Byzantine cuisine facts for kids

The Byzantine Empire had a rich and varied food culture, known as Byzantine cuisine. It was a mix of traditional Greek cuisine and the wider Mediterranean food styles. As the Byzantine Empire grew and traded with other lands, new ingredients like spices, sugar, and different vegetables arrived in Greece.

Cooks in the empire loved to try new food combinations. This led to two main cooking styles. One was the Eastern style, found in places like Asia Minor and the Eastern Aegean Sea. This style used Byzantine foods but added many exciting ingredients from trade. The other style was simpler, focusing more on local Greek foods.

Eating Habits and Dishes

Archaeologists have found Byzantine pottery that shows cool designs, mixing local art with ideas from Islamic art. However, the plates and bowls were quite simple. Early dishes were wide and shallow, not good for drinking or for watery stews.

By the 1200s, deeper, narrower bowls became popular. These were much better for liquids and stews. The designs on pottery also changed, with more flowers and geometric shapes instead of animals or people. The quality of the pottery also got much better.

We don't have many written records about Byzantine dining. So, experts look at pictures from old pottery, icons, and Ottoman miniatures. For example, a painting called the Last Supper from the 1000s shows a big shared plate in the middle of the table, with two shared cups. Jesus and his disciples probably ate with their hands, as there are no forks shown.

Some experts think these pictures might be symbolic, not exactly how people ate every day. But other pictures from the 1000s also show people reaching into a shared plate with their hands. Later, in the 1300s, a Last Supper painting at Mount Athos shows food in many bowls, with wine jugs, individual bread rolls, and shared knives. Digs at a place called Panakton also found knives from the 1300s, showing they were used for eating.

A historian named Nikolaos Oikonomides studied items from middle and lower-class homes. He believes that most Byzantine families "often, if not always, ate with their fingers from a large serving plate and drank from a common cup or jar."

What People Ate

What people ate in the Byzantine Empire depended a lot on how rich they were. The Emperor's palace was full of fancy spices and exotic recipes. Guests enjoyed fruits, honey cakes, and sweet treats. Regular people ate more basic meals.

Some historians think the average Byzantine person didn't eat much meat or fish, mostly just bread, vegetables, and wine. However, others like Joanita Vroom believe that ordinary Byzantines had a wider variety of foods. She suggests they ate grains, beans, fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, fish, meat, wine, olive oil, and honey.

Because Constantinople was a major trade hub, Byzantine food was influenced by many cultures. Ideas came from places like Italy, the Persian Empire, and the growing Arabic Empire. This mix of cultures continued into Ottoman times. That's why modern Turkish cuisine, Greek cuisine, and Balkan cuisine share many similarities and use a wide range of ingredients.

The Byzantines made different kinds of cheese, including anthotiro and kefalotyri. They also loved shellfish and fish, both from fresh water and the sea. They made famous omelettes called sphoungata, which means "spongy." Most homes also kept poultry like chickens. Salads were very popular. When Emperor John VIII Palaiologos visited Florence in 1439, he surprised everyone by asking for salad at most meals! During the Middle Byzantine period, it seems people ate more meat and less bread.

Rich Byzantines also hunted animals like deer and wild boar. This was a favorite activity for men. They often hunted with dogs and hawks, or used traps and nets. Larger animals were expensive and rare to eat. Ordinary citizens would butcher pigs in early winter to make sausages, salt pork, and lard for the year. Only richer Byzantines could afford lamb. They rarely ate beef, as cattle were mostly used for farm work.

Middle and lower-class people in cities like Constantinople and Thessaloniki often ate at tavernas. The most common way to cook was boiling. There was even a funny saying: "The lazy cook prepares everything by boiling." They loved garos, a fermented fish sauce, and murri, a fermented barley sauce similar to modern soy sauce.

Grains

The two main grains in Byzantine Anatolia were wheat and barley. Barley was less valued than wheat and cheaper because it had less nutrition. Rye, millet, oats, and vetch were mostly grown for animal fodder and not usually eaten by people. Millet was not popular with Byzantine writers; for example, Anna Komnene called it "food of barbarians." It was used to make gruel and porridge like trachanas. Some poor people ate millet mixed with milk.

Bread was a very important part of the Byzantine diet. The best bread was made from "finely sieved" wheat flour, with no other grains mixed in. Besides wheat and barley, bread was also made using rye, millet, egg yolks, and chickpeas. Bulgur (cracked wheat) was also eaten.

Meat

Meat was probably not a luxury food for most Byzantines; many could afford to eat it fairly often. A typical Byzantine person might eat about two and a half pounds of meat in a single day! However, fresh meat was mostly for the wealthy. Poorer citizens ate more salted meat. Dried and salted meat was a basic food for Byzantine soldiers.

In general, Byzantines seemed to like fatty meat. Many meat dishes were cooked with lots of fat. They preferred meat from farm animals over wild game. Meat from young animals was especially popular. Bones found at Corinth from the 1200s show that many different kinds of meat were eaten during the Late Byzantine period.

The most common preserved meat was salted pork. Pork was also used for lard and fat, and to make sausages. Different types of sausages, like allantia and saltsikia, are mentioned in old texts. Some stories also mention bacon and fried sausage eaten with mustard. At an archaeological site in eastern Turkey, pig bones made up almost half of all animal remains found. Pork butchers even had their own rules in a book called the Book of the Eparch.

Beef was eaten less often than pork, sheep, or goat. This is because cattle were mostly used for working in the fields. Meat from adult male goats was not considered tasty by most Byzantines.

Many different birds were eaten. The most common was chicken, based on bones found at Corinth. Poultry was often hung up after being killed to improve its taste and texture.

Meat was cooked in many ways. It was roasted or grilled, or boiled, steamed, and marinated with salt and herbs. Innards (like liver or stomach) were boiled or fried. Poorer homes would also boil the heads and feet of animals.

Seafood

In some areas, fish and seafood were another important source of protein. Seafood was especially popular on fast days, when people didn't eat meat. Near the sea or rivers, fresh fish was eaten. Farther away, fish was dried, salted, or smoked. Before being preserved, fish was marinated in water with salt and thyme. Dried fish was eaten by soldiers on long trips. Sturgeon was a fancy fish eaten by wealthier families. Fish was boiled, fried, baked, grilled, or roasted. It was often served with a sauce. There are also mentions of unusual dishes like fish stew with cheese, or fish seasoned with cloves, cinnamon, and other spices. Poorer city dwellers also ate tarichos, which was salted, pickled fish sold by grocers.

Other Animal Products

Non-meat animal products like eggs and dairy were quite cheap and provided important nutrients. Many types of eggs were eaten, including chicken, goose, duck, partridge, and pheasant. They could be scrambled or made into omelettes called sphoungata. One dish mentioned was sphoungata made with onions and other seasonings. In Byzantine culture, eggs were often seen as food for people who were sick or fasting.

Cheese was another popular food. It came from cows, sheep, goats, or water buffalo. There were many kinds, both hard and soft. Paphlagonian cheese was a popular type eaten in Constantinople. Texts also describe Cretan and Vlach cheese, and a soft mountain cheese that was probably like cottage cheese. Cheese could be curdled using rennet, fig juice, or artichokes. It could also be coated in crumbs and fried in hot oil.

Byzantine people also drank milk quite often. It was thought to be best when drunk warm, so it was often heated. People would also drink milk straight from the animal.

Fats like butter and lard were used instead of olive oil in colder inland areas where olive trees couldn't grow. They were also used to preserve food and were sometimes eaten on their own, especially in rugged inland places like the Mecitözü valley.

Sweets

Honey was the main sweetener used in Byzantine times. Cane sugar was also introduced during the Middle Byzantine period, but it was still a luxury item that only the rich could afford.

Many experts believe that Byzantine koptoplakous and plakountas tetyromenous are the ancestors of modern baklava and tiropita (a type of savory pastry called börek). Both of these sweet and savory pastries came from the ancient Greek Placenta cake.

Drinks

Macedonia was famous for its wines, which were served to upper-class Byzantines. During and after the crusades, Western Europeans highly valued expensive Byzantine wines. A famous example is the Commandaria wine from Cyprus, which is still made today. It was served at the wedding of King Richard the Lionheart. Other well-known wines included Cretan wines made from muscat grapes, Romania or Rumney (exported from Methoni), and Malvasia or Malmsey (likely from Monemvasia).

Retsina, a wine flavored with pine resin, was also drunk, just as it is in Greece today. It often surprised visitors who weren't used to it. Liutprand of Cremona, an ambassador from Germany in 968, complained that "To add to our calamity the Greek wine, on account of being mixed with pitch, resin, and plaster was to us undrinkable."

Nutrition and Health

Studies of old sites in central Anatolia suggest that the average Byzantine peasant family usually had enough food. Their diet was likely quite balanced. They got plenty of carbohydrates from bread and grains, and vegetable proteins from beans. They also had enough, though smaller amounts, of animal-based proteins. Vitamins and minerals from seasonal and pickled vegetables, fruits, and nuts were present, though sometimes just enough. This diet would have been high in fiber but low in things like calcium, vitamin B12, and folic acid. Vitamin C might have been hard to get in areas far from the Mediterranean, where lemons and bitter oranges grew.

Most Byzantine people probably had vitamin deficiencies at some point in their lives. This was because it was hard to keep food fresh for long due to limited preservation methods. Many people had tooth problems because of poor dental hygiene. However, cavities were uncommon because they didn't eat as much sugar as we do today.

See also

In Spanish: Gastronomía del Imperio bizantino para niños