The Four Foods Epicurus Enjoyed | Society of Friends of Epicurus

To the Epicureans, the Twentieth of every month is a time for friends and for feasting. There are no traditional recipes (yet) for modern Twentieth celebrations. We encourage individuals to develop their own culinary traditions around the Twentieth, but a generally good guideline is to follow the Mediterranean diet, which has been declared by UNESCO an “intangible heritage” of all of humanity. Here are some guidelines for how to incorporate the Mediterranean diet into our cuisine. Epicurus and his companions must have enjoyed most of the foods that were part of the Mediterranean diet in his day, but there are four foods that are mentioned in the chronicles that we know with certainty they enjoyed.

Water

When guests walked into the Garden, Seneca reports that they were welcomed with bread and water. This is typically treated as a testament in favor of a simple lifestyle. But let’s apply the canon to this: what evidence do we have for the usefulness of drinking plain water? I can speak for myself. Drinking one large glass of very cold water, first thing in the morning, is extremely refreshing and energizing. Not Gatorade. Not Yerba maté (as much as I love it): just plain water. Citing multiple studies, this article on the importance of hydration by Healthline says that lack of hydration

can lead to altered body temperature control, reduced motivation, and increased fatigue. It can also make exercise feel much more difficult, both physically and mentally … can impair many aspects of brain function … impaired both mood and concentration. It also increased the frequency of headaches. … fluid loss of 1.6% was detrimental to working memory and increased feelings of anxiety and fatigue.

Notice that both physical stamina and mental health were affected by lack of proper hydration, according to the studies cited. It’s estimated that about 60 % of our body is made up of water. It also helps to avoid constipation and hangovers.

So perhaps offering water to everyone at the Garden was a way to ensure that not only did people have access to at least one non-alcoholic beverage, but also that people remained hydrated and healthy.

Bread

Bread is so common that, in the Bible, it’s a euphemism for food. Many ancient mystery religions either involved “barley cake” (which was enjoyed at Eleusis) or worshiped gods who made themselves useful to humanity in the form of communion bread (Orpheus, Osiris, Dionysus), and the Christian eucharist is a modern version of this belief and practice. To us Epicureans, bread is simply a particular combination of atoms and void, but it was also enjoyed by everyone who was welcomed in the Garden, and so we can imagine that the first Gardens would have had their bread recipes and traditions.

I grew up eating soft, still-warm French bread, a tradition that the French brought to Puerto Rico and which evolved into two forms of French bread that we call “pan criollo” (Creole bread) or sometimes “pan sobao” (kneaded bread): one is a hard, long loaf of bread (has a harder exterior) and the other looks similar but is soft bread, which is sweeter and has no hard exterior. This last one was by far always my favorite, eaten warm with requesón (soft cheese) or Gouda cheese, or in a sandwich. Every region has its own local variety of bread made with local yeast and local ingredients, which is why I have not been able to find this type of bread in all my years in Chicago.

The art and history of bread-making (tied to the history of beer, which is really liquid bread) is fascinating, and I’ve had many adventures over the years with both beer-brewing–including gluten-free quinoa beer, which was my best and healthiest homemade beer ever–and bread-making at home. I’ve made naan bread, cricket bread, and yuca bread (or tortillas) with yoghurt, and also made pizza, which is just bread with cheese and a sauce and other ingredients.

Ancient Greeks had a huge variety of breads, and some were made specifically for some holiday or religious occasion–like they still do for Easter and Christmas. When the Vesuvian eruption happened in the year 79, there was a baker who left his bread in the oven in order to escape the cataclysm. Almost 1,900 years later, this bread (which would have likely been similar to the bread that was enjoyed by the Epicurean Guide Philodemus of Gadara and his associates) was re-discovered in the remains of Herculaneum. This video shows us how to make ancient Herculaneum bread. It was likely enjoyed with olive oil.

Of course, we do not have to try to replicate the ancient way of making bread, although it would be a fun experiment. Bread can be made from a wide variety of roots and grains. It’s truly one of the most universal foods, and fun to make (even if it takes patience), particularly if the finished product is tasty and becomes a source of pride. Perhaps in the future some Epicurean communities will celebrate the Twentieth by developing their own bread-making traditions.

If bread was made from scratch on the Twentieth in the Gardens, it’s possible that the preparations for the holiday started the day prior to the Twentieth, where bakers would have made sure to have a sourdough starter for the next day. They may also have fermented grapes or other fruits overnight together with a portion from a previous batch of bread, or used beer-foam or beer as a starter. If there were children in the Garden, this would have been a great educational experiment in chemistry for them, as well as in the culinary arts. They could have provided additional hands for kneading.

Cheese

According to this page in celebration of Greek gastronomy,

Greek cheeses are a plenty. I am almost certain that Greece consumes more cheese than any other nation. Cheese is such a rich part of Greece’s history; the ancient Greeks even designated a god to this wonderful food.

Aristaios (Αρισταιος), the son of Apollo, was the god that brought Cheese making (and honey, olive growing, medicinal herbs) to ancient Greece. No wonder his name is a derivative of the Greek word “aristos,” meaning “most useful.”

Notice that the god was associated with medicinal herbs and honey (which also has antibacterial properties), and we will begin to understand how, in the Mediterranean diet–as Hippocrates said–we let food be our medicine and medicine be our food. There is no boundary between the culinary and the medicinal. In order to understand why Epicurus loved his cheese so much, it may help to understand the history of cheese-making in Ancient Greece. According to this webpage on the history of Greek cheese,

The single most distinguishing characteristic of Greek cheese is that most of it is made with sheep’s milk, goat’s milk, or a combination of the two. Cow’s milk cheeses exist but only a handful of Greek islands.

The page also explains that Greek cheeses went well beyond feta and were incredibly varied (including “cheeses that are sun-dried; aged in lees; and those that are preserved in olive oil“, pastries that incorporated cheese, and “roasted cheesecakes“), and made a great offering to the gods. It also says:

Cheese played a role, not only as a staple, but also as a luxury item in ancient Greek gastronomy.

… which reminds us of the autarchy (self-sufficiency) portion of Epicurus’ Letter to Menoeceus where Epicurus explains that, in order to better enjoy the occasional luxury, it’s good to save those luxuries for special occasions.

We regard autarchy as a great good, not so as in all cases to use little, but so as to be contented with little if we have not much, being honestly persuaded that they have the sweetest enjoyment of luxury who stand least in need of it, and that whatever is natural is easily procured and only the vain and worthless hard to win. Plain fare gives as much pleasure as a costly diet, when one the pain of want has been removed, while bread and water confer the highest possible pleasure when they are brought to hungry lips. To habituate oneself, therefore, to a simple and inexpensive diet supplies al that is needful for health, and enables a person to meet the necessary requirements of life without shrinking and it places us in a better condition when we approach at intervals a costly fare and renders us fearless of fortune.

Hence, when Epicurus told one of his friends in a letter:

Send me a pot of cheese, that I may feast.

it is understood that this was not an everyday luxury for Epicurus. Each island and region of Greece made its own cheese varieties, so this friend probably brought a luxury (or rare, local) item from afar, from wherever he was from or from wherever he visited.

Since we use the canon, let us look also at the science behind cheese, and how it relates to happiness. Fermented foods in general (like cheese and yoghurt) are good for keeping a healthy balance of gut bacteria. Gut flora has been tied to mood regulation / mood disorders. Only recently have scientists been able to identify and isolate the specific bacteria in cheese and other products that aid with happiness, digestion, and mood regulation. According to this essay,

Not all cheeses contain live bacteria, as they can be killed off during the making process but those that pack the biggest probiotic punch include brie, cheddar, cottage cheese, edam, feta, roquefort and stilton.

The gut needs a variety of bacteria, which is why fermented foods do not need to be eaten daily, or even frequently. Epicurus’ choice of enjoying cheese only on occasion shows that he had a healthy, intuitive approach to listening to his belly.

Wine

In the chronicles, we learn that Epicurus had casual discussions with Polyaenus about the nature of the particles that were in the wine that they were casually drinking. At the time of his death, Epicurus also had a bit of wine mixed with water in order to help him manage his pain. Wine is tied to Dionysus–whose cult, according to anthropologists, include rich and poor, men and women, and encouraged temporary liberation from the restrictions of cultural conventions through drunkenness.

However, most wine consumption was not for the sake of drunken stupor. That was only on special occasions. Typically, Greeks mixed wine with water so that it was more like a grape juice. According to Lemon & Olives,

The oldest Greek wine (2,000 years old) served today is the famous white wine, Retsina. The very same wine that the ancient Greeks drank can be tasted today. To be honest, it kind of taste like a pine tree. The reason for the pine taste was do to the ancients and their method of sealing wine barrels with pine resin to keep air out. It is good but an acquired taste. Best served cold with sharp cheeses.

As for the health benefits of wine, so long as it’s not consumed in excess: we know that the benefits are similar to those of grapes (and raisins), and berries, which have a very high anti-oxidant value. This helps to fight cancer and other degenerative diseases, and helps to slow aging and the general deterioration of the body.

If our readers develop particular culinary traditions for the Twentieth, please let us know via email or in our FaceBook group. We’d love to document the emergence of these traditions.

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