Some people refuse to drink milk if it is one day past its expiration date, even when it looks and smells totally fine. They will also throw away a banana as soon as a brown spot appears on the peel. Yet others have no problem eating three-week old Chinese leftovers from the back of their fridge, or opening up a can of beans that were sold during the Ford administration. But even those food daredevils might have second thoughts about eating this freshly baked bread that was made with 4,500-year-old yeast from Ancient Egypt.
Video game designer and scientist Seamus Blackley recently teamed up with experts from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard’s Peabody Museum to extract yeast from pottery dating back to the time when the pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom era in Ancient Egypt. He then used that yeast to make bread in 2019.
Two weeks ago, with the help of Egyptologist @drserenalove and Microbiologist @rbowman1234, I went to Boston’s MFA and @Harvard’s @peabodymuseum to attempt collecting 4,500 year old yeast from Ancient Egyptian pottery. Today, I baked with some of it… pic.twitter.com/143aKe6M3b
— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) August 5, 2019
This is both very cool and also a pretty good premise for a horror movie.
So how did it come out? It looks pretty delicious (Blackley’s wife enjoyed it).
The crumb is light and airy, especially for a 100% ancient grain loaf. The aroma and flavor are incredible. I’m emotional. It’s really different, and you can easily tell even if you’re not a bread nerd. This is incredibly exciting, and I’m so amazed that it worked. pic.twitter.com/qGRmi2Yg8Y
— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) August 5, 2019
He does say they still have some questions to answer about whether or not this worked the way they hoped.
Update: My wife is decimating the Egyptian bread. I believe she is actually Sekhmet. pic.twitter.com/aGqjKuTjrb
— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) August 7, 2019
If you’re wondering if this came with any risks, like food poisoning or ancient diseases or a mummy’s curse, not to worry. The only danger here is the same one all bread poses – to your waistline.
Baking bread sterilizes it. This is why humans have been using bread as food for so long. Safe.
— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) August 6, 2019
Ancient Egyptian yeast bread: safer than both one-day expired milk and that lo mein from last month you forgot you still had.
Featured Image: Nickelodeon
