Remains of a cooked meal or two or actually several, has/have been found from neanderthal times. While neanderthals are not cavemen, or even cavepeople, still, you know what I mean.
I'm basing this off the report in the Guardian
Cool. They weren't "foodies." It's more that western academics think everyone remotely different or from any time in the past is a stupid savage stuffing grass and bloody meat with skin and hair on it down their gullets.
Turns out...DRUM ROLL... WRONG!
Anyway, the upshot is, these neanderthals from various eras and epochs were mixing and processing ingredients and cooking them before eating. Not news to most of the planet but still, fun to hear about for me... a recovering academic.
The food find was a mix of pulses, mustard type seeds, a grass seed (read "grain"), and some nuts. These were most likely mixed, soaked, then pounded or ground up a bit. Then formed into a patty type shape and cooked on a hot rock.
I had lying around the wee shed, lentils (a pulse), mustard seeds (duh), cracked wheat (a grain) and some chopped walnuts. So, I mixed equal parts lentils, wheat and nuts, and a bit of mustard seed and soaked it overnight.
In the morning, I ground it up a little in my way to small for this job mortar and pestle, pattied it, and cooked it inside the wood stove on a preheated tiny cast iron skillet (got that at goodwill...probably part of some cookie kit nonsense).
It was really good! Tasted great. The outside got a bit dry and crusty and did not stick to the pan even though I did not grease it (there was residual grease likely but not much as it didn't smoke or smell of burned grease). I used green lentils with the skins on. The pulses in the ancient food bits had the hulls on. I did drain off a little of the soak water but not enough to get rid of all tannins.
The toasty nutty spicy flavor and slightly crunchy outside with still soft inside was just really nice. I'm going to make it again...and will make or get a bigger grinding stole. It was a tad messy but I think I can get the hang of it with a couple of tries.
Not sure how long I cooked it. I put it in and got on with my yoga and making coffee and things (by the way, it went well with strong coffee). At least 15 minutes. The inside of the wood stove was probably about 400F based on how long I cared to have my hand in there.
The walnuts were likely the least authentic item. Almonds or pistachios would be more like nuts used in the samples found. But, I wasn't going to drive to town for an almond or pistachio. Used what I had...which was an authentic approach I believe.
I didn't take pictures but next time...must do that.
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