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Ancient Egyptian Bread/Beer/Etc. Update! For those of you who haven’t seen, or who have an actual life, me and some friends have been collecting microorganisms from ancient Egyptian pottery. And if you’re bored enough that you’ve read this far, see below:
Loads of people seemed interested in this, and it got a lot of press coverage. Sadly much of the press tended to not mention the actual microbiology, the Egyptology and the other science that are ongoing. So, as a sleep aid, I’m here to help! 
First Update: We have separated the first two pure yeast cultures from all the contaminant organisms that were unavoidably in our samples. We are still collecting and working, it’s an exciting step. We will be doing full DNA and RNA sequencing a we go; hopefully some are ancient.
Simultaneously, we have been reading and learning about Ancient Egyptian bread baking. These guys were very very talented and powerful bakers. They baked al little differently than we do today. They used special pots as molds and mini-ovens. They had awesomely shaped loaves!
To make those awesome conical loaves, Egyptians used bread molds callled “bdj” (we don’t know what Egyptian vowels were- they didn’t write them!). Here’s the word. We collected microbes from bdj - here’s a picture. Finally, we are now making our own bdj jars to bake with!
We have a long way to go to replicate the bdj properly, including materials and firing . But one step at a time. First up is to understand how to bake in unglazed clay, which we now know involves careful seasoning of the pot. Something any 5-year old Ancient Egyptian would know!
Bored yet? So far we have covered spore collection, dna analysis, crude pottery making, dead languages, and ceramic pot seasoning. You’re becoming un-dateable the more you read. Fair warning.
As you will know if you’re really desperate for twitter content, I’ve been practicing with doughs made from the correct Ancient Egyptian ingredients: hand milled emmer grain, alkaline (Nile-like) water, animal and Flax fats, and mined (non-sea) salt. And of course our microbes.
All that baking was done with conventional baskets in a conventional way, so that we could get a feel for and some skill with the yeast culture and the ingredients. Remember our goal here is to rediscover the DELICIOUS bread that the master bakers of Ancient Egypt made.
Over the last few weeks, we have been baking in the ceramic molds. We have learned a lot. After much learning and work (and failure), this weekend we baked several perfect bdj loaves in a row, conical just like in the tomb paintings. It Really Works!!!!
One of the best things about this particular style of bdj bread is that all the slices are conic sections! Nerd heaven!
These loaves are made with just a touch of roasted coriander- a hint from an archeologist friend of @drserenalove. They smell and taste RIDICULOUSLY GOOD. Baking in these pots is very challenging but it’s amazing when it works.
So- what’s next you say? Well, for the bread, we continue learning to make bdj, we continue to bake. We move outside and start building our model Old Kingdom Giza bakery. And we hope we have enough skill. So far, we have discovered so much, and it’s so delicious!
Also... GIVEAWAY! I have SO MUCH extra bread from practicing that FIRST THING TOMORROW I’m going to FEDEX THIS LOAF (superfresh! just came out of the pot!) to.............
........the FIRST PERSON who DMs me proof of a donation of at least $50 to marleysmutts.org/donate/ , an amazing charity that helps people and dogs together to get to a better place. If someone is so generous, I’ll let everyone know and the bread will be to you ASAP FRESH! Thanks!
Please know that I will do my very best to let everyone know when there’s a winner ASAP. Please also consider donating to these fine people anyway, independent of this! Good Night! Much Love everyone. ❤️👊
SOMEONE HAS ALREADY WON! Please don’t let this stop you from donating, but I can’t offer any more bread until I bake next time (if it works and there’s any left!). THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH YOU ROCK!
