An ancient Greek menu on a typical day. How did the ancient Greeks eat meat?

Since school curriculum in history we know about the Spartans, who adhere to a special asceticism in clothing and food. The Greeks have an anecdote: “A Spartan wandering around the Mediterranean went to a Greek inn and asked the owner to cook the fish he had brought. He replied that for a full dinner he needed - butter and bread. After listening carefully, the Spartan replied that if he had bread and butter, he would not mess with this fish. And although there was a period in the history of the country when the population of the country was brought up in asceticism, today a wide variety of products can be traced in Greek cuisine. We will talk today about the main ones that were held in high esteem by the Greeks from ancient times.

The cuisine of the ancient Greeks and its features

Greek cuisine quite closely connected with the culture and philosophy of nutrition and is a true source of pride for the population of the entire region. Its peculiarity is the use of a large number of products that normalize blood sugar levels and do not disrupt metabolic processes that provoke an increase in body weight. That is why the Greeks are distinguished by their slenderness and beauty of the body, regardless of age. IN national cuisine Greece, refined olive oil is widely used and fresh olives for cooking first and second courses. In ancient times they were preserved with sea ​​salt, pre-purified wine vinegar, spices and fragrant herbs. Today, many Mediterranean diets use olives as a side dish, appetizer, spicy seasoning to meat or fish, etc. It is olives that give the second dishes a special flavor, pleasant taste and aroma. Note that the oil contains maximum amount nutrients that improve digestion and strengthen the immune system. It is olive oil that does not emit carcinogens when heated, unlike other varieties of vegetable oils. In addition, olives perform the function of biochemical regulation of fat and salts in the body, control their digestibility. It is this fact that determines the popularity of olives in the Mediterranean and other diets. During the time one can set a goal and explore the different varieties of olive oil produced in different regions countries. Their taste will not be the same, and dishes in different regions differ not only in taste, but also in aroma. Throughout Greece since ancient times vegetable oil produce and mature fruits using the cold-pressed method. This is how you can get the highest quality olive oil.

Bread - the head of ancient Greek cuisine

At all times, bread was treated with respect throughout the peninsula. He even compared a wheat ear with a human brain, using as a subtext the great importance of this product in people's lives. The ancient Greeks always ate food with bread and considered a meal without white or gray bread a crime against the gods. That is why bakers baked many types of bread using wheat and barley flour. The Greeks were especially fond of pampering themselves with sweets for the holidays. bakery products. To make sweets different from lean baking, they added fat, goat milk. For the price, such bread was somewhat more expensive and was bought exclusively for the holidays. Bread did not often appear on the tables of the harsh and demanding Spartans. Note that the Greeks, like the inhabitants of Egypt in antiquity, treated with special reverence not fresh, i.e. stale bread, they treated them with stomach and other diseases.

White bread from well-fermented dough was first produced in Greece around the 5th-4th century. BC. In his writings, Homer, who described meals in his poems, spoke of bread as a dish that was eaten exclusively by wealthy people. In those ancient times, the Greeks had only two dishes in the meal: fried on a spit big piece meat (most often lamb) and white bread, which played a leading role. Ate dishes separately, which today can be seen as the first attempt to use separate meals in the culture of food consumption. By the amount of white bread on the table, they judged the well-being of the owner of the house. The more white bread, the better.

Fruits were served with bread and fresh vegetables, including figs and olives grown by the inhabitants of the country, legumes, which appeared on the tables due to their low cost. In the food culture of the ancient Greeks, there were not many products, more than 80% occupied: olive oil, whole milk, sheep cheese and seafood. This is what made it possible to provide the body with high-grade proteins. In Greece, even now, as many centuries ago, the art of preparing delicious, nutritious fish. Having collected the experience of the peoples living in the Mediterranean, the Greeks managed to create many recipes deserving attention today. Sturgeon and tuna fish were especially held in high esteem. Dishes abounded herbs. The fish was boiled, fried, stewed. There was a time when the Persian king rewarded cooks who prepared fish according to previously unknown rules. famous recipes, the Greek comedian and traveler recalls this in his notes.

Since ancient times, the Greeks have eaten a lot of game, which cannot be said about the meat of domestic animals. The Greeks considered it an unaffordable luxury to slaughter lambs every day, which gave valuable milk and wool. The Greeks prepared dishes from non-fat lamb and poultry only on major holidays and treated them to friends and acquaintances.

Other products are not traditional food Greeks such as rice, apricots and peaches, citrus fruits, potatoes, sweet corn and tomatoes brought from Asia America were dishonest guests on the tables of the Greeks, and nuts, which we habitually call "walnuts" were considered not a cheap delicacy. The Greeks drank in antiquity only wine, diluting it drinking water, most often adhered to a ratio of 1: 2. Wine was diluted to somewhat disinfect well water, which was used to quench thirst. Honey was used as a sweetener for drinks and sweet dishes.

During our excursions, we not only try different varieties wines, but also learn how to drink them correctly.

Christmas in Greece and Athos

The most beautiful bridges Greek bridges. Bridges of Greece

Medieval island of Rhodes

The island of Rhodes is one of the largest and most visited tourists in Greece, as on Rhodes everyone can find a vacation to their liking: comfortable beaches and excellent hotels (mainly class A and De Luxe), interesting sights and rich museums, leisurely walks through the ancient cities of the island with their narrow streets, ancient temples, taverns with delicious Greek cuisine and bright souvenir shops.

Peloponnesian War

It lasted almost 30 years. It was not just very long, but exhausting and very bloody. It was a brutal internal strife. Not for life, but for death, the Athenians fought with the Spartans. The clash of policies went under the auspices of 2 unions: the Peloponnesian, under the leadership of Sparta. Athenian with a very strong fleet.

Lake Plastira - Greek Switzerland.

If you are planning a trip to Greece and suddenly want to see natural beauty Switzerland, you don't have to go anywhere. Especially for you, fabulous Hellas took care of this and created the most beautiful lake Plastira. It is artificial and officially called Tauropos. The lake provides water to the local hydroelectric power station and the inhabitants of the city of Karditsa, not far from which it is located at an altitude of 750 meters above sea level.

It was in this country that they first learned how to make wine. Starting from the fifth century BC, and ending with modern times, wine has been and is the pride of the Greeks.

Initially, the ancient Greeks did not drink pure wine, they diluted it with water. The fact is that produced in those days alcoholic drink was very concentrated. But some historians believe that by diluting wine with water, the Greeks disinfected well water. Most experts still tend to the version that Greek wine cloyingly sweet, so it is difficult to drink it undiluted. Taste qualities Greece's wines are due to the special climate.

Moreover, grapes that grow in different parts of the country give the wine a certain refined flavor. For example, one wine was produced on the Greek islands, and in the Greek colonies, in the same place, it was completely different. The fact is that each locality has its own soil, microclimate and grape varieties. By the way, some of them have survived to our times, and some became the ancestors of modern varieties.

The ancient Greeks considered it blasphemy to use the drink of the gods without diluting, therefore the Scythians and Chinese were in their eyes drunkards and ignoramuses, since they did not have the habit of diluting wine.

Another purely Greek alcoholic drink is retsina. This is a wine that has an interesting aroma and resinous taste. Data taste characteristics due to the presence in the drink of the resin of coniferous trees. Initially, the ancient Greeks did not add resin to the drink, but sealed the vessels with it. But much later, pine resin became a kind of preservative that prevents wine from souring.

Currently, retsina is an essential attribute of the Greek feast, but now the resin is added to the drink at the stage of its fermentation. The alcohol content in retsin is 11.5%. This drink made from inexpensive and the most common grape varieties, so the price of an intoxicating product is affordable for almost every Greek. Some unscrupulous manufacturers try to hide true taste cheap wine by adding resin to it.

Many studies show that of all the so-called diets, one of the healthiest and most beneficial, as history shows, is the Mediterranean diet. In this article, we will “taste it”, understand its essence, and also find out what the ancient Greeks ate. The author invites the reader to mentally put on a tunic, leather sandals, and then, perhaps in reality, raise a goblet of diluted wine or grape juice(the ancient Greeks only drank diluted) and embark on a journey through Mediterranean gastronomy.

What did the ancient Greeks eat?

The ancient Greeks ate food most often four times a day. We know about the nutrition of the Greeks mainly from ancient performances. In the morning there was bread, which they dipped in diluted wine. Those who drank undiluted wine were considered barbarians by the Greeks. They considered wine a gift from the god Dionysus. Wine was served in painted ceramic goblets. Bread was baked from wheat or barley. Barley porridge was also used as bread. By the way, there were at least 50 types of bread. Bread was also used instead of forks, and in wealthy families after the meal it was eaten by slaves or cattle. In the morning they also ate figs or olives. For breakfast, there could be tortillas (tegañas). It is curious that in Hebrew the words for the process of frying sound like "letagen (fry), tigun (fry), metugan (fried)." The cakes were baked from wheat flour, olive oil, honey and sour milk. Athenaeus in his treatise "Deipnosophists" (Scholard Companions) mentions spelled cakes with honey, sesame seeds and cheese.

Wheat grains were softened either by soaking in water and cooked like porridge, or by pounding in a mortar, turning them into flour. Greeks used wine yeast but only on holidays. Bread was baked in clay home ovens. White bread was intended for the rich, and the poor ate bread from barley flour coarse grinding. In poor houses, bread was prepared as follows: hot coals were placed on the floor, when the floor became hot enough, cakes were laid out on it and covered with a lid, on which the coals were again placed.

Barley was roasted, and then ground into flour, calling it "maza". Mazu was sometimes eaten raw. Curiously, in Hebrew, yeast-free flat bread is called "matza".

Ancient Greek culture was agrarian, so the diet consisted mainly of cereals, vegetables, fruits, fish, eggs, and some meat. Potatoes and tomatoes did not grow in Europe, but there were asparagus, dill, cucumbers, chickpeas (chickpeas) and celery. Soups were prepared from vegetables, often boiled with olive oil, vinegar, herbs and fish sauce. In cities, fresh vegetables were expensive, and poor people ate dried vegetables. They also loved lentils. Aristophanes pointed out that pureed beans were the favorite dish of Hercules, who was always portrayed in comedies as a glutton. A dish of chickpeas mashed with olive oil and sesame seeds is called “hummus” in Israel and is considered the most common. Lentil soup was a typical food of the common Greeks. The military ate cheese, garlic and onions. The choir in the theater sang about the end of the war: “Oh, joy, joy! No more helmet, cheese and onions!”

Of the fruits were apples, pears, cherries, mulberries and damson (thorns - small black plum). fresh or dried fruits, as well as nuts were served for dessert. The main ones were figs (figs), raisins and pomegranates. There is a recipe for an ancient dessert made from grated beans and dates.

Olives for the Greeks were not only food, but a source of oil for lamps, cosmetic and an important part of the culture itself. The Greeks believed that the goddess Athena gave the first olive tree to the city of Athens. Its fruits later spread throughout Greece. Women applied oil to the skin of the face and body to preserve youth. The author recommends continuing the tradition and applying olive oil to clean, damp skin at night to wake up with soft skin in the morning.

There is a misconception that olive oil should not be used for frying. It is a myth. Certainly, fried food not very good for health better meals bake or stew in water, and add oil after, but olive oil can be used at all stages of cooking. When frying, it smokes more than other oils. When choosing an oil, pay attention to the fact that it is dark in color (the oil itself, not just the bottle) and has a rich aroma.

The Greeks used honey, as we do sugar today, and loved it very much, not only as food, but also as a medicine. They believed that Zeus was fed milk and honey as a child. Many families had their own apiaries.

The ancient Greeks ate meat mainly on holidays. It was believed that only barbarians eat meat. It is known that the rivals of the Athenians, the Spartans, had an exclusively meat diet. The Spartans cooked soup from pork feet and blood (it is known that the Greeks considered the Spartans barbarians). Greek athletes also preferred meat diet but tried not to eat desserts or drink too much wine. Living near the Mediterranean Sea, the Greeks had plenty of fish. Pork was the cheapest meat in the city. The Greeks ate the eggs of chickens, geese, pheasants and partridges.

Milk drinking and use butter the Greeks also considered it barbaric. But they used dairy products, cottage cheese and sheep cheese.

Water was carried by women, and although wells were plentiful, spring water was preferred. The Greeks have many descriptions of different qualities of water, it can be light, dry, sour, like wine, etc.

Guilt

The Greeks had white, rosé and red wine. The best varieties produced in Thassos, Lesbos and Chios. The wine was used healing remedy with the addition of pine resin and various herbs. Wines were added to the dishes. Elian mentions that the wine from Heraia in Arcadia made men stupid and women childbearing; conversely, Achaean wine was thought to cause miscarriage. Women were forbidden to drink wine, with the exception of Sparta.

Eating was not only a process of satisfying the needs of the body, but often turned into a common feast, when people talked to each other for a long time. Even today, Greek family feasts last for hours.

(Kilik, the most popular ancient Greek drinking vessel. Source: Wikipedia).

Dinner among the Greeks was the most important and highlight of the meal. Dinner was light, as was afternoon tea. Sometimes dinner and lunch were combined and treated in the afternoon. Men and women ate separately. In small houses, the men ate first, then the women. Aristotle wrote that food was served by slaves, and in poor families, wives and children. The Greeks sat on chairs at tables, and during the holidays on benches at low tables. Later tables became round, usually with legs in the shape of animal feet.

As snacks, the Greeks used chestnuts, beans, roasted wheat and honey cakes. Aristocrats and wealthy men held meetings where they drank wine and exchanged thoughts. In Crete and Sparta, warrior men and boys participated in the Sisitia. At the height of Greek culture, the diet was relatively simple. The Greeks believed that the complexity of dishes corrupts a person. Alexander the Great ridiculed the Iranian royal palace, noting that their taste preferences led to defeat. Later, towards the end of the empire, gastronomy began to take more and more place in the soul of the Greeks.

Vegetarianism

The ancient Greek philosophers Pythagoras, Empedocles, Seneca, Plutarch, Plotinus, Porphyry and Epicurus preached the idea of ​​a vegetarian diet, refraining from killing, talking about the reincarnation of souls.

“As long as man continues to be a ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health and peace. As long as people kill animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.”
- Pythagoras

(Triptolemos receives sheaves of wheat from Demeter and blessings from Persephone, relief from the 5th century BC, National Archaeological Museum of Athens)

Modern Greek Diet

Modern Greeks consume more olive oil per year than the inhabitants of any other country. Majority Greek dishes consist of baked vegetables and are called "latera (or ladera", which translates as "with oil" (olive, naturally).Green beans, eggplant, okra and peas are cooked with tomatoes, onions, garlic and various herbs and spices and are consumed as a main dish along with feta cheese and bread.In the summer it is a salad of tomato and cucumbers, and in the winter it is a coleslaw with carrots.Greeks also consume the most cheese in the world, thanks to feta cheese, which is present at every meal.Traditionally, feta cheese made from sheep's milk Spinach, cheese and leek pies are popular in northern Greece Greeks eat cheese (feta) and bread with every meal.

Greek recipe for white beans.

The ancient Greeks, without knowing it, invented the ideal nutrition system, which consisted of incredibly tasty dishes, while very healthy. What secrets did the inhabitants of the ancient world have?

Bread is the head of everything

Ancient Greek bread is worthy of a separate encyclopedia. The main subtlety of its preparation was the coarse semi-processed flour, most often wheat or barley. Such bread in itself was very useful and also contributed to the full assimilation of other products. In various historical and literary sources, one can often find references to the so-called sour bread, which was prepared from fermented dough. However, this variety was considered a delicacy and was affordable only for the wealthy public. Simpler bread for the people was made from wholemeal flour, falling asleep in it a large number of bran. In total, ancient Greek bakers were able to cook several dozen different varieties of bread. IN sweet pastries added honey, fat and milk. A special role was given to stale bread. Ancient healers prescribed it as a cure for indigestion and other "food" diseases.

The luxury of the poor

Of course, the Greeks did not live by bread alone. Since their fertile islands were surrounded by the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the first and main dish was fish with seafood. Oddly enough, but today's expensive delicacies were the main food of the ancient Greek poor. Preference was given to tuna and sturgeon fish species. Oysters, mussels, scallops and common people ate squid several times a day. Prepared seafood by the most different ways: smoked, fried, marinated, salted. Some secrets of cooking still remain undiscovered. For example, it is not clear how whole fish at the same time it could be partially fried, partially cooked, and partially salted.

A significant part of the diet was game. For a long time the Greeks preferred forest animals and birds to livestock. Pigeons, sparrows, pheasants, quails, and sometimes swallows were roasted on fires with pleasure. All this was richly seasoned with olive oil and herbs. Later, in times of lush prosperity, the Hellenes became addicted to beef and lamb. The whole carcass was fried on a spit without any seasonings, after which it was cut into pieces, the juiciest of which went to the guests of honor. And the Greek table abounded hearty sausages and an original delicacy - a goat's stomach stuffed with fat and blood.

sacred olive

To balance such hearty meal, various legumes, fresh figs and olives were served as a side dish. In many dishes, the Greeks added onions, garlic, fleshy lettuce and green Bell pepper. Tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants, so familiar to us today, were not yet familiar to the Greeks in those days. And democratic pumpkin and cucumbers were considered outlandish fruits and were very expensive.

An indispensable attribute of any meal was unleavened bread cakes and soft sheep's cheese, more reminiscent of cottage cheese. Washed down the meal with useful sheep's milk. Almost no dish is complete without the legendary olive oil. The olive tree was sacred to the ancient Greeks, and its fruits to this day occupy one of the main places in traditional cuisine. Olive oil was produced by cold pressing exclusively from ripe selected fruits. At the same time, it was used not only for cooking, but also as a preservative, in medicinal and cosmetic purposes and even in funeral rites. The Greeks were also crazy about olives. They were marinated in wine vinegar and in the same olive oil adding spices and aromatic herbs. Such an appetizer was eaten separately or combined with fish dishes.

Sugar to the ancient Greeks was replaced by wild honey, the lack of which they did not know. The most favorite delicacy was considered to be raisins with nuts, abundantly poured with honey. By the way, yourself walnuts were imported and highly valued. But grapes and figs were and remain primordially Greek sweets.

daily drink

The choice of drinks among the ancient Greeks was very limited, but what a choice! At any meal on holidays and weekdays, they drank wine. True, pr

and this was heavily diluted with water. In this way, they disinfected the well water and did not get so drunk. Such unambiguous taste preferences were explained simply. Literally all of Greece, both mainland and island, was entwined with fertile vines which gave berries of excellent quality. No wonder the Greeks are considered the founders of European winemaking, and their most revered god has always been Dionysus.

Perhaps the most famous Greek wine of antiquity is retsina. It was being prepared in a special way: filled amphoras with wine and hermetically sealed with a mixture of resin and gypsum. Thanks to this, the drink acquired a characteristic resinous taste and aroma. Total in Ancient Greece There were about 150 different varieties of wine. Reds were valued more than others, very thick wines, which were poured into large vessels and left to ferment in cool cellars for six months. Already in those days, Greek winemakers were able to prepare practically all varieties of wine known today, including light whites, sweet roses, dry and semi-dry. Rhodes and Samos wines were considered the best. Astringent wine from the island of Santorini, obtained from grapes grown on volcanic ash, was also held in high esteem. However, almost any city could boast of a branded wine variety.

Of course, the Greeks knew a lot about tasty and healthy food. Although in most cases their gastronomic habits were dictated by nature itself. But this does not prevent us from learning the principles of proper nutrition from them.

Table Etiquette of the Ancient Greeks May 6th, 2017

About what they ate in ancient Greece, we both know little and a lot. Not enough - because not a single book has survived to this day that could acquaint us with recipes for dishes of those places and times; a lot - because all the information that we have today was conveyed to us by the pages of Greek plays and philosophical works, starting with Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and ending with Plato's Feast. The word "gastronomy" itself has Greek roots and in free translation means nothing more than "the art of pleasing the stomach" ...

Already in those days, Greece understood its purpose and established itself as the citadel of philosophy, science,
politics and arts, like a real civilization among the barbarians and savages surrounding it, like Ancient Persia.

In order to emphasize and enhance this difference, they developed their own approach to nutrition - so refined that Bernard Shaw, in the pages of his play "Major Barbara", said that the carrier Greek cannot be an uneducated person.

And if some aspects of the ancient Greek paradigm of nutrition find their echoes even in the culture of the 21st century, then it may very well be that we are greatly lacking in others.

Fundamentals of Dietetics

Among the ancient Greek philosophers, views on healthy eating which were relevant until the very end of the Middle Ages. In the Greek consciousness, wild nature was something wrong and far from the concepts of civilization, therefore, it needed to be modified, in particular through the introduction of agriculture.

When the humor system becomes imbalanced, a person gets sick, and in order to restore and maintain it, you need to eat. the right products In other words, diet.

Of course, no liquids of this kind in human body no, but this does not negate the correctness of Hippocrates, if we correlate his theory with modern medicine and understand humor as a combination of biomolecules and minerals, whose balance also needs to be normalized.

Diet

In the early period of history, the Greeks ate four meals a day. It was breakfast, an afternoon snack, a light evening snack, and lunch after sunset.

A leapfrog of names and sequences in eating led to the classic three meals a day - in the morning, afternoon and evening. For all social strata of Ancient Greece, breakfast was the same: both the rich and the poor ate bread soaked in wine.

The midday break meant warm food, which was taken outside the walls of the house. Lunch was divided into two stages: first, they ate foods rich in carbohydrates - wheat, barley, lentils, beans, and everything else that toned a person; at the second stage, they moved on to something heavier and hotter - fish, game and poultry, cheese, salads, vegetables or plain olive oil.

Joint meals

In Sparta, on the island of Crete and in other regions of Greece joint reception food, called sissitia, was a real cult that was not allowed to be neglected by any member of the community - even rulers and wealthy men who have their own home are required to participate in sissitia, which made them equal to each other at that moment.

Those to whom the law was not written could be expelled from the community. The community consisted of 15 men (women and children were rarely allowed to eat), who occupied one table among other tables located in the dining room.

Sissitia in Sparta was in some way consistent with the Spartan order: in order to be able to eat with adult men, a young man must reach the age of 12 and earn a certain reputation.

Everything that was present on the table during dinner, the citizens had to bring from home and share with the rest. If it was impossible to follow this rule, a member could be deprived of the right of a citizen and even be sold into slavery. Hence the conclusion: in ancient Greece it was categorically impossible to be poor.

Meat

In ancient Greece, many things did not correspond to the image of a civilized person, including eating meat. Nevertheless, they ate it, but the total amount of meat per person per year was about 1-2 kilograms, and vegetarians completely refused it.

Basically, meat was served at the table on religious holidays, and before starting the meal, it was necessary to express respect for the life of the animal by sacrificing it to the gods.

Cattle, goats and deer were considered sacrificial animals. Geese and hares, in turn, were considered less sacred, so their serving to the table was not accompanied by such rituals.

Wine

In general, wine never complemented the meal of the ancient Greeks. But an important part of the cultural and social life of men were special meetings, which were called symposiums.

Each such symposia was nothing more than a friendly booze: men reclined on couches surrounded by dancers and acrobats, read poems, talked about lofty things and drank wine, eating it with cheese, bread and other light food.

At the same time, the ancient Greeks never allowed themselves to drink pure wine, considering such behavior barbaric, and always diluted it with water in an amazing proportion - one part of wine to three or four parts of water, which, according to Plutarch, was an ideal balance.