New and Improved Kykeon

A drinkable mixture of wine, cheese, barley flour, and honey, accompanied by a skewer of Odysseus’s Roast Pork

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City/Region: Greece

Time Period: c. 1650-1100 B.C.E., Mycenaean Period

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When Odysseus and his crew meet Circe on the mythical island of Aeaea, she mixes them a potion that makes them forget their homes, and then she turns them into pigs. Homer gives us a list of ingredients, and minus the “wicked poisons”, this is my third attempt at recreating it. 

I originally made it in 2020, the first year of the channel, and the mixture came out more like a porridge than a drink, and it did not taste good. I reworked the recipe for the first Tasting History cookbook, but it was similar to the first version with a thick consistency and not-pleasant flavor.

Now, with this iteration, I think I’ve hit closer to the mark. I diluted the wine with water, which was the common practice in Ancient Greece, and used barley meal instead of barley groats, and much less of them. This makes for a smoother, thinner consistency, and with the addition of more honey, it’s something that’s not terrible. I didn’t finish my cup of kykeon, but I didn’t hate it, and I call that a win.

“When she got them into her house, she set them upon chairs and benches and mixed a mess of cheese and barley meal, and yellow honey with Pramnian wine, but then drugged it with wicked poisons to make them utterly forget their homes. And when they drank the potion she turned them into pigs with her wand and penned them up in the sties… and Circe flung them some acorns, fruit and mast—food greedily eaten by wallowing swine.”

— The Odyssey, Book X

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Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons barley flour
• 1/4 cup (85 g) honey
• 1 tablespoon grated hard goat cheese*, I used kefalotyri
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) red wine, the driest and darkest you can find
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) water

*Freshly grated is best because pre-grated won’t melt as well.

Instructions:

1. Toast the barley flour in a dry pan over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, or until it starts to brown and becomes fragrant. You can do this in a frying pan or, if you want to save on dishes, you can do it in the same medium saucepan you’ll use for the rest of the recipe.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the toasted barley flour and the honey and stir it over medium heat. Once the honey starts to simmer, stir in the cheese. Stir occasionally until the cheese melts into the honey mixture.
3. Combine the red wine and water, then stir it into the saucepan and take it off the heat.
4. Serve the kykeon forth with Odysseus’s Roast Pork.

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