Byzantine Dinner
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Byzantine dinner. History of Greek gastronomy. Diverse tasters, traditional greek ingredients and dishes. Cooking in historical times, traditional greek ingredients and dishes, greek cooking recipes.
Byzantine cuisine basically evolved from the ancient Greek gastronomic tradition. The type of ingredients, preparation methods and quite often the names of foods employed in both periods are testimony to this fact. Byzantine cuisine had already developed at a time when the European diet was still frugal and unrefined.
As in ancient times, formal Byzantine dinners were called symposia (symposiums), a word which in modern Greek evolced into tsimbousia. These festive events were noted for their ritual character, lavishness, variety of dishes and touch of refinement. After a few centuries, the anaklindra (type of couches) on which the Byzantines would recline and eat were substituted for a trapeza (large table). The latter was cleaned with a sponge soaked in water and balsam. The table was laid with a cloth that was usually white and decorated with embroidery - the elaborateness of which was determined by the host's social position, along with table napkins and several utensils which, depending on the financial status of the household, were made of wood, clay, silver or gold.
Other than the requisite tableware, standards of social conduct were also observed. Guests were expected to arrive on time and remain until everyone had finished their dinner. Strict rules of etiquette governed the seating arrangement, as well: the host occupied the top of the long, narrow table, while guests would sit hierarchically on his right. The problems that emanated from this type of arrangement led to the invention of the round table, at which all guests sat at an equal distance from the center. Diners seated themselves on thronia or stools covered with small rugs. Women and men never attended these formal dinners together.
The Byzantines were known for their refined and diverse tastes which were frowned upon by the clergy, at least during the first centuries. Later things changed, and bishops and abbots were among those to indulge in gastronomic delights.
As usual, meat was a favorite food and game figured prominently on the Byzantine table. Recipes at the time were complex and a great variety of seasonings were employed. The formal meal assumed in that period the form that is known today: forst came the appetizers, then the main course or courses and finally a desert. Sauces, which were prepared separately to impart flavor to a certain food, were ubiquitous. The diet of the Byzantines was supplemented with various cheeses, compotes, preserves and fruit.
From the above information, it becomes evident that the dietary habits of the modern western world have stemmed from Byzantine standards. Therefore, it is justifiably maintained that the food customs and principles of Byzantium were closer to 20th-century dietary habits than those of Medieval Europe.
The Byzantines had a strong preference for condiments and spices; in particular, garos (fermented fish sauce), coriander, cumin, mint, nutmeg, saffron, nard (common valerian), ect, were highly favored. Garlic, onion and leek came to play a preeminent role in cookery, and according to Constantinos Mannassis, they were used in stuffings for meats, mostly for kid brought from Melos. Byzantine writer Theodore Prodromus, also known as Ptochoprodromus (poor Prodromus), provides the recipe for monikythron, a dish which apparently was eaten mainly by abbots, and contained among other things: "a litre of olive oil, a handful of black pepper, twelve cloves of garlic and fifteen dried mackerels (Prodromic Poems 3.170). In the same literary work, Prodromus also refers to skordaton (Prodromic Poems 4.64), which was boiled meat seasoned with garlic, hence its name (in Greek skordon means garlic.
Among the favorite delicacies of the Byzantines were caviar brought from the Black and Caspian Sea, fish roe, sea-urchins, mussels stuffed with pine nuts, anise, cumin and cinnemon, various fish, mollusks and crustaceans (known today under the generic term "seafood"). Favorite meats included baby lanb, kid from the island of Melos stuffed with leeks and garlic, hare cooked in wine, pork and fowl.
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Byzantine Cuisine
- list of Byzantine recipes:
- Fried cheese with onions (Tiganito tyri me krotyon)
- Flat pita with pork and sesame (Plakopita me sisira)
- Vinegar chicken with lentis & cumin (Kotopoulo xidato me fakes k' kiminio)
- Chickpeas with rosemary (Revithia me dentrolivano)
- Sorrel fritters (Lapatha tiganita me paspali)
- Suckling pig roast (Delfax optos/gourounopoulo psito)
- Fried pumpkin (Kolokytha tiganita)
- Flower water wine with honey (Anthokrasso me meli)
- Wild greens (Horteri)
- Grilled bonito with unripe grapes and mustard seed (Palamida psiti me agouro stafili and sinapi)
- Smelt patty with garlic sauce (Bourouki diplotigano me skordalia)
- Garlic sauce (Saltsa apo skordo)
- Boiled cabbage with fish sauce (Eliogaro)
- Fig sweets (Sikomagides)
- Walnut brittle in Seville orange leaves (Pastelli se fylla nerantzias)
- Nut tarts with grape-must molasses (Plakous me petimezi)
- Sweet cheese pies (Plakous entyritis)
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