At the dawn of agriculture, the meal has neither starter nor dessert: it revolves around a cereal base (porridge or flatbread of barley and emmer), to which is added a dish of legumes, gathered and dried fruits, and a little oil. Before eating, the farmer sets aside the firstfruits — the first and finest part of the harvest — to present as an offering. To eat, here, is first to give back a share to the earth that gave.

Cain is the first farmer in the stories of Genesis. His cuisine is that of the very first fields of the Near East: hardy barley and emmer (an ancient hulled wheat, the spelt of those times), roasted, crushed, boiled. His whole table revolves around the grain — the very grain of his rejected offering.