antipinkkitten 
Introduction
Meghan: After a long hiatus, we are back! We did the work required to age a puppy to an almost dog; we moved across North America, leaving BBQ sauce for Maple Syrup. Finally, we made a new home out of our rental house, which enabled us to see our time in the future.
With that, we decided we needed to bring this back. You’ll get to join us at an exciting time – Better quality photos, a better kitchen, more access to exciting ingredients and more opportunities to reach out to our wide network of other historical-background friends to chime in and work with us.
To kick this off, we’re diving into Egypt again, specifically the New Kingdom (1539–1075 BCE), preparing a meal fit for a King Pharaoh.
History
Brad: It has been quite some time since the last entry in this blog. So, I figured a quick refresher was due. I would like to start by saying that I am not an expert in Egyptology or the foods that would have been eaten by them. But I have used my years of experience in research to try to piece together, as best I could, a meal that would have been eaten during the time periods that we are covering.
Diving into it: Ancient Egyptian food recipes are difficult to come by. We are able to identify cuisines from the art which were displayed on their walls and from the research that fellow archaeologists have been able to glean from contemporary sources. However, this still only gives us a partial piece of the puzzle. We know little about how the meals would have been prepared, but it is safe to assume that they wouldn’t have had the modern luxuries that we take for granted today, such as convection ovens or microwaves. With this, we are going to try to stay as close to the traditional cooking styles.
For this entry into the blog we have chosen to eat some of the food that the Pharaohs may have eaten. We chose to eat rabbit this time, but we figure that rabbit by itself was a little too plain for what the Pharaohs may have enjoyed. So we looked at some of the other food/spices available to make a stew. Stews are great because you can pretty much set them and forget them. In the stew, along with the rabbit, we have chosen to add beans, onions, and some garlic. We know that meat was something that the Pharaohs would have eaten on an almost daily basis. They would have also eaten plenty of sweet things such as dates and honey.
They also, like many of us, enjoyed a drink with their food as well. Wine would have been the drink of choice (King Tut was buried with several jars of wine). So to honor this, we drank a nice bottle of alcohol removed wine – Which King Tut would not approve of, likely.
Main – Rabbit and Bean Stew
Rabbit and Bean Stew
Ingredients
- 1.5kg, Whole Rabbit, cut into stew chunks
- 1 tbsp of Einkorn flour
- 2 tbsp of Olive Oil
- 1 cup of Bone Broth
- 1 can of Fava Beans
- 1 cup of Red Lentils
- 1 Onion
- 1 tbsp of Fenugreek Seeds
- 3 Garlic Cloves
- Sea Salt
- Black Pepper
- Garnish with coriander
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Place 1 tbsp of olive oil into a dutch oven, place it into the oven to warm.
- To start preparing the meal; cut the rabbit into 1? stew cubes and toss in a bowl of 1 tbsp of Einkorn flour.
- Take the rabbit bones and boil for 20 minutes, then set to a simmer for 30 minutes. Put broth assign and dispose of bones. This should produce about 4 cups of broth.
- Next, cut the onion and cloves into a thin mince.
- Take the floured rabbit meat and sauté until lightly browned on the stovetop, with an additional tablespoon of olive oil.
- Add Onion, garlic cloves and fenugreek seeds until fragrant.
- Take the dutch oven out of the oven, adding rabbit meat, onion, garlic, fava beans, red lentils and water. Stir, then salt and pepper.
- Place the dutch oven back in the oven for 1 hour.
- Serve as a stew, with bread .
Dessert – Fruit, Cheese and Nuts
Fruit, Cheese and Nuts
Ingredients
- Dates
- Pistachios
- Grapes
- Fig Spread
- Goat Cheese
Instructions
- Arrange fruit and nuts, with fig spread and cheese on the side.
Ratings
Meghan’s Rating
4 out of 5 stars
I enjoyed the stew significantly, and pairing it with the flatbread from last time was great. My only issue was the rabbit. I believe it was prepared correctly and seasoned well, but I realized mid-meal – I don’t like rabbit. However, I’d make this again without the meat or maybe a different meat, and I’m certain I’d love it.
But, the grapes, fig spread, pistachios and goat cheese were an amazing dessert, made for royalty, and I felt full and content afterwards
Brad’s Rating
5 out of 5 stars
I throughly enjoyed tonight’s dinner. I was afraid going into it that the stew was going to be bland (because when I think of stew, I think of a slop that doesn’t have much in the way of flavor). But the ingredients complimented each other nicely. The fava beans and lentils gave it an “extra weight” and made a smaller serving feel much larger than it was. The rabbit didn’t stand out to me as much as I thought it would have. The best part of it was how easy it was to make. The most time intensive things where cutting the meat off the rabbit bones. After that it was just a matter of waiting for the stew to… well… stew. I would definitely make and eat this recipe again.
Bibliography
https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/beer/
http://www.fao.org/country-showcase/item-detail/en/c/1287824/
https://rawi-magazine.com/articles/from-staples-to-luxuries/
https://oi-idb-static.uchicago.edu/multimedia/88/oimp33.pdf
https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/recipes/
http://www.historicalcookingproject.com/2014/12/guest-post-ancient-egyptian-bread-by.html
https://www.atthemummiesball.com/baking-ancient-egyptian-bread/
https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/egypt/egcl02e.html
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/packing-food-for-the-hereafter-in-ancient-egypt
[…] the last several meals we have used pistachios. While these are common in majority of our regions’ dishes, we felt a need to introduce a new […]
Awesome! Its genuinely remarkable post, I have got much clear idea regarding from this post
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! We love doing this, so I’m glad you enjoyed it!
This is really interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger. I’ve joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your magnificent post. Also, I’ve shared your site in my social networks!
Thank you so much! We appreciate you sharing us with your network! We post bi-weekly with new recipes – Let us know if you have an feedback on any of them!