporated yeast, a skill initially developed for brewing beer. They maintained reserves of sourdough, a basic mixture of beneficial fermentation organisms, using portions of it to inoculate fresh doughs.

After harvesting the grain, ancient Egyptians used grinding stones to transform it into flour. This coarse flour was mixed with water and kneaded to create bread dough.

Egyptian cooks sometimes prepared bread in large bowls on the ground, where they would physically knead the dough with their feet. The shaped dough was then either formed into loaves or placed into cone-shaped molds and baked over an open fire.

The Egyptians were innovators in the development of ovens. The earliest examples were cylindrical vessels made from baked Nile clay, featuring a tapered top to create a cone shape and an internal horizontal shelf-like partition.

Due to their fondness for sweet flavors, ancient Egyptians used flour to make cakes. With the absence of sugar, they turned to honey, dates, and fruit juice as sweeteners. The initial cakes likely originated in ancient Egypt, with yeast contributing to their light and fluffy texture. Honey served as both a sweetener and a topping, while nuts and spices were added for extra flavor. In some cases, cakes were decorated with honey or syrup icing.
Egyptian Bread and Cakes

Grain silo in ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptians measured wealth in grain. They built silos and filled them with wheat and barley. The administrative building and silos were at the heart of the ancient community. Because grain was a form of currency, the silos functioned as a bank and a food source. The silos' size indicates the community was apparently a prosperous urban center.

Early people likely used the silo to fight against famine. They predominantly stored barley and wheat, and the silos had raised platforms and slight slopes for drainage and moisture protection. The early silos have been discovered in South Egypt that were large enough to support an entire urban community.

The ancient Egyptians made a practice of preserving grain in years of plenty against years of scarcity, and probably Joseph only carried out on a large scale a habitual practice. The climate of Egypt being very dry, grain could be stored in pits for a long time without sensible loss of quality.

Grain silos date back to the Third dynasty (2686-2613) and were utilized extensively in the Djoser Complex designed by Imhotep. In fact, the Step Pyramid seems to have been built on top of a shaft that could originally have been used to store grain. The complex seems to be a grain storage and distribution center.

In Tell Edfu, a 3500-year-old city of Egypt, Egyptians built the large, mud-brick buildings in a city courtyard. They were easy for people to get to. The storage facilities are used as grain depots. The grain bins are in a large silo courtyard of the 17th Dynasty (1630-1520 B.C.) and consist of at least seven round, mud-brick silos. Each silo measures 5.5-6.5 meters across.

Predating the silos was a mud-brick building with 16 wooden columns, dated by pottery and seal impressions found in the hall to the early 13th Dynasty (1773-1650 BC).
Grain silo in ancient Egypt

Grain storage in ancient Egypt

The principal food crops, barley and emmer, were used to make beer and bread, the main staples of the Egyptian diet. Grains were harvested and stored in granaries until ready to be processed. The storage of food staples is always of utmost importance as it is a key component of food distribution, which is an important means of executing power and accomplishing the goals by specific actors in a system.

Ancient Egypt had one of the most successful and stable agricultural economies of the ancient world, and had both a system and facilities for grain storage: larger granaries were attached to temples and palaces, while smaller ones were dispersed within the town.

The structure of granaries, comprising storage chambers of either vaulted or rectangular shape, was essentially similar throughout all dynasties. The basic type of storage chambers was dome-shaped. Mud of the Nile valley mixed with water, sand and straw was particularly suitable for building granaries in the arid climate of Egypt.

The ancient Egyptians made a practice of preserving grain in years of plenty against years of scarcity, and probably Joseph only carried out on a large scale as habitual practice. The stores of wheat and barley served the inhabitants of Egypt during the period of drought and hunger that followed.
Grain storage in ancient Egypt

Wine in ancient Egypt

In ancient Egypt, wine was a prestigious product consumed mainly by the upper classes and the royal family. Wine was offered in the daily temple rituals, in funerary offerings and used in medical treatments.

Before a royal winemaking industry was established in the Nile Delta, ca. 3000 BC., the first pharaohs imported wine from the Levant, and soon developed a taste for it.

Vineyards were grown for Egyptian rulers and nobles. Grapevines were introduced as part of gardens or orchards with other fruit and vegetables, while some were cultivated separately in vineyards.

Viticulture and winemaking scenes are depicted on the walls of the ancient Egyptian private tombs from the Old Kingdom (2575-2150 BC) and later in Middle Kingdom private tombs (2055- 1650 B.C. at Beni Hassan). During the 18th dynasty (1550-1295 B.C.) scenes of winemaking became a common motif in the tombs of Theban officials.

Egypt had a very organized system of wine production. Yet, the product was seen as a luxury, suitable for religious ceremonies. Pharaohs and priests used it for temple offerings.

To make wine, the ancient Egyptians picked a bunch of grapes and squeezed all of the juice out by stepping on them in a trough big enough to hold at least six men. This mixture was sealed in a clay pot with the date and vineyard on it. For much of ancient Egyptian history, wine was mostly consumed at the court of the pharaohs.

Ancient Egyptians made at least 24 types of wine, including white, red, and black. A type of the latest was served for funeral ceremonies in the Old Kingdom.
Wine in ancient Egypt

Onion in ancient Egypt

In the oldest recorded history, onions were depicted as food in Egyptian tombs as early as 3200 B.C. It is believed that Egyptians fed them to workers for strength to build pyramids.

In addition, they were depicted in the funerary paintings in tombs and even placed on and around mummies. The artificial mummification process started in the Fourth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom reached its peak in the New Kingdom.

Onions were found in body cavities from the New Kingdom until the Third Intermediate Period. Archeologists discovered that Ramesses IV had onions placed in his eye sockets and his ears, and a piece of onion skin covered with resin was inserted into each nostril.

Food was baked, boiled, stewed, fried, grilled, or roasted in Egypt. However, very little is known about its preparation. They certainly used onions, salt (Hmat) and oil also probably radishes and garlic as well to add flavour to their other foods.

Egyptians thought garlic and onions aided endurance, and consumed large quantities of them. Raw garlic was routinely given to asthmatics and to those suffering with bronchial-pulmonary complaints. Onions helped against problems of the digestive system.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped the onion, believing that its spherical shape and concentric ring symbolized eternity. Of all the vegetables, that had their images created from precious metals by Egyptian artists, only the onion was made out of gold.
Onion in ancient Egypt

History of fig in ancient Egypt

Fruit farming started around 6000 BC with crops such as figs, plums and grapes in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Two species of fig were known to the ancient Egyptians, the sycomore fig (Ficus sycomorus) and the common fig (Ficus carica).

Sycomore fig trees were personified as goddesses in Egyptian art, and were perceived as dispensers of nourishment. The tree goddess is often shown in paintings and reliefs as a small figure crouched in the top of a tree or as a standing figure from whose head grows a small sycomore tree.

In ancient Egypt the sycomore fig was highly value for its fruit or syconia. Fig also can be fermented in to a fig wine. The species was widely use in Pharaonic medicine and is still use in folk medicine.

At that time, a special tool was used for the purpose of gashing sycomore fruits. Theophrastus (372-287 BC) witnessed this practice and correctly notes that after gashing.

The sycamore fig is referred to frequently in ancient Egyptian texts, thus in the Eighteenth Dynasty and in 251 BC sycamore wood to be used for building a boat is mentioned, and in the Twentieth Dynasty statues of the wood and sycamore gardens are also mentioned.
History of fig in ancient Egypt

History of chapati

The earliest breads were flat, more like crackers. Some examples that still exist are Indian chapati. Flat breads have been known to humans for over the last 6000 years.

A type of flour used nowadays for making chapatis, a type of Indian flat bread that may be similar to certain ancient flat breads. Babylon is the oldest to have a baker’s oven in the world in 4000 BC.

In the old kingdom of Egypt, as long as 2500 BC, hot ashes or heated stone labs were used to bake flat bread. Ancient Egyptians and Greeks used to eat flat bread topped with olive oil and other things.

Flat bread of chapati

Bread occupied an important place in Roman culture and religion; therefore, large commercial bakeries were developed in the second century BC to meet the demand s increasing bread consumption.

The ancient flat bread, known as chapati, is still the primary grain served with meals in North India. Abu’l-Fazi inb Mubarak, vizier of Mughal Emperor Akbar, has also mentioned chapati in his book ‘Ain-i-Akbari’ in the 16 century.
History of chapati

Ancient Egypt develop irrigation in 5000 BC

Agriculture was introduced to northern Egypt a little before 5000 BC. During the ancient time, reliably growing crops such as wheat depended upon the availability of fresh water.

Evidence suggests that the Egyptians irrigated land along the Nike beginning about 5000 BC. The Sumerian began to use irrigation around 2400 BC and the Chinese began around 2200 BC.

Predynastic settlers in northern Egypt inaugurated irrigation projects, from the base on the floodplain margins, during the fifth and fourth millennia BC, tackling the hydraulic problems of the bottomlands by draining the swamps and cutting down the thickets.

The development of irrigation marks a major step in the expansion of agriculture.  The Egyptians and Babylonians built dams to store water the Persian built extensive tunnels to bring water down from the hills, many are in use today. It is in Egypt that the remains of one of the oldest known dams, the Sadd-el-Kafara dam, built during the period 2950 to 2750 BC. It was designed to retain a reservoir in the Wadi el-Garawi, near Helwan, south of Cairo.

Around 3100 BC a ruler named Menes united Egypt and established first dynasty or ruling family. One of the King Menes’ first great achievements after unifying Egypt was construction of an irrigation project.

The Egyptians established a ‘Department of Irrigation’ a government agency, around 2800 BC.
Ancient Egypt develop irrigation in 5000 BC 

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

History of bagels

Bagels are a well-loved symbol of the Jews of New York. In ancient Egypt there was a hard cracker with a hole in the middle called ka’ak that can be seen as an ancestor of the bagel.

From Egypt, ancestor can be traced to classical Rome and France, where there is boiled and baked anise-flavored bread similar to bagel.

By the 14th century, Jewish artisans and traders had brought bagels and pretzels from the West to Krakow, Poland, independently of Germans who were introducing the ring-shaped breads to Polish markets.

In Poland it was common for a soft, crusty, warm bread that was chewy and delicious to be given to pregnant mother and mid-wives as a gift during childbirth.

The bread was known as a bajgiel and it refer to a type of bread that is ‘toroidal’ (means round) in shape.

Bagel making arrived in America with wave of eastern European Jewish immigration that began in the 1880s and bagels were sold on the street of New York by the early twentieth century.

The US bagel industry took off in New York City between 1910 and 1915 with unionization of bagel bakers.

Until, the late 1950s, bagels were handcrafted in small two or three person cellar bakeries in New York’s Lower East Side.

By the 1990s, Americans were consuming a large quantity of bagels, spending more money on them which was estimated $900 million than on doughnut ($500 million).

McDonald’s tested a McBagel in 1998. It wasn’t successful as the company wanted and it was later removed from the menu. Other fast food chains were more successful.

It wasn’t until the 20th century that bagel varieties grew to include cinnamon, raisins, salt and whole wheat with the more gourmet types of pesto, sundried tomato, blueberry, pumpkin and apple to arrive later than century.
History of bagels

Wheat in ancient Egypt

The kingdom of ancient Egypt existed for over 3000 years. Wheat was one of the most common grains used in ancient Egypt.

During 12000 BC early people settle in the fertile Nile valley. Around 7000 years ago changes took place when some of these people began to farm land. They planted wild wheat seeds and cultivated the cereal plants which grew.

Before that Egyptians adopted a complex of crops including emmer wheat that was domesticated in southwest Asia between 9000 and 7000 BC.

By trial and error over centuries efficient methods of cultivation and processing were developed by Egyptians.

By choosing seeds form healthy plants their corps became strong and gave a good return of grain.

Harvesting wheat

Farming became the main business of ancient Egypt. They also grew flax and barley in large amounts. 

Emmer remained virtually the only wheat until Roman rule established durum as the main cereal crop.

In pharaonic Egypt, they transformed emmer wheat and other cereals into bread and beer, the staples of their diet.

Only the middle and upper class used wheat for making cakes while the poorer made do with cakes of barley.

Allotment of grain including wheat also often served as the wages for workmen and artisans.
Wheat in ancient Egypt

History of Onion

History of Onion
If a person eats half of raw onion every day, the good HDL will goes up 30%. Onions increase blood circulation and good for reducing blood pressure. Onion usually refers to Allium cepa. Allium cepa is one of the oldest vegetable known. It’s a large family containing 500 species.

It has been used as a food source for millennia. Onion is a native to South Asia and is widely used in Indian cooking.

Most researches agreed that the onion has been cultivated for 5000 years. It grew in Chinese gardens as early as that time.

Apart from using as a currency to pay the workers who built the pyramids, Ancient Egypt 3500 B.C worshipped the onion and believed that its spherical shape symbolized the eternal life. Painting of onions appears on the walls of the pyramids and in tombs of both the old Kingdom and the new Kingdom.

King Ramses IV, who died in 1160 B.C, was entombed with onions in his eye sockets. Egyptian believed that onion strong scent would prompt the dead to breathe again. Sumerians also believed to have grown the onions since 2500 B.C in their farm.

In middle ages, onion became one of European three main cuisines (beans, cabbage and onion). It was the Roma who introduced the onion to Europe. The Latin name unio was to describe a species of onion resembling a single white pearl. At that time, in American native was using wild onions in syrups, in dyes even in toys. They also ate as a raw.

History of Onion

History of Palm Oil

History of Palm Oil
The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is a native of West Africa. It is also found in Central and East Africa and Madagascar in isolated localities with a suitable rainfall. It has been traded overland, since archeological evidence indicates that palm oil was most likely available in ancient Egypt.

The British Industrial revolution created a demand for palm oil for candle making and as lubricant for machinery. In the early nineteenth century, West African farmers began supply a modest export trade, as well as producing palm oil for their own food needs. After 1900, European-run plantations were established in Central Africa and Southeast Asia, and the world trade in palm oil continued to grow steadily, reaching a level of 250,000 tones (metric tons) per annum by 1930.

The oil palm was first introduced to Southeast Asia in 1848, when four seedlings from West Africa, were planted in the botanical gardens in Java. One Belgian Engineer noticed that palms grew here more quickly and bore a richer fruit that counterpart in the Congo. This help the palm oil industry grow quickly in Sumatra and Malaya. This rapid expansion came not only because of growing confidence in oil palm but also because of the grave postwar problems of the rubber industry.

The invention of the hydrogenation process for oils and fats in 1902 created the possibility of Western employment of palm products as, for example, in the making of margarine. Yet hydrogenation was more useful for liquid oils like groundnut, palm kernel, and coconut oils than form palm oil.
History of Palm Oil

Beer In Ancient Egypt

Food History
For the ancient Egyptians also, beer was the preeminent beverage and was more popular than water, which often was contaminated; and although beer had a lower social status than wine, beer was a necessity for the household and the kitchen. Brewing was the woman's task, as it was in Mesopotamia.

The divinities presiding over it were goddesses and some kind of chief brewer.According to Egyptian religious tradition, Osiris, the god of agriculture, taught the people to prepare beer. The Greeks connected Osiris with Dionysus, the wine god, who in turn was associated with the earlier Thracian god Sabazius.

The connection between the Egyptian people, beer, and their gods—for instance, Hathor-Sekhmet—was very close.

The intimate relation between baking and brewing in Egypt and in Mesopotamia is supported both by the use of the Sumero-Akkadian word lahamu, originally meaning "loaves", to indicate brewing and by the constant association of baking and brewing in Egyptian art. "Bread and beer" was the symbol of food and a greeting formula.
Food History