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Bread, Beer, and Beyond: The Daily Food of Ancient Egypt

Step back in time and explore the daily diet of ancient Egypt, a rich cuisine sustained by the fertile gifts of the Nile. Discover how staples like emmer bread and hearty beer formed the core of every meal, from the worker to the pharaoh. Learn about the abundant vegetables, such as onions and garlic, the sweet fruits like figs and dates, and the essential proteins from fish and fowl that fed the builders of the pyramids.
  • Updated: October 25, 2025

Food in Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians enjoyed a diverse and plentiful diet, a luxury made possible by the fertile lands surrounding the Nile River. This bountiful environment gave them an abundance of excellent ancient Egyptian food. The river provided a constant source of water for irrigating crops and raising livestock, allowing society to develop a sophisticated culinary culture and create magnificent recipes.

People of all social classes consumed bread and beer, which were the two main staples of the ancient Egyptian diet. However, wealth greatly influenced the rest of their meals. For the general population, people supplemented their diet with fresh fruits, vegetables, and fish from the Nile. On the other hand, the wealthy enjoyed a wider variety of foods, including a steady supply of meat and fowl.

Unlike many other ancient societies where food was less nutritious, ancient Egypt had an incredibly healthy cuisine. It is often credited with contributing to thousands of years of general prosperity and fertility.

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Meals from Ancient Egypt

meals in ancient Egypt - Egypt Fun Tours

You can find many ancient Egyptian food paintings on temple and tomb walls. Seating arrangements depended on social rank. The upper class used chairs. The middle class sat on stools. The lower class sat on the floor. Before a meal, perfume cones were placed in basins to create pleasant scents. Stews were served with bread, vegetables, and fruit. Dessert was often cakes made with dates and honey.

Ancient Egyptian cooking

Ancient Egyptians cooked their food in various ways, including stewing, boiling, baking, grilling, frying, and roasting. They added many spices and herbs for taste, but these were expensive imports, so only the rich had them on their tables. The Egyptians preserved their food by salting and drying it, and they also dried raisins for long-term storage.

Honey was the main sweetener in ancient Egyptian cuisine. It was very expensive because they obtained it from wild bees or from domestic bees kept in pottery hives. They used oils from lettuce, safflower, bean, sesame, balanitis, and olive for cooking. They also used animal fat for cooking and kept everything in jars.

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Ancient Egyptian Bread

Ancient Egyptian food - Bread loaf - NMEC - Egypt Fun Tours

Bread was a mainstay of the ancient Egyptian food diet, and both the wealthy and the poor ate it. They prepared it from wheat or barley and ate it regularly. Making bread was a difficult process because women crushed the grains into flour on the floor using a grinding mill. They added sand to the grinder to speed up the process, so the bread contained sand. This sand has been linked to various dental issues, including tooth root, as shown in the teeth of numerous mummies.

When they combined the flour, water, and yeast, they created a dough. The ancient Egyptians placed the dough in a clay mold and then baked it in a stone oven. They also made fine dessert bread and pastries with high-quality flour. They shaped the bread into various sizes and forms, including human figures, fish, and animals, and seasoned it with coriander seeds and dates.

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Ancient Egypt’s Drinks

Ancient Egyptian drinks

Beer was the most popular beverage and a cornerstone of Egyptian drinks. It was a staple of the Egyptian diet, known as “Beer Bread,” and also served as a form of currency. Most ancient Egyptians didn’t drink water directly from the Nile because they noticed it made people sick; instead, they drank beer. They prepared beer by half-cooking barley, then soaking it in water and allowing it to ferment.

Beer was a very healthy meal with high protein, mineral, and vitamin content. It had the consistency of a milkshake and contained only a small amount of alcohol. The ancient Egyptians also used grapes to make white and red wine, which they mixed with spices and honey. They used fruits like dates to make various non-alcoholic beverages.

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Ancient Egyptian Food: Fruits and Vegetables

Despite the fact that the Nile was not the major source of hydration, it was the main cause for the lush quality of the land and the variety of ancient Egyptian cuisine owing to its yearly flooding, which permitted the planting of numerous fruits and vegetables. The most frequent vegetables included green onions and garlic, which Egyptians used for medicinal purposes. They also ate leeks, cucumbers, lentils, lettuce, celery, beans, peas, radishes, and turnips. They ate papyrus raw, cooked, and even roasted. Dates were the most popular fruit, although they also ate figs, grapes, melons, apples, and pomegranates.

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Ancient Egypt’s Meat

Meat in ancient Egypt - Egypt Fun Tours

Fish was the major source of protein in ancient Egypt, and it was typically dried or salted to keep it fresh for a long time. There were also additional protein sources available, such as chickens for everyone, as well as geese, duck, lamb, pigeon, and quail. The meat was costly and only accessible to royalty once or twice a year. Everything in Egypt seems like heaven, so don’t miss out on a spectacular Nile river cruise through the major towns of Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan to discover the beauty and enchantment of this sacred nation.

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