World Flavors Cookbook

Kykeon (Ritual Barley Drink)

Name: Kykeon (Ritual Barley Drink)
Cook time: 5 min
Cuisine: Ancient World
Ingredients: barley meal (roasted barley flour), cold water or thin wine, pennyroyal (substitute: fresh mint), grated cheese (Homer variant)

Barley meal stirred into water or wine with pennyroyal — the sacred drink of the Eleusinian Mysteries, consumed by initiates in a ritual context.

Cuisine: Ancient World

Ingredients

barley meal (roasted barley flour), cold water or thin wine, pennyroyal (substitute: fresh mint), grated cheese (Homer variant)

Instructions

Stir two tablespoons of roasted barley flour into a cup of cold water (or very diluted wine). Add fresh mint or pennyroyal. Stir continuously — kykeon means "mixed" or "stirred." The mixture should remain thin and uncooked, like a slurry. Drink in one sitting.