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John_Seaford
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from Seaford, New York
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|  Posted 14-07-2010 at 17:40
Hello,
I would like any and all information on what people ate and how they cooked it up in neolithic Europe.
Any good books and internet links would be appreciated.
Why would I want this? Well I suffer from allergies to potatoes and tomatoes. For years I could not tell why I felt so bad till I figured it out. I still do not feel the greatest at times.
Now these foods come from South America and my ancestors came from Ireland and Germany.
So I have come up with this crazy idea that we should eat what our neolithic ancestors ate the way they ate it. I don't know it if works. I am just researching just yet.
Here is what I am thinking:
1) People used to be hunter gathers for a long long time.
2) People became farmers and starting eating grains and pulses and domesticated animals
3) The people that could not eat these foods (like I have a hard time eating potatoes and tomatoes) could not compete so well and died out.
4) We should eat what these remaining people ate.
5) We should prepare our food with old methods. No Twinkies.
I have been cooking up millet and barley and eating them with lentils because these are readily available in health food stores and I think my body likes it.
Most of what I have read was that most European peasants ate barley through out history. So I am thinking if you can't eat barley in Europe you died so it's safe for me to eat. So I am trying to figure out how to make barley bread. I have to find some local barley flour. I may have to order that.
There are some websites where you can order einkorn wheat and emmer wheat. This wheat has much less gluten. I may get into bread making. That would take money for a grain grinder and bread machine so it is on hold for now.
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Neolith
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|  Posted 14-07-2010 at 18:58
This idea has been around for more than 30 years, and the diet is known as the Paleolithic diet, Paleodiet, or Stone Age diet. Probably your best starting point is the Wikipedia entry for Paleolithic diet, which is pretty extensive. Such a diet is disputed as a health benefit, and human bodies and digestion have gone through a lot of adaptation since stone age times. For instance, we couldn't easily digest milk, but now it's easily digested by far the majority of people.
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Runemage
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| Posted 14-07-2010 at 19:13
Hi John and welcome,
I thought your post rang a bell, have you seen
this?
It should give you a good start, plus check out the books it's linked to, like the Paleo Solution, The Evolution Diet, Primal Body Primal Mind, which all seem to be based on out ancestors' food intake.
Also check out Coeliac websites for gluten-free flours and of course recipes.
Oats have some gluten but not as much as wheat, some folks can tolerate them, some can't.
Hope this helps a little, let us know how you get on,
Rune
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John_Seaford
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from Seaford, New York
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| Posted 14-07-2010 at 19:31
Thank you for your quick posts. The diets suggested are Paleolithic. I am asking about neolithic. Farming was invented in the neolithic era. I am interested in the beginning of farming and cooking of grains, pulses and peas and such...
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Andy B
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from Surrey, UK
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| Posted 14-07-2010 at 19:47
Hello,
Look up the work of Jacqui Wood
Food and Drink in European Prehistory by Jacqui Wood
http://www.online-archaeology.co.uk/Contribute/ArchaeologyArticles/tabid/85/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/12/Default.aspx
Food of the Ancients by Jacqui Wood
http://www.online-archaeology.co.uk/Contribute/ArchaeologyArticles/tabid/85/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/15/Food-of-the-Ancients-by-Jacqui-Wood.aspx
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Runemage
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| Posted 14-07-2010 at 19:48
Loads of links, some Neolithic.
http://thisisdiversity.com/articles/all/3920/which-is-healthier-paleolithic-or-neolithic-diet-meat-or-plant-based-foods
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John_Seaford
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| Posted 19-07-2010 at 16:39
One of the links is way cool. It has a paper with the title: Hemochromatosis: A Neolithic adaptation to cereal grain diets.
It seems there is a mutation where you can not get rid of iron from your body. A big advantage to those peasants in Europe (my ancestors) that ate mostly barley.
Today these poor people have to give blood on a frequent basis to get rid of their iron.
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John_Seaford
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| Posted 19-07-2010 at 16:42
http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/roman/fetch-recipe.php?rid=roman-barley-cake
I found barley flour and made these.
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haliburton
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| Posted 22-10-2010 at 20:58
RuneMage,
Any of those recipes for snacks!
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Runemage
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| Posted 24-10-2010 at 00:55
Hi Haliburton,
Good to see you back on the forums  I wonder what the Ancestors would have foraged for snacks at this time of year?
Berries and mushrooms at a guess.
Rune
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On 2010-10-22 20:58, haliburton wrote:
RuneMage,
Any of those recipes for snacks!
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frogcottage42
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| Posted 24-10-2010 at 11:02
Ancestors? the best of the mushroom season is coming to an end but it was a great one here, Haw berries, crab apples, Rose hips, sloes, rowan berries, elder berries and countless others are still very much on the menu.
I walk around all the time looking at the fresh larder pouring out of the hedgerows!
I suspect this time of year would be mostly devoted to storage and in areas like I live in Acorns and berries would be the long term harvest due to a singular lack of evidence for intensive arable production.
I sometimes wonder if Fullacht Fiadh could have been used to process acorns although no evidence has yet come to light.
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Runemage
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| Posted 24-10-2010 at 14:08
Do you make things from your wild harvest? Some interesting ideas on here. http://www.eatweeds.co.uk/
Processing the acorns in a FF in what way to make what? (boiling alone being too obvious and a FF would hold a vast amount, so whatever was made, there would be huge amounts of it so it should have stored well. I've Googled around and there are so many recipes, even including acorn flour.
Or was it Acorn Beer you had in mind 
Rune
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frogcottage42
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| Posted 24-10-2010 at 17:01
Hi Rune, acorns are so full of tannin that they require either a long soak after crushing in running water or gentle blanching and rinsing before drying and grinding. It strikes me that with the quantities needed for winter stores that the positioning of FF next to running water and the facility to heat quite a quantity would lend itself well to this process.
It also seems that FF are invariably near ancient oak woodland.
As for myself I do not use as much as I feel I should but Mushrooms are my big thing, I eat far too many.
This year has been the most bountiful for all these things in living memory and I have a large quantity of dried mushrooms for winter as well as the ubiquitous blackberries etc in preserve form and lots of mackerel in the freezer.
If it's free it seems a crime to waste it.
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