# List of Preserved Foods with an Ancient Origin **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 22, 2020, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286 "2020-05-22T14:04:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/1 "2020-05-22T14:04:09Z")
How many different foods can you name that originated in ancient times with the thought of “Gee, I wonder how we can avoid starving to death next winter?” I can think of a few right away - cheese, bacon, sauerkraut, pickles, and lutefisk. Can anyone expand this list? I have never tried lutefisk. Should I? Is it available in New Mexico? Would it be good with red chile? (Another question occurred to me as I was typing this post. How do you properly punctuate a sentence which is a question that ends with a quote that is also a question. Did I do it right? This question probably belongs in a different forum.) ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/2 "2020-05-22T14:19:07Z")
Yogurt dried salami type things ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/3 "2020-05-22T14:23:22Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > I have never tried lutefisk. Should I? Is it available in New Mexico? Would it be good with red chile? > > ( _Anything_ that kills the taste. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/4 "2020-05-22T14:42:09Z")
I’m not sure lutefisk is good with anything. I understand it is an acquired taste. However, it seems that you need to start acquiring it at a young age. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/5 "2020-05-22T14:48:09Z")
[_O LUTEFISK_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQAZ4IKcncw)-Red Stangland and Terry R. Shaw ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/6 "2020-05-22T14:49:14Z")
Beer is a good way to preserve grain.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/7 "2020-05-22T15:13:46Z")
Whiskey is a better way. OP, lutefisk isn’t food. It was originally a practical joke that just took off, as people who fell for it tried it on others. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/8 "2020-05-22T15:32:37Z")
[Chuño](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu%C3%B1o), which is a way of freeze-drying potatoes to preserve them. Also, dried fruit. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/9 "2020-05-22T15:37:56Z")
In the same vein as sauerkraut, there’s kimchi (which is a different process that produces different flavors, and which can be done with a wide variety of vegetables, not just cabbage). Off the top of my head, there’s also jerky, pemmican, and a wide variety of dried fruits. And are we counting foods (such as most root vegetables) that can last for months or years in their natural state? ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/10 "2020-05-22T15:58:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And are we counting foods (such as most root vegetables) that can last for months or years in their natural state? That’s not really what I was thinking about this morning but I still wouldn’t mind discussing them. What motivated my question was the thought that mankind might never have invented certain foods if it were not for our ancient ancestors lack of modern technology. Can you imagine a world without bacon? What a horrible scenario that would be. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/11 "2020-05-22T16:29:19Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Whiskey is a better way. Not really. Whiskey and most other fermented beverages like wine or mead don’t have the nutritive value of beer. Also, distilled beverages like whiskey date to only around five hundred years ago, which aren’t really “ancient times.” Whiskey provides mostly calories, and has little food value beyond that. While it’s a more concentrated form for shipping alcohol than beer, it wasn’t developed to serve as a food. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/12 "2020-05-22T16:32:25Z")
Smoked fish, perhaps? Also pickled fish. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/13 "2020-05-22T16:36:23Z")
Tell my kids that! To them 20 years ago is ancient. Optimator is what got the monks through Lent. The OP mentioned pickles, which really includes so many different foodstuffs than you can imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/14 "2020-05-22T16:41:49Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Smoked fish, perhaps? Also pickled fish. And salted fish like [salt cod.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dried_and_salted_cod) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/15 "2020-05-22T16:46:01Z")
Also lots of kinds of salted meat, like corned beef (treated with “corns” of salt), brined hams, and many many other varieties. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/16 "2020-05-22T16:47:42Z")
Raisins and Prunes, which I supposed could fall under the heading of “dried fruit”, although it’s whole dried fruit, as opposed to dried apple slices and the like. I don’t know how ancient it is, but the US Navy shortly after the Revolution had “Dried soup”, which was soup with all the water boiled out of it, leaving a solid black mass that could be reconstituted by simply putting it in a pot of boiling water. There’s a solid black chunk of this stuff at the USS Constitution museum in Boston. It looks more ike building material than food, but it could apparently keep forever. For that matter, Ship’s Biscuit also keeps forever, if you keep it dry. It was basically flour and water, mixed to a paste (with little water in it) and baked. The result was hard as a rock, but woulkd keep without preservatives. They must have had stuff like this in the ancient world – when Ernest by Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper were making the film _Grass_ in Afghanistan in the 1920s (well over a decade before they made _King Kong_), they followed the nomadic herdsmen who themselves followed the grass that kept their herds alive (hence the film’s title). Their financial backer, a woman whose name I can’t recall, reportedly broke a tooth on the nomads’ rock-hard bread, which must have been a cousin to ship’s biscuit. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/17 "2020-05-22T16:49:58Z")
Here’s some Portable Soup from England: > **[Portable Soup, as supplied by Mrs Dubois to the Royal Navy in 1756](https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/portable-soup-as-supplied-by-mrs-dubois-to-the-royal-navy-in-1756/)** > > Mrs DUBOIS’s Portable Soup, or Solid Broth, useful on Journies or at Sea, and not disagreeable to chew when Hunting, and a Chace proves long; or for the ready making Gravy Sauce; made in Cakes of a… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/18 "2020-05-22T16:51:03Z")
Ship’s Biscuit = hardtack > **[Hardtack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardtack)** > > Hardtack (or hard tack) is a type of dense biscuit or cracker made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. Hardtack is inexpensive and long-lasting. It is used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods, commonly during long sea voyages, land migrations, and military campaigns. Along with salt pork, hardtack was a standard ration for many militaries and navies from the 17th through the early 20th centuries. > The name is derived from "tack", the British sailor slang for food. The earliest us... ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/19 "2020-05-22T16:51:44Z")
And [stockfish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockfish). ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286/20 "2020-05-22T16:52:30Z")
Miso is apparently REALLY old. As in, 4th century BC old. I’d imagine that dried fruit and dried meat are probably the very oldest preserved foods though- they take very little in the way of extra ingredients or infrastructure. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-preserved-foods-with-an-ancient-origin/854286.md?page=2)