Surely everyone wondered how did the Minotaur tasted like! After Theseus killed him in the famous labyrinth of King Minos, why didn't he cook the monster? Hmmmmmm...OK I guess it is just me then!

Joking aside, I had the great honour to talk with food archaeologist Jerolyn Morrison who is in the island of Crete. For the almost 3 decades now, with teams of dedicated, hard working archaeologists from different fields, she explores and excavates ancient sites all over the island. Jerolyn specialises on findings from the Minoan times, so we are talking really ancient stuff here! Times full of myths and legends! 

On average the findings generally are 3 to 4 thousand years old! Very little was written back then and mostly in a writing system that we haven't deciphered yet. Most of the evidence is in the form of foodstuff remains, fragments of earthenware pots, and ancient rubbish or what was the kitchen type rooms when these were abandoned /destroyed. A lot of detailed and forensic zoo-archaeological work is going on as you can imagine! 

So i was delighted to talk with Jerolyn and get an insight of the first European civilisation and their eating habits! What follows is an hour of fascinating facts about this mythical, distant past! I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did! 

On top of all her hard work, Jerolyn is involved more broadly in recreating ancient food for modern audiences, with her social enterprise "Minoan Tastes" where people can book to learn how to cook with ancient ingredients, ancient cookware and ancient methods and techniques or more simply just to taste a menu inspired by Minoan Crete! 

More about how you can get involved you can find here:

https://www.minoantastes.com/about

Music by the exquisitely talented Pavlos Kapralos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgAonk4-uVhXXjKSF-Nz1A

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy!

The Delicious Legacy

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