List of ancient dishes facts for kids

A plate of testaroli, an ancient dish, served with pesto at a trattoria in Pontremoli, Italy

This article is about ancient dishes, prepared foods, and drinks that people enjoyed a very long time ago. "Ancient history" usually means the time from when writing began (about 5,000 years ago) up to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE.

Imagine eating something that people ate thousands of years ago! Archaeologists and food historians work like detectives. They use old recipes and clues to figure out what ancient meals were like.

Foods from Ancient Times (Before 476 CE)
- Ancient Drinks
- Dairy Products from the Past
  - Old Cheeses
Foods from the Middle Ages (477–1500 CE)
Foods with Unknown Ancient Origins
Likely Ancient Foods
Oldest Preserved Foods
See also

Foods from Ancient Times (Before 476 CE)

This section explores foods that were first made during ancient history, up until the year 476 CE.

Congee

Ruins of a garum factory in Baelo Claudia, Spain

Papadzules may be "one of the most ancient traditional dishes of Yucatán, Mexico."

Various chutneys in Bangalore, India

Anfu ham is a special dry-cured ham from China. It was first made during the Qin Dynasty. People eat it on its own or use it to add flavor to other dishes.
Ashishim is a pancake-like dish made from red lentils. It comes from ancient Israel and was a common food for Jewish people long ago.
Babaofan or Eight Treasure Glutinous Rice was first made for a big feast. This feast celebrated King Wu of Zhou's victory over the Shang Dynasty around 1123 BCE.
Bread is one of the oldest foods! The earliest known bread was found in Jordan and is about 14,000 years old.
- Flatbread is a simple, flat bread that has been around for ages.
- Focaccia is a type of flatbread that dates back to ancient Rome.
- Mantou are steamed buns from China, first made between 307 BCE and 250 BCE.
Chutney is a flavorful sauce, often sweet and spicy, that has been eaten in places like India for a very long time.
Congee is a type of rice porridge, a popular comfort food in many parts of Asia for centuries.
Curry refers to a variety of dishes with spices, common in ancient India.
Fig-cake (develah) was a sweet cake eaten by Jewish people in ancient times. It's even mentioned in old religious texts.
Fish sauce (also called garum or liquamen) was a popular seasoning in ancient Phoenicia, Greece, and the Roman Empire. It was made from fermented fish.
French toast has an early mention in ancient Rome, showing that people have been dipping bread in eggs and frying it for a long time.
Forcemeat is a mixture of ground meat, fat, and spices. It was used in ancient cooking to make sausages or stuffings.
Ham that is dry-cured has been made since ancient times.
Hardtack is a very hard, dry biscuit. Simple versions of it were eaten by soldiers and travelers in ancient Rome and even ancient Egypt.
Harissa is a spicy chili paste common in Arab cooking. It's known to be very old, possibly even before Islam spread in the Arabian Peninsula.
Jeok is a Korean dish of skewered meat and vegetables.
Jusselle was a simple soup or broth from ancient times.
Lamb Stew was described on ancient Babylonian tablets from 1700 BCE, showing that people were making hearty meat stews back then.
Lucanica is a type of sausage from Roman Italy, mentioned by the Roman writer Cicero in the 1st century BCE.
Maccu is a fava bean soup from Sicily, with ancient roots.
Misu karu or Misugaru is a Korean drink made from roasted grains.
Moretum was an ancient Roman cheese spread or dip, often made with herbs and garlic.
Nettle stew is a simple stew made from nettle plants, likely eaten in ancient times when food was scarce.
Noodles have been around since at least 2,000 BCE in China. They were also developed in ancient Rome and have been popular ever since.
Oatcakes are flat, baked oat biscuits. They were known in Britain during Roman times.
Olives and olive oil were very important in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze Age, around 3000 BCE.
Oxygala was a dairy product, like a thick yogurt, eaten in ancient Greece, Rome, and Persia.
Papadzules is a traditional dish from the Yucatán region of Mexico. It's a very old Maya dish, possibly one of their most ancient.
Placenta cake was a layered cake made with pastry, cheese, and honey. It originated in ancient Greece and Rome.
Rice was eaten in ancient Asia, but it wasn't as common in other parts of the ancient world.

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage. It has been made for a very long time.
Sausage has been a way to preserve meat since ancient times.
Scrapple was originally called "panhas" and comes from ancient Germanic people. It's a dish made from pork scraps and cornmeal.
Sop refers to bread dipped in liquid, a common way to eat in ancient times.
Soup has been a basic food for thousands of years.
- Acquacotta is a simple Italian soup, meaning "cooked water," with ancient origins.
- Black soup was a famous Spartan soup, made with blood and vinegar.
- French onion soup has roots in ancient Roman onion soups.
- Vegetable soup has been a staple in many cultures for centuries.
Soy sauce is a fermented sauce from soybeans, used in China since ancient times.
Tamale is a dish of masa (dough) wrapped around a filling, steamed in a corn husk. It's an ancient food from Mesoamerica.
Testaroli is a type of pasta or pancake from Italy, considered one of the oldest pasta forms.
Tharida is an ancient Arab dish of bread soaked in broth, often with meat.
Tofu is a food made from soybeans, originating in ancient China.
Tracta was a kind of bread, pastry, or pancake in ancient Greece and Rome.
Wonton are dumplings from China, believed to be very old.
Zongzi are sticky rice dumplings wrapped in leaves, a traditional Chinese food with ancient origins.

Ancient dishes
Acquacotta
Flatbread

Ancient Drinks

Beer is one of the world's oldest prepared drinks. It was made in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Kykeon was a common drink in ancient Greece. It was usually a barley mixture, sometimes thought to have special effects.
Kombucha is a fermented tea that started in what is now Northeastern China around 220 BCE.
Mead is an alcoholic drink made from honey. The oldest written record of it might be in ancient Indian hymns from around 1700–1100 BCE.
Soy milk has been a drink in China since ancient times.
Wine has been made and enjoyed for a very long time. Evidence shows it was produced as early as 6000 BCE.

Dairy Products from the Past

Quark

Butter has been around since at least 2,000 BCE.
Buttermilk was known in ancient India before 1 CE.
Kumis is a fermented mare's milk drink, known in ancient Scythia.
Milk has been consumed by humans since animals were first domesticated.
Opus lactarium was a dairy product in the ancient Roman Empire.
Quark (lac concretum) is a fresh cheese, known in ancient Scythia.
Schiston was a "separated milk" drink. Ancient Roman doctors supposedly invented it by boiling milk or whey with pebbles.
Shrikhand is a sweet yogurt dish from ancient India, dating back to 800 to 300 BCE.
Smy was a thickened milk product from ancient Egypt.
Yogurt has been made in upper Mesopotamia since the Neolithic era, when farming began.

Old Cheeses

Pecorino Romano is one of the world's most ancient cheeses

Cheese might have been made as early as 8000 BCE, after sheep were first tamed in the Fertile Crescent.
Brânză is an ancient Romanian cheese, even older than the time of the Romans.
Caciocavallo is an Italian cheese with ancient origins.
Cantal is one of the oldest French cheeses, named after the Cantal mountains.
Emmental is a Swiss cheese, also known for its holes, with a long history.
Feta is a salty Greek cheese that existed during the time of Homer, an ancient Greek poet.
- Touloumotiri is an ancient cheese thought to be an early version of feta.
Kefalotyri is a hard, salty Greek cheese that dates back to the Byzantine Empire.
Pecorino Romano is a very old Italian cheese made from sheep's milk.
Pecorino Sardo (Flore sardo) is another ancient Italian sheep's milk cheese, possibly from the Bronze Age.
Pecorino Siciliano is a sheep's milk cheese from Sicily, also with ancient roots.
Roquefort is a famous blue cheese from France, known since ancient times.
Salers is a French cheese, similar to Cantal, with a long history.
Tomme is a general name for a type of cheese made in the French Alps.
- Tomme de Savoie is a specific type of Tomme cheese.

Foods from the Middle Ages (477–1500 CE)

This section includes dishes that started during the time after ancient history, but before the modern era (from 477 CE to 1500 CE).

Börek is a baked pastry dish. It was known in Persia in the 14th century, but it might be much older.
Hummus is a dip made from chickpeas. It was first mentioned in a cookbook from Cairo, Egypt, in the 13th century.
Kinilaw is a Filipino dish of raw fish marinated in citrus juices, vinegar, and spices. Clues from ancient digging sites suggest this dish is at least a thousand years old.
Kuluban is an ancient Javanese dish of boiled vegetables with spices, similar to a modern dish called urap. It's mentioned in an old inscription from 907 CE.
Lalab is another vegetable dish. A similar one was mentioned in a Javanese inscription from 902 CE.
Rawon is a meat stew. It was called rarawwan in an ancient Javanese inscription from 901 CE.
Rujak is a spicy fruit dish. It was called rurujak in an ancient Javanese inscription from 901 CE.
Krupuk is a traditional cracker made from rice flour. It was called kurupuk in an ancient Javanese inscription from 901 CE.
Popcorn was an ancient food eaten by the Inca civilization. It's still popular today!
Philippine adobo is a famous Filipino dish and cooking method that existed before the Spanish arrived.
Tapuy is a rice wine from the Philippines, also made before colonial times.
Tempeh is a high-protein food made from fermented soybeans from Indonesia. It was mentioned in an old Javanese manuscript from the 12th to 13th century.

Foods with Unknown Ancient Origins

A bowl of poi showing a typical consistency

Some foods are definitely ancient, but we don't know exactly when or where they first appeared.

Khanom chan is a beautiful layered Thai dessert that is very old.
Poi is a staple food in Polynesia, made from taro root. It's an ancient and important part of their diet.

Likely Ancient Foods

Nattō is typically consumed atop rice.

Nattō is made from fermented soybeans. It's likely an ancient food, but its exact origins are a mystery. It might have been developed in different places like Japan, China, and Korea at different times.

Abgoosht is also known as Dizi or Mesopotamian Meat Stew. It was originally made from leftover vegetables and meats. This stew and its many versions are popular in many countries today. Its recipe can be traced back to at least 400 BCE, mentioned on old clay tablets from ancient Babylon.

Oldest Preserved Foods

Some foods can last for a very long time if stored correctly. For example, ancient Egyptian honey has been found and was still edible! Alcohol can also be preserved for centuries.