Food In The Time Of Abram
Although it is not possible to establish with certainty the order in which dishes were served at a meal in Abram's time, we can at least enumerate the basic foods, what was eaten and what was drunk in the tents of Abram's clan.There was very little meat in the daily diet, except of course on a set apart feast day or when a guest of some distinction was entertained. Then, depending on the importance of the visitor, a goat or a Iamb, a sheep or an ox was slaughtered. If it was a very special occasion indeed, with a certain ostentation a fatted calf was prepared.
Sometimes hunting made an important contribution. The Devarimic law allowed as food the stag (no longer to be found in Palestine), the gazelle (its name of cibeya, the graceful, was often given to the Yisraelites' daughters), fallow-deer (but it is not entirely certain what was meant by the term, for this animal appears never to have been common in Palestine) and roe-deer (some archaeologists are inclined to the view that a variety of antelope was intended).
These meats were accompanied by various vegetables: onions, cooked or raw, leeks, lentils, chick-peas and beans. Everything was well seasoned with garlic. Then there were the celebrated 'bitter herbs'. These were merely salads (chicory, lettuce, endive) with which were mixed cress, parsley or sea holly.
Among the birds the Scriptures often mentions the dove, the poetical name for pigeon. Several varieties of birds were found in Palestine. A great favourite was the quail, a migratory bird which in the autumn came from Europe on its way to Africa. The return journey was made in the spring. Sometimes they made a landfall and then could be easily taken by hand. The nomadic tribes also caught the red-legged partridge (also known as the rock partridge) which were plentiful in the mountainous region of Judaea and also the yellow partridge (known as the sand-partridge) whose habitat was on the banks of the Yordan.
Fishing was practiced principally in the north of the country, in the Yordan and its tributaries, in lake Huleh and, especially, in the Sea of Galilee. There could be no question of the shepherds confined to the south of the country obtaining freshwater fish and only with difficulty could they get sea fish. But both kinds, when dried, were the object of intensive trade throughout the country.
Another food, much appreciated by the nomads, was neither flesh nor fish. This was the grasshopper. Almost as if to compensate for the famines caused by these insects in their destruction of the crops grasshoppers were sometimes eaten by the shepherds. They were gathered by the basketful at sunrise when they were still sluggish with the cold of the night and their wings were heavy with the dew of the dawn. Abram must certainly have enjoyed a good dish of grasshoppers. They were boiled or roasted (the head and wings being first removed) and sometimes they were dried in the sun. The women used also to reduce them to powder and thus obtained a small supply of flour which was made palatable by seasoning with salt or honey.
Sugar was unknown at this period; honey was used in its place. For these wandering shepherds it could only of course be wild honey, extracted from the rocks of the Judaean desert where it had been stored by the bees. It was used for making cakes and was mixed with milk and butter, and its medicinal qualities were appreciated.
But the basic food was milk with its normal derivatives. The Hebrew shepherd, who was the owner of innumerable goats and sheep, drank milk throughout the day. Often the nomad was better able to provide a bowl of milk than a jar of water. Bereshith mentions the various kinds of milk that were used; they were that of ewes, camels 4, cows and asses. The milk was kept in leather bottles where the heat soon turned it sour; the nomads found it a refreshing drink and regarded it as a delicacy. To make it into butter it was placed in a skin hung from the branch of a tree or between three stakes arranged in a triangle; by using sticks to shake it a product was obtained, known in Hebrew by the name of hem'ah, translated as butter, but it could just as well be cream or curds.
Together with milk, bread formed the essential food of the patriarchs and their men. Thus in all the meals mentioned in Bereshith bread is given the place of honour. This essential food was produced in rather a crude fashion. Very early in the morning the women ground the corn. The rough flour thus obtained was mixed with water and salted; the dough was then placed on stones which had previously been heated in a shallow ditch. These loaves, round and of medium size, could also be baked over charcoal, but in that case they had to be turned frequently with a stick to prevent their burning.
The loaf thus produced was of the same consistency throughout with neither crust nor crumb. Eaten hot it was tasty enough, stale it was rather dull. Then in the semi-desert regions, it should be remembered, there were scarcely any trees; as a consequence the only fuel obtainable was that made by the dried droppings of the animals; this often gave the bread a disagreeable taste.
Leaven was added to the dough but only when there was time to make the bread in this way, or if a part of the batch was to be kept until the next day, but generally unleavened bread was eaten. Usually barley flour was used, wheat flour being kept for special occasions.
The Old Covenant also provides some information about cakes; it tells us in detail the kind of paste used, the shape and the different ways of cooking them. The housewife was well aware of the great importance of the raw materials; wheat flour was greatly preferred. Unleavened girdle-cakes were kneaded with honey or oil and, like the bread, they were cooked over heated stones in a brazier, or beneath hot cinders. They must have been something like a hardened and brittle pancake.
Cucumbers, water melons, melons -the people of Yisrael were always fond, and still are nowadays, of these cucurbitaceous fruits. Figs and pomegranates, apples and grapes, olives, purchased or stolen from the settled farmers, were also eaten. There were no oranges as these were only introduced into Palestine after the Mohammedan conquest (seventh century A.D.). There is no mention of dates, either in the Old or New Covenant (except perhaps in 2 Schmuel 6:19 and 1 Divre Hayamim 16:3) although the palm tree was very common throughout the Near East.
Wine occupies a place of honour in the Scriptures. Scripture scholars have estimated that it is mentioned no less than 141 times. It is sung by the Tehillimist, praised in the Book of Shopthim, extolled by ZecharYah. But there is an anachronism to be avoided; wine is the drink of the city dweller, of the peasant settled on his own land. In the shepherds' tents water or milk was drunk.
Before concluding this investigation into the subject of Abram's food it will be necessary to examine the delicate question of 'clean' and 'unclean' animals as it is laid down in Vayiqra. This law was enacted, it must be recalled, well after Abram's time so it may well contain prohibitions unknown to the patriarch. Nevertheless, Vayiqra gives us an idea of a whole body of ancient ritual regulations (Vayiqra 3, for example) and it is very probable that Abram knew the principal articles.
The following is a summary list of the foods forbidden to be placed on the altar and, for the same reason, on the domestic table: the hare, pig, dog, cat and later the camel. Of the creatures living in the water only those could be eaten which had fins and scales, that is, fish in the ordinary sense. The proscribed birds were principally the carnivorous ones, eagles, crows, etc. All reptiles were also forbidden and all insects with the exception of certain grasshoppers and locusts.
Nowadays, ethnologists think that these forbidden foods, among the Hebrews as indeed among the peoples of all latitudes, are to be explained by the idea of a taboo. This is a practical means of self-protection against spiritual dangers. Primitive peoples (those of the prehistoric period as well as those of the present day) believe that certain animals possess a demoniacal power. They think that by eating a piece of meat the spiritual qualities of the flesh that is consumed are assimilated. Therefore certain animals are regarded as dangerous for eating by men of the tribe. It is a simple matter of prudence.
We come now to the method of cooking and the way in which the meals took place in the tents of the shepherds.
There was a formal prescription that no animal could be eaten unless the blood was first drawn off. For the blood was the 'soul' of the animal, which amounted to saying that it was 'the life of the flesh'. Now life belongs to YAHWEH and that is why the blood of the animal was to be poured out on the earth or offered to YAHWEH. Directly the animal had been killed (generally by a man) it was skinned and taken to the women entrusted with its preparation.
When it was to be roasted the whole carcase was fixed on a very large spit over a wood fire. If it was to be boiled the slaughterer cut up the carcase, beginning operations with the right shoulder; then he took the pieces to the cooks.
It is not surprising that the kitchen utensils used in the tents were simple and few in number. Hanging from pegs were the skins containing water, milk, oil and melted butter. On the ground were a few earthenware vessels of a rough pattern. Earthenware jars were used also by the women who carried them on the shoulder, a graceful gesture of great distinction, when they fetched water from the spring. There was also a small set of wickerwork baskets for bread and fruit. But the nomad, who did not take kindly to the refinements of daily life, left to the comfort-loving city dwellers of Canaan and the wealthy farmers the use of metal utensils (copper, tin, bronze). The shepherds kept to their earthenware vessels.
To store certain liquids hollowed-out horns (from bulls or rams) were used, just like our modern bottles. Meat was cut with a copper or bronze knife. A long heavy fork of the same metal was used to take the pieces of meat from the pots.
Boiled meat and vegetables were cooked in water with a seasoning of salt (generally from the Dead Sea) or even spices. For choice dishes meat was cooked in milk, also in oil or even in liquid butter. In normal times, that is, outside the periods of famine due to drought, the food was swimming in a plentiful and fatty gravy.
Before the meal all the members of the family washed their hands. Afterwards they squatted on a large leather carpet stretched on the ground, gathering round the dishes which were brought in. On a large dish were meat and vegetables. In a kind of pan was the gravy. Each guest was given his piece of bread. With a certain ceremony the head of the family handed round the portions. There were no spoons, forks or knives; finger~ were used. The bread served as a plate (for the meat), and as a spoon for the gravy into which each one dipped as he liked.
4 It seems that at the time of Abram the camel was not yet regarded as an unclean animal. Later it was so classified, and then camel's milk was forbidden to the Hebrews as a drink.
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