Lentils

This was served as part of the second course at the Ymir 2025 feast.

What, Where, When

• Twice-cooked brown lentils, dressed with vinegar and sumac — from Anthimus’s De observatione ciborum, 6th century.
• Parsley and olive oil are my additions; method and sumac-vinegar dressing come from the source.

Discussion

Anthimus, a 6th-century Byzantine physician writing for the Frankish king Theuderic, gives a lentil recipe in De observatione ciborum that is both short and unusually specific. Wash the lentils well, simmer them in pure water until the first water is almost all absorbed, then transfer them to fresh hot water and finish cooking slowly. When they are done, dress them with a modest amount of vinegar and a spoonful of ground sumac (rhus Syriacus), mix well, and eat. The whole dish is five ingredients if you count the water — lentils, water, a second batch of water, vinegar, and sumac — and the method is followed here almost verbatim.

The twice-cooked method is not a cooking technique in the modern sense; it is a therapeutic one. The Galenic medical tradition held lentils to be difficult to digest and potentially harmful — Galen and the medieval writers who based their works on his warned that lentils could produce black choler and other ills, and boiling them in one batch of water and then discarding it was understood as a way to remove those harmful properties. The practice continues today, but for different reasons: modern food writers frequently recommend a first-boil-and-drain step for dried beans and legumes to reduce the compounds thought to cause digestive upset. The rationale has migrated from humoral medicine to oligosaccharides and phytates, but the technique is the same.

Two additions to the Anthimus recipe are mine. Parsley is not named in the source; it is a plausible Mediterranean green that holds up well in a cold lentil dish and is broadly period-appropriate without being specifically documented here. Olive oil is a similar case — Anthimus calls for vinegar and sumac, not oil, but oil is implicit in the broader Byzantine pantry and it makes the finished dish coherent as a salad rather than as a sharp sauce on plain lentils. I have served the dish at room temperature rather than immediately from the pot, which departs from the source’s “remove from the fire and eat” framing but works well as part of a multi-course feast service.

Sources

Anthimus, De observatione ciborum, on lentils (via Historical Italian Cooking)

The lentils must be well washed and well simmered in pure water. When the first hot water is almost all absorbed, place them in other hot water, moderately, not too much, and cook slowly on charcoal. When they are done, dress them with vinegar in moderation as a sauce. And add the spice called rhus Syriacus ground to dust, a filled spoon, and spread on the lentils when they are cooking. Mix well, remove them from the fire, and eat.

Bibliography