Hotep of feast days — fowl flesh of the great banquet (the meat dish of the offering table)
Honey-roasted goose with figs and coriander (the falcon's banquet)
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A goose (or duck) slowly roasted, lacquered with honey and grape must, garnished with melting figs and scented with coriander. The great festive dish, fatty, golden, sweet and savory.
Hotep of feast days — fowl flesh of the great banquet (the meat dish of the offering table)
A goose (or duck) slowly roasted, lacquered with honey and grape must, garnished with melting figs and scented with coriander. The great festive dish, fatty, golden, sweet and savory.
Lift your eyes to my temple of Edfu when the feast comes! The fat goose is brought, laid upon the brazier, basted with the honey of the reeds until its skin shines like the gold of my pschent crown. The figs burst in their juice, the coriander perfumes the court of the sanctuary. Thus am I honored, I the falcon of the two horizons: by the fattest and sweetest flesh. Feast, and may your joy rise to the sky like the smoke of the altar.
Ingredients
- •Goose (or duck) — one bird (centerpiece)
- •Honey — generously (sweet glaze)
- •Fresh or dried figs — a good handful (fruity garnish)
- •Coriander (seeds and leaves) — as desired (perfume)
- •Grape must — a little (lacquer and mild acidity)
- •Salt — to taste (seasoning)
How it was made : Egyptians raised and force-fed geese and ducks, abundantly depicted in banquet and offering scenes. Meat was reserved for feasts and wealthy tables, roasted on a spit or boiled. Honey — the only true sweetener — was used to glaze meats, and figs and grapes often accompanied fatty poultry.
Sources : Pierre Tallet, La cuisine des pharaons (Actes Sud) · Joyce Tyldesley, Daily Life in Ancient Egypt