{"id":103749,"date":"2026-07-20T04:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T08:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=103749"},"modified":"2026-07-19T16:49:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:49:56","slug":"eating-the-food-of-homers-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2026\/07\/20\/eating-the-food-of-homers-odyssey\/","title":{"rendered":"Eating the Food of Homer&#8217;s <em>Odyssey<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UAvZlsKsPg8?si=kYcZHPAaCQfyhO_1\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Tasting History with Max Miller<\/strong><br \/>\nPublished 14 Jul 2026<\/p>\n<p>Skewer of roast pork covered in seasoned barley meal, accompanied by the Ancient Greek potion, <em>Kykeon<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>City\/Region<\/em>: Greece<br \/>\n<em>Time Period<\/em>: c. 1650-1100 B.C.E., Mycenaean Period<\/p>\n<p>When Odysseus finally makes it back to his home of Ithaca, he goes to the home of the swineherd Eumaeus. Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus is welcomed into Eumaeus&#8217;s home, and Eumaeus prepares skewers of roasted pork sprinkled with barley meal.<\/p>\n<p>While I could just make plain roast pork sprinkled with plain barley flour, let&#8217;s assume that Eumaeus does the disguised Odysseus the courtesy of seasoning the meal. Archaeologists have found evidence that the people living in Greece during the Mycenaean Period, when <em>The Odyssey<\/em> is supposed to have taken place, commonly used coriander, cumin, celery, and fennel, so that&#8217;s what I used to season the barley flour coating.<\/p>\n<p>This dish is very simple, and surprisingly flavorful. I made mine in the oven, but if you can cook it over an open fire, it would be even better. The cumin and fennel seeds are both very strong flavors, so choose one or the other so as not to completely overpower everything else.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p><em>Eumaeus went off to the sties where the pigs were penned. Choosing two sucklings, he carried them in, slaughtered and singed them both, then cut them in pieces and spitted them on skewers. Then, when all was well roasted, he served it to Odysseus piping hot on the skewers, sprinkling the meat with white barley meal.<br \/>\n\u2014 <strong>The Odyssey<\/strong>, Book XIV<\/em><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ingredients<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>3\/4 lb (340 g) pork, you can use any cut, I used boneless pork chops<br \/>\n1 tablespoon olive oil<br \/>\n2 teaspoons salt<br \/>\n1\/2 cup (70 g) barley flour<br \/>\n1 teaspoon ground coriander seed<br \/>\n2 teaspoons celery seed<br \/>\n1\/2 teaspoon cumin or ground fennel seed<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Cut the pork into bite-sized pieces, then coat them in olive oil. Sprinkle them evenly with the salt and rub it into the meat. Let it sit for about 10 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>In a bowl, mix together the barley flour and herbs.<\/li>\n<li>After the meat has sat for 10 minutes, toss a few pieces at a time in the barley flour mixture to evenly coat the pieces.<\/li>\n<li>Heat up a barbecue if you have one to cook over an open flame, or use an oven like I did by preheating it to 425\u00b0F (220\u00b0C).<\/li>\n<li>Skewer the meat onto a skewer or two. I roasted mine in the oven by suspending the skewer over a baking dish. Roast for about 18-20 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through.<\/li>\n<li>Serve the roast pork forth with the New and Improved <em>Kykeon<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>New and Improved Kykeon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A drinkable mixture of wine, cheese, barley flour, and honey, accompanied by a skewer of Odysseus&#8217;s Roast Pork<\/p>\n<p><em>City\/Region<\/em>: Greece<br \/>\n<em>Time Period<\/em>: c. 1650-1100 B.C.E., Mycenaean Period<\/p>\n<p>When Odysseus and his crew meet Circe on the mythical island of Aeaea, she mixes them a potion that makes them forget their homes, and then she turns them into pigs. Homer gives us a list of ingredients, and minus the &#8220;wicked poisons&#8221;, this is my third attempt at recreating it. <\/p>\n<p>I originally made it in 2020, the first year of the channel, and the mixture came out more like a porridge than a drink, and it did not taste good. I reworked the recipe for the first <em>Tasting History<\/em> cookbook, but it was similar to the first version with a thick consistency and not-pleasant flavor.<\/p>\n<p>Now, with this iteration, I think I&#8217;ve hit closer to the mark. I diluted the wine with water, which was the common practice in Ancient Greece, and used barley meal instead of barley groats, and much less of them. This makes for a smoother, thinner consistency, and with the addition of more honey, it&#8217;s something that&#8217;s not terrible. I didn&#8217;t finish my cup of <em>kykeon<\/em>, but I didn&#8217;t hate it, and I call that a win.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p><em>When she got them into her house, she set them upon chairs and benches and mixed a mess of cheese and barley meal, and yellow honey with Pramnian wine, but then drugged it with wicked poisons to make them utterly forget their homes. And when they drank the potion she turned them into pigs with her wand and penned them up in the sties &#8230; and Circe flung them some acorns, fruit and mast\u2014food greedily eaten by wallowing swine.<br \/>\n\u2014 <strong>The Odyssey<\/strong>, Book X<\/em><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Ingredients<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>2 tablespoons barley flour<br \/>\n1\/4 cup (85 g) honey<br \/>\n1 tablespoon grated hard goat cheese*, I used <em>kefalotyri<\/em><br \/>\n1\/2 cup (120 ml) red wine, the driest and darkest you can find<br \/>\n1\/2 cup (120 ml) water<br \/>\n*Freshly grated is best because pre-grated won&#8217;t melt as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Toast the barley flour in a dry pan over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, or until it starts to brown and becomes fragrant. You can do this in a frying pan or, if you want to save on dishes, you can do it in the same medium saucepan you&#8217;ll use for the rest of the recipe.<\/li>\n<li>In a medium saucepan, combine the toasted barley flour and the honey and stir it over medium heat. Once the honey starts to simmer, stir in the cheese. Stir occasionally until the cheese melts into the honey mixture.<\/li>\n<li>Combine the red wine and water, then stir it into the saucepan and take it off the heat.<\/li>\n<li>Serve the <em>kykeon<\/em> forth with Odysseus&#8217;s Roast Pork.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tasting History with Max Miller Published 14 Jul 2026 Skewer of roast pork covered in seasoned barley meal, accompanied by the Ancient Greek potion, Kykeon City\/Region: Greece Time Period: c. 1650-1100 B.C.E., Mycenaean Period When Odysseus finally makes it back to his home of Ithaca, he goes to the home of the swineherd Eumaeus. Disguised [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[74,1526,7],"tags":[1527,1139,1276,822,1388,1442,1316],"class_list":["post-103749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-greece","category-history","tag-ancientgreece","tag-bronzeage","tag-cooking","tag-mythology","tag-recipes","tag-tastinghistory","tag-trojanwar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-qZn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103750,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103749\/revisions\/103750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}