Fast Food in Bible Times

Have you ever wondered how Abraham and Sarah prepared the meal so quickly for the three men who visited them in Genesis 18? I certainly have. I was reared on a farm and know the process of slaughtering and preparing an animal for use. Surely, the culture of the day was not a hurried one, by any means!

The information below informs us of the process that may have taken place to prepare the flesh, bread and butter. Now we see where shish kabob originated. Perfect sense that the meat would need to be prepared in smaller portions to cook faster.

This is taken from the course of Life Catalyst Seminary, Bible Customs, in the Bachelor level. lifecatalystseminary.org

BREAD-MAKING

Genesis 18: 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. Bread in the East is made from wheat or barley, rye being but little cultivated. The "fine meal" here spoken of is wheat flour finely sifted, and is considered very choice.

The "three measures" were equal to an ephah, which is supposed to have contained a little less than a bushel. It was an ordinary quantity for baking. See Judges 6:19; 1 Sam. 1:24; Matt, 13:33. The seah or "measure" is also mentioned in2 Kings 7:1, 16.

From the haste with which this bread was prepared it was evidently unleavened. The flour and water were hastily mixed, and the thin dough was either laid on heated stones, where the cakes would soon bake, or the "hearth" in the text was a smooth spot of ground on which fire had been kindled and the embers brushed off, when the dough was placed on the ground and the embers raked over it. In either way the bread would soon be ready for the guests. See also 1 Kings 17:12, 13:19. Palmer, while visiting the outlying districts of Sinai, found, upon the watershed of Wady el-Hebeibeh, the remains of a large and evidently ancient encampment. "The small stones which formerly served, as they do in the present day, for hearths, in many places still showed signs of the action of fire, and on digging beneath the surface we found pieces of charcoal in great abundance." (Desert of the Exodus, p.258) What gives peculiar interest to this discovery is the fact that Mr. Palmer thinks that he here discovered the remains of the ancient Israelitish camp at Kibroth-Hatta-avah. A detail of the reasoning by which he reaches this conclusion would be out of place here. The curious reader is referred to Palmer’s interesting work, pp. 260, 312, 507, 508.

FLESH-FOOD

Genesis 18:7 Abraham ran unto the herd, and. fetched a calf...and gave it unto a young man ; and he hasted to dress it.

The primitive manner in which Abraham and Sarah personally attended to the wants of their guests, finds illustration in what Dr. Shaw says of the Arab chieftains in Barbary. There the greatest prince is not ashamed to bring a lamb from the flock and kill it, while the princess, his wife, prepares the fire and cooks it.

This meat was cooked as soon as the animal was killed, in accordance with the oriental usage. Common methods of preparing a hasty meal among the Arabs is to cut up the meat into small pieces, run them on small spits or skewers, and broil them over the fire.

BUTTER FEASTS

Genesis 18: 8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

The word here rendered butter (chemah) is said usually to signify curdled milk. It is also supposed that it was this which Jael gave to Sisera "in a lordly dish." Judges 5:25

A description of an Arab feast, as given by modern travelers, will illustrate the mode of preparing and eating food. The meat is boiled with camel’s milk, and with wheat which has been previously boiled and then dried in the sun. It is served up in a large wooden dish, in the center of which the boiled wheat is placed, and the meat around the edge. A wooden bowl containing the melted fat of the animal is pressed down in the midst of the boiled wheat, and every morsel is dipped into this melted fat before being swallowed. A bowl of camel’s milk is handed round after the meal. It is not certain that milk was formerly used in cooking meat, as is here seen to be the modern Bedouin custom. It is common still in the East to see travelers and guests eating under the shade of trees.

REMEBER THE FALL SALE, BACHELOR LEVEL IS 25%OFF WITH THE CODE OCTOBER25

MASTERS LEVEL, USE CODE FALLSALE25

Have a blessed Thanksgiving season. We have so much to be thankf