What the ancient Egyptians ate varied depending on their social and financial stats. The more money and power you had, the better you eat. A few of the foods ancient Egyptians consumed are being eaten still today. For example, full medammes, a fava bean dish that is often a breakfast food is now the National Dish of Egypt was eaten in the Pharaonic periods.

Basic Egyptian Meals

The basic meal in ancient Egypt was beer, bread, and onions, which the peasants ate daily, probably as a morning meal before they left to work in the fields or on works commanded by the pharaohs. Another simple meal would be eaten in the cool of the evening, probably boiled vegetables, bread, and beer; possibly wildfowl.

The wealthy would expect to eat two or three Egyptian Meals a day comprising vegetables, wild fowl, fish, eggs, and beef. Butter, milk, and cheese were also easily obtainable. Dessert would consist of fruit–grapes, figs, dates, and watermelons.

Elite Egyptians ate three daily meals: morning, evening, and night. Labourers probably ate twice daily. Social superiors might include lower-status diners at banquets, with different foods offered to each guest depending on his or her rank.

High-status banquets were often segregated by gender. The genders mixed at family meals, regardless of status. Diversity in the diet was a mark of wealth. Beer and bread appeared on everyone’s table and were the most common form of payment.

The story of the Shipwrecked Sailor teaches us that the hero of the story considered the following goods “good food”: birds, cucumber, figs, fish, grapes, notched sycamore figs and sycamore figs.

Their staples were beer and bread. Vegetables were also common ancient Egyptian foods and a number of recipes featured the use of peas and beans. There were also a number of different oils and fat used in the preparation of food.

While the food of the common people was barely adequate at best, and during the recurring corn dearth’s sadly lacking, the affluent certainly knew how to live it up: Meat, waterfowls, vegetables, fruit, and wine were part of their diet, as was the ubiquitous bread in one of its many guises. On the whole, Egyptians don’t seem to have overindulged; according to the testimonies we have, they looked remarkably fit.

Also, the rich ancient Egyptians had dessert. One of the ancient Egyptian desserts is milk toffee (a delicious ancient traditional recipe). Another one is Almond Milk Custard Tart. Whipped Chestnut Cream is a difficult recipe to realize but it is worth the try.