On this page you will find a list of recipes, ingredients, and other info about food in ancient Israel.
COMMON MEALS
Two daily meals were usually eaten. Here are an example of common meals eaten:
Late Morning Meal: Could
include roaster grain, olives, figs or grapes, and bread with garlic,
onions, or black radishes. Water or wine were drunk.
Evening Meal:
A
vegetable stew, served in a common pot, that family members would dip
their bread into. Sometimes small bowls would be used. Occasionally
fresh or dried fruit, or cheese, would be served alongside the soup.
Water, wine, or milk was drunk.
RECIPE IDEAS
Lentil Soup and Barley Flatbread
A common daily meal throughout Isreal.
Ashishim
This was a fried lentil cake...honey-dipped pancakes made from crushed red lentils and sesame seeds.
Pressed Dried Fruit
While
I don't have a "recipe" for this, this seems easy to do, and pressing
dried fruit into blocks or clusters might be something you could do with
kids as an activity.
- Raisins were pressed together into clusters and dried, which kept the interior raisins softer.
- Dates were sun dried and pressed into blocks to dry more, then used throughout the year
Cuts of meat (see meat section) were boiled with garlic and leeks, and flavored with cumin and coriander (it was Babylonian dish thought to be used in Israel too). Stewed meat was considered a dish worthy of serving to honored guests (Judges 6:19-20). Here's some recipes I found that used only ingredients they had at the time.
Stewed Lamb with Cumin and Coriander
Babylonian Stewed Meat
INGREDIENTS
Here are some ingredients available in ancient Israel. There may be more ingredients they had access through trade, or which I just haven't found through my sources. I've tried to note which one I know were introduced later, or were only available through trade.
Meats
Storing meat was difficult, so larger animals were often saved for special occasions. Goat and mutton was often eaten during celebrations, festivals, and sacrificial feasts. Beef was regarded as a delicacy, and served at royal banquets. Dried fish was also eaten by wealthy in inland cities, and fresh and dried fish were eaten by rich and poor living near the sea. Chicken and pigeon were the principal poultry in Roman times (NT).
Meat was often cooked in a stew, but also roasted over an open fire (always done for passover lamb). Meat was preserved by smoking, dryng and salting.
Many meats were forbidden by the Torah, but the meats below were, to my knowledge, available and allowed. I am not including meats such as pork, that while available, were not allowed to be eaten.
Goat
Lamb (mutton)
Fish (fresh and dried)
- sea bream
- grouper
- meager
- grey mullet
- Nile perch (imported dried)
Beef/veal (only eaten by wealthy)
Deer (red and fallow deer, wild game)
Gazelle (wild game)
Chicken (domesticated, became common around 2nd century BC)
Pigeon (wild and domesticated, but could only be raised in small numbers)
Geese (domesticated)
Turtledoves (domesticated and available wild April to Oct)
Partridges (wild)
Quail (wild)
Other wild game
Some types of locusts
Dairy
Until the domestication of the chicken (2nd century BC), eggs were considered a delicacy.
Milk (goat and sheep's milk)
Butter
Cheese (mostly from goat and sheep's milk)
Eggs (from domesticated chicken, pigeon, turtledoves, ducks, geese, and also wild birds such as quail and partridge)
Grains/Flours
Bread was eaten with every meal. Porridge was made from ground grain, water, salt, and butter, to which oil and fruits was sometimes added. Click links for more about threshing grain, and bread making. The cooking methods used produced flat loaves of bread that were broken, not cut. Matza (unleavened bread) was eaten at Passover. In Roman times (New Testament era), other cooking methods were introduced that allowed for thicker loaves. The Mishna (Hallah 2:2) mentions one type of bread made with fruit juice substituted for water (which worked to leaven the bread and added sweetness). Fennel and cumin were sometimes added to bread for flavoring, and bread was sometimes dipped in oil or vinegar. Unripe grains were also eaten fresh, or roasted over a fire and eaten.
Barley (two-row)
Wheat (various types...see below)
- Emmer - earliest native wheat domesticated in Canaan, time consuming to de-husk
- Einkorn - another early cultivated wheat
- Duram - a descendant of emmer that largely replaced it during the Iron age, as it was easier to remove the husks, though it was more difficult to grind (and had to be sifted to obtain fine flour). Primarily used for porridge, though also used for bread.
- Common Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum), became popular for making bread after the Greek conquest (so, in New Testament era)
Carob (can be ground into flour)
Rice (introduced during Persian period sometime after 539 BCE, so was not used before the Isrealites were allowed to return to Jerusalem after exile in Babylon)
Lentil/Bean flour - Ezekiel 4:9 mentions a bread made with barley, lentils and bean (presumably ground into flour).
Fruits
Grapes, dates, and figs were the most commonly used fruits.
Apricots (fresh and dried)
Carob
Dates (from date palm,)
Figs (fresh and dried)
Grapes and Raisins
Mulberry (black mulberry)
Pomegranates
Apple or Quince (possibly...there's some disagreement about this)
Watermelon (sweet, but with yellow-orange flesh)
Vegetables/Legumes
Legumes (peas and beans) were the main source of protein in ancient isreal. Legumes and other vegetables were usually eaten in stews, which often contained garlic, onion, and leek for flavor. Legumes were also eaten roasted.
Broad Beans (fava beans)
Carob
Capers
Chickpeas
Chicory (leaf, one of the bitter herbs commonly eaten at Passover)
Cucumber
Dandelion Greens
Endive (one of the bitter herbs commonly eaten at Passover)
Fennugreek
Garden Rocket (leaves)
Garlic
Gourds (unsure of type, eaten raw or flavored with vinegar)
Leeks
Lentils
Lettuce, wild (chazeret)
Lettuce, head-lettuce (introduced by the Romans, available in NT times)
Mallow (Corchorus, young leaves eaten, or made into tea)
Onions
Olives
Peas
Radishes (black radish)
Saltbush/Orach (leaves)
Vetch, bitter
Seeds and Nuts
Carob
Mallow seeds (can be used as a flavoring, but not sure if it was)
Sesame Seeds
Almonds (eaten primarily by the wealthy)
Walnut (very common)
Pistacios (eaten primarily by the wealthy)
Herbs and Spices
Note, there were more herbs and spices used for medicinal purposes, or for perfumes or other uses, but I'm only including spices used for food here.
Anise (used to season meats, breads)
Bay Leaf (seasoned stews and stewed meat)
Chicory (dwarf)
Cinnamon (imported)
Coriander Leaves (flavoring in soups, stewed meat, pudding and wine)
Coriander Seeds (sprinkled on breads, rolls, and fish...possibly crushed first)
Cumin (regular and black, used to season unleavened bread)
Dill
Fennel
Fenugreek
Garlic
Ginger (imported)
Hyssop
Majoram
Mallow seeds (can be used as a flavoring, but not sure if it was)
Mint (grows wild in Palestine)
Mustard (black)
Pepper (imported)
Reichardia
Salt (sea salt from dead sea, and mined salt)
Saffron (imported)
Sesame
Thyme
Oils
Olive Oil
Sesame Oil
Radish seed oil
Sweeteners
Date Syrup (also called date honey)
Carob
Grape Honey (syrup left after grape juice is boiled)
Honey
Other
Vinegar
Wine
Mushrooms (including Boletus edulis )
Sources
Wikipedia: Ancient Israelite Cuisine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Israelite_cuisine
Cattle in the Ancient World
http://womeninthebible.net/bible_daily_life/cattle_ancient_world/
Food in the Bible
https://womeninthebible.net/bible-extras/food/
History of Cucumbers
http://www.vegetablefacts.net/vegetable-history/history-of-cucumbers/
History of Watermelon
https://ipm.missouri.edu/MEG/2020/7/watermelon-DT/
The 5,000-Year Secret History of the Watermelon
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/150821-watermelon-fruit-history-agriculture
