Achean food in Calabria

23.8.2023

Calabria is one of the first colonies of the Achaeans, the people who preceded classical Greece and founded its customs and perhaps even its genius.

It is therefore natural to wonder about the micro-history of Achaean cuisine as a cultural pick to draw attention to the still closed casket of customs and the highest culture that this ancient people of sailors and warriors left to today’s Calabrians. In fact, nothing is closer to the spirit of a people than the daily lifestyle, which influences the person, in flesh and blood, and subsequently all the social aspects. It becomes interesting to reflect on the legacy of foods, drinks and habits of consumption and preparation of the same that may have remained, in order to then go back through them, even if only in part, to the spirit that accompanied them, which today makes the Achaeans still similar to us and which finally, it unfolded fully in the highest acts of their poetry and literature (Iliad and Odyssey) or of science and the technical arts (from the ancient Achaean doctors to Hippocrates).

_{^{SMAF LTD}}

Explore our products, coming from CALABRIA. Order the food and beverage products that allow you to explore the Mediterranean diet of a remarkable region. Surrounded by two seas and adorned with pine forests, mysterious villages, natural habitats, and rich biodiversity. Discover handcrafted delicacies that embody the soul of the land: sun-ripened fruits, premium olive oils, bold wines, artisanal cheeses, and traditional cured meats, all crafted with passion and authenticity.

ACHAEAN TRADITION IN THE KITCHEN

From the texts found in Mycenae it was possible to reconstruct what the Greeks ate already in the 2nd millennium BC, in the middle of the Achaean era (other sources are the comedies of Aristophanes and some quotations contained in the Deipnosophisti of the erudite Athenaeus of Naucratis). It was a cuisine characterized by frugality, by an economy based on poor agriculture and naturally by the “Mediterranean triad“: wheat, olive oil and wine.

Focaccias were made with barley and wheat; there were chickpeas, broad beans; among the fruits, figs predominated, which were widespread; but the paintings of the vases also show us peaches, apples, pears and pomegranates. In the religious sphere, among the foods offered to the Gods there were tributes (or sacred offerings from the victors of a battle) such as meat, generally obtained from lambs, goats and pigs, but also honey and milk, oil and wine.

In the daily sphere, the ancient Greeks paid increasing attention to nutrition and therefore to cooking, given that various testimonies from philosophers and doctors of the time see, among all Hippocrates, supporting the very strong relationship between the different types of food and the state of health or human disease. In the literary sphere, in the Iliad the heroes are depicted as eating roasted meat (goats, lambs and beef) together with loaves of bread and drinking red wine, the latter very thick and slightly diluted with water and honey.

On the other hand, both the Iliad and the Odyssey rarely speak of goat cheese. An important element in the Iliad was oil everywhere, while fish, fruit and vegetables were almost absent. In the Odyssey, on the contrary, the diet appears more varied, enriched as it is by the cultivation of wheat and barley, combined with vegetables, the consumption of greens and salads. It is only from the fifth century. B.C., however, that fish became the main dish of the Greek diet, while it remained quite rare among the Achaeans.

COOKING AND CONSUMPTION OF FOOD

The typical Achaean cooking method is the embers, although other ways of cooking dishes appear later. In fact, the kitchen tools that will be used later are various and similar to those that are used even today, while in the Achaean period bronze cake pans were used for soups and cakes, pans similar to frying pans and in symposia is very common drinking from the rhyton (a large and impressive mug).

Bread was still cooked with spelled and rye flour. For desserts there was the custom of preparing cakes mixed with figs, honey, milk; at lunch they ate porridge made from cereals, mixed with legumes, cheese, oil and vegetables, so abundant and varied that they deserved the nickname of “leaf eaters” in a comedy to the ancient Greeks.

Instead, it is singular that the olive tree and the vine, often associated with the Achaeans and the Greeks in general as their palm and sign of distinction, were not at all native to Greece. On the contrary, these cultivars came to the Achaeans from the Phoenicians and traders from Syria and Palestine, to whom they were known from more remote antiquity.

Since then, the olive tree had a great diffusion among these remote ancestors, also in Calabria, and was protected by specific laws. It was in fact a sacred tree, with specimens of which the barren lands were reforested. Indeed, it was an absolute obligation to replace the felled trees with new plantings.

On the other hand, wine is often mentioned in Homeric poems and was never lacking in votive offerings, banquets, parties in honor of Dionysus. In a short time it became one of the most exported products: it was transported by sea in large amphorae, or by land in wineskins on the back of mules or donkeys.

As for the way of consuming food: Achaean ate with their hands, cutlery was unknown on the table, but only kylikes (flared cups) were used, with which they drank the wine. Furthermore, to mix the wine (never consumed pure, but always diluted with water or honey) contained in the craters the ciato was used, a ladle that cupbearers carried hanging from their little fingers and which they also used to measure the dilution of the wine. At home, the Greeks ate three or four meals a day. Breakfast, ἀκρατισμός (akratismos), consisted of barley bread dipped in wine, accompanied by figs or olives, or sweets called τηγανίτης (tēganitēs), cooked in a sort of frying pan τάγηνον (tagēnon, perhaps forerunner of the daily “). Another type of dessert for breakfast was σταιτίτης (staititēs) made of flour or spelled dough. Athenaeus of Naucratis talks about staititas covered in honey, sesame and cheese.

At lunch the people ate quickly (in ancient Greek: ἄριστον, ariston), around noon or in the early afternoon. Dinner (Ancient Greek: δεῖπνον, deipnon) was the main meal of the day and was usually eaten at sunset.

How much are those habits similar to our current ones!

The Greeks normally ate sitting on chairs (klismos), while the beds were used only for banquets. Loaves of flat bread were used as plates, but earthenware bowls were more common. Plates became more refined over time and were sometimes made from precious metals or glass in the later period. The use of the fork was unknown, only knives (shared) were used to cut meat, and spoons for soups and broth.

Sometimes pieces of bread (in ancient Greek: ἀπομαγδαλία, apomagdalia) were used instead of the spoon or as a napkin, to clean the fingers.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

The cereals of the Achaeans, seasoned with the opson (in ancient Greek ὄψον), a “sauce or condiment”, were accompanied by cabbage, onion, lentils, marsh cicerchia, chickpeas, broad beans, peas, cicerchia, etc.

This vegetable was prepared in the form of soup, boiled or in the form of puree (ἔτνος, ethnos), and seasoned with olive oil, vinegar, aromatic herbs or the c.d. gáron in ancient Greek γάρον, a fish-based sauce similar to the Latin “garum“.

The poorest inhabitants had to make do with dried vegetables. Lentil soup (φακῆ, phakē) was the typical dish of the worker. Cheese, garlic and onions were the traditional food of soldiers.

Fruit, fresh or dried, and nuts were eaten after a meal. Particularly common were figs, grapes and pomegranates. Dried figs were eaten as an appetizer or with wine. In the latter case, they were often accompanied by roasted chestnuts, chickpeas and beech nuts.

THE WINE

The wine was usually diluted with water. The consumption of akraton or “unmixed wine”, though known as practiced, was rare.

The banquet participant would approach a krater to fill his kylix with wine (already mentioned above, and consisting of a sort of rather small cup or basin), the wine was also used for medicinal purposes, it is said that the Achaean wine could induce abortion.

A rather common object similar to our modern glass was the skyphos, made of wood, terracotta or metal. The kothon is also mentioned in the sources, what became the typical Spartan chalice which had the military advantage of hiding the color of the water from view by trapping the mud in the rim.

For the most common libation, as mentioned, the kylix was used, which at banquets allowed the wine contained in a kantharos (a deep container with handles) to be taken, or the rhyton, an imposing drinking horn, often shaped in the shape of a human head or animal.

THE KYKEON DRINK

The ancient Greeks also drank the c.d. kykeon (κυκεών, from the verb kykaō, κυκάω, “to shake, mix”), which was both a drink and a meal. It was a porridge made from barley, to which water and aromatic herbs were added. In the Iliad, the drink also contained grated goat cheese, while in the Odyssey, Circe adds honey and a magic potion to it for Ulysses.

**Mycenae, entrance to Agamemnon’s tomb**

In the Homeric Hymns to Demeter, the goddess refuses red wine but accepts a kykeon made with water, flour and mint.

Used as a ritual drink in the Eleusinian Mysteries, kykeon was also a very popular drink, especially in the countryside: Theophrastus, in his characters, describes a rough peasant who, after drinking a lot of kykeon, disturbs the members of the Assembly with his bad breath.

It was also considered a good digestive and was recommended for anyone who ate too much dried fruit.

THE ACHAEAN BREAD

The cereals, the real basis of the Achaean diet, were wheat (σῖτος, sitos) and barley. To obtain bread, a pulp of grains was made by immersion, ground and reduced to flour (in ancient Greek: ἀλείατα, aleiata), then kneaded into loaves (ἄρτος, artos) or focaccia, simple or mixed with cheese or honey. The dough was leavened with the c.d. νίτρον, nitron, i.e. a wine yeast.

**Wheat and barley, the latter in the left bottom corner**

The bread was baked in a clay oven (ἰπνός, hypnos) or with embers on the floor.

Barley bread was, on the other hand, more difficult to bake, traces of it still remain today in Calabria, a black and wholemeal bread, apparently rough, but nutritious and heavy (because it is full of water). Even today, 3,000 years later, cheese or honey is added to this black bread. Alternatively the barley was roasted before being milled, yielding a coarse flour (ἄλφιτα, alphita) which was used to make maza (μᾶζα), the staple Greek dish.

The maza could be cooked or raw, as a broth, or made into dumplings or flatbreads.

ACHEAN TRACES IN CALABRIA: BLACK BREAD

In Aspromonte (mountainous area of Calabria, in the extreme south of the region), “u granu jermanu”, or “jermano“, is the dialectal name of rye, which has been cultivated since ancient times by the Achaeans.

With this cereal, worked like barley for bread making, it is possible to appreciate the cultural traces of the aforementioned Achaean passage in Calabria. Indeed, with the use of this ancient Calabrian grain – with many beneficial properties, rich in vitamins, mineral salts and fibers – the Calabrians produce a well-known black bread, with a very rustic taste, low acidity and an intense aroma.

Iermano wheat was widely used throughout the South until the 1950s. With this name (Iermano or in the Jurmano variant) was identified what in Italian was called rye. Re-introduced by the Germans during World War I to make alcohol and bread, Jurmano wheat was well received in Calabria. And today, from Aspromonte to the Sila plateau, there are still some farmers who have been carrying on this cultivar without interruption for over 50 years since the time of the Achaeans themselves!

Meanwhile, since Calabria is a rather mountainous land and therefore subject to very harsh winters, this cultivar, probably of remote Achaean origin, has been able to re-adapt well to our winter climates. Furthermore, it should not be forgotten that, being a very resilient cereal, jermanu wheat even grows in the Arctic Circle and reaches up to 4,000 meters of altitude.

The result is a very tasty black bread, characterized by a remote rusticity. Then, apart from its historical peculiarity and its mysterious past, it is a food that has significant health benefits. Those of Jermanu bread are, mainly, according to various scientific researches, the ability to thin the blood and to prevent arteriosclerosis.

Rye flour, called in the local dialect farina iermano or farina iurmano, often mixed with durum wheat flour, is therefore the main ingredient of a very ancient product, the aforementioned black bread. A bread whose production is very laborious, leavened with sourdough, kneaded in the evening and covered until the next day with woolen blankets. The next day, the preparation begins with strength and effort, the dough of this bread turns out to be thick and viscous. At this point it is cut and cooked for a very long time, about two hours and after cooking it is kept for an equally long time.

Gastronomy of the Goths in Calabria

1.2.2023

MICRO-HISTORY OF THE GASTRONOMY OF THE VISIGOTE PEOPLE

The Goths, a Scandinavian and barbaric people, have left very clear traces in Calabrian food and wine. This happens, especially, after the sacking of Rome by King Alaric, around 400 AD, when a real kingdom was established in Italy, which also reached the extreme southern part of the peninsula. The main techniques of production and cooking of the food of the Visigothic people were inherited from Calabria in those years.

The history of the Goths begins in the era in which the Romans knew some barbarian peoples, settled for some time in ancient central Europe and which, from the first centuries of the empire, the State of Rome took care to bind to itself through treaties, giving them the possibility of living within the limits of the empire, provided they served as sentinels, mercenaries and escort corps.

The Romans preferred to see these peoples and, among them, the Goths as a civilized people, rather than as a wild and wandering human aggregate; most of them were still dedicated only to hunting and cattle breeding, when they came into contact with the luminous Roman civilization.

One of the main barbarian tribes named by the Romans since the first centuries of the Christian era, were the Visigoths, who came from Northern Europe and came to live and expand throughout the province of Hispania . They were known as hunters and gatherers, brave men and men of war, who thought it cowardly to acquire by labor what could easily be obtained by violence.

Accustomed only to grazing, they did little for their livelihood, for many centuries, which forced them to enter the practice of agriculture, only after the first contacts with the Romans, but without ever settling definitively within well-defined limes (borders), given that they often abandoned the fields in search of new lands. Cultivating, therefore, mainly small plots of oats, a cereal used for both human and animal nutrition.

They remained in central Europe, with their place of origin in present-day Denmark, for many centuries and only later, around 350 AD, did they spread to Italy and Greece, under the pressure of the Huns, who conquered their lands by force . But even when these peoples invaded the Roman limes , having arrived in the territories of the Empire, they ended up adopting the new cultural habits that the local tradition imposed on them, which implied that they improved, not only their customs, but also the way of cultivating and work what they would consume, which helped them improve their daily diet in no small way.

_{^{SMAF LTD}}

Therefore, it is easy to understand why the typical foods of the Visigothic people were the same as they were in the Roman era in the 4th and 5th centuries AD, i.e. the most widely used cereals such as wheat and other varieties of grasses, which were processed without delicacy and were used to prepare, mainly, a flour porridge .

The Goths also cooked different types of bread, hard and not very delicate, with which they fed the servants, and its preparation was based on wholemeal flour and yeast, which ended up becoming a tasty black bread (ample traces of which remain in many localities of Calabria, to be considered a clear cultural legacy of the Goths).

In the same way, the Goths derived various pastry recipes from the Romans, all based on honey, since this was the only sweetener known at the time (sugar will only be introduced in modern times, after 1492).

For the rest, due to the influence of their daily hunting and breeding activities, the Goths in Calabria and Spain preferred to consume meat, in all its varieties. In particular, the pig was the species most loved by the Goths; and traces of this predilection can still be seen in the excellent Calabrian delicatessen, further improved by the modern domination of the Spanish Aragonese, who among other things perhaps rediscovered their Gothic past in Calabria. Of course, the Goths also appreciated sheep and beef.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the custom adopted by the Visigoths and the Hispano-Romans of growing vegetables, which were introduced into the Calabrian diet in all their diversity, together with some fruits. One could safely say that it was the Goths who introduced the cultivation of vegetables such as artichokes and spinach, and also of hops, which contributed greatly to the local production of beer. The Goths were, moreover, pioneers, with the specific cultivation of apples and their subsequent fermentation, in the production of cider.

RECIPE BOOK OF VISIGOTIAN CUISINE

In Visigothic Spain, San Fruttuoso, in chapter V of the ” Regula monachorum “, speaks, with regard to the typical Goth recipes, of meat, fish and vegetables, but, in reality, what little we know of the cuisine of these nebulous times we owe it to what is reported in the ” Etymologies ” of San Isidoro.

As is known, the ” Etymologies ” represent the compendium of knowledge of an entire period, that of the Christian world which belonged to the High Middle Ages. This book, written in the 7th century, contains mention of many practical subjects, of laws, of medicine, but also of finely theoretical topics such as angelology, dialectics, ecclesiastical offices, rhetoric, mathematics. However, among the curiosities treated by San Isidoro, the XX and last book of the “Etymologies” is very important, which describes in detail the Gothic kitchen (even the kitchen utensils, such as cauldrons, pots, pans, etc.). This attention to the Goths is directed by San Isidoro also considering that among the Goths the work of spreading Christianity had been completed, already in Denmark, by King Aroldo (considered a saint by the Catholic Church), something attested by a famous “stone runic” (written in characters of the runic or Norse language of the Goths and common to the other Danish peoples), the Great Stone of Jelling (where we read ” Harald the king had this stele made for Gorm his father and for Thyra his mother, this Harald who conquered all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians “).

San Isidoro speaks of Visigothic Spain, but in doing so, in practice, he mentions in detail the Gothic heritage in food and wine also of the other Gothic kingdoms (such as Calabria). The Author discusses, not only, the dining room and wardrobes, sideboards, pantries, types of pottery, plates and glasses (both for water and wine), – but, also and above all, the individual Gothic foods and brings us back the tradition, for example, of the very tasty black bread of the Goths and their meat stew, in its four basic ways: roasted, cooked, fried or in sauce.

The vegetables that were mostly grown in the Gothic gardens were mainly lettuces, chicory, leeks, chard, pumpkins, asparagus, artichokes and spinach. Fruits such as dates, pomegranates, peaches, apricots, pears, cherries and lemons were also known, and almonds, hazelnuts, chestnuts and walnuts were consumed among the nuts.

With the cereals, different types of bread were made, some coarse, of very low quality, which were eaten by the servants, cíbarius , and others, both with leaven, fermentacius , and without, azymus . Wholemeal breads were also prepared (the famous gothic black bread, which in Calabria is still prepared in various places).

Desserts, which were mainly based on some kind of cake, were always made with honey. Honey, in fact, was the only sweetener used and known in the preparations of Visigothic pastry (it is not excluded that the famous pitta entangled , a spirally rolled cake filled with raisins, honey and walnuts, eaten especially at Christmas in Calabria, is a clear gothic heritage).

The basis of the meal, on the other hand, was a kind of polenta which, when mixed with legumes, was called pulte , when mixed with dried meat, pulmentum , and when mixed with minced fish, meat and vegetables, minuta .

Cattle breeding was one of their main activities, as meat was obtained from it for daily consumption, with pork being considered the most valuable meat and, after it, sheep and cows.

The most popular seasoning was the pepper brought from India. Cinnamon and saffron were also known, which were picked fresh and consumed during the day.

The Visigoths were great drinkers of wine and consumed different types. White wine was obtained from the aminea grape and sweet wine from the apiana. Pure wine was called merum , when fresh from the press mostum , when red roseum , and when white amineum . In addition to wine, cider was consumed (deriving from the fermentation of apple juice), sicera and beer, the so-called cervisia (today also called cerveza in Spanish ).

In short, Visigothic gastronomy was simple and not very elaborate, based on the roasting or cooking of any product. But everything can be explained by the very strong link with the most ancient Roman cuisine. In fact, after the disintegration of the Roman Empire, invasions such as that of the Goths arrived and with them the appearance of different cuisines in Europe, entirely derived from the existing ones or partially replacing them. It is therefore not an exaggeration to argue that the foods consumed in Visigothic Spain and in Calabria and mentioned by San Isidoro were a sort of historical and traditional summary of the same foods from the Roman era, of the same cereals and vegetables that formed the basis of the Latin diet.

In particular, the Visigoths learned from the Spanish-Roman gardeners (and passed on to the Calabrian populations) the cultivation of various legumes, such as broad beans, lentils, peas, chickpeas and lupins.

MACRO-HISTORY OF THE GOTHS IN REGGIO CALABRIA

After the raid by the Visigoths in 410 AD and the death of Alaric near Cosenza, Reggio Calabria resumed its peaceful and industrious existence. In fact, there followed a relatively peaceful sixty years of presence of the Goths in Reggio, which left some traces, in fact not as impressive as in Ravenna, where the works of Theodoric are still visible today.

However, in 534 the Byzantine emperor Justinian, at war against the Vandals of Africa, asked the Goth king Theodatus for permission to use Sicily as a base of operations. The Gothic king, who had been forced, following an agreement, to cede Lilibeo (today’s Marsala) to the Vandals, willingly accepted the treaty and the relative request of the Byzantine Romei.

However, the Byzantine general Belisarius was the protagonist of an about-face with the Goths, as, after having defeated the Vandals in Sicily, he received the order from the emperor to expel the Goths from Calabria as well as the Vandals from Sicily. At that moment all the cities of Calabria in the hands of the Goths, being deprived of maneuver armies, decided to come to terms with General Romeo. Also in Reggio, which had been entrusted to a son-in-law of the Gothic king Theodatus, named Evermund , the local garrison agreed to receive a payment in money from the Byzantines and to leave the city, the gateway to Italy, to Belisarius.

Thus ended the era of the Goths in Calabria and also in Reggio the demonstrations of jubilation of the population were renewed towards the Byzantines, who were being freed from the domination of the barbarians.

**Gothic church of S. Antonio, Reggio Calabria**

It was then in a certain sense thanks to the military negligence of the Goths, if the Byzantines, noting the absence of walls in the city of Reggio, decided to transform the city into a fortified kastron. Therefore, one of the historic changes that the city’s urban planning underwent took place. The layout of the walls could no longer be the one on the so-called hills of the Savior, because it was essential to protect the port, nor the large one of the Hellenistic and Roman city, since the inhabitant population had significantly decreased, to the benefit of the surrounding choria (villages). The walls were enormously enlarged and Reggio had the opportunity to expand demographically and architecturally, assuming the characteristics of the most important city in the Calabrian territory until today.