Cuisine and eating traditions in ancient Greece. Cuisine of ancient Greece

CUISINE OF ANCIENT GREECE What and how the ancient Greeks ate

Ancient Greece
CUISINE OF ANCIENT GREECE
What and how did the ancient Greeks eat?

An ancient joke about a Spartan:
“One traveling Spartan, having gone to an inn to spend the night, gave the owner the fish he had brought with him and asked him to cook it for dinner. The owner agreed, but said that to prepare dinner he would still need at least butter and bread. To which the Spartan objected: “If I had butter and bread, I would get involved with this fish.”
Fortunately, not all Greeks are Spartans, and Greek cuisine in general has never adhered to such asceticism.

The history of Hellas dates back to ancient times. The significance of Greek civilization for the modern world is priceless. Art, philosophy, science, politics, language are rooted in Greek culture. Whatever happens in today's century, we can find a prototype for this millennia ago, if not in real historical events, then certainly in myths and legends.

Studying the foundation of modern civilization allows us to avoid naive disappointments in the human race, understand the driving forces of history, learn the meaning of the past and learn to foresee the future.

Where did the Greeks get the strength for great achievements in their glorious and entertaining story?
What did they eat in ancient times?

GREEK CUISINE and, in general, the FOOD CULTURE existing in this country, which became the basis of the most healthy Mediterranean cuisine in the world, is a subject of special national pride for the Greeks, along with the Acropolis, Homer and Alexander the Great.

The ancient Greek diet consisted of foods that did not raise blood sugar levels, meaning they did not lead to weight gain. That's why the Greeks were so slim and beautiful! And all this is still very useful for us (and not only in fitness clubs!)

The ancient Greeks widely used olives and olive oil in their diet.

Since ancient times, olives have been preserved in Greece sea salt. A little natural wine vinegar and olive oil were added to the black olive brine. Olives were given different flavors by using various herbs and spices. Olives were salted, pickled and used as an appetizer, side dish, seasoning for fish and many other dishes - the addition of just a few olives gives dishes a special taste. According to modern views, olives serve as a kind of biochemical regulator for the absorption of salt and fats.

Olive oil was produced from mature olives by cold pressing (modern extra virgin). This oil is extremely valuable and beneficial for health and contains maximum useful substances. It is important to note that any olive oil, unlike other oils, does not emit carcinogenic substances when heated!

Bread was then baked not white, but coarse, from semi-processed flour(which contributed to better digestion of other foods).

In Ancient Greece, the first mention of “sour” bread, that is, bread made from fermented dough, dates back to the 5th century. BC. However, such bread was considered a delicacy, was much more expensive than unleavened bread, and was consumed only by wealthy people. Homer, who described the meals of his heroes, left us evidence that the aristocrats of Ancient Greece considered bread to be a completely independent dish.

In those distant times, lunch was usually served with two dishes: a piece of meat roasted on a spit and white wheat bread. Each of these two dishes was eaten separately, and bread was given the most significant and honorable role. Homer compares wheat to the human brain, referring to its importance in people's lives. He says that the richer the owner of the house, the more abundant the white bread in his house. The following curious fact speaks about the superstitious reverence with which bread was treated in Ancient Greece. The Hellenes were firmly convinced that if a person eats his food without bread, he commits a great sin and will certainly be punished by the gods.

The bakers of Ancient Greece knew how to bake many types of bread, using mainly wheat flour. The Greeks baked some bread products from barley flour. Inexpensive varieties of bread were prepared from wholemeal flour, with big amount bran. Such bread served as the main food for the common people. Bakers of Ancient Greece also sold rich bread products, which included honey, fat, and milk. But these “sweet breads” were more expensive regular bread and treated them to treats. It is interesting to note that among the stern Spartans, bread was considered the greatest luxury, and it was placed on the table only on the most solemn occasions.

Why is bread called bread? We owe the very origin of the word “bread” to the bakers of Ancient Greece. Greek craftsmen used specially shaped pots called “klibanos” to produce this product. From this word, according to experts, the ancient Goths formed the word “hlifes”, which then passed into the language of the ancient Germans, Slavs and many other peoples. In the Old German language there is a word “khlaib”, which is similar to our “bread”, Ukrainian “khlib” and Estonian “leib”.

The saying regarding bread, which is the head of everything, was also in use in Ancient Hellas: it was bread that was considered the main dish on the table (because there was little of it), everything else was due only generous addition to scarce bread (but what an addition!).

So they didn’t eat only bread. What was supposed to be served with bread?

Vegetables and fruits were served with bread, and beans of all kinds (due to their prevalence and cheapness), olives and figs were especially popular. We used only olive oil, no butter. They willingly drank milk, especially sheep's, and also made white, soft milk from it. sheep cheese, more like cottage cheese.

And, most importantly, they ate a lot of fish and seafood of all kinds: oysters, squid, mussels, scallops- there has never been a lack of complete animal protein! After all, Greece is washed by the sea, has many islands, and the sea is full of fish.

One day the Greek philosopher Demonax was getting ready to go on a sea voyage. The weather was not favorable to him - a storm was approaching. One of the friends turned to Demonax: “Aren't you scared? After all, the ship could sink and you could be eaten by fish!” Philosopher Demonax only smiled in response: “I have eaten so many fish in my life that it will be quite fair if they eventually eat me.”

The art of cooking fish has been highly valued since ancient times. It was based on experience and culinary skills peoples living on the Mediterranean coast.

Paradoxical as it may seem, in early history In ancient Greece, surrounded on all sides by seas, there was a period (XI-VIII centuries BC) when fish was considered food only for poor people. Confirmation of this can be found in the pages of Homer's Iliad. (Much later in Europe, a similar thing happened with oysters.)

The development of fish cuisine began much later, during the heyday of Ancient Greece. Already the myths about the Argonauts tell about the travels of the Greeks for fish to the unknown shores of the Pontus Euxine (the so-called Black Sea), since there was a shortage of fish in the Greek markets. Tuna fish were most valued, sturgeon took second place, which is mentioned by Herodotus: “Large fish without a backbone, called sturgeon, are caught for salting.”

The characters of Epicharmus's comedy "Hebe's Dinner Party" - carefree revelers, gods and goddesses, great lovers of delicious food - get special pleasure from sea fish. They are on friendly terms with the sea god Poseidon, who delivers them on ships a large number of fish and shellfish are a divine delicacy.

The secrets of preparing other ancient Greek dishes have not been solved to this day. How, say, can you serve a whole fish, one third of which was fried, one third boiled, one third salted?

Sea fish was held in high esteem both in Ancient Rome (here it was salted, pickled, smoked) and in Asia. The Greek comedian Aristophanes, who was at one time an ambassador to the Persian court, wrote that the king of the Persians gave a generous reward to the one who invented a new fish dish.

The Greeks ate a lot of game meat (animals and birds), which in those days was found in unimaginable abundance. But even rich people ate little meat from domestic animals: it was too expensive to slaughter a lamb every day, which produces so much milk and wool. Therefore, lamb dishes were served only on holidays, when sacrifices were made to the gods.

One of the ancient Greek myths tells how the titan Prometheus, who brought fire to people, butchered a lamb for sacrifice and laid out the meat in two piles: in the first he dumped all the bones, covering them with fat on top, and in the second - all the meat, covering it with tripe and skin . After this, the cunning Prometheus invited the father of the gods, Zeus, to choose a bunch for himself. He, naturally, chose the pile with fat. And he miscalculated, but it was already too late. Since then, the cunning Greeks sacrificed useless garbage and bones to the gods, and ate everything tasty themselves so that the goodness would not be lost. In general, the Greeks are very smart people!

The ancient Greeks did not have on their table a number of products familiar to us: rice, melons and watermelons, peaches and apricots, lemons and oranges (arrived later from Asia), tomatoes, potatoes, corn (imported from America). Pumpkins and cucumbers were a curiosity and were expensive. Nuts, which we now call walnuts (i.e. Greek), were an imported delicacy.

There was no sugar, they used it instead honey, which is much healthier than sucrose. And there was a lot of honey in Ancient Hellas.

The Greeks did not know the cereal, which we call buckwheat (“Greek cereal”) (even now they practically do not eat it).

What did the ancient Greeks drink? They had no tea, no coffee, no cocoa. Only one wine. It was always diluted with water in a ratio of 1:2 (a measure of wine to two measures of water) or 1:3; there were even special bell-shaped krater vessels for this purpose. But they did not dilute the wine with water in order to avoid getting drunk: they simply tried to disinfect well water with wine. Most often they drank not from cups and goblets (although they also existed), but from special vessels called “kilik” - a saucer with handles on a long leg.

After olive oil, wine has always been the main source of pride in Greece.“Wine is the mirror of the human soul,” said Alcaeus, the famous poet from Lesbos.

Greece is the birthplace of European winemaking. On the island of Crete, grapes have been cultivated for four thousand years, on mainland Greece - three thousand.

Grapevines grow on terraces along mountain slopes throughout Greece. It is planted in the valleys, between fruit trees, and it stretches from one tree to another. Like the olive, the grapevine is unpretentious and does not require artificial watering. The Cretans brought grapes from the coast of Asia Minor and cultivated them. They quickly learned the secret of grapes - judging by the cellars of the Kpos palaces, in the 2nd millennium BC. e. Wine production flourished here. And the myth says that the god of wine Dionysus married the Cretan princess Ariadne.

No god was revered in Greece as much as Dionysus! In Ancient Greece, the Dionysia holidays were timed to coincide with the beginning of the harvest. It was a time of crazy dancing and wild fun. Dionysus, or Bacchus, walked with a cheerful retinue, consisting of goat-footed satyrs and bacchantes. The wine flowed like a river. Bacchus was revered mainly by the common people. God the Liberator gave them oblivion from worries and sorrows. At the annual stormy festivities in his honor, even the spirits, as the Hellenes believed, paid tribute to the new wine, and then, naturally, demanded snacks. Therefore, the residents who had had a good time locked themselves in their houses out of harm’s way, and left stew on the doorstep for the drunken spirits.

As already mentioned, in those days wine was diluted with water at the rate of 1 part wine + 3 parts water, at most 1:2. Mixing parts of equal volume was considered the lot of “bitter drunkards.” (And there was no fortified wine then.)

Athenian statesman Eubulus in 375 BC said this about the measure in drinking wine: “I must mix three cups: one for health, the second for love and pleasure, the third for good night. After drinking three cups, the wise guests go home. The fourth cup is no longer ours, it belongs to violence; fifth - noise; sixth - drunken revelry; seventh - black eyes; the eighth - to law enforcement officers; the ninth - to suffering and the tenth - to madness and the destruction of furniture."

The most famous and ancient Greek wine is RETZINA. And to this day it is the only wine, which has a strong aroma and taste of resin (retsina translated from Greek - resin). The name is associated with the ancient tradition of hermetically sealing amphorae with wine with a mixture of gypsum and resin. This way the wine was stored longer and absorbed the smell of resin. Nowadays, resin is specially added to this wine at the fermentation stage. It would be more correct to say that Retsina does not belong to the category of wines. This is a white or pink drink with an alcohol content of 11.5 degrees for everyday use. Drink chilled and serve with appetizers.

In Ancient Greece, 150 grape varieties were cultivated, adapted to different soils and climatic conditions. The Greeks preferred dark, thick red wine. It was placed in large vessels (pithos) in cellars for six months to ferment. Then the wine was fortified with raisins, which were always available in abundance, or with honey. Samos and Rhodes wines were considered the best. The wines from the islands of Chios and Lesbos were not much inferior to them. To this day, the tart wine from the island of Santorini (Thira) made from grapes grown on volcanic ash is especially famous. A glass of good Greek wine contains a sip of sun and sea, the intoxication of millennia and a taste of the eternal mystery of Hellas.

Already in ancient times there was huge variety Greek wines ranging from light whites, sweet or dry, to rose and red, semi-sweet and sweet. Each city-police produced its own wines.

In Ancient Hellas they grew and raisin grape varieties, and Greek raisins from those times to our time are always recognized as the best in the world.

HOW DID THEY EAT?

Plato states: a person who eats alone is simply filling a waterskin called the stomach. Therefore, ancient Greek feasts (symposiums) always took place in the company of friends. Even the Greek word for “comrade” (sintrophos) in its origin means “the person with whom you eat.” It was believed that in the company of “syntrophs” there should be “no less than the number of Charites, no more than the number of Muses,” that is, from 3 to 9, so that it would not be boring or crowded.

The ancient Greeks ate lying down, or rather, reclining, and not on ordinary sleeping beds, but on special apoklintra seats (from the word “apoklino” - “I straighten my body, my back”). Apoclintrae were made so that people sitting on them would hardly need to move at all. At the same time, we always relied on the left side of the body, because the stomach is located on the left.

For the meal, three apoclintra were moved in the shape of a “P”, and on the fourth side slaves brought small tables with food, treats and wine. There were no spoons or forks, and no knives were used at the table. They simply ate with their hands and threw the leftovers directly on the floor. Before sipping the wine, it was necessary to wash your hands in a bowl specially designed for this, decorate your head with a wreath and pour a libation to the gods - splash a little wine from the bowl as a sacrifice.

Descriptions of symposium feasts can be found in the most famous Greek writers and especially in philosophers: after all, at the symposiums conversations were held on a wide variety of topics. Plato’s most famous philosophical dialogue with the participation of Socrates is called “The Symposium”, and the question of what true love is is discussed there. And Plutarch has a whole book called “Table Talks”.

After reading all these literary works, one might think that the ancient Greeks dealt exclusively with lofty matters at symposia. No, they were the same people as you and me: they loved to make noise, happily smashed dishes in a fit of fun (they still have this strange custom), and even wrote on the walls, and even more so on clay bowls and dishes. During excavations in one house, archaeologists found fragments of kyliks with inscriptions clearly written by drunken hands. We read the inscriptions. The most decent word there was “lick”, the rest were simply unprintable.

But in addition to philosophical table conversations, the ancient Greek classics also preserved recipes for ancient dishes for us! Plato himself happily described the dishes served on the table and the ingredients from which they were prepared. Now many of these recipes have been restored, and a chain of restaurants called Archeon Geusis (Tastes of the Ancients) has opened in Greece. They only serve food ancient greek cuisine. And so that visitors do not doubt the authenticity of the recipe, next to each dish on the menu is printed an excerpt from the treatise from which the recipe was taken.

Of course, it is difficult to completely restore the atmosphere of an ancient Greek meal. Nobody mixes wine with water in kratir (craters), most likely because the hand does not turn to pour water into modern wine. For example, have you ever eaten “kreokakavos”? (We decipher: KREOKAKAVOS is pork in a sweet and sour sauce of honey, thyme and vinegar, served with a side dish of lamb peas and garlic.)

Here's a pretty simple one for you RECIPE FOR ANCIENT GREEK SWEET, which Plato preserved for us in his work called “Atlantis”:
“You take dry fruits (plums, figs, almonds, black and golden raisins, walnuts), chop them all finely and pour over Attic honey - the kind that drips from a spoon (fresh, not candied - good honey candied no later than November!). Now mix this mass with natural Greek yogurt, and...”
Oh yes, the ancient Greeks knew a lot about food!

Many ancient Greek dishes have survived to this day almost unchanged, except that they also included vegetables and spices that were not present in Ancient Greece (potatoes, tomatoes, black pepper, etc.) And many now so-called “Turkish sweets” in fact, also comes from Ancient Hellas.

And now the ancient recipe for cooking fish - “salamis”, which even the Spartan mentioned above would not refuse:

SALAMIS
(fish fillet in ancient Greek)

Ingredients :
- 500 g of fresh sea fish fillet,
- 1 tbsp. spoon of wine vinegar,
- 4-6 tbsp. spoons of olive oil,
- 1 medium sized onion,
- 1-2 cloves of garlic,
- 3 glasses white wine,
- 2 tbsp. spoons of chopped greens,
- 250 g of fresh cucumbers (in Ancient Greece, cucumbers were a delicacy!),
- 2-3 pods of sweet pepper,
- salt (black pepper was not known in Ancient Hellas, and even it will be superfluous here).

Preparation

Sprinkle the fish fillet with wine vinegar, add salt and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Pour half the olive oil into a frying pan and fry finely chopped onion and garlic in it, then add the fish, pour over the wine and sprinkle with herbs. Simmer for 10-15 minutes covered. Cut the sweet pepper pods into thin rings and fry separately in the remaining oil.
After 10 minutes, add the peeled cucumber and cut into small slices. Season with salt (and black pepper).
When all the vegetables are ready, place them on the fish and simmer them together for another 5 minutes under the lid over low heat.
Serve hot with wholemeal bread.

THE TABLE OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS
Historical overview

The composition of the food of the ancient inhabitants of Hellas depended on the economic state of the country, on the fertility of the land, and on the level of development of cattle breeding.

As social life changed, relations with other countries expanded and foreign trade grew, the nature and composition of food changed, and new dishes appeared.

As in any other area of \u200b\u200bthe life of the ancients, there were great differences in their diet between individual city-states and between the wealthy and the poor, who of necessity were content with more than modest food.

Over time, the customary hours of meals also changed - after all, the free citizens of the Greek city-states were increasingly involved in solving state affairs, which, as a rule, detained them in the agora in the forenoon and midday hours.

In later centuries, when the free citizen began to spend most of his time in the agora, the eating routine changed. Breakfast was still early, but now it was not forbidden to serve pure wine, not mixed with water.

Lunch time was moved to later hours and even into the evening, but between breakfast and lunch it was possible to have another meal at any time - something like a second breakfast, and men often had a snack right on the spot, in the agora, when they were free from government affairs minute.

Finally, in the Hellenistic era, the second breakfast became more solemn and plentiful and, since citizens no longer paid attention social activities, it became possible to arrange a second breakfast at a strictly defined time.

So, the basis of the morning meal was flatbread. Note that back in the 6th century BC. e., in the era of Solon, bread was considered a luxury. It was replaced by a more affordable porridge made from some kind of cereal or flour, usually barley or wheat.

Bread was baked at home. Professional bakers, who supplied the cities with fresh bread, appeared in Athens only in the 5th century BC. Flour was made from barley, millet, wheat and spelt.

[Spelt, or spelt wheat, is a group of wheat species with a brittle ear and filmy grain. It is distinguished by its unpretentiousness, early maturity, and resistance to diseases. Valuable source material for breeding.]

Thanks to connections with other, more culinaryly sophisticated peoples, the Greeks became acquainted with and adopted new types of baked goods. The ancient Greeks considered the best types of bread to be Phoenician, as well as Boeotian, Thessalian, bread from Cappadocia and the islands of Lesbos, Cyprus and Aegina.

Special types bread was baked for festive feasts, for example, at the end of the harvest or for certain dishes. Bread was baked from fermented yeast dough or without sourdough. Also used diet bread, baked without adding salt.

The other staple food of the Hellenes was meat. Homer's heroes feasted on beef and lamb, deer and boar meat, and they also did not shy away from birds. The carcass was roasted on a spit, without any seasoning, and then divided into pieces according to the number of guests, giving the best to the most distinguished and worthy.

For example, moved by singing during a feast, Odysseus gave the singer Demodon “the backbone of a sharp-toothed boar, full of fat” (Homer, Odyssey, VIII, 474).

Homer painted a wonderful scene of a feast of the ancient inhabitants of Hellas, telling about Achilles’s reception in his tent of ambassadors from Agamemnon - Odysseus, Ajax Helamonides and Phoenix:

He himself laid the huge lot near the firelight,
And the ridges laid out fat sheep and goats in it,
He also threw in the ham of a fat hog, glistening with fat,
Automedon held them, noble Achilles cut them,
Then he skillfully crushed it into pieces and stuck them on a skewer.
Meanwhile, the god-like Menetid lit a hot fire.
The fire weakened a little and the crimson flame faded,
Having raked the coals, Pelid spreads the spit over the fire
And he sprinkles it with sacred salt, raising it to support.
So, having fried them all around, dinner table shakes.
Sometimes Patroclus crosses the table, beautiful baskets,
Arranged the loaves; but dishes for the guests Noble Achilles
He himself divided and against Odysseus, like a god,
Sat on the other side, and sacrifice to the inhabitants of the sky
Patroclus told his friend, and he threw the first fruits into the fire.
The heroes extended their hands to the sweet dishes offered...
(Iliad, IX, 206 - 221)

Later, the meat table of the Greeks became more varied: they willingly devoured sausages or goat stomachs stuffed with blood and fat. The most commonly consumed vegetables were onions, garlic, lettuce, and legumes. The latter, that is, vegetables, were the main food of the poor.

From the 6th century BC. e. under the influence of oriental fashion and customs that reigned in the Greek colonies, where the standard of living was especially high, more and more new dishes appeared on the tables of the Greeks.

Only Sparta has preserved the ancient simplicity of morals and harsh life. A Spartan allowed to participate in joint meals had to make a contribution equal to the portion of food due to him for the month: 7.3 liters of flour, 36 liters of wine, 3 kg of cheese and 10 obols of silver for the purchase of meat. Two obols were usually enough to modestly feed one person for a day.

From this it is clear that the meals of the Spartans, made up of such contributions, were more than meager. The Spartans remained faithful to their famous dish- black stew: according to Plutarch, in Sparta during the time of Lycurgus, “the old people even refused their share of meat and gave it up to the young, and they themselves ate plenty of stew” (Comparative Lives. Lycurgus, XII).

Drinking parties and riotous feasts were not allowed in Sparta: “Our law banishes from the borders of the country that under the influence of which people are most susceptible to the strongest pleasures, excesses and all kinds of recklessness. Neither in villages nor in cities... you will not see feasts anywhere... and everyone who meets a drunken reveler immediately imposes the greatest punishment on him...” (Plato. Laws, I, 637).

However, besides Sparta, they drank wine to their hearts’ content throughout all of Hellas. The inhabitants of Boeotia and Thessaly were famous in Greece for their particularly refined culinary art. The Greek table was influenced by the luxurious feasts of Persia and Lydia, the splendor of Egypt and Babylon.

Experienced chefs from Sicily instilled in the Greeks a love of delicate dishes. With the expansion of trade relations with other peoples, the cuisine of the ancient Hellenes became richer and more diverse, subject to the increasing influence of foreign gastronomic fashion.

In the shops around the agora one could buy not only the usual onions, garlic and lettuce, but also a variety of fish, rare foreign roots and seasonings.

In a comedy of the 5th century BC. e. Hermippus “The Porters” lists the products brought to Greece from all over the world: beef, cheese, raisins, figs, coconuts and almonds.

Apparently there were two types of cooks in ancient Greece. There were free professional cooks who were hired during the preparation of the upcoming feast, and forced cooks, or slaves.

Despite their lowly position, Athenian cooks played a prominent role in the city, judging by the ridicule with which they were subjected to comic poets. The type of slave-cook, rogue and braggart, emerged from the beginning of the 4th century BC. e. very common in the Greek scene.

In Antiphanes's comedy "Cyclops", the gentleman gives instructions to the cook about fish dishes: on the table there should be cut into pieces pike, stingrays with sauce, perch, mackerel, stuffed cuttlefish, frog legs and belly, herring, flounder, moray eels, crabs - let there be plenty of everything.

Frequent in the comedies of Antiphanes, Alexis, Sotade and other comedians of the 4th century BC. e. mentions of fish dishes and recipes for their preparation show that fish was still largely a novelty on the menu of the inhabitants of Greek city-states.

There were a variety of poultry dishes and methods of preparing them. The Greeks ate roasted pigeons, sparrows, larks, pheasants, thrushes, quails and even swallows. These dishes were seasoned with olive oil, vinegar, various sauces and spices.

In general, the description of culinary recipes in Greek comedies exactly corresponds to the cooking “technologies” that existed at that time and described in numerous cookbooks.

In one of Sotad's comedies, the description of how to cook and serve fish, put by the author into the mouth of the cook, completely coincides with what is said about this in the famous cookbook of that time - “Onomasticon” by Polluca (2nd century): “Mix milk with rendered lard and cereals, add fresh cheese, egg yolks and brains, wrap the fish in a fragrant fig tree leaf and cook in chicken or young goat broth, then take it out, remove the leaf and put the finished dish in a vessel with boiling honey "

The ceremony and etiquette of meals varied depending on whether they were family in nature or whether guests were present. At everyday home meals, women sat at the table with men. More precisely, men reclined during lunch, women sat on chairs.

This rule did not apply to hetaeras. Women did not take part in meals that were not of a family nature. Feasts took place in the men's half of the house.

Those invited dressed carefully; They usually took a bath and perfumed themselves. Politeness required great care from them, and they sat down at the table without expecting latecomers. Each bed accommodated one or two people; they were placed one next to the other, thus forming something like a sofa. They were covered with beautiful blankets and were often so tall that they had to be climbed on with the help of a small bench.

The guests had pillows behind them that resembled our ordinary pillows or cross bolsters and were covered with flowers and patterned pillowcases; sometimes they brought them with them. The diners rested their left elbow on the pillow and were thus in a half-sitting, half-lying position.

The guests, seated on the same bed, turned their backs to each other; but it is very likely that, leaning on the same arm, they gave a different inclination to their body, with one putting his elbow closer to his back, and the other closer to his chest.

The number of boxes and tables varied. They were arranged in such a way as to bring the guests as close to each other as possible, placing them, no doubt, in a semicircle or horseshoe shape around the tables. The tables, first square and later round, were made slightly lower than the boxes. Near each bed there was a special table.

A certain order was observed in the accommodation of guests. The most honorable place was at the right hand of the owner; The one farthest from it was considered the least honorable. There were often disputes between the guests on this issue, as a result of which Plutarch recommends that the owner himself assign each guest his place.

Guests first of all took off their shoes, which they put on again only when leaving. The slaves washed everyone's feet and sometimes strangled them; then they served water for the guests to wash their hands. Only after this did they bring the tables, already completely set. Each guest had only to stretch out his hand to take the food prepared on the dishes.

There were no forks or knives; The spoon was used only for liquid food and sauces, but it was also readily replaced with a crust of bread. Almost everyone ate with their fingers. There were also no tablecloths or napkins; wiped with bread crumbs or special dough - they were rolled between the fingers to make balls.

Every guest was allowed to bring his slaves with him; otherwise, the master's slaves served. A special person was appointed to manage all these personnel. In some houses it was a rule that a list of dishes should be presented by the cook to the owner.

We have little information regarding the general order of large Greek dinners. One might think that dinner did not begin, like the Romans, with cold appetizers and sweet wines, at least until the time of the Empire.

Before this era, although dishes that could stimulate the appetite were eaten at the beginning of dinner, they were not necessarily cold. Then meat, fish, herbs and sauces of all kinds were served. After this, the slaves brought water and towels; the guests perfumed themselves, laid wreaths of flowers on themselves and made libations to the Good Genius, while drinking a sip of pure wine.

The tables were then removed and replaced by others on which dessert was served. Dessert in those days was very simple; during the era of Macedonian rule, it was like a second lunch with game and poultry, and they ate fresh or dry fruits and then cheese. To induce thirst, they consumed garlic, onions, salt mixed with cumin and other herbs, and salty pies with various spices.

There was also no shortage of cookies. Attica was famous for its cookies, in which honey replaced sugar; they were made with cheese, poppy seeds and sesame seeds.

A lot of wine was produced in Greece. Wines from the islands of Lesvos, Kos, Chios, Rhodes and Samos were especially famous in the ancient world. Wines were classified based on color: dark, red, white, gold. Taste and strength were important.

There were strong, sweet, fine and light wines. Wealthy people preferred old, long-aged wines.

After the main part of the dinner or feast, the conversation began - symposium. Its participants were served wine in three craters, where the wine was mixed with water. From one crater the wine was sacrificed to the gods, from another to the heroes, from the third to Zeus.

Sacrifices were performed solemnly, to the accompaniment of a flute. The religious, ritual part of the feast made it possible to invite flute players there, who remained there even after the sacrifices, entertaining the conversational diners by playing the flute.

At feasts, the supreme manager of the feast was chosen from among those present - symposiarch, who directed the course of conversations, determined the outcome of the competition by the number of cups drunk and assigned rewards to the winners. Wine did not prevent the participants of the feast from having conversations on philosophical or literary topics, showing off a well-aimed wit, a well-found line of poetry, an impromptu pun, or coming up with and offering to those present an intricate problem or a riddle.

In addition, the participants of the feast were not deprived of female company - they were entertained by dancers, acrobats, and flutists with their performances. Hetaeras - well-read, witty and charming women - skillfully supported the conversations.

The passion of wealthy citizens for wealth and pompous feasts acquired such wide proportions over time that the state was forced to intervene in order to prevent abuse and waste through the strictest regulations.

In Athens officials - sitofylaki— had to control the city’s food supply, in particular, fight profiteering and other abuses in the food trade.

Food inspectors regulated market prices and enforced trade rules. It was forbidden to stockpile grain for speculative purposes in hopes of raising prices in the event of interruptions in grain supplies.

The role of sitofilaks was very great in times of war, crop failures and during periods of economic difficulties experienced by the state.

During the Hellenistic era, the administrative apparatus expanded greatly, and the staff of food inspectors increased. By periodically rotating them, they tried to avoid abuse and the establishment of hidden connections between officials and traders, between those selling and buying.

Prices were controlled and the quality of bread baking was checked.

When the standard of living in Ancient Greece increased, the difference in the property status of different categories of citizens became much more noticeable. Dreaming of fairy-tale lands “where honey and milk flow,” comedic heroes responded in their own way to the deepening gap between those who dreamed of a piece of bread and those whose tables were laden with exquisite, overseas dishes.

The poet Heleklid in the comedy "Amphictyons" depicts a wonderful country with doves Cup (Mycenae, 2nd millennium BC), where the waves of rivers carry cookies and pies with cottage cheese, meat, sausages, fried fish. At the same time, food itself enters the house, lies on the table, and then itself enters people’s mouths.

However, for the rich Greeks this picture was not fantastic, because it was very similar to their real life: the hands of slaves prepared dishes, set the table, and in every possible way catered to the tastes of the owners.

Historical information

1. GREEK DANCE "SIRTAKI"
Dance popular among modern Greeks sirtaki appeared only in the middle of the 20th century (composer Mikis Theodorakis, music for the film “Zorba the Greek”), therefore it is absurd when it is danced in various “quasi-historical” films, especially those depicting antiquity. After all, this is even more ridiculous than Julius Caesar opening a tin can with a knife.

2. ARCHIMEDES
According to the popular version, Archimedes climbed into the bathtub, discovered Archimedes’ law and joyfully ran naked through the streets shouting “Eureka!” ("Found!").
In fact Archimedes (c. 287-212 BC), the greatest scientist, the creator of almost completely modern differential and integral calculus (“higher mathematics”), much later re-understood and formalized by Leibniz and Newton, found a mathematical connection between an integral over a closed surface and an integral over a volume bounded by this surface. What is known as "Archimedes' law" is only one of the special cases of this dependence. Later, such a connection between integrals was rediscovered only in the 19th century and now has the name Gauss-Ostrogradsky formula. Then they were able to understand the meaning of this part of the mathematical works of Archimedes that have come down to us.
Leibniz wrote about the works of Archimedes: “When you read Archimedes, you cease to be amazed at all the latest achievements in mathematics.”

4. MYTH AND TRUTH ABOUT THE MARATHIN RUNNER
A common misconception is that a marathon runner ran 39 km and died from overexertion.
In fact, 02/09/490 BC. e. greek warrior Phytipid(otherwise Philippides, Philippides) was the first to bring news to Athens about the victory of the Greeks over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon and a little later died from exhaustion and blood loss (most likely from infectious blood poisoning as a result of his injuries, but reliable information about the date and causes of his death No).
As the best runner, shortly before the battle Phitipides was sent to Sparta with a request to send a Spartan army to help in case of defeat. Having run out in the morning, he covered 1,240 stades (238 km) by running along mountain roads in less than 24 hours, reaching his goal “early at dawn the next day,” reports historian Herodotus, a contemporary of the battle. Then, having not received an intelligible answer, he immediately ran back. It became clear to the Greeks that there would be no help and the battle could not be lost.
Not having enough time to rest, Phitipides, like all men (in those days the Greeks fought in the ranks until the age of 60), took part in a brutal 6-hour battle with an enemy 10 times superior in numbers and immediately after the victory, wounded and Exhausted, he ran to Athens, where women and children fearfully awaited the decision of their fate.
The right to bring news of victory was considered by the Greeks an honorable reward worthy of heroes, and the courageous Phitipides deservedly demanded this right. Several runners carried the news to Athens, but Phitipides, who was not used to losing, did his best that time to be first. And he succeeded.
Phytipide's feat seems absolutely fantastic for modern athletes. When the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896, at the suggestion of the French philologist Michel Breal, the first sports race between Marathon and Athens was organized in honor of the great hero. During the London Olympics, the distance was slightly increased to 42 km 195 m, so that the finish was near the royal palace.
Autumn 1982 John Foden and four like-minded people went to Greece to repeat the historic run of Phytypides (but one way and on a paved road). Early in the morning of October 8, they ran out of Athens, and 35 and a half hours later John Scholten was already in Sparta. John Foden himself finished second, also finishing in 36 hours. The third to reach the goal was John Macarthy, who spent just under 40 hours covering 246 km. A year later, in September 1983, 45 runners from 11 countries took part in the second Athens - Sparta race. This was the beginning of a run along the historical route of Phytipida, which is now held annually in September and is called Spartathlon.
Four times since 1983, he has become the winner of Spartathlon legendary Greek Iannis Kouros(Yiannis Kouros), and to this day the unsurpassed world record holder for daily running (in 24 hours). His unique record for the Spartathlon distance is 20 hours 21 minutes, installed in 1984 on this route, has still not been beaten. Janis Kouros proved that Herodotus' report about the run of Phytypides is not a historical myth, and a person is able to run this distance in less than 24 hours, which all sports experts had previously considered absolutely impossible. Russian Alexander Falkov ran this distance in 2005 in 34 hours 48 minutes.
Only the best runners are allowed to participate in the Spartathlon distance; men and women start together.
In 2002, phenomenal Irina Reutovich from Kaliningrad was the first among women, covering the entire Spartathlon distance in 28:10:48 - this was the best women's result in the entire history of the competition, and it has not been beaten to this day. She became world famous in 2000. Then, during a super marathon in the American Death Valley at a temperature of plus 54 degrees, she ran more than 200 kilometers and overtook all American men. After this triumph, Irina Reutovich was recognized by the whole world, and she received the right to start in the Spartathlon. In 2006, she set a world record for a two-day run (in France), running more than 337 kilometers in 48 hours (the previous record was 332 kilometers).
Victory in Spartathlon is one of the most prestigious in world sports.

OTHER COMMON ANECDOTICA STORIES THAT MANY ALREADY PERCEIVE AS REALITY

Mendeleev dreamed of the periodic table of elements in a dream.
When Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev heard this joke written about him, he said: “It would be good if it were so, but I spent 20 years solving this problem.”
Mendeleev invented vodka.
Mass production of vodka has existed in Rus' since at least 1505 (at that time vodka had a strength of 46-48 degrees), and the 40-proof vodka standard was legislated by the Russian government in the mid-18th century, i.e. long before Mendeleev was born.
The history of the sandwich sandwich.
An anecdotal version of the origin of the sandwich is the story of the Englishman John Montague, the fourth Earl of Sandwich. According to a well-known anecdote, he loved to play cards - so much that he could sit for a long time at the gaming tables in pubs in London. Once, in 1762, the game lasted the whole day, and since it was difficult to simultaneously play cards and eat at the table with a knife and fork, the count asked the cook to serve him two pieces of fried bread with a slice of roast beef between them. This way he could hold cards with one hand and eat with the other. It was a very convenient solution and since then the sandwich began its victorious march throughout the world. But this is just a popular anecdotal legend.
In fact Earl John Montagu Sandwich (1718-1792) invented the sandwich in order to be able to eat cheaply while working on serious projects, so as not to take away valuable time from hard work. After all, he was a member of the English Parliament, Foreign Secretary and Minister of the Navy of the British Empire. He also supervised the preparation of Captain Cook's geographical expedition around the world in 1778. As a result of that expedition, the Hawaiian Islands were discovered, which were originally named after the Earl of Sandwich - the Sandwich Islands. But the Earl of Sandwich did not play cards and considered card games a stupid and pointless waste of time. In addition, the Earl of Sandwich, who was very strapped for funds, simply did not have money for card games. Due to lack of money, he invented inexpensive food convenient for his work.
An apple fell on Isaac Newton's head and he discovered the Law of Universal Gravitation.
In fact all the materials of the Law of Universal Gravitation that he discovered on the basis of his many years of astronomical observations were transferred in writing to Newton, as the best mathematician of the Royal Scientific Society, by the great Robert Hooke, who discovered the Law, reporting, among other things, the law of inverse squares of distance and asking Newton on the basis of the transmitted information write a mathematical formula. This letter has survived to this day. It remains a mystery why, having verbally described in detail the formula of the Law of Universal Gravitation, Hooke did not write the formula itself.
When Newton composed the formula, other academicians challenged him to derive from it the well-known law of ellipticity of planetary orbits. Newton stated that he would remove this dependence in 3 days. But neither after 3 days nor after a week was it possible to remove the addiction. Newton lost the promised case of beer. This dependence for two bodies (the “two-body problem”) was derived by Newton from the formula he compiled only after 3 years of persistent mathematical work, and this is his great merit. The analytical formula for the motion of three bodies (the “three-body problem”) or more does not exist to this day.
Gorky and Chaliapin entered the church choir together in their youth, and then Gorky was accepted, but Chaliapin was not.
In fact they first met already at the height of their fame.
Columbus sailed to India and ended up in America.
In fact Columbus was one of the greatest cartographers and scientists of his time. He was well aware of both the size of the Earth and the geographical coordinates of India. As an experienced navigator, he knew that on the ships that existed at that time from Spain to India, if there was an ocean between them, it was impossible to sail in a western direction - the distance was too great.
But Columbus was a great scientist of his time - he was the first in the world to discover the principle of wind movement, i.e. circulation systems of the planet's air masses, incl. and what we today call trade winds.
While doing scientific work and studying the records of many ship logs of ships sailing in the Atlantic, he noticed a predominant seasonality of winds - six months in one direction, and six months in the other. There could only be one explanation for this, according to the theory of winds developed by Columbus - somewhere halfway to Asia, in the middle of the ocean, there is a huge continent, and perhaps more than one. Having carefully processed all the available data, Columbus was even able to very accurately determine the distance to the supposed continent.
It was to this unknown land that Columbus planned his expedition, and with the idea of a commercial voyage to India he only convinced the royal court and large merchants to provide the necessary financing. (In Spain, impoverished by the war, it was impossible to find funds for new geographical discoveries.)
When determining the time of departure and subsequent voyages, he used the seasonality of the winds that he discovered. The expedition members were later surprised that during the entire voyage both there and back, they moved with a tailwind - this is how Columbus used his discovery, which allowed sailing ships to quickly sail to America and return back without maneuvering against a headwind.
With a fresh tailwind, the ships sailed quickly, and the distance to the abandoned land quickly increased. In order not to frighten the commanders and crews of ships and not cause a riot, Columbus from the very beginning forbade taking measurements of the distance traveled on all ships, making them only personally, and then reporting half the data to the crew of the flagship and the captains of other ships of the expedition.
For the last two and a half days before meeting the earth, he hardly slept, intensely peering at the horizon line, where, according to his calculations, the earth was about to appear - that’s why he saw it first.
Based on the results of his research and calculations, Columbus consciously took a mortal risk - if the supposed land did not turn up, the ships would no longer be able to return due to the depletion of supplies. Going on this voyage, only Columbus knew that the expedition would be either successful or missing.
Fortunately, Columbus's calculations turned out to be correct, and we got the opportunity to use potato soup and blame America for all our sins.
At all times, schoolchildren talk about great discoveries and events They were very sophisticated in their anecdotal wit. They also composed the original formulation of Archimedes’ law: “A body pushed into water pushes out as much water as it was pushed into.”
Of course, it’s funny to get acquainted with the liberation movement of slaves in Ancient Rome through Khachaturian’s ballet “Spartacus” or study the history of the Civil War through funny anecdotes about Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev, Petka and Anka.
All anecdotes and popular speculation about historical events should not be taken seriously. After all, historical science itself is no less interesting and entertaining than various “historical” jokes.

Also about the history of cuisine, historical feasts and menus of kings, see the section:

Alexandr Duma

7 (55700) 6 57 133 7 years

The composition of the food of the ancient inhabitants of Hellas depended on the economic state of the country, on the fertility of the land, and on the level of development of cattle breeding. As social life changed, relations with other countries expanded and foreign trade grew, the nature and composition of food changed, and new dishes appeared. As in any other area of \u200b\u200bthe life of the ancients, there were great differences in their diet between individual city-states and between the wealthy and the poor, who of necessity were content with more than modest food.

In Homer's era, the Greeks ate breakfast early in the morning. Breakfast consisted of wheat or barley cakes soaked in wine diluted with water. Around noon it was time for lunch: meat dishes, bread and wine were served to the table. The last, evening meal consisted of the same dishes as for lunch, but in smaller portions.
The basis of the morning meal was flatbread. Note that back in the 6th century BC. e., in the era of Solon, bread was considered a luxury. It was replaced by a more affordable porridge made from some kind of cereal or flour, usually barley or wheat. Bread was baked at home. Professional bakers, who supplied the cities with fresh bread, appeared in Athens only in the 5th century BC. Flour was made from barley, millet, wheat and spelt*. Thanks to connections with other, more culinaryly sophisticated peoples, the Greeks became acquainted with and adopted new types of baked goods. The ancient Greeks considered the best types of bread to be Phoenician, as well as Boeotian, Thessalian, bread from Cappadocia and the islands of Lesbos, Cyprus and Aegina. Special types of bread were baked for festive feasts, for example at the end of the harvest or for certain dishes. Bread was baked from fermented, yeast dough or without sourdough. Dietary bread was also consumed, baked without adding salt. The other staple food of the Hellenes was meat. Homer's heroes feasted on beef and lamb, deer or boar meat, and they also did not shy away from birds. The carcass was roasted on a spit, without any seasoning, and then divided into pieces according to the number of guests, giving the best to the most distinguished and worthy. For example, moved by singing during a feast, Odysseus gave the singer Demodon “the backbone of a sharp-toothed boar, full of fat” (Homer, Odyssey, VIII, 474).
Later, the meat table of the Greeks became more varied: they willingly devoured sausages or goat stomachs stuffed with blood and fat. The most commonly consumed vegetables were onions, garlic, lettuce, and legumes. The latter, that is, vegetables, were the main food of the poor. From the 6th century BC. e. under the influence of oriental fashion and customs that reigned in the Greek colonies, where the standard of living was especially high, more and more new dishes appeared on the tables of the Greeks. Only Sparta has preserved the ancient simplicity of morals and harsh life. The Spartans remained faithful to their famous dish - black stew: according to Plutarch, in Sparta during the time of Lycurgus, “the old people even refused their share of meat and gave it up to the young, and they themselves ate plenty of stew.”

The Greek table was influenced by the luxurious feasts of Persia and Lydia, the splendor of Egypt and Babylon. Experienced chefs from Sicily instilled in the Greeks a love of delicate dishes. With the expansion of trade relations with other peoples, the cuisine of the ancient Hellenes became richer and more diverse, subject to the increasing influence of foreign gastronomic fashion. In the shops around the agora one could buy not only the usual onions, garlic and lettuce, but also a variety of fish, rare foreign roots and seasonings. In a comedy of the 5th century BC. e. Hermippus "The Porters" lists the products brought to Greece from all over the world: beef, cheese, raisins, figs, coconuts and almonds.
In Antiphanes's comedy "Cyclops", the gentleman gives the cook instructions about fish dishes: on the table there should be cut into pieces pike, stingrays with sauce, perch, mackerel, stuffed cuttlefish, frog legs and belly, herring, flounder, moray eels, crabs - let there be everything plenty. Frequent in the comedies of Antiphanes, Alexis, Sotade and other comedians of the 4th century BC. e. mentions of fish dishes and recipes for their preparation show that fish was still largely a novelty on the menu of the inhabitants of Greek city-states. There were a variety of poultry dishes and methods of preparing them. The Greeks ate roasted pigeons, sparrows, larks, pheasants, thrushes, quails and even swallows. These dishes were seasoned with olive oil, vinegar, various sauces and spices. In general, the description of culinary recipes in Greek comedies exactly corresponds to the cooking “technologies” that existed at that time and described in numerous cookbooks. In one of Sotad's comedies, the description of how to cook and serve fish, put by the author into the mouth of the cook, completely coincides with what is said about this in the famous cookbook of that time - “Onomasticon” by Polluca (2nd century): “Mix milk with rendered lard and cereals, add fresh cheese, egg yolks and brains, wrap the fish in a fragrant fig tree leaf and cook in chicken or young goat broth, then take it out, remove the leaf and put the finished dish in a vessel with boiling honey "
Dessert in those days was very simple; during the era of Macedonian rule, it was like a second lunch with game and poultry, and they ate fresh or dry fruits and then cheese. To induce thirst, they consumed garlic, onions, salt mixed with cumin and other herbs, and salty pies with various spices. There was also no shortage of cookies. Attica was famous for its cookies, in which honey replaced sugar; they were made with cheese, poppy seeds and sesame seeds.

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Answers

2 0

7 (50998) 5 50 154 7 years

The ancient Greeks widely used olives and olive oil in their diet.

Since ancient times in Greece, olives have been preserved with sea salt. A little natural wine vinegar and olive oil were added to the black olive brine. Olives were given different flavors by using various herbs and spices. Olives were salted, pickled and used as an appetizer, side dish, seasoning for fish and many other dishes - the addition of just a few olives gives dishes a special taste. According to modern views, olives serve as a kind of biochemical regulator for the absorption of salt and fats.

Olive oil was produced from mature olives by cold pressing (modern extra virgin). This oil is extremely valuable and healthy and contains a maximum of useful substances. It is important to note that any olive oil, unlike other oils, does not emit carcinogenic substances when heated!

Back then, bread was baked not white, but coarse, from semi-processed flour (which contributed to better digestion of other products).

The bakers of Ancient Greece knew how to bake many types of bread, using mainly wheat flour. The Greeks baked some bread products from barley flour. Inexpensive varieties of bread were made from wholemeal flour with a large amount of bran. Such bread served as the main food for the common people. Bakers of Ancient Greece also sold rich bread products, which included honey, fat, and milk. But such “sweet breads” were more expensive than regular bread and were classified as delicacies. It is interesting to note that among the stern Spartans, bread was considered the greatest luxury, and it was placed on the table only on the most solemn occasions.

In Ancient Greece, as in Ancient Egypt, stale bread played a special role. It was believed to help with stomach diseases. It was prescribed as a medicine to patients suffering from indigestion and other diseases. Some ancients believed that just licking the crust of stale bread would help stop stomach pain.

Vegetables and fruits were served with bread, and beans of all kinds (due to their prevalence and cheapness), olives and figs were especially popular. We used only olive oil, no butter. They willingly drank milk, especially sheep's milk, and also made white, soft sheep's cheese from it, more like cottage cheese.

And, most importantly, we ate a lot of fish and seafood of all kinds: oysters, squid, mussels, scallops - there was never a lack of complete animal protein! After all, Greece is washed by the sea, has many islands, and the sea is full of fish.

The art of cooking fish has been highly valued since ancient times. It was based on the experience and culinary skills of the peoples who lived on the Mediterranean coast.

Paradoxically, in the early history of Ancient Greece, surrounded on all sides by seas, there was a period (XI-VIII centuries BC) when fish was considered food only for poor people. Confirmation of this can be found in the pages of Homer's Iliad. (Much later in Europe, a similar thing happened with oysters.)

The development of fish cuisine began much later, during the heyday of Ancient Greece. Already the myths about the Argonauts tell about the travels of the Greeks for fish to the unknown shores of the Pontus Euxine (the so-called Black Sea), since there was a shortage of fish in the Greek markets. Tuna fish were most valued, sturgeon took second place, which is mentioned by Herodotus: “Large fish without a backbone, called sturgeon, are caught for salting.”

The characters of Epicharmus's comedy "Hebe's Dinner Party" - carefree revelers, gods and goddesses, great lovers of delicious food - get special pleasure from sea fish. They are on friendly terms with the sea god Poseidon, who delivers them on ships large quantities of fish and shellfish - a divine delicacy.

The secrets of preparing other ancient Greek dishes have not been solved to this day. How, say, can you serve a whole fish, one third of which was fried, one third boiled, one third salted?

The Greeks ate a lot of game meat (animals and birds), which in those days was found in unimaginable abundance. But even rich people ate little meat from domestic animals: it was too expensive to slaughter a lamb every day, which produces so much milk and wool. Therefore, lamb dishes were served only on holidays, when sacrifices were made to the gods.

There was no sugar; honey was used instead, which is much healthier than sucrose. And there was a lot of honey in Ancient Hellas.

The Greeks did not know the cereal, which we call buckwheat (“Greek cereal”) (even now they practically do not eat it).

After olive oil, wine has always been the main source of pride in Greece.“Wine is the mirror of the human soul,” said Alcaeus, the famous poet from Lesbos.

Greece is the birthplace of European winemaking. On the island of Crete, grapes have been cultivated for four thousand years, on mainland Greece - three thousand.

Grapevines grow on terraces along mountain slopes throughout Greece. In the valleys it is planted between fruit trees, and it stretches from one tree to another. Like the olive, the grapevine is unpretentious and does not require artificial watering. The Cretans brought grapes from the coast of Asia Minor and cultivated them. They quickly learned the secret of grapes - judging by the cellars of the Kpos palaces, in the 2nd millennium BC. e. Wine production flourished here. And the myth says that the god of wine Dionysus married the Cretan princess Ariadne.

The most famous and ancient Greek wine is RETZINA. And to this day it is the only wine that has a strong aroma and taste of resin (retsina in Greek means resin). The name is associated with the ancient tradition of hermetically sealing amphorae with wine with a mixture of gypsum and resin. This way the wine was stored longer and absorbed the smell of resin. Nowadays, resin is specially added to this wine at the fermentation stage. It would be more correct to say that Retsina does not belong to the category of wines. This is a white or pink drink with an alcohol content of 11.5 degrees for everyday use. Drink chilled and serve with appetizers.

In Ancient Greece, 150 grape varieties were cultivated, adapted to different soils and climatic conditions. The Greeks preferred dark, thick red wine. In large vessels (pithos) it was placed in cellars for six months to ferment. Then the wine was fortified with raisins, which were always available in abundance, or with honey. Samos and Rhodes wines were considered the best. The wines from the islands of Chios and Lesbos were not much inferior to them. To this day, the tart wine from the island of Santorini (Thira) made from grapes grown on volcanic ash is especially famous. A glass of good Greek wine contains a sip of sun and sea, the intoxication of millennia and a taste of the eternal mystery of Hellas.

Already in ancient times there was a huge variety of Greek wines, ranging from light whites, sweet or dry, to rose and red, semi-sweet and sweet. Each city-police produced its own wines.

In Ancient Hellas, raisin grape varieties were also grown, and Greek raisins from those times to our time have always been recognized as the best in the world.

The culinary traditions of Greece are deeply rooted in the past. They were formed over more than four thousand years. Greek cuisine has absorbed the traditions of Italy, France, the countries of the Middle East, as well as culinary preferences residents of local provincial towns.

Most recipes national dishes passed down from generation to generation, so Greek dishes are literally time-tested.

general characteristics

Greek culture is considered the cradle of all European civilization, and its gastronomic sphere is no exception. It was in Greece in 320 BC that the first in history was written cookbook. Later, the culinary heritage of Greece passed on to the Roman Empire, and then the traditions of Greek cuisine spread throughout the European continent and beyond.

The cuisine of Ancient Greece was characterized by modesty and simplicity - today the same qualities are inherent in modern Greek cuisine. It was in Ancient Greece that the so-called “Mediterranean triad” was formed: three pillars on which greek cooking still stands today. This is , and . It is noteworthy that the ancient Greeks ate meat quite rarely: the climate and terrain were not conducive to raising large livestock, so the diet of the local population consisted exclusively of goat meat.

Most Greek dishes are easy to prepare and include vegetables, spices and olive oil. It is noteworthy that even in the most expensive restaurants and taverns the main dishes up to today are foods that were present in the diet of the ancient Greeks.

During the period of its development, Greek cuisine absorbed the traditions of Arab, Slavic, Italian and Turkish culinary schools, but managed to maintain its originality, becoming one of the country's attractions. Over many millennia, the local population has developed a special approach to food, a very unique philosophy. Meal is seen here not just as a process of eating, but primarily as a way to have a good time.

Therefore, although in modern world The pace of life is fast; the Greeks are not in a hurry. A day in Greece starts off pretty light breakfast, which usually includes a cup with a sandwich or crackers. An equally light lunch follows around noon, and around 3:00 pm it is time for lunch. Unlike most Mediterranean countries, lunches in Greece are very filling and hearty. Dinner is usually served between 20:00 and 23:00. However, the evening meal is usually lighter. Greeks usually dine in restaurants or taverns, in good company.

Characteristics

In order to understand what Greek cuisine is, you should dwell on its characteristic features.

Dishes in Greece are usually prepared exclusively from very fresh products, and the requirements for the quality of ingredients are quite stringent.
Herbs and spices are present in very significant quantities in Greek dishes. Local chefs use oregano, cloves, and thyme more often than their colleagues from other Mediterranean countries.
One of the “tricks” of Greek cuisine is a very small amount. An alternative, oddly enough, is . This fruit is added to soups and sauces, and it is served with meat, fish, and vegetables. Greek chefs believe that lemon is much more effective than salt, helping to emphasize the taste of a dish and making it more refined.
Greek is another of the local delicacies. It is characterized by high fat content, and due to its dense consistency it is more similar to. As a rule, it is added to vegetable dishes and is also used to make sauces.
The “calling card” of Greek cuisine is olive oil. An interesting fact: almost every Greek family, even those living in the city, owns several olive trees, which can grow even tens of kilometers from their owners’ place of residence. Olives, of which more than fifty varieties are known in Greece, are usually harvested from November to January.
Another "trick" local cuisine- these are the so-called “mezes”. This definition hides a wide selection of light snacks made from vegetables, meat, fish and herbs. They are served before every meal as a separate dish.
The Greeks are not too keen on sauces. A traditional addition to meat or fish is a mixture of olive oil and vinegar with herbs. Also popular are beaten eggs with and “zadiki” - a dish made from greek yogurt, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and cucumber pulp with salt and pepper.
The main drink in Greece is coffee. They drink it in all forms: cold, hot, with the addition of spices and alcohol.

Main dishes

The range of dishes of traditional Greek cuisine is quite wide. It is noteworthy that most of them are not too difficult to prepare, but at the same time they have a wonderful taste.

Vegetable dishes

Vegetable dishes are incredibly popular in Greece. When preparing them, cooks are guided by three basic rules: the original product must be fresh, it must be correctly combined with other ingredients in the dish, and its original taste must be preserved. That is why the Greeks use minimal heat treatment for vegetable dishes.

The “kings” of Greek cuisine are. They fry them, prepare caviar from them and stuff them with meat (this dish is called “melitsanes” or “melizanes”).

Bread and flour products

The Greeks consume relatively little bread. The main requirement that local residents place on any baked goods is that they must be fresh.

The most common breads in Greece are “pita”, which are baked from or. They are used to prepare rolls with various fillings, or simply used as a raw material for chips or crackers (the flatbread is cut into small squares and dried).

It is noteworthy that pies are also made from the same dough that is used to make flatbreads, which is why most names of Greek pastries contain the phrase “pita”: “spanakopita” (pie with cheese and spinach), “creatopita” (pie with meat filling) , “tiropita” (cheese pie), etc.

In addition, Greece is the birthplace of which is used to prepare baklava and strudel. The finest stretch dough The thickness can be compared to a sheet of paper.

Dessert

A variety of jams and preserves are also popular in Greece. It is prepared not only from berries and fruits, but even from vegetables. Carrot, pumpkin or eggplant jam will surprise no one here.

Greek ice cream is also famous for its taste. They sell it both by weight and in special containers.

Beverages

During meals in Greece, fruit juices are usually served, mineral water or regular drinking water with the addition of lemon juice. At the same time, coffee is considered a source of national pride in Greece. Its preparation is a real ritual.

Traditional “kafes helliniko” is prepared exclusively from freshly ground Robusta grains. The obligatory characteristics of Greek coffee are thick foam - “kaimaki” and an equally thick sediment that remains at the bottom of the coffee cup.

At the same time, coffee in Greece is usually drunk in its “natural” form, without milk and. It is believed that any flavoring additives turn this noble drink into an element of fast food, and therefore coffee with milk is usually served in mini-cafes or fast food establishments.

Greek wines are not very well known outside the country. This is due to the fact that the productivity of most wineries is limited, and therefore the best varieties often do not even “travel” outside the region.

Peculiar " business card» Greek winemaking is Retsina. This is one of the most ancient varieties of wine on the planet, the method of production of which has remained unchanged for more than two thousand years. Retsina is a fairly strong wine that is prepared using oxygen-free fermentation. This drink owes its very specific taste to the pine resin that is used to clean it. Retsina is prepared exclusively in Greece and is not exported outside the country because taste qualities She has very specific ones, and after opening the bottle, the wine turns sour very quickly, turning into vinegar.

Benefit for health

According to nutritionists, Greek cuisine is incredibly healthy. First of all, in chemical composition Most local dishes are present, and, which have a beneficial effect on the health of the heart and blood vessels, help remove “harmful” ones from the body and reduce the risk of developing obesity and diabetes.

In addition, thanks to gentle cooking, most Greek dishes retain the minerals and vitamins present in the original ingredients.

According to a 2003 study conducted by scientists from the University of Athens in Greece and Harvard University, those who adhere to the traditional Greek diet are 33% less likely to die from heart disease and 24% less likely to die from cancer.

Cooking Salamis (Greek fish fillet)

To prepare traditional Greek dish salamis you will need: 500 grams of fish fillet, one clove of garlic, one onion, two tablespoons of lemon juice and the same amount of olive oil, a couple of tomatoes, the same amount, two, two tablespoons of white wine, herbs, and salt to taste.

Remove the skin from the fish fillet and remove the bones. Sprinkle it with lemon juice and salt.

Pour a tablespoon of olive oil into the pan. Heat and fry finely chopped onion and garlic. Place the fillet in the pan, pour over the wine and sprinkle with chopped herbs. Simmer covered for a quarter of an hour.

Cut the pepper into thin rings and fry in another pan in the remaining oil for ten minutes. Peel the cucumber, cut into slices and add to the pepper along with the halved ones. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for five minutes.

Place the prepared vegetables on top of the fish and simmer for five minutes. Serve hot.

Preparing marinated cheese

To prepare traditional greek snack you will need: 350 grams, olive oil, or thyme, one Bay leaf, eight coriander seeds, two cloves of garlic and 0.5 teaspoon of pepper.

Cut the cheese into cubes, garlic into slices. Lightly grind the coriander seeds and pepper in a mortar. Place a bay leaf at the bottom of the jar, and then start laying out layers of cheese, alternating it with layers of spices. After laying out the last layer, pour olive oil over the cheese until it is completely covered.

Close the jar tightly and let it sit for two weeks.

Ready marinated cheese can be used to make toast.

Modern science has been studying the diet of the ancient Greeks for a long time. Descendants are eager to find out what was the secret of endurance, mental creativity and longevity of their ancestors? One of latest research decided to start from the opposite - why NOT if the ancient Greeks felt great?

Scientists call wheat one of the main atypical products for the Greeks. The ancients simply did not know about it. The traditional Greek cereal, forgotten today, was called Ζειά, and this, so to speak, is a kind of rye. The word Ζειά should not be confused with Zea - the scientific name for corn; as is known, it appeared in Europe only after Columbus returned from America.

Herodotus also wrote about the Greek “zea” - the ancient Egyptians despised wheat and barley, growing only this cereal, rich in magnesium. It was Zeevsky magnesium, according to scientists, that was the main food for the brain of ancient people. Samples of this cereal were found during excavations of prehistoric settlements around the Greek space, for example, in Asia Minor. It was one of the first cereals “tamed” by man and the basis of farmland, standing at the origins Agriculture– from Palestine, Syria, Euphrates and Tigris to the Persian Gulf.

Zeya, unlike wheat, contains a minimal amount of gluten and is rich in amino acids that strengthen the immune system. Some experts believe that consuming this cereal minimizes the possibility of cancer. The disappearance of zeya from the diet of the Greeks today is usually regarded, among other things, from the point of view of conspiracy theories. In 1928, the cultivation of zea in Greece began to be gradually prohibited, until it was completely eliminated in 1932. By the way, today this cereal is grown, for example, in Germany, but is not suitable for daily consumption due to its high cost - about 6.5 euros per kilogram. What caused the destruction of this culture in Greece is not entirely clear. They say that today this word does not even exist in Greek dictionaries.

By the way, the ancient Greeks ate meat only in case of illness. This is not a product that should be on the table every day. The ancient Greeks very actively used the fruits and leaves of sea buckthorn. Alexander the Great was a real fan of this plant. He noticed that sick and wounded horses were eating certain orange fruits, and this makes them stronger. Then he tried rubbing sea buckthorn into the horse's mane and saw how luxurious it became. From this, by the way, came the Greek name for sea buckthorn Ιπποφαές (ίππο – φάος = horse that glows). Thus, Alexander the Great introduced sea buckthorn into his diet and into the diet of his soldiers in order to make them even stronger and more resilient.

The ancient Greeks, without knowing it, invented an ideal nutritional system consisting of incredibly tasty dishes that were also very healthy. What secrets did the inhabitants of the ancient world possess?

Bread is the head of everything

Ancient Greek bread is worthy of its own encyclopedia. The main subtlety of its preparation was coarse semi-processed flour, most often wheat or barley. This bread itself was very healthy and also contributed to the complete absorption of other products. In various historical and literary sources You can often find references to so-called sour bread, which was made 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, adding a large amount of bran into it. In total, ancient Greek bakers were able to cook several dozen different varieties of bread. Honey, fat and milk were added to rich baked goods. A special role was given to stale bread. Ancient healers prescribed it as a cure for indigestion and other “food” diseases.

Poor man's luxury

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 and seafood. Oddly enough, today's expensive delicacies were the main food of the ancient Greek poor. Preference was given to tuna and sturgeon fish. Ordinary people ate oysters, mussels, scallops and squid several times a day. Prepared seafood in the most different ways: smoked, fried, pickled, salted. Some cooking secrets 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 enjoyed roasting on the fires. All this was generously seasoned with olive oil and herbs. Later, during times of magnificent prosperity, the Hellenes became addicted to beef and lamb. The whole carcass was roasted on a spit without any seasoning, 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 stomach filled with fat and blood.

sacred olive

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

An indispensable attribute of any meal were unleavened bread cakes and soft sheep cheese, more reminiscent of cottage cheese. We washed down the meal with healthy 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 selected ripe fruits. Moreover, it was used not only for cooking, but also as a preservative, for medicinal and cosmetic purposes, and even for funeral rites. The Greeks were also crazy about olives. They were marinated in wine vinegar and the same olive oil, adding spices and aromatic herbs. This appetizer was eaten separately or combined with fish dishes.

The ancient Greeks replaced sugar with wild honey, of which they had no shortage. The most favorite delicacy was raisins with nuts, generously drizzled with honey. By the way, the walnuts themselves were an imported product and were highly valued. But grapes and figs were and remain original Greek sweets.

Daily drink

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

and this was greatly diluted with water. This way they disinfected well water and didn’t get so drunk. Such unambiguous taste preferences were explained simply. Literally all of Greece, both mainland and island, was covered with fertile vines that produced berries of excellent quality. It is not for nothing that 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 prepared in a special way: amphoras were filled with wine and hermetically sealed with a mixture of resin and gypsum. Thanks to this, the drink acquired a characteristic resinous taste and aroma. In total, there were about 150 different varieties of wine in Ancient Greece. Red, very thick wines were valued more than others, which were poured into large vessels and left to ferment in cool cellars for six months. Already in those days, Greek winemakers knew how to prepare almost all types of wines known today, including light whites, sweet roses, dry and semi-dry. Rhodes and Samos wines were considered the best. Tart wine originally from the island of Santorini, obtained from grapes grown on volcanic ash, was also held in special esteem. However, almost any city could boast of a signature variety of wine.

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 at all prevent us from learning from them the principles of proper nutrition.