Ancient Egyptian Flatbread

Ancient Egyptian Flatbread is a traditional Ancient Egyptian recipe for a classic sweetmeat made from a blend of tiger nut flour and honey that's fried to cook and shaped into cones before serving. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ancient Egyptian version of: Ancient Egyptian Flatbread.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

25 minutes

Total Time:

45 minutes

Additional Time:

(+20 minutes resting)

Makes:

4–6

Rating:

Tags : Vegetarian Recipes Bread Recipes Egypt Recipes

Though ancient Egypt had the heiroglyphic writing system and the more cursive heiratic, the literate part of the population were the scribes, who had little interest in common things like cooking. So, we have very few written recipes from Ancient Egypt. The recipes, such as they are survive as tomb paintings, depictions of everyday life. So we can reconstruct recipes based on what the figures in the tomb paintings were doing. One such image comes from Theban Tomb TT60 which is located in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, part of the Theban Necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite to Luxor. It is the burial place of a woman called Senet. She was related to the ancient Egyptian Vizier Intefiqer (mother or wife). It is one of the earliest burials in the area. This image depicts the production of flatbreads, part of the gift for the dead but also an Ancient Egyptian staple.

Original Recipe

In terms of a recipe, the tomb painting can be interpreted as:
(note that we're using ground and sifted flour as a starting point)
Mix the flour with water to form a dough.
Mix the dough in large jars or by treading it.
Take a portion of the dough and shape into a round.
Bake in a brasier over hot coals.

I would suggest using stone-ground emmer wheat or barley. However, I actually used 350g emmer wheat grains passed through a meat mincer, which creates a coarser flour that's more period appropriate. I'm creating a basic unleavened flatbread here, but you can also make this with leaven, whether a sourdough starter, grape skins, sour wine or even the sediment from barley beer.

Modern Redaction

Ingredients:

350g wheat or barley flour
250ml water
1/2 tsp salt

Method:

Turn the flour into a bowl and mix in the salt. Form a well in the centre, add the water and mix to form a dough (depending on the dryness of the flour you might need more or less water). Add enough water to bring the flour together as a slightly soft dough that still holds its shape well.

Knead the dough well, but note that neither emmer wheat or barley flours have as much gluten as modern bread flours, so you will not get the dough to the 'smooth and elastic' stage we are used to today. Just knead the dough vigorously for 10-15 minutes. Note that during kneading the flour will absorb the water (you need this to soften the grains) so you may need to incorporate a little more water as you go.

Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover with a cloth and set aside to rest for 20 minutes if unleavened and to rise for about 2 hours if using yeast.

After this time, knead the bread briefly then divide into 4 or 6 equal sized pieces and roll these into rounds.

Place a griddle pan over medium heat and when hot slip in the first flatbread. Cook for about 2 minutes until nicely coloured on the base. Flip over and cook for about 2 minutes on the other side. Set the flatbread aside to keep warm as you cook the others. Serve warm.

This recipe survives in Egypt to this day in the form of the pita-style flatbread, Aish Baladi.