Ingredients: For the pastry: 600 g flour 1/3 cup olive oil juice of three oranges salt For the filling: 500 g fresh myzithra or mascarpone or ricotta ground cinnamon icing sugar Method: Blend the olive oil and orange juice with the flour in a food processor for 10 minutes and knead until the dough is […]

Ingredients: 1 kg Chinese cabbage, cooked For the fish sauce: 500 g sand smelt 1 onion, chopped 1 stalk of celery, chopped 1/4 cup of red wine 3 garlic cloves, sliced salt and pepper 1/2 cup olive oil 3 tbsp vinegar Method: Brown the smelt in half the olive oil with the onion, celery and […]

Ingredients: 150 g day-old bread, soaked in wine and squeezed 1 tbsp. vinegar 1 small head of garlic, peeled and mashed 100 g walnuts, chopped 2/3 cup olive oil salt and pepper Method: Blend all the ingredients in a food processor, adding the olive oil, little by little, at the end to make a thick […]

The Byzantines were known for their refined and diverse tastes which were frowned upon by the clergy, at least during the first centuries. Later things changed, and bishops and abbots were among those to indulge in gastronomic delights. As usual, meat was a favorite food and game figured prominently on the Byzantine table. Recipes at […]

Byzantine cuisine basically evolved from the ancient Greek gastronomic tradition. The type of ingredients, preparation methods and quite often the names of foods employed in both periods are testimony to this fact. Byzantine cuisine had already developed at a time when the European diet was still frugal and unrefined. As in ancient times, formal Byzantine dinners were […]

Palamida psiti me agouro stafili and sinapi Ingredients: 1 1/2 kg bonito, gutted (or tunny or swordfish steaks) 1 kg unripe green grapes 1 tsp mustard seed 1 tsp powdered mustard 1/2 cup olive oil 4 tbsp finely chopped parsley salt and pepper 12 whole grapes for garnish Method: Broil the bonito over charcoal and […]

Due to fasting, the Byzantines incorporated fresh vegetables and wild greens in their meals much more often than the ancient Greeks, although the varieties consumed in both historic periods did not vary considerably. Compared with the modern age, fresh vegetables and wild greens were given different names and varied in their cooking method; for these […]

Egypt had always been the chief grain supplier to the great empires of thr Eastern Mediterranean, both the Byzantine and Roman. When Egypt fell into the hands of the Arabs at the turn of the 7th century BC, the plains of Thrace took its place as the chief source of grain for the region. In […]

Byzantine food refers to the food of Byzantine, a part of Roman Empire. The food is the result of the fusion of Roman and Greek cooking styles. With the development of Byzantine trade and empire, various kinds of new vegetables and spices, along with sugar, were brought in the region, which eventually led to the […]

As was the case with earlier historical periods, the Byzantine era also yielded abundant and often vivid information on nutritional habits and patterns. Our knowledge, however, of general culinary practice and especially of specific recipes and quantities of ingredients is disappointingly meager. An exception to this general dearth, albeit a minor one, is information traced […]