Food was extremely important in ancient times. Mostly it was up to individual families to supply their own food sources and history is full of starvation stories. Wars have been lost or won on the supply of salt, or the scarcity of food.
Salt was once so valuable it was used as money. In Rome and Venice, salt was part of the soldier’s weekly pay. It not only seasoned food, it was an important means of preservation. Although salt and some methods were common to most nations, each dealt with their food supply according to what was available.
India’s food history:
Ancient cultures in India grew wheat and lentils and raised beef, pork, goats and chickens for food. Yet in 650 A.D. the Hindu religion forbade the eating of beef; cows were sacred to their Mother Goddess and beef was eliminated in her honor.
In 1100 A.D. the Islamic religion made some inroads into this country and they removed pork from their diet. Their vegetarian diet consisted mainly of wheat, chick peas, and rice, yoghurt.
China’s food history:
Rice has always been a staple food in China. It was the first grain grown there along the Yang-tse River as early as 5000 B.C. It was cooked as we cook it today, in water.
Records show that in Northern China a long ago as 4,500 B.C. millet was being farmed in Northern China. Before that they gathered wild millet. So basically their diet consisted of rice, millet, sorghum. And of course soybeans, this legume being native to the region. Anise and ginger were grown as flavorings and these are likewise native.
Egyptian food history:
Wheat and barley was grown in the Nile valley. This country, because of the hot, dry weather, was limited in its agriculture. Wheat and barley grew well and it was eaten in many different ways, as bread, as soups and as porridge. Hops were added to it and beer was made.
Meat was also an important crop and meat markets were common. Although mutton, poultry were eaten, Pork was not. They believed that if one ate pork they would catch leprosy. Dates were an important dessert item on their tables.
Western Asia food history:
Wheat, barley, lentils, chickpeas, or garbanzo beans were eaten way back then and still is. The chickpeas were ground and made into falafel and humus. The hill people, the shepherds and goat herders subsisted mainly on cheese, yoghurt, mutton, and milk.
From their wheat and barley they made their bread into pita bread or pizza like bread, much in the same way as they
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