Ancient Indian Food

To fully understand ancient Indian food it is necessary to understand how great influences from other cultures have been. India has been a melting pot for cuisines from other parts of Asia and Europe. Religion was also been vital in the development. The oldest Indian culture developed along the Indus river valley, today located in modern Pakistan.

Agriculture
Like in so many other ancient cultures wheat and barley were main crops, rice was also important. Lentils and various vegetables like eggplant, onion and garlic were grown. A typical ancient Indian meal would include rice, vegetables, and chapatti wheat bread - meat could accompany though many Indians were vegetarians. The cow is domestic to the region, from Thailand came the chicken and from West Asia the sheep.

Regional Cuisines
Above is mentioned how many cultures influenced the cuisine. These influences together with regional climate/soil conditions and demographics created distinct variations that is very present still today. For instance: In the north the food is quite bland with lots of dairy products and the staple is lentils. Down south it is spicy, has rice as staple, coconut is a popular ingredient. Ancient Indian food consisted of several cuisines.

Religion
In few countries religious beliefs have had greater impact on food habits. Vegetarianism manifested itself early on, today around 30% of the Indian population does not eat meat, the highest vegetarian percentage is among the hindus and the sikhs. The muslims doesn't eat pork, hindus doesn't eat cow. It goes far beyond that, certain casts are not allowed to eat certain vegetables. There are cultural groups and religious fractions that have strict limitations on what is ok to eat. All this has had an influence on the different regional cuisines mentioned above. The fact that animal sacrifice was a common religious practice can be seen as a paradox to vegetarianism, but it should probably be seen as part of a counter movement to the decadent pagan cultures of old. Ancient Indian food habits was very much a fruit of religious restrictions.

Meat And Fish
Chicken came from Thailand and mutton from the Middle East. Cows became holy more than 3000 years ago, the milk was used to make yoghurt and ghee (clarified butter) but the meat was not eaten. Fish and seafood weree eaten along the coast, along rivers and by lakes; it is in the south were you have most dishes based on it.

Spices and Seasoning
In ancient Indian food turmeric, ginger, cinnamom, cloves, cumin, cardamom, coriander seeds, black pepper and mustard seeds were common spices. Only a few of them domestic to the region. All of them are used and remain very important until today. A later import is chili peppers which quickly was absorbed by several of the Indian cuisines. How you season vary a lot depending on the region. In the north you have the yoghurt based Tandoori kitchen, in the south very potent spice mixes.

Beverages
Tea was a popular beverage, commonly sweetened with honey and spiced with cardamom and cloves. The yoghurt drink lassi has its roots in the south. Alcoholic drinks were never popular, this due to religious taboos.

Cooking And Food Preservation
For food preparation various types of vegetable oil were in use. Clay ovens, cauldrons and open fire were all used in ancient India. The preparation methods vary with the cuisine. In the north the clay tandoori oven stick out. For preserving fermentation, drying and pickling was used a lot - salting and smoking not.