Greek Cooking

Meals eaten in the Greek home (as opposed to public dining areas ) were prepared by slaves, servants, and/or the women of the household, depending on the family's socio-economic status. In a wealthy family, the matron of the house may have supervised slaves or servants who did the kitchen work, while in poorer households the wife probably did all or most of this work herself, perhaps with the assistance of her daughters (1). Two meals were eaten daily, and the kitchen workers must have spent a great portion of their days in the laborious task of food preparation. When the meals were cooked, those who had prepared them became wait staff for the diners; there is little information available on when, where, or what the kitchen workers themselves ate (2). Many types of cookware, from pots and pans to specialized utensils, were available to those working in the kitchen, and many of these, such as frying pans and grills, are immediately recognizable to us today (3).

One of the most fundamental and time-consuming undertakings in Greek food production was the grinding of grains to make the bread and porridges that formed a major part of the Greek diet (4). The mortar, oldest of food production tools, was one device used to accomplish this task; hand mills were also used (5). The growing and processing of grains were such essential duties to the Greeks that two goddesses presided over the process: Demeter and Persephone. The grains themselves were grown and harvested by men (city-dwellers purchased them at market) while grinding was considered a woman's task. Literary evidence tells us that women ground an d milled grain together, singing songs as they worked; they also may have worked together to knead dough for bread (6). Smaller mills and mortars were used to grind lesser quantities of food and items such as salt, which was purchased in lumps or cakes (7).

Many heating implements were available for baking, stewing, boiling, frying, roasting, and grilling all types of foods. Although large clay or brick ovens were used for baking, smaller and more portable heating devices predominated, especially for home use. Meat could be cooked on an eschara, or brazier, which held coals in the bottom and had curved ledges for resting the spits on which meat was cooked (8). The identification and use of escharai are known from Greek comedy; the flames in the braziers were fanned to increase the heat for cooking (9). Meat could also be cooked on terracotta grills, which were remarkably similar to their modern counterparts; grills were also ideal for preparing fish(10).

Vegetables were cooked in pans similar to our own. The so-called bean parcher, a small bowl with one handle, was shaken over a fire to roast both vegetable and grains (11). Greek griddles resemble their modern counterparts, with flat bottoms and short sides (12). Two small handles on either side allowed the griddles to be lifted. Another cooking pot, the lopas, is a low, shallow vessel with one or two handles, often lidded, and used for frying or stewing (13). Soups and stews were made in a cauldron-shaped chytra, which was also used for boiling water over an open fire (14). The large, handled kitchen vessel known as the lekane was a very common domestic object with a variety of uses in cooking (15).

Smaller cooking utensils included funnels, strainers (really just regular vessels with holes in the bottom), and various spoons, dippers, and ladles (16). With the variety of pots, pans, heating devices, grinders, and other kitchen implements, the Greek kitchen was probably well equipped to create many variations on the basic foods available to the typical home. Despite the innovative designs, however, preparing the daily meals must have been hot, grueling, and seemingly endless work for the household cooks.

Author: Summer Trentin

(1). John Wilkins, "Food Preparation in Ancient Greece : Representations of Gender Roles in the Literary Evidence." In Representations of Gender from Prehistory to the Present , edited by Moira Donald and Linda Hurcombe ( New York : St. Maritn's Press 2000): 118-34, 122.

(2). Andrew Dalby, Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece (New York: Routledge 1996): 7-9.

(3). For cooking and food preparation wares found in the Athenian Agora see Susan I. Rotroff and John H. Oakley, Debris from a Public Dining Place in the Athenian Agora ( Princeton , N.J. : American School of Classical Studies at Athens 1992): 28-9.

(4). See Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, The Oxford Classical Dictionary . 3 rd ed. (Oxford University Press 1999): 312-3, 387-8, 603.

(5). On mortars see Brian A. Sparkes and Lucy Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery of the 6 th , 5 th and 4 th Centuries B.C. 2 parts. Vol XII, The Athenian Agora (Princeton, N.J.: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens 1970): 221-3, plates 90-92; on mills, see Wilkins 2000, "Food Preparation in Ancient Greece," 124-9.

(6). Wilkins, "Food Preparation in Ancient Greece ,"121.

(7). S. Douglas Olson and Alexander Sens, Archestratos of Gela : Greek Culture and Cuisine in the Fourth Century BCE ( Oxford University Press 2000): 158.

(8). Sparkes and Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery , 234-5, plate 98.

(9). John Wilkins, The Boastful Chef: The Discourse of Food in Ancient Greek Comedy ( Oxford University Press 2000): 34.

(10). Sparkes and Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery , 233-4, plate 97 no. 2024, 2025.

(11). On bean parchers see Rotroff and Oakley, Debris from a Public Dining Place , 48-9; Sparkes and Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery , 228-9.

(12). Sparkes and Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery , 228.

(13). See Sparkes and Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery , 227-8.

(14). Rotroff and Oakley, Debris from a Public Dining Place , 48.

(15). Rotroff and Oakley, Debris from a Public Dining Place , 28; Sparkes and Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery , 211-6.

(16). See Sparkes and Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery , 229-232.