Prehistoric recipes

For the programme at Blackpatch in the 2006 series of Time Team, Jacqui Wood, experimental archaeologist and author of Prehistoric Cooking (Tempus, £15.99), made hot 'Stone Age tea' for the archaeologists and demonstrated how people would have cooked in prehistoric times. laid on a 'prehistoric feast'. This followed on from previous Time Team programmes at Goldcliff in the 2004 series and Throckmorton in 2002, when she laid on a 'prehistoric feast'. The following recipes are a sample of the many you can try out in her book. In prehistory, the grains to make flour would have been ground by hand between two flat stones (a quern), and we still talk today about the 'daily grind' in referring to hard, laborious tasks. You can, of course, now buy the flours ready-ground.

Barley bread with beer

500g barley flour
500g stone-ground wheat flour
1 tsp salt
250g butter
Beer to mix

Mix the flours and salt together and rub in the butter. Add enough beer to make a soft dough and shape into small cakes. Cook on a hot stone (or griddle) until firm. This is a very light bread because of the addition of the beer and is very good with cheese.

Smoked fish stew

125g bacon
2 leeks
500g of any smoked fish
1 litre milk
1 cup cream
Some chives
1 tsp salt

Fry the bacon until the fat comes away from it and add the chopped leeks. Cook until tender. Add the fillets of fish and cover with the milk. Slowly cook in a pot near the fire until the fish is cooked, which is about 30 minutes. Pour in the cream, along with the chopped chives and salt.

Among the fish remains found in prehistoric middens (waste pits) in northern Europe are: eel, carp, pike, perch, trout, salmon, plaice, bass, mullet, cod and spurdog.

Nettle pudding

1 bunch of sorrel
1 bunch of watercress
1 bunch of dandelion leaves
2 bunches of young nettle leaves
Some chives
1 cup of barley flour
1 tsp salt

Chop the herbs finely and mix in the barley flour and salt. Add enough water to bind it together and place in the centre of a linen or muslin cloth. Tie the cloth securely and add to a pot of simmering venison or wild boar (a pork joint will do just as well). Leave in the pot until the meat is cooked and serve with chunks of bread.

Sweet bread

500g honey
1.5kg stone-ground flour
1 cup shelled chopped hazelnuts
1 tsp sea salt
Milk to mix

Mix all the ingredients together with enough water to make a soft dough. Shape into small flat cakes and cook on a hot griddle that has been dusted with flour (this stops them from sticking). When cold, spread with butter.

Clay-baked wild birds or hedgehogs

This isn't one to try at home (you could well fall foul of wildlife protection laws, apart from anything else), but the easiest way to cook wild birds (or hedgehogs for that matter) is not to pluck them but to smear wet clay onto the feathers. The birds are then cooked on an open fire and the feathers and skin come away when they are cooked. The same thing happens with the spines of hedgehogs, which were traditionally clay-baked by the Romany people. The meat is said to taste like pork – hence the hedgehog's name.

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