This cookbook on the main ancient peoples studied today-the Romans, Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Greeks—is a stupendous resource for middle and high school students and other interested cooks learning history. Besides the Romans and the Greeks, the ancients left behind few recipes, and so the author has meticulously researched what food knowledge is available from written sources, such as Petronius's The Satyricon, and archaeology to approximate the everyday and special cuisine of the ancients. This detective work and reconstruction result in a wealth of successful recipes that will bring cooks as close as possible to the foods that likely would have been eaten and prepared. This cookbook on the main ancient peoples studied today-the Romans, Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Greeks—is a stupendous resource for middle and high school students and other interested cooks. Besides the Romans and the Greeks, the ancients left behind few recipes, and so the author has meticulously researched what food knowledge is available from written sources, such as Petronius's The Satyricon, and archaeology to approximate the everyday and special cuisine of the ancients. This detective work and reconstruction result in a wealth of successful recipes that will bring cooks as close as possible to the foods that likely would have been eaten and prepared. Each group is covered in a chapter that begins with a narrative overview of the environment and resources, cuisine and social class, and a note on sources. Bulleted lists on major foodstuffs, cuisine and preparation, and dining habits follow to quickly familiarize readers with the basics. The recipes are then organized by type of food. A multitude of period food trivia as well as sample menus for different meals, social classes, and occasions complement the 207 recipes.

How we define, prepare and consume food can detail a full range of social expression. Examining the subject through the dual lens of archaeology and art history, this book argues that cuisine as an art form deserves a higher reputation.

From the prehistoric era to the present, food culture has helped to define civilizations. This reference surveys food culture and cooking from antiquity to the modern era, providing background information along with menus and recipes. Food culture has been central to world civilizations since prehistory. While early societies were limited in terms of their resources and cooking technology, methods of food preparation have flourished throughout history, with food central to social gatherings, celebrations, religious functions, and other aspects of daily life. This book surveys the history of cooking from the ancient world through the modern era. The first volume looks at the history of cooking from antiquity through the Early Modern era, while the second focuses on the modern world. Each volume includes a chronology, historical introduction, and topical chapters on foodstuffs, food preparation, eating habits, and other subjects. Sections on particular civilizations follow, with each section offering a historical overview, recipes, menus, primary source documents, and suggestions for further reading. The work closes with a selected, general bibliography of resources suitable for student research.

In this intriguing blend of the commonplace and the ancient, Jean Bottéro presents the first extensive look at the delectable secrets of Mesopotamia. Bottéro’s broad perspective takes us inside the religious rites, everyday rituals, attitudes and taboos, and even the detailed preparation techniques involving food and drink in Mesopotamian high culture during the second and third millennia BCE, as the Mesopotamians recorded them. Offering everything from translated recipes for pigeon and gazelle stews, the contents of medicinal teas and broths, and the origins of ingredients native to the region, this book reveals the cuisine of one of history’s most fascinating societies. Links to the modern world, along with incredible recreations of a rich, ancient culture through its cuisine, make Bottéro’s guide an entertaining and mesmerizing read.

Rachel Laudan tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of the world’s great cuisines—from the mastery of grain cooking some twenty thousand years ago, to the present—in this superbly researched book. Probing beneath the apparent confusion of dozens of cuisines to reveal the underlying simplicity of the culinary family tree, she shows how periodic seismic shifts in “culinary philosophy”—beliefs about health, the economy, politics, society and the gods—prompted the construction of new cuisines, a handful of which, chosen as the cuisines of empires, came to dominate the globe. Cuisine and Empire shows how merchants, missionaries, and the military took cuisines over mountains, oceans, deserts, and across political frontiers. Laudan’s innovative narrative treats cuisine, like language, clothing, or architecture, as something constructed by humans. By emphasizing how cooking turns farm products into food and by taking the globe rather than the nation as the stage, she challenges the agrarian, romantic, and nationalistic myths that underlie the contemporary food movement.

Serving students and general readers alike, this encyclopedia addresses the myriad and profound ways foods have shaped the world we inhabit, from prehistory to the present. Written with the needs of students in mind, Foods That Changed History: How Foods Shaped Civilization from the Ancient World to the Present presents nearly 100 entries on foods that have shaped history—fascinating topics that are rarely addressed in detail in traditional history texts. In learning about foods and their importance, readers will gain valuable insight into other areas such as religious movements, literature, economics, technology, and the human condition itself. Readers will learn how the potato, for example, changed lives in drastic ways in northern Europe, particularly Ireland; and how the potato famine led to the foundation of the science of plant pathology, which now affects how scientists and governments consider the dangers of genetic uniformity. The entries document how the consumption of tea and spices fostered global exploration, and how citrus fruits led to the prevention of scurvy. This book helps students acquire fundamental information about the role of foods in shaping world history, and it promotes critical thinking about that topic.

This richly illustrated book applies the discoveries of the new generation of food historians to the pleasures of dining and the culinary accomplishments of diverse civilizations, past and present. Freedman gathers essays by French, German, Belgian, American, and British historians to present a comprehensive, chronological history of taste.