8 oldest known recipes of the world (2024)

FAQs

What are some of the oldest recipes in the world? ›

Scientists have found the earliest known evidence of cooking at an archaeological site in Israel. The shift from eating raw to cooked food was a dramatic turning point in human evolution, and the discovery has suggested prehistoric humans were able to deliberately make fires to cook food at least 780,000 years ago.

Nettle pudding dates back to 6000 BCE in Britain and is considered the oldest known recipe in the world. It is a very thick, light mousse-like dessert made from nettles, milk, and eggs. In the 18th century, nettle pudding was a staple of the English diet.

First found in a tomb in Ancient Egypt, honey is about 5,500 years old. Revered in ancient Egypt, honey remains edible over long periods. In 2015, while excavating tombs in Egypt, the archaeologists found about 3000-year-old honey that was fully edible.

Ashure (Noah's Pudding) is thought to be the oldest dessert in the world, first made by Noah after his fabled landfall at Mt Ararat. It is a delightful mix of dried fruit, nuts, grains and beans (yes, beans!) made in Turkey and all over the Middle East.

Answer: The oldest form of cooking is basically fire-roasting and, specifically, open fire cooking. The earliest forms of open-fired cooking would have consisted of placing food ingredients straight into a fire. Yep, right into the ashes!

The earliest known written recipes date to 1730 BC and were recorded on cuneiform tablets found in Mesopotamia. Other early written recipes date from approximately 1600 BC and come from an Akkadian tablet from southern Babylonia. There are also works in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs depicting the preparation of food.

Macaroni and cheese is the oldest written casserole recipe found in 1250.

The diet of the earliest hominins was probably somewhat similar to the diet of modern chimpanzees: omnivorous, including large quantities of fruit, leaves, flowers, bark, insects and meat (e.g., Andrews & Martin 1991; Milton 1999; Watts 2008).

What is the oldest cooking method in the world? ›

One of the oldest forms of cooking, stemming from the paleolithic era. Smoking, also known as smoke-curing, is a technique that involves cooking food, mainly meat, over a high-smoking, low flame area. The smoke imparts a rich, smoky flavor to the food, and the low heat ensures that the food is cooked slowly and evenly.

Betty Crocker's Cookbook (originally called Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book) by Betty Crocker (1950) – approx. 65 million copies.

The oldest cookbook in the world is the Yale Culinary Tablets. These three stone slabs dating back to Mesopotamia circa 1700 B.C. represent the oldest known recipe-making in world history.

Foods That Originated in the Old World: apples, bananas, beans (some varieties), beets, broccoli, carrots, cattle (beef), cauliflower, celery, cheese, cherries, chickens, chickpeas, cinnamon, coffee, cows, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, ginger, grapes, honey (honey bees), lemons, lettuce, limes, mangos, oats, okra, ...

Drying is the oldest method of food preservation. This method reduces water activity which prevents bacterial growth. Sun and wind are both used for drying.

Bread, potatoes, cabbage, beans, and various kinds of cereal were the base of local cuisine. There was usually only one dish per meal on the table on regular days. On holidays, there could be several dishes served during the same meal, but they were the same as those cooked on regular days, as a rule.