Ancient Egyptian Bread and Beer - A Quick Guide
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The ancient Egyptians did lots of farming in the fertile soils along the banks of the River Nile. These crops included cereals like barley and emmer wheat which, once harvested, were made into the staple food and drink of the ancient Egyptians
"What was the staple food and drink for the ancient Egyptians?" I hear you cry!
Bread and Beer, of course!
And lots of it.
Bread and beer would be consumed at most mealtimes for the everyday Egyptian. In fact, bread and beer were so valuable that some people even traded them (using it like money) to buy other things.
Egyptian Bread
Flat Bread
The bread wouldn't be too different from today's loaves. It would have been unleavened bread (flat bread, like a pitta) and the Egyptians would have added flavour with honey, figs, dates or spices. A bit like having honey on toast!
Egyptian Baking
However, it's not recommended to bake bread the Egyptian way. The emmer wheat would be ground down into flour using sand-like grit and tiny stones. This made the bread very rough and, given how how much bread the Egyptians ate, it often left people with worn-down teeth. Additionally, the Egyptians would sometimes kneed the dough with their feet! Foot-flavoured, teeth-shattering bread? No thank you!
Egyptian Beer
Daily Beer
Fun fact: the ancient Egyptians drank beer instead of water. Yes, that includes Egyptian children! After all, the only place to get water at this time was from the Nile. But the river was so filled with germs that if you drank from it you'd probably die shortly afterwards! Uh oh!
Fermentation
Beer was better option than water because it was a fermented drink. During the fermentation process, tiny microbes stop harmful bacteria from growing, making it safe to drink. Although, using the word "drink" might be imprecise here. Egyptian beer was probably quite thick (like porridge!), so they wouldn't really "drink" it, they'd probably more "chew" it.
Alcohol Content
And before you start thinking that the Egyptians must have been drunk all day, every day; the beer they consumed was very low in alcohol. So, given the texture of the beer, they'd probably get very bloated and very full way before getting drunk from it!