Byzantine Food and Drink: Diet, Cooking, Fasting, and Provisioning

Wheat bread supplied a staple of Byzantine meals. Households added pulses and seasonal produce, while meat and fresh fish depended on resources and location. Preserved foods provisioned travellers and soldiers as well as urban markets. Christian fasts restricted animal foods at specified times, making the religious calendar part of meal planning.

Constantinople’s markets obtained foods from its surrounding districts and more distant suppliers. Court households could purchase imported spices and costly wines. Inland farming households relied more heavily on their own harvests and local exchange, with salt, drying and pickling extending supplies beyond the season.

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The basic food supply

Grains formed the foundation of the diet. Wheat was the most valued grain for human consumption, especially when milled into finely sieved flour. Barley was also widely used, although it was less highly regarded and generally cheaper. Rye, millet, oats, and vetch were used mainly as animal fodder, but millet could appear in gruels and porridges eaten by poorer people. Bulgur and other preparations of cracked grain also contributed to the food supply.

Bread was therefore both a staple and a marker of status. Fine wheat bread belonged more readily to wealthy households, while people with fewer resources relied on coarser loaves and other grain foods. A twice-baked, dry bread known as paximadia or paxamas could be kept for long periods and was associated in the evidence with soldiers and monks. Its low moisture made it useful where fresh bread was difficult to obtain.

Plant foods supplied much of the daily diet. Legumes such as lentils, peas, and chickpeas provided substantial nourishment, particularly when meat was unavailable or prohibited by a fast. Vegetables, herbs, nuts, and fruit varied by region and season. Olives and olive oil were especially important in areas suited to olive cultivation, while butter and lard were more useful in colder inland districts where olive trees were difficult to grow. Seasonal produce could be eaten fresh, dried, salted, or pickled, extending its use beyond the harvest.

Meat, fish, eggs, and dairy

Pork, sheep, goats and poultry supplied meat. Cattle also served agriculture as working animals. Winter slaughter allowed households to preserve pork with salt or make sausages. The Book of the Eparch, a collection of regulations for Constantinople’s trades, regulated Constantinople’s pork butchers, placing their trade under urban supervision.

Meat could be roasted, grilled, boiled, steamed, marinated, or cooked with wine, salt, herbs, vinegar, mustard, or other sauces. Innards were boiled or fried, and intestines could be used for sausages and other preparations. Less affluent households made use of parts such as heads and feet, while the best cuts and young animals were more readily available to wealthier consumers. Hunting deer and wild boar was an expensive and prestigious activity.

Birds were widely eaten, with chicken especially well represented in archaeological animal remains. Other birds included ducks, geese, pigeons, partridges, and pheasants. Elite descriptions of banquets sometimes emphasize elaborate poultry dishes and hunted game.

Fish and shellfish were important in coastal and riverine areas and became especially useful on days when meat was forbidden. Fresh fish was more readily available near water, while inland households could obtain fish that had been salted, dried, smoked, or sold as tarichos, preserved fish available through grocers. Fish could be boiled, fried, baked, grilled, or served with sauces. The evidence also shows that preserved fish was suitable for military provisions and long journeys.

Eggs and dairy products were comparatively accessible sources of animal nourishment. Eggs from several kinds of birds could be boiled, scrambled, or made into layered omelettes known as sphoungata. Milk from cows, sheep, goats, and water buffalo was consumed, often heated, and cheese was made in both soft and hard forms. Varieties associated with different regions included Paphlagonian, Cretan, Vlach, and mountain cheeses. Cheese could be curdled with rennet or plant substances and could also be fried after being coated with crumbs or meal.

Cooking, sauces, and flavour

Boiling was a common cooking method, particularly for grains, vegetables, meat, and stews. Byzantine cooks also roasted, grilled, fried, steamed, and marinated food. The choice depended on the ingredients, available fuel, equipment, and the resources of the household. Large communal pots were practical for feeding families, workers, soldiers, or monastic communities, while wealthy kitchens could support more elaborate preparations.

Olive oil and animal fats supplied cooking media, while vinegar, wine and herbs flavoured dishes. Garos was a fermented fish condiment inherited from ancient practice. A fermented barley preparation called murri also appears in descriptions of Byzantine food. Cooks combined local seasonings with imported spices where available.

Pepper, cinnamon and other imported spices entered urban markets and expensive kitchens. Their cost limited regular use. Households with access to those markets could obtain ingredients unavailable to families relying primarily on local harvests.

Preservation and provisioning

Preservation was necessary because harvests were seasonal, journeys could be long, and fresh food was not available everywhere. Meat and fish were salted, dried, smoked, or sealed. Fruits and nuts could be dried in the sun, while vegetables and other foods could be pickled. Fat was itself useful in preserving food, and smoke and alcohol helped limit spoilage according to contemporary practice.

These methods also shaped military and urban provisioning. Dried or salted meat and fish were more portable than fresh supplies, while dry bread could be stored for extended periods. Grocers and other urban sellers distributed preserved foods, allowing city residents to obtain products from outside their immediate neighbourhood. Households, institutions and markets all depended on converting seasonal harvests into supplies that could be stored and distributed.

Meals and the Christian calendar

Daily meals varied by household and period, but sources describe a simple morning meal followed by more substantial meals later in the day. Porridge, vegetables, bread, or other modest foods could begin the day. Larger meals might combine salads or other appetizers with meat or fish, bread, sauces, and wine.

Christian fasting shaped both the ingredients and timing of meals. Meat, eggs and dairy products were restricted during many fasts; stricter observances also limited fish, oil and wine. Bread, pulses, vegetables and fruit therefore carried much of the diet during fasting periods. Rules differed by occasion and community, and concessions could be made for illness or other needs.

Monasteries organised meals through written rules and communal kitchens, while soldiers, sailors and travellers needed food that could be stored and carried. Religious observance and practical provisioning could therefore draw on the same staples, especially dry bread and pulses, while arranging them according to different timetables and needs.

Sweet foods and drink

Honey was the principal sweetener for much of the Byzantine period. It was used in pastries, sauces, and other cooked foods, and beekeeping was sufficiently organized to be taxed. Fresh and dried fruits, nuts, sesame, and honey could be combined in sweet dishes. Cane sugar entered Byzantine culinary life during the Middle Byzantine period, but it remained a luxury rather than a common household ingredient.

Byzantine sources name layered and filled pastries. Their relationship to later eastern Mediterranean dishes is debated, since recipes and names changed over time.

Wine was the principal alcoholic drink. Varieties associated with Macedonia, Crete, Cyprus, and other regions circulated within and beyond the empire. Commandaria from Cyprus, Cretan wines, and wines exported from places such as Methoni and Monemvasia were among those remembered in later sources. Retsina, wine flavoured with pine resin, was also known. Wine might be diluted, used with food, or added to recipes, and its quality and price varied considerably.

Water, milk, sour milk, and fruit-based drinks provided alternatives to wine. Some beverages combined water with fruit juice and honey, while other preparations used herbs, cumin, fennel, or spices. Alcoholic drinks made from grains occurred in parts of the Balkans and some areas of Asia Minor, but wine remained the most characteristic alcoholic beverage in the surviving descriptions.

Imperial and aristocratic banquets used expensive foods, imported seasonings and decorated vessels. Meals also accompanied diplomacy and social occasions. Accounts of John VIII Palaiologos’s visit to Florence in 1439 record the foods offered to an imperial guest.

Urban middle- and lower-income people could buy prepared food at taverns and markets, while poorer households depended more heavily on bread, pulses, vegetables, and cheaper preserved foods. Rural diets varied with local ecology and household production. A household’s access to land, livestock and a reliable harvest affected how far it could feed itself.

Dining equipment also reflected social difference. Excavated pottery shows that ordinary tableware was generally functional, while wealthy households possessed more elaborate ceramics and vessels of glass, silver, or gold. Earlier medieval bowls and dishes were often broad and shallow; by the thirteenth century, deeper and narrower forms suitable for liquids and stews became more common in some regions.

Images and household finds suggest that communal eating was widespread. Diners could take food from a large serving dish and drink from a shared cup or jar. Knives were used as culinary utensils, and the evidence for forks is uneven: forks were known in Byzantine settings, but they were not necessarily the normal utensil of ordinary households.