# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
All are (or were at one point) Real Breads made with yeast, though more modern recipes for some might use baking powder and/or artificial additives.

The list is based on the one we have published in our Lessons in Loaf guide for schools.

We'd love to hear from you more regional Real Breads to add to this list and any future versions of Lessons in Loaf. Please email the name and one line description to realbread [at] sustainweb.org tweet to @RealBread using the #realbread hashtag

See also:

What's its name?

Names can be confusing. Around the country, there are many things called cakes that are in fact types of bread and then there are gingerbread men and Scottish oatcakes, both of which are biscuits.

What some people call pikelets others know as crumpets and there are those who disagree which bread is a crumpet and which is a muffin.

You will notice that certain breads on this list are enriched and flavoured with similar combinations of eggs, sugar, butter (or lard) and spices but given different local names. You will also find that recipes for each type of bread have many variations.

Multi-regional

The following either have more than one 'home' or their origins have been lost in the mists of time...

Crumpet
Asmall but thick, chewy pancake, with many deep holes. The name is related to the Welsh word crempog.

Hot cross buns
These are usually the same as teacakes but with a cross on top. They are part of the traditional celebrations after the fasting of Lent, though now they are often available long before Easter.

Lardy cake
A flaky yeasted bread, enriched with lard, sugar and dried fruit.

Malt loaf
A heavy, sticky, fruited bread, sweetened with malt extract, dark sugar (or treacle).

Milk bread
Made with milk instead of some or all of the water. It was especially popular during the Victorian period.

Muffin
Flat, round bun, cooked on both sides on a griddle. The name is thought to come from the old French word moufflet, meaning soft. Americans call it an English muffin, as they use the word muffin for a big cupcake.

Oatcakes
In Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Wales, they tend to be large, thin, soft pancakes, whilst in Yorkshire, they are dried until crisp.

Plum bread (or cake)
Sweet, spiced bread. Most (or perhaps all) recipes use dried fruit such as currants, rather than plums.

Teacakes
Sweet, fruited, spiced buns.

Traditional shapes

Nowadays the following names are mainly used to identify a shape, though in the past bakers would have had specific recipes for each, varying the type of flour used, as well as proportions of ingredients, provin and cooking times.

Bloomer
Hand-shaped loaf with rounded ends and several diagonal slashes on the top.

Coburg
Round, hand-shaped loaf with a deep cross slashed in the top.

Cottage loaf
Round, hand-shaped loaf with a smaller round on top that has a deep dent in the middle from pushing down through the top part of the loaf to join the two pieces together.

Rumpy
Hand-shaped loaf with a chequerboard pattern of slashes on top.

Split tin
Tin loaf with a deep slash along the top.

Scotland

Bannock
Perhaps the oldest (5th Century) recorded British word for a bread. Originally, bannocks were heavy, flat, unleavened breads, often made from barley, oats or rye and cooked on a griddle. Though it is likely that they were at one time leavened with barm or natural starter, modern bannocks are often made using baking powder.

Black bun
Bread stuffed with a deep filling of spiced, dried fruits that are often soaked in whisky.

Rowies
Flaky, buttery, salty breads from Aberdeen, similar to croissants but not as light.

Selkirk bannock
Very different from a regular bannock, this fruited bread is more similar to English lardy cakes and Welsh bara brith.

Wales

Bara
The Welsh word for bread.

Bara brith
The name means speckled bread and it is sweet, dense, spiced and fruited.

Crempog
Welsh griddle cakes. The word is related to krampoch in Lower Brittany and the English crumpet.

Pikelets ( bara pyglyd)
Similar to thin crumpets, they are soft, holey griddle cakes.

Northern Ireland

Aràn pràtaì
The name means potato bread, and is oven baked bread made with wheat flour and potatoes.

Barm brack
This is sweet, fruited bread, flavoured with caraway, which was originally leavened with barm, the yeasty sediment left by brewing beer.

Boxty
Griddle bread made with a mixture of wheat flour and potatoes.

Farl
This round, flatish bread, made to be broken into quarters (farl means fourth part), was traditionally cooked on a griddle, though is now often baked. It can be made with any combination of white or wholemeal flour, oats and potatoes. Before chemical leavening was discovered in the 19th century, farls would have been yeasted, though now they are almost always made using baking powder or bicarbonate of soda and soured buttermilk.

Fadge
This is another type of flat potato bread.

England - south west

Bath buns
They are enriched with butter, sugar and usually eggs, and sometimes flavoured with candied citrus peel, saffron or caraway seeds.

Chudleigh
A smaller version of the Devonshire split.

Saffron bread
Also known as saffron cake, this yellow-tinged Cornish bread is enriched with sugar, butter and flavoured with saffron and other spices.

Sally Lunns
An egg, sugar and butter or cream enriched bun from Bath. They perhaps take their name from a girl who lived in the city over 300 years ago or perhaps a corruption of soleil et lune, French for sun and moon. Some recipes are very similar to those for Bath buns.

Splits
Often used in Devon and Cornwall instead of scones for cream teas, these are small, round, butter and sugar enriched white buns.

England - south east

Chelsea buns
Glazed and currant-filled sweet bread whirls, first baked by the Bun House in Pimlico, London.

Floaters
Also known as swimmers, these are small lumps of bread dough, boiled in Norfolk as dumplings in a soup or stew.

Huffkins
Kentish flat, oval buns, with a deep indent in the middle.

Oast cakes
Fried barm dumplings once made by Kentish hop pickers.

England - the midlands

Banbury cake
Sweet bread from the Oxfordshire market town, traditionally flavoured with rose water, cloves, mace and caraway.

England - north east

Stottie
Like a large muffin but baked on both sides on the bottom of the oven, so also known as a bottom cake. The name comes from a dialect word meaning 'to bounce.'

England - north west

Eccles cakes
Flaky, enriched sweet bread filled with spiced dried fruit.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Real Breads of Britain | Real Bread Campaign

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
All are (or were at one point) Real Breads made with yeast, though more modern recipes for some might use baking powder and/or artificial additives. The list is based on the one we have published in our Lessons in Loaf guide for schools.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Environmental history of bread

In celebration of Real Bread Week, one of our Environmental Archaeologists, Dr. Ed Treasure, gives us an intriguing insight into the use of grains in bread making from the prehistoric through to the present day.

Bread is amongst the most important foodstuffs in the world and has been for several thousand years. Globally, most bread is produced from a wheat somewhat unsurprisingly called 'bread wheat' ( Triticum aestivum); this wheat is favoured for its high gluten content which gives bread the springy rise which we all love. However, past agricultural practices were characterised by their diversity; a whole suite of crops were cultivated, some suited to bread production - others less so.

Information on the origins of bread has largely been provided through archaeobotany - study of plant remains from archaeological sites - although valuable information has been gained from other historical evidence such as pottery styles, textual sources, and studies of traditional farming societies.

The first 'bread'

The 'earliest' identified bread has been recovered from present-day Jordan and is over 15,000 years old; this predates the emergence of agriculture and domesticated cereal crops.

This bread was made from a wild ancestor of domesticated cereals, possibly wild einkorn ( Triticum boeoticum), together with the tubers of a plant called club-rush to produce something akin to a flat bread which was baked in the hearth ashes.

With the emergence of agriculture and domesticated crops from the 11th-10th millennium BC across the 'Fertile Crescent' - an area covering Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Northern Egypt - cereals and pulses became part of established diets. There have been numerous finds of bread-like foods across this area.

Bread production appears to have been closely linked with cultural traditions of cooking, some of which are still very evident in modern diets. For example, in East Asian cuisines there is an emphasis on boiling or steaming cereals such as rice and millets, whereas across the Mediterranean and Europe emphasis is placed on baking cereals in ovens to produce breads.

Modern 6 row hulled barley 'Bere'
Early agriculture

One of the best studied early agricultural Stone Age settlements is the Neolithic site at Çatalhöyük in southern-central Turkey. This sprawling site extends over several hectares and was occupied between the 8th-7th millennium BC.

By analysing charred remains of cereals and pulses burnt in domestic hearths, or sometimes in catastrophic fires, we know that the main crops cultivated were pulses and a range of cereals which included barleys ( Hordeum vulgare) and different wheat species - bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum), emmer wheat ( Triticum dicoccum), einkorn ( Triticum monoccum), and the enigmatically named 'new glume wheat' from another species.

Amongst these charred cereal remains, were numerous small burnt 'food lumps' which resembled porridge-like or bread-like products; the modern equivalent of this is forgetting about sliced bread in a toaster (although no amount of scraping with a knife would save this bread).

Various flours and coarsely-ground grains were produced from these crops, although 'bread' itself may not have been the most important end product.

What else did humans make with cereal crops?

Aside from bread, there are a whole host of different cereal-based foods. These range from bulgur and groats (coarsely ground grain) which were likely mixed with surplus dairy products (e.g., buttermilk, yoghurt), to more liquid-foods such as ale. For example, emmer wheat is not particularly well-suited to producing leavened bread unless mixed with other flours, although the grains have excellent taste in products such as bulgur; this is produced from boiling whole grains, drying them, and coarsely grinding them, typically in warmer climates.

Similar coarsely ground cereal products would have been produced in many areas from a range of different cereal species. Early quernstones (grinding stones) called saddle querns - consisting of a concave depression and rubbing stone - are not particularly well-suited for producing fine flours required for bread.

Ethnographic studies record crushed grain mixed with fermented dairy products as important components of diets until recently in areas such as the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland. Similar foodstuffs are widely documented across the Mediterranean.

A sadly missed, and famous archaeobotanist (well famous to us) called Gordon Hillman studied traditional farming practices in Turkey and highlighted non-bread products made from cereals. Some of the most important consisted of boiled, coarsely ground cereal grains (similar to bulgur), although they had rather purgative properties on British students unused to them, so perhaps they were not to everyone's taste.

Modern emmer wheat
Stone Age to Medieval bread

In later periods, there is compelling evidence for bread production across the Mediterranean and Europe between the Neolithic and medieval periods. We must keep an open mind when examining past breads, since they would have been very different to the types of bread we see today (i.e., not your sliced white loaf).

Very coarse and unleavened flat breads made of wheat and barley flour alongside coarsely ground grains have been recovered from Neolithic lake villages in Switzerland, with some of these resembling a misshapen bagel. Grains are likely to have been ground on small saddle querns.

In comparison, extensive evidence exists for bread production in Egypt (c.2000-1000 BCE), where they were made from emmer wheat and had quite a dense crumb, although some lighter loaves were probably leavened with yeast and fermented; this could have been achieved with a sourdough starter which makes use of natural yeast. Baking was undertaken directly on hearth ashes, within ceramic vessels on hearths, or in ovens.

Roman spelt wheat spikelet from Somerset
In Ancient Greece and Rome, textual sources hint at the origins of the fibre-less white bread which we are perhaps too familiar with today. This was bread for the wealthier classes, and it came in various forms; some were enriched with butter, milk, and flavourings (e.g., poppy seeds).

Emmer wheat appears to have been one of the main cereals used to produce flat or partly leavened breads, although this could have been mixed with bread wheat flour for a lighter loaf. There are well-known finds of whole loaves from Pompeii, as well as tantalising finds of circular flat breads from Roman sites in France which were made from barley and emmer wheat/einkorn.

Bread baking was undertaken by specialists in urban areas such as Pompeii using large ovens, whereas rural communities may have shared communal ovens or used smaller domestic ones. Bread produced in rural communities was more rustic and coarser, being produced from mixtures of wheat and barley; some of these breads had strong flavours and required moistening to make them more palatable.

Certainly, by this period (and earlier in some places), flour production increased in scale and was undertaken in both urban and rural mills, although smaller saddle querns and rotary querns are still found in some areas. Aside from emmer wheat, a range of cereals were available to produce flours around this period and in some areas of the Roman Empire, cereals were used in combination. In central and northern Europe, spelt wheat ( Triticum spelta) was one of the most important cereal crops cultivated from the Bronze Age until the end of the Roman period.

By the medieval period, textual sources and archaeological evidence tell us that cereals formed the basis of diets; consumed either as beer, pottage (a kind of soup/stew), or bread.

In Britain, and across much of central and northern Europe, there was a major shift in the crop-spectrum after the Roman period, with crops such as spelt wheat being replaced by bread wheat, barley, rivet wheat ( Triticum turgidum), rye ( Secale cereale), and oats ( Avena sativa). These cereals were used to produce bread, although different culinary preferences influenced the bread produced across Europe.

Light and white loaves were consumed by wealthier classes and were produced from bread wheat; brown loaves could be created from mixtures of bread wheat and barley; darker loaves were produced from rye and often mixed with other cereals; the cheapest loaves may well have been a mixture of various cereals, including oats, and even pulse flours from peas and beans. Bread flavours could have been modified by roasting grains in ovens. Flour was produced in mills over which seigneurial lords held a monopoly.

Bread and spelt wheat sourdough loaf
The recent return to artisanal methods

Recent years have seen a resurgence in 'real bread' (or artisanal bread) which incorporates more traditional baking practices. This is seen in the ubiquitous presence of sourdough, which takes time and expertise to produce; I'm sure many of us are well to aware of this from baking experiments during lockdowns. Similarly, there are now many different types of flour available to buy once again - to name a few these include emmer wheat and spelt wheat, as well as others produced from more traditional varieties of bread wheat.

Modern cereal crops are, however, a shadow of their former diversity. Standing in a medieval field, you would have seen stands of bread wheat of varying height, mixed crops of barley and oats (so-called dredge), or even mixtures of wheat, rye, barley, and oats. These fields would have been a riot of colour from arable weeds - from the blues of field gromwell to the yellows and whites of mayweeds, reds of poppies, and the pinks of corncockle. Many of these weeds worked their way into breads as contaminants.

Much of the genetic diversity associated with past crops has sadly been lost - no doubt to the detriment of current agrobiodiversity - although some of this is now beginning to be revived.

Acknowledgements

Some of the information used in this article is based on the excellent research of others, including Lara Gonzalez Carretero, Amaia Arranz-Otaegui, Amy Bogaard, Andreas G. Heiss, Gordon Hillman, and many others.

Related

Read more

We are very happy to have been invited to contribute to the display cabinet in the foyer in order to show our clients and our colleagues the work we undertake in the environmental department. We are a diverse bunch of people but we have tried to cover all the aspects of our interdisciplinary work.

Read more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In celebration of Real Bread Week, one of our Environmental Archaeologists, Dr. Ed Treasure, gives us an intriguing insight into the use of grains in bread making from the prehistoric through to the present day. Bread is amongst the most important foodstuffs in the world and has been for several thousand years.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Inspiring thousands of young engineers through real-world contexts

The Engineering Educates Farmvention Challenge involves 3 different pathways tailored to inspire 7-14 year olds to think as engineers in the context of British farming.

Each includes sequences of five curriculum-linked sessions. Learners apply their knowledge and skills from maths, science, design technology and computing within the rich-context of British farming and agricultural engineering. The pathways are written by teachers-for teachers and lead learners through the engineering design process with embedding links to environmental sustainability. When thinking and working as engineers, learners solve problems that are true to the challenges farms face, with ample opportunity for creativity, imagination and collaboration.

The challenge is in its second year, and will culminate in March 2024.

Choosing a pathway for your learners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Engineering Educates Farmvention Challenge involves 3 different pathways tailored to inspire 7-14 year olds to think as engineers in the context of British farming. Each includes sequences of five curriculum-linked sessions. Learners apply their knowledge and skills from maths, science, design technology and computing within the rich-context of British farming and agricultural engineering.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Key Stage 1 & 2

Farming STEMterprise projects take children through each stage of setting up a farm shop business: considering seasonality when deciding which crop to grow, growing their own ingredients, considering nutrition when designing their recipes, using market research to test their ideas out with potential consumers, working within a budget when buying additional ingredients, learning knife skills when making their products, calculating expected profit, designing responsible packaging and much more.

Practical Science and Design & Technology lessons, closely tailored to each year group's programme of study, are incorporated throughout the projects and opportunities for applying Maths skills to engaging, real life problems are embedded at each stage. The projects have been designed to be easy to use and enable you to deliver key content from the national curriculum whilst embedding important messages about financial literacy and food provenance.

Farming STEMterprise has received Green Tick accreditation from the Association for Science Education and the projects are accredited by CREST Awards and the Children's University. The projects were finalists in both the BETT and ERA awards in 2020.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Farming STEMterprise projects take children through each stage of setting up a farm shop business: considering seasonality when deciding which crop to grow, growing their own ingredients, considering nutrition when designing their recipes, using market research to test their ideas out with potential consumers, working within a budget when buying additional ingredients, learning knife skills when making their products, calculating expected profit, designing responsible packaging and much more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Virtual Visits - Anytime Anywhere Engineers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On this page, you will find the many exciting, interactive tours of our engineers workshops, offices, factories and laboratories. Our interactive media experts were given exclusive access to these superb places of groundbreaking innovative engineering and design. Tour & Explore Syngenta, Small

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Harvest Thali

Join us on the 4 th October 2023 for a quest across the countryside to collect all the ingredients for our interactive Harvest Thali.

We'll be learning how the key ingredients are grown and produced, meeting the people responsible for growing and producing them and joining our super star chef, Rayeesa Asghar-Sandys, in her kitchen to mix them into a range of delicious thali dishes to celebrate the end of Harvest!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We're on a mission to bring #Farming #Education to schools in England & Wales. Sharing educational best practice in the sector and providing top resources.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This section sets out how to use our resources, explains the activities, sets out the teachers' reference notes
available and links to other useful resources.

Arrow_left Arrow_Right Icon_Alchohol Icon_Alchohol_Roundal Icon_Apple Icon_Apple_Roundal Icon_Bacteria Icon_Bacteria_Roundal
calorie-outlined
Created with Sketch. Icon_CardActivity Icon_CardActivity_Roundal Icon_Carrot Icon_Carrot_Roundal Icon_Certificate Icon_Certificate_Roundal Icon_Cheese Icon_Cheese_Roundal Icon_Chocolate Icon_Chocolate_Roundal Icon_Clipboard_Roundal Icon_Close Icon_Cow Icon_Cow_Roundal Icon_Cursor Icon_Deer Icon_Deer_Roundal Icon_Facebook_Roundal Icon-Featured Icon_Fish Icon_Fish_Roundal Icon_FizzyJuice Icon_FizzyJuice_Roundal Icon_Fork Icon_Fork_Roundal Icon_Fridge_Roundal Icon_Grain Icon_GrainNo Icon_Grain_Roundal Icon_Graph Icon_GraphResource Icon_Graph_Roundal Icon_Hand Icon_Hand_Roundal Icon_Heart Icon_Heart_Roundal Icon_Info Icon_Info_Roundal instagram Icon_Lamb Icon_Lamb_Roundal Icon_Letter Icon_Letter_Roundal Icon_New Icon_News_Roundal Icon_Oil Icon_People Icon_People_Roundal Icon_Person_Roundal Icon_Phone Icon_Phone_Roundal Icon_Pig Icon_Play Icon_Potatoes_Roundal Icon_Print Icon_Print_Roundal Icon_Resource Icon_Resource_Roundal
Group
Created with Sketch. Icon_Salt Icon_Salt_Roundal Icon_Save Icon_Save_Roundal Icon_Scotland Icon_Scotland_Roundal Icon_Search Icon_Shellfish Icon_Shellfish_Roundal Icon-Spiral Icon_Steak_Roundal Icon_TapWater Icon_TapWater_Roundal Icon_TestTube Icon_TestTube_Roundal Icon_ThumbsUp Icon_ThumbsUp_Roundal Icon_Tick
Shape
Created with Sketch. Icon_Tick_1 Icon_Tick_Roundal Icon_Tomato Icon_Tomato_Roundal Icon_Tractor Icon_Tractor_Roundal Icon_Trolly Icon_Trolly_Roundal Icon_Turkey Icon_TurkeyCooked Icon_TurkeyCooked_Roundal Icon_Turkey_Roundal Icon_Twitter_Roundal Icon_Warning Icon_Warning_Roundal Icon_Warning_Roundal_WithBG Icon_WaterDrop Icon_WineBottle Icon_WineBottle_Roundal Icon_WineGlass Icon_WineGlass_Roundal youtube Icon_snowflake Icon_snowflake_Roundal Pagination_Left Artboard 69

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Food safety & healthy eating education | Food Standards Scotland | Food Standards Scotland

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Check out our education resources and interactive tools designed to help teachers craft lesson plans for food safety and eating healthily.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
These resources have been designed to help you teach children aged 8-11 years about the ingredients in bread, how to make bread safely and hygienically and how to add their own twist to a basic bread recipe. Get started by downloading the Bread making session guide which contains a detailed lesson plan and shows you how to weave all the resources below into your teaching.

We'd love to hear from you

We'd love to hear about what you think of the resources.
You can let us know by completing a quick survey or emailing us at: teaching.resources@warburtons.co.uk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bread Making Project | Teaching Resources | Warburtons

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These resources have been designed to help you teach children aged 8-11 years about the ingredients in bread, how to make bread safely and hygienically and how to add their own twist to a basic bread recipe.

# data[].attributes.headline
Cooking and baking bread in Ancient Greece and Rome

# data[].attributes.subject
Cooking and baking bread in Ancient Greece and Rome

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/cook-classical-feast-nine-recipes-ancient-greece-and-rome

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Starters, sides and snacks

Food has been central to social life throughout human history. In the classical world it was part of occasions from religious rites to ostentatious parties. There is plenty of information available on what the ancient Greeks and Romans ate and drank - in written texts and in archaeological finds - which can help us bring their gastronomical creations to life in the 21st century.

Here we have compiled a few recipes from the ancient world, which you can recreate at home to make your own classical feast! These recipes are from The Classical Cookbook, by Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger, which uses Greek and Latin texts to create dishes from Homeric Greece to the Roman Empire.

Starters, sides and snacks

1) Cabbage the Athenian way (vg)
'Cabbage should be sliced with the sharpest possible iron blade, then washed, drained, and chopped with plenty of coriander and rue. Then sprinkle with honey vinegar and add just a little bit of silphium. Incidentally, you can eat this as a meze.' - Mnesitheus, quoted in Oribasius, Medical Collections 4, 4, 1.
This is a popular recipe among Greek and Roman writers. Oribasius (4th century AD), a well-known doctor of the late Roman Empire, borrowed it from a much older book of dietary advice by Mnesitheus, a medical writer from Athens who lived in the 4th century BC.

Doctors were interested in this dish because it was said to cure headaches and was good for stomach upsets. Pliny claimed if taken before a meal it prevented drunkenness, and if taken after drinking it could cure a hangover!

Whatever its medicinal value, Mnesitheus was quite right about cabbage in honey vinegar being delicious as a starter or side dish and it's simple to make.

Substitute honey for maple syrup to make this recipe vegan.

Serves 6

Honey vinegar
* 120g honey
* 2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Method
First make the honey vinegar. Boil the honey and skim it, add the vinegar and reduce a little. Store until needed. Finely slice the cabbage, wash and drain it. Toss with the herbs and 3 tablespoons of honey vinegar and sprinkle with the asafoetida powder and a little salt.

4) Honey glazed prawns

Mains

4) Honey glazed prawns

This recipe is adapted from various ancient sources - a poem attributed to the Greek poet Philoxenus of Cythera talks about shrimps glazed with honey being served at a banquet, but it does not help in recreating the dish! Fish sauce (for its salt) and olive oil would undoubtedly have been among the ingredients, along with the honey. Oregano is suggested as the Greeks used it in seafood dishes.

Serves 2

Ingredients
* 225g large raw peeled prawns
* 1 tbsp olive oil
* 2 tbsp ﬁsh sauce
* 1 tbsp clear honey
* 2 tsp chopped fresh oregano
* Black pepper

Method
If using frozen prawns, ensure that they are well defrosted and drained. Place the oil, ﬁsh sauce and honey in a saucepan and add the prawns. Sauté them gently in the sauce for 2 or 3 minutes until they are tender. Remove with a perforated spoon and keep warm. Continue to cook the sauce until it has reduced by half. Add the chopped oregano and pour the sauce over the shrimps. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Serve as a ﬁrst course with a crusty loaf of bread and a simple salad.

Desserts

Desserts

7) Pancakes with Honey and Sesame Seeds (vg)
'Let us find time to speak of other cakes, the ones made with wheat ﬂour. Teganitai, as we call them, are made simply with oil. The oil is put in a frying-pan resting on a smokeless ﬁre, and when it has heated, the wheat ﬂour, mixed with plenty of water, is poured on. Rapidly, as it fries in the oil, it sets and thickens like fresh cheese setting in the baskets. And at this point the cooks turn it, putting the visible side under, next to the pan, and bringing the sufficiently fried side, which was underneath at ﬁrst, up on to the top, and when the underneath is set they turn it again another two or maybe three times till they think it is all equally cooked. Some mix it with honey, and others again with sea-salt.' - Galen, On the Properties of Foods 1, 3.
It's amazing how little food changes from one millennium to the next. When reading the Roman physician Galen's description of making pancakes, it is hard to remember that he is writing 1,800 years ago! The early Greek poet Hipponax had written of pancakes 'drugged with sesame seeds'. This was likely a breakfast meal and one that was possibly sold on the streets of ancient Athens from portable braziers. These pancakes are thicker than the crêpe-style pancakes familiar to us (more like a blini, or even thicker) and they are served with honey and toasted sesame seeds.

Substitute honey for maple or date syrup to make these vegan.

Serves 4

Method
Mix the ﬂour, water and one tablespoon of honey together into a batter. Heat two tablespoons of oil in a frying-pan and pour a quarter of the mixture in. When it has set, turn it two or three times to give an even colour. Cook three more pancakes in the same way. Serve all four pancakes hot with the remainder of the honey poured over and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Cook a classical feast: nine recipes from ancient Greece and Rome

These recipes and more can be found in The Classical Cookbook by Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger, published by The British Museum Press. Find out more and buy the book from the British Museum Shop. We would love to see your ancient feasts - send us pictures of your creations on Twitter and Instagram using @britishmuseum If you've been inspired to get cooking, our range of kitchenware may help - we've got everything from plates and ceramics to aprons and tea towels. Browse our online shop. Discover more about life in the classical world in our historical city travel guides to 1st century AD Rome and 5th century BC Athens.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cook a classical feast: nine recipes from ancient Greece and Rome

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bored with banana bread? Whip up a classical feast with nine recipes from ancient Greece and Rome.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bread Around the World Thematic Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How does bread relate to learning? Through thematic units! A thematic unit is a style of teaching that uses one central theme (in this case, bread) to teach multiple subject areas. This gives teachers an opportunity to include math, science... #learningaboutbread #researchbread #thematiclearning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With over 130 years of baking experience, Hovis produces bread and bakery products that are loved by everyone. Browse our range of delicious products including Ormo, Mother's Pride and Live Good.