Among Homer's heroes, the meal has no starter or dessert: it is organized around the sacrifice. An animal is slaughtered, the gods' portion (fat and wrapped bones) burns on the altar, then the men roast the rest on spits, cut it into equal portions (the moira), and eat it sitting on chairs, with barley bread, cheese, and wine mixed with water. The fair distribution of the pieces seals each man's honor — the bravest hero sometimes receives the choice cut, the fatty chine.

Before slaughtering the beast, a handful of barley grains (the oulochytai) is thrown onto its head. The meat is then skewered on long bronze spikes and turned over the coals: no oven, no sauce, only fire, salt, and smoke. This is the great culinary technique of the heroic age, repeated identically throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey.