Rachel Laudan

May for me prosper, through the sacrifice

By Rachel Laudan November 24, 2009 Oddities and Things that Don't Fit 2 Comments

May for me prosper, through the sacrifice, milk, sap, ghee, honey, eating and drinking at the common table, ploughing, rains, conquest, victory, wealth, riches. Yajurveda, ca 800 BC There I…

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Making flour in ancient Egypt

By Rachel Laudan November 24, 2009 Bread, Grinding 1 Comment

Ready for more? This is what it took to make flour from emmer wheat in the period between about 1600 and 1100 BC in Egypt. Take uncleaned spikelets of wheat…

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Why didn’t Mexico abandon the metate?

By Rachel Laudan November 23, 2009 Adventures, Mainly Culinary, Bread, Grinding, Mexican Food 6 Comments

Third or fourth pass grinding barley on a metate Lots more questions than I can take up.  But one that several commentators have raised is “Why did the simple grindstone…

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