candeladestructora:

This is a requested post, and one I think is a good resource to have available. I was asked about recipes for Hellenic offerings. When asking what constituted these recipes that had been requested, the answer was: ‘things that you made for the offerings or certain food you ate on certain days’. I’ve come up with three Hellenic offerings that are not simply dried fruits or meat but prepared in some way. If there are others I have missed, let me know so I can add them, please!

Honey cakes

When you read the ancient and scholarly texts having to do with ancient Hellas, you will often come upon references to ‘honey cakes’ or ‘cakes’ in general. We might be tempted to interpret these to mean modern day cakes, but the ancient Hellenes would have most likely used flat cracker-type ‘cakes’, made from barley meal and honey.

Ingredients:
200 g barley flour
100 ml water
3 tbsp clear honey
2 tbsp olive oil

Place the flour in a bowl, add the honey and olive oil and mix. Pour in the water little by little and continue mixing until a good dough is formed. Cool this in the fridge for about ten minutes. Roll out as thinly as possible. Cut in the desired shape. Bake the cakes in an oven pre-heated to 200°C for about 10-15 minutes. Transfer the cakes to a wire rack, cool and sacrifice.

Panspermia

This mixture of pulses is a typical Greek panspermia (mixture of all seeds). According to legend, as mentioned by Plutarch, this was the votive offering Theseus and his crew made to Apollo when they returned to Hellas on this day, for it was all that was left of their provisions. It’s an Anthesteria staple. It is also an offering that is ritually sown with prayers that the next harvest may be bountiful. I’m using Hellenion’s recipe for this.

Ingredients:
1 cup fava beans
1 cup chickpeas
2 cups lentils (big green ones)
2 cups peas (dried and split or fresh)
3 onions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
Several cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
7 bay leaves (7 relates to Apollo)
½ bunch chopped parsley
water or vegetarian soup stock

“Soak chickpeas and fava beans separately for many hours, changing water several times.  The last soak can be overnight. Next day, bring water level to top of fava beans and boil them separately until skins easily slip off the beans.  Meantime, boil chickpeas separately in water or soup stock with the bay leaves.  Sauté onions and celery and add to the pot while cooking along with some salt (pepper would taste great but is probably Hellenic rather than Classic). When the fava beans have been husked, add them to the chickpeas. Cook until both beans are soft. Add lentils, peas and parsley, and cook about 30 minutes more.  Add minced garlic during the last minute or two of cooking. When beans are tender and all liquid is absorbed, the dish is ready to serve.  At the festival, set the pot on the table along with olive oil, salt, oregano and balsamic vinegar and each person seasons their meal as they wish (this is still the traditional way of serving this bean dish in Greece).”

Kykeon

Kykeon (κυκεών) was a barley beverage said to be preferred by Demeter, and drank by peasants in ancient times. It was used to break a sacred fast within the Eleusinian Mysteries as well as in preparatory rites for some of the most sacred–and secret–rites within Eleusis.

Although the actual recipe has been lost, kykeon was made with barley, water, herbs, and ground goat cheese. Sometimes honey was added. Herbs that are described as part of the kykeon are mint, pennyroyal and thyme, although it seems any herb that was found to flavour the drink, was acceptable. For some of the rites, hallucinatory herbs may have been added to heighten the experience of what was about to unfold.

Recipes for typical Hellenic ritual offerings