History Cookbook

‹ Back Prehistoric Homepage Life Food Facts Health Facts

1		About a million years ago humans discovered how to use fire to cook food. This enabled them to eat a wider range of food. Cooked food was also tender to eat and did not require heavy chewing. More Human jaws became smaller and the cranium larger, giving the skull a much more modern appearance, as opposed to the heavy, ape-like jaws and small craniums previously seen.
2		The earliest people were hunter-gatherers. In the days before farming, hunter-gatherer groups would have been larger than those that still exist today. Their diets would have been more abundant and varied. More Today's hunter-gatherers are found living in dry or less accessible places (deserts and dense forests), as farming populations have taken over more and more land. They have adapted to these difficult environments with enormous skill, but it has limited their diet.
3		The Paleolithic hunter-gatherer diet would have been varied. It would have consisted of meat, fish, shellfish, leafy vegetables, fruit, nuts and insects in varying proportions. More There is little direct evidence to show how much of the diet was made up of plant or animal foods.
4		The two roles of hunter and gatherer were probably carried out by different people. Within the group, it would have been the men who did the hunting and the women and children who gathered the plants. More The gathering activity provided most of their nutrition and so was always the more important of the two. Nevertheless, possibly because of the danger and physical strength required, hunting is likely to have been seen as the more prestigious role.
5		Hunting required a wide range of skills. The hunters would have to know how to track and kill the animals without getting hurt themselves. It also required courage, as some of the animals they hunted were large and powerful. More The hunters would have needed detailed knowledge about animal behaviour for tracking them, stealth for creeping up on them unawares, observation in selecting an appropriate animal for attack (small, weak, wounded, or perhaps simply unaware), hand-eye co-ordination for an accurate throw or shoot, speed in chasing down a wounded animal.
6		Many of the animals hunted at this time no longer exist. Examples of such extinct animals are huge woolly mammoths and mastodons, giant hornless rhinos, massive flightless birds. More These prehistoric animals are known as 'megafauna' (which means, 'giant animals'). From around 2 million years ago, the types of animals living in Britain in warmer periods were similar to those seen in the modern grasslands of Africa and, during the colder phases, mammoths, woolly rhino, large elks, wolves and horses could be found. The meat they gave must have been similar to their modern cousins.
7		Food had to be eaten quickly before it went bad. Once a kill had been made, all the meat had to be eaten immediately, as there was no means of storing it. Any that was not eaten very quickly rotted and caused health problems. More This is not so for other predators: lions, for example, can come back to a kill after several days. Scientists are not sure why humans have lost the ability to eat rotten food.
8		The hunter-gatherers would have had detailed knowledge of their environment. They would have known an awful lot about the animal and plants living there, a kind of knowledge completely lost by modern humans. More Anthropologists studying primitive peoples have been amazed by the depth of knowledge they have about the food and medicinal properties of the thousands of different plants which populate a given area (eco-system).
9		Cooking was done on open fires and meals may have developed into more social events. At this time, meals may have started to become as important as they have been in traditional societies ever since. The open fires were often made in shallow pits to conserve the heat and protect from the wind. More So much is unknown about their way of life; however, there is evidence that large amounts of meat and other foods were cooked very effectively. Hunter-gatherer groups did not carry heavy cooking implements with them. These came later, after the coming of farming had allowed people to settle in one place.
10		Cooking used easy to obtain items such as plant leaves and stones. One cooking method was to dig a large hole, light a fire in it, place large stones on top and heat them to a high temperature, then place meat on top of the hot stones between layers of green plants and cover the whole thing with earth. More The layer of moist green plants was spread over the stones, followed by the meat with herbs, vegetables, nuts and other plants to add flavour. Another layer of moist plants was spread over the top, and finally the hole filled in with earth. The layers of moist plants protected the food from getting dirty and provided moisture for steam. The food cooked for two or three days and was, apparently, delicious when ready.
11		Other methods of cooking were boiling and roasting. A different method of cooking was to fill a pit with water, and then drop heated stones into it to boil the water. Meat would then be dropped into the water to be boiled and more stones added to keep the water hot. Roasting animals over spits was also common. More The remains of such hot water pits have been found in their thousands. Small animals could easily be skewered, kebab-style, and placed on hot stones; larger animals required the construction of a full-scale spit - a piece of wood shafted through the animal and hung over a fire by means of cross-sticks.
12		In the late Paleolithic period, Britain's native flora developed. As the ice retreated, at the end of the last ice age, Britain's native flora developed. Many of these plants were gathered and used to supplement the diet. More Edible native plants included Charlock (Field Mustard), Water Cress, Garlic Mustard, Chickweed, Wood Sorrel, Cow Parsley, Pignut, Wild Angelica, Wild Parsnip, Wild Carrot, Stinging Nettle, Water Mint, Wild Thyme, Wild Marjoram, Tansy, Chicory, Dandelion, Ramsons (Wild Garlic), Buttercups, Rose, Blackthorn and Elder, amongst many others.
13		The Paleolithic diet was more nutritious than the early Neolithic diet. Overall, Paleolithic/Mesolithic hunter-gatherers would have experienced less malnutrition than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed. More This was because they had access to a wider variety of plants and foods, providing a more nutritious diet.
14		Early peoples often lived near the coast, supplementing their diet with seaweeds and shellfish. Fish, both freshwater and seawater, were a very common feature of prehistoric diets. More Autumnal harvests of nuts and berries would bring groups inland to collect, prepare and store food for overwintering.
15		Fish could be quite difficult to cook, so they were baked in wet clay. If fish get too hot, their meat is easily charred. An effective method that prevented this was to cover the fish entirely in wet clay, then place it in a hot fire. More After some time, the clay would be baked and the fish also. The clay covering would be broken and the fish was ready to eat.
16		The making of alcohol also started in the Paleolithic period. It was also during the Paleolithic period that people first began fermenting grapes in animal skin pouches, to create wine. More Nearly every human society, since, has learnt how to use plants to make alcohol.
17		Farming changed the diet of humans radically. People settling down in one place were able to develop new, heavy implements for cooking. This changed what was cooked and how it was cooked. More Mortars and pestles were used for crushing and pounding wheat and barley seeds, to make bread. Nuts could also be pounded in this way.
18		The Neolithic period saw the diet change to one of cereals and produce from domesticated animals. The diet became restricted to a mixture of successfully cultivated cereal grains, such as wheat and barley, other cultivated plants (such as beans, cabbages, spinach, onions, garlic, cucumbers) and domesticated animal products, including milk. More Although the diet may have been supplemented by hunting and gathering, in some cultures there would have been a significant increase in starch and plant protein.
19		Neolithic people were more likely to suffer famine. As Neolithic people were more dependent on one or two crops, if the crops failed this had a much bigger impact on the health of the people. More However, more sophisticated farming methods allowed surplus crops to be grown and stored (if conditions allowed), which were able to feed a bigger population.
20		The invention of pottery allowed foods to be cooked more easily. Pottery allowed liquids to be boiled over fires, so that porridges, stews and soups could be made much more easily. The spreading use of iron, after about 1000 BC, made the manufacture of pots, pans and cauldrons even easier. More Bronze was usually far too valuable to ancient peoples to be used for cooking, so it was not until the Iron Age that cooking with metal pots and implements really took off.
21		Farming saw the introduction of animals that we still use for meat or dairy today. As people started to move towards more settled communities, domestication of livestock saw animals that we are familiar with today. Pigs, sheep and goats became popular as food. More During the Mesolithic or 'Middle Stone Age', wild pigs were the main source of meat and, later during the Neolithic, the first domesticated animals were sheep and goats. In the Bronze Age, sheep were the most popular meat and, during the Iron Age, pig breeds, similar to the saddleback today, were farmed.
22		Birds were popular as food as they could be caught all year round. Birds of all kinds, large and small, were also a regular feature of the prehistoric diet. More They could be quite easily caught by poles or nets and were very common. Many species were available all the year round.
23		As communities settled, the production of alcoholic drinks became more important. Alcoholic drinks became valuable as alcohol killed the bacteria which made the water, which was becoming more polluted as people lived closer together, unsafe. These drinks included wine (in the south) and ale or mead (in the north). More The Beaker people introduced the first known alcoholic drink into Britain around 2500BC; it was a form of honey-based mead.

Garlic and Herb Dip

Tip the creme fraiche into a bowlAdd the garlic and parsleyUse scissors to snip the chives into the...

More calendar recipes