The modern food industry is nothing if not innovative, with new-fangled products seemingly appearing on supermarket shelves every week. But many foods we couldn't live without – from cheese to chocolate – have their roots in ancient civilisations. Here, we step back in time to discover the ancient foods we still love in the modern day.
Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the foods humanity has loved for thousands of years – counting down to the oldest of all.
Once dismissed (and largely misunderstood) by many as tasteless and rubbery, this versatile ingredient, made from soya milk curds, has soared in popularity in recent years. Many Asian cultures have long recognised tofu's virtues, though. Its exact origins are unclear, but the first known written mention was in a document from AD 965. It describes packages of tofu in a market, suggesting it had long been eaten as a cheaper alternative to mutton.
The perfect vessel for a hunk of Cheddar cheese and a spoon of chutney, delightfully moreish oatcakes are made with oatmeal, fat and often some sugar, and they're baked or griddled for delicious results. It's thought that, in Scotland, these savoury snacks were consumed even before the Romans invaded (in AD 43). They were a mainstay of Scottish soldiers' diets in medieval times, too.
You might think that soya milk – a popular substitute for dairy milk – is an uber-modern health food, but it actually has ancient origins. It's said that the cows' milk alternative originated with the ancient Chinese; cultures in China have been consuming the beverage since as long ago as AD 25.
A pillar of Chinese and other East Asian cuisines, soy sauce is favoured for its rich umami taste and has been used for thousands of years. It's thought that soy sauce was born from an ancient Chinese paste named jiang, made of fermented vegetables, grains and legumes like soya beans. Over the centuries, the Chinese brought the ingredient to other countries, such as Japan, where it remains a staple.
China’s answer to cotton candy, dragon’s beard candy is one of the country’s most-loved sweet treats – and it’s also likely to be the world’s oldest. The confection was invented during the Han dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, and it consists of sugar strands, stretched so fine that they resemble hair, wrapped around a crunchy core of peanuts, coconut, chocolate or sesame seeds. Historians date the first candies back to ancient Egypt, around 2000 BC, when they were basically a mixture of fruit, nuts and honey. However, dragon’s beard candy is believed to be the oldest named variety that we still eat today.
The fermented cabbage dish sauerkraut is most commonly associated with Eastern Europe today – but did you know that its origin story begins in ancient China? It's said that, more than 2,000 years ago, the builders of the Great Wall of China began fermenting cabbage in rice wine to make it last longer as they toiled away. These days, it's often served as an accompaniment to things like schnitzel and bratwurst.
There's nothing quite like a steaming bowl of fresh pasta, whether it's slick with butter and black pepper, or doused in a rich tomato sauce. Some 16 million tonnes of pasta were produced in 2019, and our modern obsession with the food is undoubtable. However, its origin story is somewhat murky. Most experts agree that pasta is a descendant of the noodles consumed in ancient China, and archaeologists also discovered a relief appearing to depict the process of pasta making in an Etruscan tomb dating to the fourth century BC.
Typically made from fermented fish (such as anchovies), fish sauce is a key ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking. Although its exact origins are hard to pin down, experts agree that it dates back to antiquity. It's thought that the sauce was first created by ancient Greeks residing along the Black Sea coast as long ago as the seventh century BC. The Roman sauce garum, originally made from fish blood, is another ancestor of modern-day fish sauce.
Chutneys are the perfect accompaniment to a curry, poppadoms or a spread of cheese, meat and bread. Originating in India, the earliest chutneys that we know of date to around 500 BC, when they were made to preserve food in the heat. They began as simple pastes, made by crushing ingredients together, but they soon evolved to incorporate a range of flavours and textures. At the height of the British Empire, from the late 16th century to the 18th century, chutneys were brought to Europe – and they eventually began to travel to other parts of the world, too.
Revered by health-conscious millennials, kombucha, a fermented tea drink that's celebrated for its gut-friendly properties, has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. But folks have been celebrating the merits of this trendy beverage long before the modern day. Most people pin its origins to Northeast China, or ancient Manchuria, where it's thought that the drink was first brewed as early as 220 BC, before being brought to other parts of Asia – and eventually Europe, too.
Sausages are generally recognised as cylindrical products made by stuffing meat into casings – or, increasingly, plant-based offerings intended to resemble their meaty counterparts. A type of sausage was mentioned as far back as 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, and we can also find evidence of sausages in ancient China, Greece and Rome. The Greek poet Homer even wrote of a type of blood sausage in his epic Odyssey. So, next time you have a hot dog or black pudding, you can think about our ancestors doing the same.
A mainstay in modern Indian cooking, ghee is a type of thick clarified butter that's known for its deliciously nutty flavour. In recent years, it's also become favoured by followers of the typically grain-free paleo diet, who wax lyrical about its role as a nutritious fat source. But its roots go much deeper. It originated in ancient India, with millennia-old Sanskrit texts hailing it as fit for the divine. It's also bound up with the Hindu religion, which says that deity Prajapati conjured the foodstuff himself.
Like many ancient foodstuffs, the origin of noodles – a stalwart of Asian cuisine today – is disputed. Theories linking noodles to ancient Italian, Arab and Chinese cultures abound, but a discovery made back in 2005 may have solved the mystery. Archaeologists uncovered what they perceived to be 4,000-year-old noodles at the Lajia archaeological site in northwest China. Early mentions of the ingredient also appear in literature from China's Eastern Han Dynasty (dating to between AD 25 and 220).
Curry is one of the world's favourite dishes – and a recent discovery reveals that it's been cooked and enjoyed outside of India for much longer than we thought. Scientists found evidence of an 1,800-year-old curry in Southeast Asia, with traces of spices, including ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg, detected on stone tools unearthed in an archaeological site in southern Vietnam. It's believed people were enjoying curries in India up to 4,000 years ago, but the discovery of non-native ingredients in Vietnam shows how the ancient spice trade linked the cuisines of countries thousands of miles from each other.
Whether you like it drizzled on your porridge or stirred into tea, honey probably makes an appearance on your breakfast table from time to time. But did you know that the glorious gold liquid has been used as a sweetener since ancient times? Mentions of the sweet stuff have been found in scripts from Mesopotamia (encompassing modern day Iraq and other parts of the Middle East) and ancient Egypt, harking back as far as 2100 BC.
Tea is so synonymous with Britain that it's easy to forget that the aromatic leaves are barely grown in the UK at all. China is the world's largest tea producer (along with other Asian countries like India and Sri Lanka), and the origins of tea are rooted in Chinese legend. The story goes that a Chinese emperor was sitting beneath a camellia sinensis tree (or tea plant) in 2737 BC when a few tea leaves blew into the boiling water he was drinking. The ruler was impressed by the flavour of the drink, and so tea was born. Whether the story has clout or not, ancient China is still credited as one of the earliest tea producers in the world.
Today, bone broth is revered by health food fanatics and paleo dieters, but it has a very long history indeed. The nutrient-packed broth is made by simmering leftover bones in water, often with vinegar and/or herbs and spices. Despite its modern popularity, it's thought to have originated among hunter-gatherer tribes in the late Stone Age.
Beef jerky may seem like a modern snack, but its roots go back much further than you might think. A type of mummified beef jerky was found in ancient Egyptian pyramids in recent decades and, before that, its origins were pinned to the Incas. It's thought that the word jerky comes from the Quechuan (a language spoken in the Andes) word ch’arki, which means dried meat.
Soft cheese is the spreadable cousin of harder and more mature types of cheese. American cream cheese wasn’t invented until the 1870s, but soft cheeses have existed in various forms for much longer. In 2024, DNA was extracted from the world’s oldest still existing cheese: a kefir cheese found smeared on the heads and necks of Bronze Age mummies from around 2000 BC. The fermented cream cheese was found to contain both cow and goat DNA, suggesting that the Xiaohe people would mix milk from both, rather than separating them into different batches.
Whether you like a grating of Parmesan over your pasta or a deliciously creamy wedge of Brie on your crackers, cheese forms a regular part of many diets. It has many guises, of course, and each cheesy variety has its own unique origin story. But where did it all begin? Nobody knows for sure, but legend has it that an Arabian merchant invented cheese by accident, when he used a satchel made from a sheep's stomach to transport milk on a journey. The naturally occurring rennet in the pouch caused the milk to curdle, and a delicious early cheese was born.
Fresh, plain yogurt is a favourite topped with fresh berries and eaten for breakfast, or dolloped on the side of a hearty stew – and people have long recognised its virtues and versatility. As is often the case, the roots of this ancient food are hazy, but it's generally linked to ancient Mesopotamia, around 5000 BC. Much like cheese, it's thought that yogurt was probably invented by accident when transporting milk in the heat.
Olive oil is so important to Greece that there's a whole museum dedicated to the stuff: the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil in Sparti. It's thought that production of the delicately flavoured oil began in ancient Israel, where Neolithic-era olive pits, pulp and tools have been found. By the late Bronze Age, Greece began pressing its own olives, building up a booming industry and spreading the tradition across the Mediterranean.
Whether it's humble malt or apple cider, vinegar is a base ingredient in many kitchens. And, as it happens, it has been for millennia. Over the centuries, vinegar has been made with fruits, alcohol, rice and more, and though its exact roots are unknown, traces of it have been found in both ancient Egyptian and Chinese vessels. Babylonian writings from 5000 BC mention date vinegar, too.
Popcorn may be a favoured movie snack, but these sweet or salty bites existed way before the silver screen. Experts believe that corn was cultivated in the Americas as far back as 9,000 years ago, with the earliest traces of popcorn dated to some 6,700 years ago – archaeologists found evidence of an old version of the puffed kernel snack in Peru in 2012. Ancient popcorn has been left behind by Indigenous American tribes in the states of New Mexico and Utah, too.
Desserts made with rice and milk are enjoyed around the world, across different cultures. From British rice pudding to Indian kheer and Spanish arroz con leche (literally rice with milk), it’s a dish many would claim as their own. But where did it all start? The first mention of rice pudding can be traced to India, in around 6000 BC. By around 1050 BC, Chinese rice pudding, or eight treasure rice porridge, had made an appearance. It wasn’t until the 14th century that rice puddings entered the kitchens and cookbooks of Western Europe, including France, Spain and the UK.
There are few things more gratifying than a generous coating of butter on hot toast – and this dairy product has been spreading happiness for millennia. According to the American Butter Institute, the first written records date back 4,500 years and take the form of a limestone tablet detailing the early butter-making process. It's thought that production began even earlier, though, with butter being enjoyed by the ancient Greeks, Romans and more.
It's hard to imagine life without chocolate. As it turns out, its history stretches back for many millennia. The beloved foodstuff is thought to have roots in Mesoamerican civilisation, and the Olmecs of southern Mexico may have used cacao beans to create ceremonial chocolate drinks as early as 1500 BC. The Mayans and Aztecs also indulged in and celebrated chocolate, and even used it as a form of currency.
Tamales today are made with masa (corn dough) and corn husks, but they may predate corn as we know it. The original tamales, made by Mesoamericans 10,000 years ago, used teocintle, a plant that would later become corn. They wouldn’t have been quick to make; a process called nixtamalization (soaking and cooking in an alkaline solution) was used to break down the tough corn kernels before the filling and dough were prepared, and the tamales were then cooked for hours. However, the little parcels were portable, making them perfect for hunters and soldiers. They’re still loved today, and they frequently make appearances on special occasions in Mexico, as well as in Central and South America.
Bread is a staple food for populations around the globe, and many countries cherish breadmaking techniques and traditions that go back centuries. But who baked the very first loaf of doughy goodness? For years, experts believed that people began making bread around 10,000 years ago – a practice that coincided with a move to a more permanent, less nomadic way of life that centred on farming. However, more recent evidence suggests that breadmaking has its roots with the Natufian, a hunter-gatherer culture who lived in the Levant around 14,000 years ago.
Now discover the surprising reasons why your favourite foods were invented
Last updated by Laura Ellis.