Pair re-create famous biblical meals and package findings in cookbook

HARTSDALE, N.Y. — The Bible contains only one true recipe, for a bread of wheat, barley and lentils cooked over a fire made from burning human excrement. The ingredients were a direct revelation from the Almighty to the priest Ezekiel.

The taste?

"Like moldy bean sprouts," says the Rev. Rayner Hesse Jr., an Episcopal priest. "You don't want to eat it. Never, ever. Let me emphasize that: Never."

OK, Ezekiel bread is out. But what about the stew Jacob cooked in the Book of Genesis?

It was a lentil stew, the Scriptures record, and it smelled so good that Jacob's brother, Esau, traded his inheritance for a bowl of it. Ancient scribes did not record Jacob's recipe. Hesse wishes they had.

Four years ago, he set out to re-create Jacob's lentils — and other famous biblical meals — with the help of his partner, Anthony Chiffolo, editorial director of a nonfiction publishing house.

The couple's curiosity led them on a theological, historical and culinary quest that expanded their understanding of Scripture and introduced them to such novelties as curdled camel's milk and crispy lotus root.

Hesse, 51, and Chiffolo, 47, combed seminary libraries and pored over at least 60 translations of the Old and New Testaments to figure out who ate what to make an educated guess as to how the dishes were spiced.

They have packaged their findings in "Cooking with the Bible: Biblical Food, Feasts, and Lore."

Essays explore the religious and cultural significance of 18 passages that revolve around meals, such as King David's wedding or the feast to celebrate the return of the prodigal son. Hesse and Chiffolo then present an imagined menu for each occasion.

The recipes use modern kitchen equipment — no need to fry the fish on hot stones — but draw on ingredients mentioned in the Bible or known to have been available in the ancient Middle East.

There are recipes for stewed ox meat, dried fig cake, barley-apricot salad and baked sardines with sesame sauce, and, of course, manna from heaven.

The ancient Hebrews are thought to have used "manna" to describe dried algae — or perhaps insect secretions — that they baked into sticky pancakes. They lived on the stuff during their 40 years in desert exile but didn't much like it.

"Think of the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic!" they wailed, according to one translation of the Book of Numbers. "Here we are wasting away, stripped of everything; there is nothing but manna for us to look at!"

The modern version of manna is made with matzo flour, coriander leaves and sesame oil, and Hesse cheerfully admitted it tastes like cardboard. He's almost glad of the stale taste, however, because it brings the biblical account so vividly alive.

"You can see why they were complaining," he said.

Neither Hesse nor Chiffolo has formal culinary training, but both have spent years experimenting in the kitchen.

Hesse took charge of meals for his college fraternity house (his specialty: cornflake-crusted chicken, which his frat brothers invariably doused in ketchup).

Chiffolo taught himself to bake bread while in the Navy; he was assigned to a small yacht at the time, and none of his fellow sailors could make much that was edible.

To develop the cookbook, they spent hours online, studying Middle Eastern recipes and hours more at the stove, experimenting.

They did not write a menu for the most well-known of biblical meals, the Last Supper.

"A little too sacred to touch," Hesse said.

They did include recipes for two traditional Jewish celebrations: a Passover Seder, complete with matzo-ball soup, and a Purim banquet.

"It gives us a greater understanding of our shared humanity," Hesse said. "This is a cookbook that we hope can build bridges."

Their teenage daughter, Lisa Chiffolo, tested some of their menus, but as her taste runs more to sugared cereal, the couple also enlisted Hesse's Bible study class at St. John's Episcopal Church in nearby New Rochelle.

As he read through the Bible looking for mentions of food, Hesse realized that hospitality was considered a sign of righteousness across the ages, starting with the freshly slaughtered calf Abraham and Sarah served three visiting angels in the Book of Genesis.

"I don't think I ever understood until I did this research how central the meal is to Christianity, and how that tradition goes all the way back to Abraham," Hesse said.

"Some of these stories I've preached 100 times. Now I'm able to bring them to life."