Potatoes appeared in Russia only during the time of Peter I and gained their popularity among the population for a long time. And what did Russians eat before the 18th century? What did they prefer and what dishes did they have on the table on weekdays and holidays?

Cereal products

Judging by archaeological finds, kitchen ceramics and the remains of various organic substances in them, starting from the 9th century, sour, rye black bread was already prepared in Russia. And all the most ancient flour products in Russian settlements until the 15th century were created exclusively on the basis of sour rye dough, under the influence of fungal cultures. These were kissels - rye, oatmeal and peas, as well as cereals, which were cooked again from soured, soaked grain - buckwheat, oats, spelled, barley.

Depending on the ratio of grain and water, porridges were steep or semi-liquid, there was another option and it was called "slurry". Starting from the 11th century, porridge in Russia acquired the significance of a mass ritual dish, with which any event began and ended; weddings, funerals, christenings, church building and, in general, any Christian holidays that were celebrated by the whole community, village or princely court.

One of the famous monuments of Russian literature of the 16th century, Domostroy, in addition to instructions in all areas of the life of a Russian person and family, brought to the present a list of the most popular dishes of that time. And they again turned out to be products made from rye and wheat flour, as well as options for their various combinations. Even then, the housewives fried pancakes, shangi, donuts, twisted bagels and bagels, and also baked kalachi - now the national Russian white bread.

The festive dishes included pies - dough products with a wide variety of fillings. It could be offal or poultry meat, game, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries.

Vegetables

Since its inception, central Russia has always been a sedentary, peasant land and its population willingly cultivated the land. In addition to grain crops, Rusichi have grown turnips, cabbage, horseradish, onions, and carrots since at least the 11th century. In any case, these vegetables are mentioned on the pages of the same “Domostroy” and then they were recommended to be baked in the oven, boiled in water, in the form of stews, cabbage soup, put as a filling in pies, and also simply eaten raw on the road or during field works.

These vegetables, as well as grain jelly and porridge, were the main dishes of the common man until the 19th century. After all, all Russians were Orthodox Christians, and out of 365 days of one year, 200 were fasting, when meat, fish, milk and eggs were not allowed to be eaten. And even in fast weeks, people of the lower class did not eat animal products. This was customary to eat only on Sundays and holidays. But vegetables, fresh, salted, dried, baked, and dried, as well as mushrooms, were the main diet of Russians.

partridges

Everyone in Russia ate meat products, but not always and often they were by no means domestic animals. Due to constant military conflicts, civil strife, beef, pork and lamb dishes were very rare and expensive. In any case, some scrolls of the 11th-13th centuries say that the craftsmen and icon painters hired by the communities to build the church asked for coins or other valuables equivalent to the cost of one ram for the day of their work.

Art and construction artels were not so rare in Russia, but their work was valued above average - like the cost of a domestic ram. Beef was considered the most expensive meat for a long time, veal was forbidden to be consumed until the 18th century. At princely feasts, warriors often ate swans or chickens. But fried partridges and pigeons were sold on Sundays from stalls at all Russian fairs, and such an appetizer was considered the cheapest.

For a long time in Russian taverns it was easier to taste the meat of a wild boar than a domestic pig, and there were also elk, deer and bear tenderloins. At home, an ordinary peasant family enjoyed hare much more often on holidays than, for example, chicken or goat meat. Horse meat was rarely eaten, but much more often than the Russian people consume it now. Still, there were horses in every wealthy household. But the periods when the peasant family lived well were much shorter than those when the same people had to starve.

Quinoa

In times of crop failures, hostilities, raids, when food supplies and livestock were forcibly confiscated from peasant families by enemies, and houses perished in fires, the miraculously saved Russians were forced to somehow survive. If disasters and famine overtook the peasants in winter, then this promised an unambiguous death. But in the summer in central Russia, the quinoa still grows. In order to somehow alleviate hunger, people ate the stems of this plant, its seeds were used for baking surrogate bread, making kvass.

Quinoa does contain fat, some proteins, starch and fiber. But the bread from it turned out bitter, crumbling. It was difficult to digest and caused severe irritation of the digestive tract, and often vomiting. Kvass from quinoa completely drove people crazy, after it, and on an empty stomach, hallucinations often occurred, ending in a severe hangover.

However, the quinoa performed the main function - it saved the peasants from starvation, made it possible to survive a terrible time, so that they could then restore the economy and, finally, start their usual life anew.

What did our ancestors eat? What dishes are considered the most ancient? Thanks to scientists, researchers and archaeologists, we can find out the details and figure it out. And thanks to modern chefs and experimenters - to see what this food looked like. By the way, some of these dishes have survived to this day, practically unchanged.

Honey

In fairness, it should be noted that the first dish, understood as natural food prepared in a special way, did not appear in the human kitchen. Let's give the palm to the bees and their immortal recipe.

Even before the emergence of the majestic and proud Civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, a primitive man, having fully learned to play with fire, could enjoy excellent dishes, for which in our time in any restaurant they would ask for a check with a decent amount. But let's start with the simplest and most ancient.

Boar meat on a stick (kebab)

At a time when there were still no dishes, but you still wanted to eat deliciously, hot stones were used for frying, or meat was simply brought to the fire on sticks. Before turning from a formidable forest animal into a domestic pig, the wild boar managed to serve as the main target for hunting by the ever-hungry Cro-Magnon. Of course, the gourmets of the Stone Age did not forget to thin out the meat rows on sticks with a few scallops or oyster mushrooms (Europeans call them Oyster mushrooms). When the meat was ready, it was slightly sprinkled with honey.

This dish has been known at least since the Neolithic era - some kind of pottery was already required for its preparation. Nettle (which, for example, holds the record for vitamin C content within northern and central Europe) was supplemented with wheat flour, as well as: sorrel, dandelion and green onion leaves. Of course, a modern person immediately wants to add spinach to all this, while removing nettles, but spinach appeared in Europe much later - therefore, only nettles, friends, only nettles.

In fact, to make it truly ancient and primitive to the fullest, culinary historians strongly recommend using not dough as a vessel, but a sheep’s stomach or a bull’s caecum. The main dressing here is meat, fat, lungs, as well as the heart of the lamb. The whole cooking process takes about seven hours, not counting the soaking of the stomach, which should be given all night.

The stew hasn't changed an ounce in thousands of years. The same ingredients: bison meat, potatoes, mushrooms, onions, spices, cranberries and much more. The same principle: first add what is cooked for a long time, then what is fast.

Sweet bread made from hazelnuts (hazelnuts)

Wheat flour, nuts and honey - mixed in a certain proportion, which we mere mortals would never recognize, should be fashioned in the shape of a crown and placed in the open air for about forty minutes. After that, hot stones were used - a technique that has survived millennia. The famous ancient Egyptian bread was prepared in exactly the same stone way. The only difference is that the Egyptians necessarily used pots with a characteristic lid to give the bread a sacred form and sacred meaning. It is proved that yeast was not used in Egypt - all the work on the leaven was assigned to microorganisms flying freely in the air.

White bread in Egypt was offered to the Gods as a sacrifice, which could seriously facilitate the afterlife of a repentant sinner. In this connection, some fossilized specimens have survived to this day.

The ancient Egyptians treated food with restraint, this can be seen from the taut figures on the painted walls. Meat (stewed, fried) was eaten mainly by representatives of the nobility, and ordinary people ate bread, vegetables and fish. Fish was considered an unclean product, and the priests, the military leader, the pharaohs openly disdained it. The people simply dried the fish in the sun, wiping it with salt.

Mercu or Ranginak

Mersu is considered to be the most ancient recipe inherited from Assyria and Babylon ( mersu), what today in Iran is called Ranginak: a pie made from dates and nuts. Also, figs, apples, cheese and wine were added to the total mass.

Garum

One of the most popular dishes of ancient Rome can be considered Garum ( garum). This is not so much a dish as a fish sauce-seasoning. Filling them with mashed potatoes or pilaf, you automatically fall under the protectorate of Caesar!

Millet porridge with milk (Xiao Mi Zhou)

If you look at the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, towards East Asia, then the most common dish is the usual porridge for everyone. Back in the 5th millennium BC, in northern China, people boiled millet, gradually pouring milk and cream into it. The southern Chinese tribes did everything the same, but on the basis of

Food security has always been the most important issue in people's lives. Based on climatic conditions and natural resources, each nation developed hunting, cattle breeding and crop production to a greater or lesser extent.
Kievan Rus as a state was formed in the 9th century AD. By that time, the diet of the Slavs consisted of flour products, cereals, dairy products, meat and fish.

Barley, oats, wheat and buckwheat were grown from cereals, and rye appeared a little later. Of course, the staple food was bread. In the southern regions it was baked from wheat flour, in the northern regions rye flour became more common. In addition to bread, they also baked pancakes, pancakes, cakes, and on holidays - pies (often made from pea flour). Pies could be with various fillings: meat, fish, mushrooms and berries.
Pies were made either from unleavened dough, such as is now used for dumplings and dumplings, or from sour dough. It was called so because it was really sour (fermented) in a large special vessel - sourdough. The first time the dough was kneaded from flour and well or river water and put in a warm place. After a few days, the dough began to bubble - this was "working" wild yeast, which is always in the air. Now it was possible to bake from it. When preparing bread or pies, they left a little dough in the kneader, which was called sourdough, and the next time they only added the right amount of flour and water to the sourdough. In every family, leaven lived for many years, and the bride, if she went to live in her own house, received a dowry with leaven.

Kissel has long been considered one of the most common sweet dishes in Russia.In ancient Russia, kissels were prepared on the basis of rye, oatmeal and wheat broths, sour in taste and grayish-brown in color, which was reminiscent of the color of the coastal loam of Russian rivers. Kissels turned out elastic, reminiscent of jelly, jelly. Since there was no sugar in those days, honey, jam or berry syrups were added to taste.

In ancient Russia, porridges were very popular. Mostly it was wheat or oatmeal, from whole grains, which were steamed for a long time in the oven so that they were soft. A great delicacy was rice (Sorochinsky millet) and buckwheat, which appeared in Russia along with the Greek monks. Porridges were seasoned with butter, linseed or hemp oil.

An interesting situation in Russia was with vegetable products. What we use now - was not in sight. The most common vegetable was the radish. It was somewhat different from the modern one and was many times larger. Turnip was also massively distributed. These root crops were stewed, fried and used to make filling for pies. Peas have also been known since ancient times in Russia. It was not only boiled, but also made flour from which pancakes and pies were baked. In the 11th century, onions, cabbage, and a little later, carrots began to appear on the tables. Cucumbers will appear only in the 15th century. And the solanaceous ones familiar to us: potatoes, tomatoes and eggplants came to us only at the beginning of the 18th century.
In addition, in Russia, wild sorrel and quinoa were used from plant foods. Numerous wild berries and mushrooms supplemented the vegetable diet.

From meat food were known to us beef, pork, chickens, geese and ducks. They ate little horse meat, mostly the military during campaigns. Often on the tables there was meat of wild animals: venison, wild boar and even bear meat. Partridges, hazel grouse and other game were also eaten. Even the Christian Church, which spread its influence, considered it unacceptable to eat wild animals, could not eradicate this tradition. The meat was fried on coals, on a spit (stewed), or, like most dishes, stewed in large pieces in the oven.
Quite often in Russia they ate fish. Mostly it was river fish: sturgeon, sterlet, bream, pike perch, ruff, perch. It was boiled, baked, dried and salted.

There were no soups in Russia. The famous Russian fish soup, borscht and hodgepodge appeared only in the 15th-17th centuries. There was "tyurya" - the predecessor of modern okroshka, kvass with chopped onions and seasoned with bread.
In those days, as in ours, Russian people did not avoid drinking. According to The Tale of Bygone Years, the main reason for Vladimir's rejection of Islam was the sobriety prescribed by that religion. " drinking", - he said, " this is the joy of the Russians. We can't live without this pleasure". Russian booze for the modern reader is invariably associated with vodka, but in the era of Kievan Rus they did not drive alcohol. Three types of drinks were consumed. Kvass, a non-alcoholic or slightly intoxicated drink, was made from rye bread. It was something resembling beer. It was probably traditional drink of the Slavs, as it is mentioned in the records of the journey of the Byzantine envoy to the leader of the Huns Attila at the beginning of the fifth century, along with honey. Honey was extremely popular in Kievan Rus. It was boiled and drunk by both laymen and monks. ordered three hundred cauldrons of honey on the occasion of the opening of the church in Vasilevo.In 1146, Prince Izyaslav II discovered five hundred barrels of honey and eighty barrels of wine in the cellars of his rival Svyatoslav.Several varieties of honey were known: sweet, dry, with pepper, and so on. wine: wines were imported from Greece, and besides the princes, churches and monasteries regularly imported wine for the celebration of the liturgy.

Such was Old Slavonic cuisine. What is Russian cuisine and what is its connection with Old Slavonic? For several centuries, life, customs have changed, trade relations have expanded, the market has been filled with new products. Russian cuisine absorbed a large number of national dishes of various peoples. Something has been forgotten or superseded by other products. However, the main trends of Old Slavonic cuisine in one form or another have survived to this day. This is the dominant position of bread on our table, a wide range of pastries, cereals, cold snacks. Therefore, in my opinion, Russian cuisine is not something isolated, but a logical continuation of Old Slavonic cuisine, despite the fact that it has undergone significant changes over the centuries.
What is your opinion?

PD 1(17) Secrets of dietetics

Nutrition of primitive man

dietitian, GBUZ of the city of Moscow "Psychiatric hospital No. 13 of the Department of Health of the city of Moscow"

The dietology of ancient man is intuition. It was this feeling that guided our ancestors, helped them choose the right food (meat, fresh and frozen blood of animals, fermented foods, etc.), and learn new ways of cooking.

In turn, the expansion of the diet, the introduction of such products as animal meat, obtaining the necessary amount of animal proteins, fats and carbohydrates, vitamins and microelements with food contributed to the socio-cultural and intellectual development of mankind.

The upper limit of the described period, which marks the beginning of a new time in the history of mankind, is considered to be the beginning of the retreat of the glacier, which occurred 12-19 thousand years ago. According to archaeological periodization, this is the time of the Upper Paleolithic (colloquially, the Stone Age), according to geological periodization, the final period of the Würm, or Vistula, glaciation (in Eastern Europe, the term “Valdai glaciation” is also used for it) of the Quaternary period of the Cenozoic era.

The social function of food

What did Stone Age people eat, what did their food consist of, how did they prepare and store it? Unfortunately, researchers of ancient times paid little attention to such important issues. However, these areas are seen as extremely important.

The social function of food seems to be the key to understanding the process of formation of ancient societies, in which many traditions and rituals of a much later time, up to the present, are rooted. It is extremely difficult to understand them without referring to the origins. The history of nutrition shows that food and the traditions associated with it contributed to the establishment of social relations to no less extent than their work activities.

Directions that reveal the topic of food consumption by an ancient person can be divided into three groups. The first, the simplest, is related to what primitive people ate. The second and third are more complex: how ancient people prepared and preserved food. These three areas will be discussed below.

WHAT DO THE PRIMARY PEOPLE EAT?

Diet evolution

For a long enough period, ancient man ate fruits, leaves and grains. Confirmation of his vegetarianism is found in the remains of the teeth of ancient people and in some indirect evidence, for example, about the absence of large groups of ancient people necessary for hunting animals.

Then climate change led to a reduction in plant foods, and man was forced to eat meat, which in the Paleolithic era formed the basis of his diet. And finally, climate change after the retreat of the last glacier led to the fact that the human diet was significantly diversified - meat and plant foods were supplemented with seafood and fish.

We propose to consider the key points in the formation of the diet of an ancient person from the moment when plant food was not enough for him.

HUNT FOR THE MAMMOTH

Most often, people followed the laws of logic and practice - they got food and ate what was found and was nearby, close to the habitat - "housing". It is known that ancient people tried to settle near places convenient for finding food, for example, near water bodies where herds of animals gathered. It is believed that mammoths were one of the most important food sources of ancient man. Mammoth in terms of nutrition attracted people with a mass of meat and fat, the latter, most likely, was indispensable for ancient man. Since the beginning of the melting of the glacier, which finally receded in the 10th millennium BC, partial changes have occurred in the meat diet of ancient man. The climate becomes milder, and where the glacier has receded, new forests and lush vegetation appear. The animal world is also changing. Large animals of previous eras are disappearing - mammoths, woolly rhinos, some species of musk ox, saber-toothed felines, cave bears and other large animals. For your information, Russian scientists currently do not give up hope of cloning an ancient representative of the elephant family. The project "Mammoth Revival" was created - this is a joint brainchild of the Yakutsk Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North of the North-Eastern Federal University and the Korean Foundation for Biotechnological Technologies Soom Biotech.

Switching to meat

Thanks to the “instinct of perfection inherent in human nature”, a person began to produce tools and switched to a meat diet, notes the French philosopher, lawyer, politician Jean Antelme Brillat-Savarin in 1825 in his treatise “Physiology of Taste”. The transition to meat food was a natural process, since “a person has a too small stomach for plant foods to provide enough nutrients”, proteins, fats, in fact, energy for life.

A special role in the formation of social behavior in human culture was assigned to meat, since meat has retained a special place in nutrition since ancient times.

A lot of meat

Of course, the ancient man consumed meat and, apparently, a lot. Evidence of this is a significant accumulation of animal bones throughout the habitat of ancient man. Moreover, this is not a random collection of bones, since researchers find traces of stone tools on the bones; these bones were carefully processed, removing meat, and often crushed - the intramedullary marrow, apparently, was very popular with our ancestors.

Hunting was sometimes supplemented by the gathering of berries, plant roots, bird eggs, but it did not play a significant role. These data indicate that the assumption of an exclusively meat diet of ancient people has quite real grounds and that such food may be quite sufficient. If numerous peoples of the North could and can survive at the present time only on meat food, then this means that ancient man could survive only on meat food.

For people of the late Paleolithic era, wild animal meat was the basis of the food system and existence. All these animals - wild bulls, bears, elks, deer, wild boars, goats and others - for many nations today are the basis of everyday nutrition.

An important role in the diet of ancient people was played by the blood of animals, which they consumed both as fresh and as part of more complex dishes. Modern scientists have confirmed that, with an exclusively meat diet, it is an invaluable supplier of vitamins and minerals.

Animal fat, subcutaneous and visceral, was especially valued, playing a significant role in the diet of ancient people. For example, in the conditions of the Far North, fat was indispensable and often was the only source of various substances necessary for the body.

Plant foods in the diet

Researchers of primitive society now have no doubt that food of plant origin and the method of obtaining it - gathering, as well as meat food and the method of obtaining it - hunting, occupied a special place in the life of ancient man.

There is indirect evidence of this: the presence of plant food residues on the teeth of fossil skulls, the medically proven human need for the intake of a number of substances contained primarily in plant foods. Moreover, in order to move to agriculture in the future, a person had to have an established taste for food of plant origin.

Vegetable food was indispensable for primitive man. Ancient physicians and philosophers wrote many works on certain types of plant foods. Based on written evidence from a later era and the surviving practice of eating certain types of wild plants, we can say that plant foods were varied.

For example, ancient authors testify to the benefits and widespread use of acorns at that time. So, Plutarch extols the virtues of the oak, arguing that "of all wild trees, the oak bears the best fruit." Not only was bread baked from his acorns, but he also provided honey to drink.

The medieval Persian physician Avicenna in his treatise also writes about the healing properties of acorns, which help with various diseases, in particular with stomach diseases, bleeding, as a remedy for various poisons. He notes that there are "people who are accustomed to eating acorns, and even make bread from them, which does not harm them, and benefit from it."

Ancient ancient authors also mention arbutu, or strawberries, as the main advantages. This is a plant whose fruits are somewhat reminiscent of strawberries. Another heat-loving wild plant known since ancient times is the lotus. The root of this plant, round, the size of an apple, is also edible.

Variety in nutrition

As we can see, the food of ancient man was represented by both meat products and vegetable products. Perhaps he quite consciously diversified his diet, supplementing the basic meat food with plant foods. This leads to the idea that the diet of ancient man was not so monotonous. He certainly had taste preferences. His food was not directed solely at satisfying hunger.

By the end of the Paleolithic, the first "food" differentiation and the associated features of the socio-cultural development of ancient people took shape. This moment is especially important for the subsequent history of human nutrition.

First, it clearly shows the relationship between food consumption and the way of life, culture and, in some respects, the social organization of the ancient human collective. Secondly, differentiation indicates the presence of preferences, some choice, and not just simple dependence on circumstances.

Understanding benefits and harms

More and more new types of food appeared in the human diet. How did ancient people determine the benefits or harms of food?

This happened in stages. With the advent of fire, a variety of diets arose, especially meat and fish. Then a person formed the concept of taste, what is tasty and what is not tasty. Then came the data from practical life, purely intuitively, and then consciously, what is useful and what is harmful. For example, people used fresh blood, without any understanding, but it saved their lives. We can say that intuitive concepts about "vitaminology" have appeared.

Blood instead of salt

An important issue that needs to be addressed when talking about the nutrition of prehistoric humans concerns salt intake. Primitive people did not need salt and, most likely, did not use it.

Before the transition to agriculture with a predominance of plant foods in his diet, man was content with the salt that he received from the fresh blood of animals. The blood of the animals eaten contains a sufficient amount of necessary natural trace elements and minerals.

The consumption of fresh blood and raw meat by primitive people was necessary even after man mastered the fire and learned to cook with it, since cooked meat does not contain enough natural salt substitutes.

Numerous testimonies of Russian and foreign travelers of the past indicate that the indigenous inhabitants of the North of Russia, engaged in hunting, did not know salt until the 20th century. So, the "steam" blood of animals among the northern peoples is revered as a delicacy. But they did not use salt and even felt disgust for it.

But the further south, the greater the need for salt. Firstly, this is due to the significant amount of plant foods consumed in the south. And secondly, life itself in a hot climate forces the body to consume more salt.

E501 - legacy of ancestors

In ancient times, salt was obtained from ash by burning plants, evaporating salt from spring salt water. The substance obtained by burning plants became widespread in later eras. It is called potash or potassium carbonate, currently registered as a food additive E501 (permitted for use by TR CU 029/2012). Potash is a good natural preservative, and they often replaced salt in cases where it was not possible to get it.

With the transition of man to agriculture, the most ancient sources and salt substitutes were not enough. The so-called Neolithic revolution, among other things, meant the end of the “salt-free” existence of a person who was forced to start looking for ways to find and obtain salt for his needs.

Domesticated herbivores could not exist without salt, thus, the extraction of salt in large quantities has become a vital necessity for humans.

PALEOLITHIC COOKING

Piping hot

It was also a necessity for man to discover new ways of cooking - "cooking", if you can apply this word to a person of the Paleolithic era. As a result, the food became more satisfying and plentiful. It became possible to eat all the parts of the animal that were previously thrown away, that is, people began to use the results of production more rationally. Man's influence on food for its transformation began to be of a conscious nature, and was not the use of the situation.

Regarding the methods of cooking, there are enough archaeological and late ethnographic data to restore an objective picture:

• simple frying of meat on an open fire;
• roasting meat in ash;
• roasting meat on coals, in skins, in leaves, clay, in its own shell;
• cooking on hot coals;
• cooking meat by holding it between hot stones;
• cooking in utensils made from animal skins, parts of their bodies (for example, the stomach, gallbladder and bladder), holes hollowed out of wood, woven from different parts of plants - bark, stems, vessel branches, natural vessels - shells, skulls, horns .

Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of various types of cooking ovens during the Late Paleolithic:

• cooking in dug holes in the ground, where a fire was made from above;
• cooking in pits dug in the ground, where they first made a fire and after the fire burned out, the ashes were raked to the walls, and food for cooking was laid out on the liberated bottom;
• pits - stoves lined with stones.

The bones of the animals themselves were often used as fuel for fires, especially in winter, when it was more difficult to get wood in cold regions, as well as in those regions where there was a shortage of wood.

The conscious transformation of food, in addition to the physiological benefits of better absorption of nutrients, also affected the physical development of a person, and this could not but lead to the appearance of a taste for food, the desire to diversify it for pleasure.

FOOD STORAGE

Delicacies of the Ancients

The oldest and simplest way of processing food without the use of any additional devices is associated with its fermentation and fermentation. Moreover, initially this happened without the addition of salt or other reagents that provoke and enhance the process. This method of cooking led to softening and improving its taste, increasing the shelf life of products, even turning inedible into edible. This method of cooking was very common among primitive tribes, and meat, fish, and plants were prepared in this way.

Everything is suitable for fermentation: herbs, and meat, and individual parts of animals, and fish, even the blood of animals. Of course, you will not find archaeological traces of the fermentation of products in the primitive era. But the fact that this method of harvesting products has been preserved among many peoples of the world is hardly accidental.

In Russia, where for a rather long period in most regions there was a shortage of fresh vegetables and fruits, a method of fermentation of food products was mastered. The famous sauerkraut is an indispensable source of vitamins in the Russian countryside for almost the entire year, as well as pickled cucumbers, beets, apples, berries, green herbs and other plants remain on our table to this day.

In fairness, let's say that fermenting, for example, fish is customary among many peoples - not only in the Far North and Scandinavia. In Russia, this method of cooking was widespread among the Pomors, who fermented fish in barrels until completely softened. Thus, the fish was not only preserved for a long time, but also received additional useful properties.

Shark meat is prepared in the same way in Iceland. True, the health benefits of this dish are dubious - the product contains ammonia and smells strongly of it.

In a word, fermentation is a simple technology, the absence of any special devices or additional complex ingredients, even salt, the most accessible way of cooking for an ancient person.

Technology for the Ages

Another very common way of preserving food, inherited from our ancestors, is freezing.

In ancient times, they were also engaged in food preservation: there were pits around ancient dwellings, which could also be used as a kind of hermetic containers - “canned food”.

Other methods of food processing known to us were widely used - drying and curing of meat, fish and plants.

All the above methods of cooking: on fire, in the likeness of furnaces, in holes dug in the ground, etc., are quite simple, they do not require special vessels.

"Gastronomic" fate of man

Of course, modern knowledge about the nutrition of ancient man is very limited. More large-scale interdisciplinary work on the study of this issue remains to be carried out, especially since man has changed very much over 10 thousand years. In addition, it has been scientifically proven that in the modern world, the needs for proteins, fats and carbohydrates differ from culture to culture. Now it is impossible to restore those foods that made up the food of antiquity: domesticated animals bear little resemblance to their distant ancestors, including the chemical composition of meat and fat. The same can be said about cultivated plants.

It is impossible not to take into account the changes that have occurred in water, air and other important elements of the human environment. The study of the initial stage of human history is extremely important for understanding what happened in the future. It was in antiquity that many foundations were laid that determined the further "gastronomic" fate of man. The most important point here is the folding by the end of the Stone Age of a highly developed food system, with certain principles of cooking, adaptations for this and taste preferences. During this period, the foundations of social behavior were laid, as a rule, associated with the extraction, preparation and eating of food. After all, the relationship between members of the community, a representative of his team with representatives of other teams was based to a large extent on the "food basis".

Intuition - the dietology of the ancients

If we talk about the dietary side, then, of course, there was no need to talk about any dietology at that time. Ancient people purely intuitively, and then consciously used fresh and frozen blood, pickled foods (sauerkraut, pickled fish products, honey drinks, fresh berries and fruits) in their diet. There were no data and concepts about the composition of products (proteins, fats, carbohydrates), about its energy value (caloric content), about vitamins and minerals, due to the fact that there were no such sciences as chemistry, biochemistry, physics. But the ancient people were already well aware of which products were beneficial to human health, and which ones were harmful.

LIST OF USED LITERATURE

Kozlovskaya M.V. The phenomenon of nutrition in the evolution and history of man, M., 2002. - 30 p.

Kozlov A. I. Food for people, Fryazino, 2005.

Dobrovolskaya M.V. Man and his food, M., 2005.

Kolpakov E.M. Nutrition of the ancient population of the European Arctic // In: Scientific and Practical Conference. Nutrition and intelligence. Collection of works. - St. Petersburg. - 2015. - p. 29-33.

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The ancient Slavs ate:

The ancient Slavs did NOT eat:

• . It just wasn't. But honey was consumed in large quantities;
• tea and . Instead, they drank herbal teas and various honey drinks;
• a lot of salt. Food would seem very insipid to a modern person, because. salt was expensive and saved;
• tomatoes and potatoes;
• there were no soups or borscht. Soups appeared in Russia in the 17th century.

The ancient Greeks ate:

• cereals (mainly barley or wheat). Everything was topped with olive oil.
• meat fried on a spit (mainly game and wild animals). Sheep were slaughtered "on holidays".
• fish in a huge assortment + squid, oysters, mussels. All this is fried and boiled with vegetables and olive oil;
• wholemeal flour cakes;
• vegetables: various legumes, onions, garlic;
• fruits: apples, figs, grapes (more than 100 varieties) and various nuts;
• dairy products: milk (especially sheep's milk), white cheese (like our cottage cheese);
• They only drank water and wine. Moreover, the wine was diluted with water at least 1 to 2;
• various herbs and spices;
• sea ​​salt.

The ancient Greeks did NOT eat:

• sugar. It just wasn't. Just like the Slavs used honey in large quantities;
• tea and coffee. Only diluted wine and water;
• cucumbers, tomatoes and potatoes;
• buckwheat porridge;
• soups.

The main feature was that they cooked mainly on fire and the "average income" was not intricate and did not take long to prepare. Everything was simple. The dressing was wine vinegar without complex sauces. For breakfast, the Slavs put - milk with bread and honey, the Greeks - cakes with honey and diluted wine.

The history of the appearance of such traditional (from our point of view) dishes for Ukrainian cuisine as borscht and lard is very interestingly described in the article "History and Traditions of Ukrainian Cuisine". We ourselves are gradually complicating everything and complicating life by cooking. And at first it wasn’t like that…… There is always something to learn from history.

Tags: history of food, stories about food, history of simple food, food history of occurrence, Russian food history, history of food development, history of food in Russia, history of food appearance.