List of ancient dishes facts for kids

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

This is a list of ancient dishes, prepared foods and beverages that have been recorded as originating during ancient history. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing from the protoliterate period around 3,000 to 2,900 years BCE.

Ancient history can be defined as occurring from the beginning of recorded human history to:

The Early Middle Ages (the end of the 4th century CE)
The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE
The Postclassical Era (200–600 CE and 1200–1500 CE, depending on the continent)

Although the end date of ancient history is disputed, some Western scholars use the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE (the most used), the closure of the Platonic Academy in 529 CE, the death of the emperor Justinian I in 565 CE, the spread of Islam in 610 CE or the rise of Charlemagne as the end of ancient and Classical European history. This list does not contain entries that originated after ancient history.

Archeologists and food historians have recreated some dishes using ancient recipes.

Beginning of recorded history to 476 CE
- Beverages
- Dairy products
  - Cheeses
477–1500 CE
Lacking time frame
Likely ancient in origin
Oldest preserved foods
See also

Beginning of recorded history to 476 CE

This section is limited to dishes that originated during the time of ancient history (the beginning of recorded human history) up to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 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 dry-cured ham from Anfu, Jiangxi, China that originated from the Qin Dynasty. It is eaten alone and also used as an ingredient to add flavor to various dishes.
Ashishim – Levantine red lentil pancake dish of Ancient Israelite origin that was commonly eaten by Jews in antiquity.
Babaofan or Eight Treasure Glutinous Rice was first created for a banquet celebrating King Wu of Zhou's defeat of the last King of the Shang Dynasty King Zhou of Shang in the Battle of Muye (c. 1123 BCE).
Bread – the oldest known bread is from 14,000 years ago in Jordan.
- Flatbread
- Focaccia – dates to ancient Rome
- Mantou – dates to 307 BCE – 250 BCE
Chutney
Congee
Curry
Fig-cake (develah) – eaten by Jews in antiquity, mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and in the Jerusalem Talmud
Fish sauce, see garum
French toast, earliest reference appears in 1st century Rome
Forcemeat
Garum – Phoenicia, ancient Greece (where it was known as γάρος) and the Roman Empire, known from before Pompeii's destruction in 79 CE.
Ham – dry-cured ham has been produced since ancient times.
Hardtack – versions using various grains date back to ancient Rome, and as far back as ancient Egypt.
Harissa – an Arab staple dish known to go back at least to the original Caliphates, and likely pre-dates Islam on the Arabian Peninsula.
Jeok
Jusselle
Lamb Stew – Described in ancient Babylonian tablets from 1700 BCE
Liquamen, see garum
Lucanica – Roman Italy, mentioned by Cicero, 1st century BCE
Maccu
Misu karu or Misugaru
Moretum
Nettle stew
Noodles – existent since at least 2,000 BCE in Northwest China, the noodle was developed independently in ancient China and ancient Rome, and remained common in both areas "through the centuries".
Oatcake – known to exist at least from Roman times in Britain.
Olive, olive oil is at least known from the Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age, c. 3000 BCE
Oxygala – a dairy product in ancient Greece and Rome. It was also consumed by ancient Persians.
Papadzules – a common dish in Maya cuisine that may be "one of the most ancient traditional dishes of Yucatán, Mexico.
Placenta cake – a layered cake of pastry, cheese and honey originating in ancient Greece and Rome
Rice – existed, but was "little-used in the ancient world" outside of Asia.

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut
Sausage
Scrapple – originally called "panhas", of ancient Germanic origin.
Sop
Soup
Soy sauce
Tamale
Testaroli
Tharida
Tofu
Tracta was a kind of bread, pastry, or pancake in ancient Greece and perhaps Rome.
Wonton
Zongzi

Ancient dishes
Acquacotta
Flatbread

Beverages

Beer is recorded in the written history of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt and is one of the world's oldest prepared beverages.
Kykeon was a common beverage of sustenance in ancient Greece, most often consisting mainly of a barley gruel mixture with various additives, sometimes written as having psychoactive properties associated with religious visions.
Kombucha originated in what is now Northeastern China around 220 BCE
Mead consumption's earliest surviving written record is possibly contained in the hymns of the Rigveda, one of the sacred books of the historical Vedic religion and (later) Hinduism dated around 1700–1100 BCE.
Soy milk has been consumed in China since ancient times.
Wine consumption and production has been found through archaeological evidence as early as c. 6000 BCE.

Dairy products

Quark

Butter – documented as existent since at least 2,000 BCE
Buttermilk – existed before 1 CE in ancient India
Kumis – documented as existing in ancient Scythia
Milk
Opus lactarium – documented as existing during the ancient Roman Empire
Quark (lac concretum) – documented as existing in ancient Scythia
Schiston – "separated milk" purported to have been invented by physicians during the time of the Ancient Roman Empire and Pliny the Elder It was prepared by boiling milk or whey along with pebbles.
Shrikhand – documented as existing c. 800 to 300 BCE in ancient India
Smy – thickened milk documented as existent in ancient Egypt
Yogurt – documented in upper Mesopotamia from the Neolithic era.

Cheeses

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

Cheese – Possibly as early as 8000 BCE after the domestication of the Sheep in the Fertile Crescent
Brânză – an ancient Romanian cheese dating to "before the time of the Romans"
Caciocavallo
Cantal – one of the oldest French cheeses, it is named after the Cantal mountain range
Emmental
Feta – existed during the times of Homer in ancient Greece
- Touloumotiri is an ancient cheese that is considered as the "forerunner to feta".
Kefalotyri – dates to the Byzantine Empire
Pecorino Romano – is one of the world's most ancient cheeses
Pecorino Sardo (Flore sardo) – one of the world's oldest cheeses that is believed to date back to the Bronze Age
Pecorino Siciliano
Roquefort
Salers
Tomme
- Tomme de Savoie

477–1500 CE

This section includes dishes, foods and beverages that originated during the time of ancient history from 477 CE to 1500 CE (prior to the Postclassical Era).

Börek – known from 14th century Persia in a poem by Bushaq-i-Atima, although it may be far older.
Hummus – first mentioned in a cookbook from Cairo, Egypt from the 13th century.
Kinilaw - raw fish marinated in citrus juices, vinegar, spices, coconut milk, and tabon-tabon fruit extracts from the Philippines. The Balangay archaeological excavation site in Butuan (dated c. 10th to 13th century AD) has uncovered remains of halved tabon-tabon fruits and fish bones cut in a manner suggesting that they were cubed, thus indicating that the cooking process is at least a thousand years old.
Kuluban – an ancient Javanese dish of boiled vegetables served in spices, similar to modern-day urap. Mentioned in the Rukam inscription, dated to 829 Saka (907 CE) and originating from the Mataram Kingdom.
Lalab – a similar vegetable dish called rumwah-rumwah was mentioned in the Panggumulan (Kembang Arum) inscription, dated to 824 Saka (902 CE) and originating from the Mataram Kingdom.
Rawon – a meat stew, called rarawwan in an ancient Javanese Taji inscription (901 CE).
Rujak – a spicy fruit dish, called rurujak in an ancient Javanese Taji inscription (901 CE).
Krupuk – a traditional cracker made from rice flour, called kurupuk in ancient Javanese Taji inscription (901 CE).
Popcorn – an ancient food used by people of the Inca civilization. The food is still commonly used in both regions.
Philippine adobo – a dish and cooking process originating during the pre-colonial Philippines.
Tapuy – rice wine originating from the pre-colonial Philippines.
Tempeh – high-protein fermented soy product from Indonesia. First known as kadêlê, and mentioned in an old Javanese manuscript Serat Sri Tanjung dating to the 12th to 13th century.

Lacking time frame

A bowl of poi showing a typical consistency

Khanom chan – an ancient Thai dessert
Poi – an ancient Polynesian staple food prepared using taro root.

Likely ancient in origin

Nattō is typically consumed atop rice.

Nattō – prepared using fermented soybeans, nattō has been described as likely being an ancient food. Its origins have been described as unknown, and it may have been developed independently in different areas that have the same ingredients, such as Japan, China, and Korea.

Abgoosht – also referred to as Dizi or Mesopotamian Meat Stew, was a stew originally made up of remnants of leftover vegetables and meats.

Different areas in the world have now spun this dish into numerous different variations – including, Armenia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Georgia, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary – the dish and its origins, however, come from ancient Mesopotamia and the recipe can be dated as far back as at the very least 400 BCE as it was mentioned on Cuneiform Tablets during the Babylonian period. Abgoosht and its variants with localised recipes are the national dishes of a number of countries worldwide.

Oldest preserved foods

Honey and alcohols, among others, have been one of the oldest found edible foods. For example ancient Egyptian honey has been found and consumed.