Ancient Buddhist Cuisines mainly includes variety of rice preparations, dairy products and meat preparations along with sweets, salts and spices, oils and oilseeds and fruits and vegetables. Rice remained a major cereal of Indian Cuisine which was also included within the ancient Buddhist cuisine. Buddhist cuisine include all the cereals and pulses which were largely available in India along with the dairy products, meat preparations and beverages which were common in all the genres of ancient India.

Division of Ancient Buddhist Cuisine
Ancient Buddhist cuisine was mainly divided into four categories. They were divided into Soft Food such as boiled rice, Hard Food such as roots and fruits, Beverages and Replenishable Articles.

Rice in Ancient Buddhist Cuisine Ancient Buddhist Cuisine included Rice which formed one of the staple foods of northern India. As mentioned in Ancient Buddhist Cuisine, rice included both varieties of "Virhi" which was the common form of rice along with "Sali" which was a fine form of variety. Along with this, there were three more types of rice namely Raktasali, Kamalasali and Mahasali which was mentioned in the Buddhist text on food. The Buddhist text narrates number of ways in which rice was cooked with some choicest flavours. Usually, boiled rice was preferred by the Buddhist along with other preparations. Next to boiled rice, the favourite preparation of rice was a gruel which is highly praised in the Buddhist works.

Pulses in Ancient Buddhist Cuisine
Buddhist text also mentions some of the most popular pulses that were cultivated in India. These include pulses like Moong, masura, masa, kulattha and kaldya or peas which was consumed with great choice. Among the common cuisines the Buddhist preferred soup which was taken with round fried pulse balls.

Dairy Products in Ancient Buddhist Cuisine
Ancient Buddhist Cuisine along with this included a number of dairy products which included milk of cows, buffaloes, goat and camel which was further processed into a number of products. Curd was a common form of milk product. Along with this Buddhist literature mentions about Sakarine known as Sikharini that was mixed with crystal sugar along with some more spices. Fresh butter was another common form that was found in ancient Buddhist cuisines.

Beverages and Sweets in Ancient Buddhist Cuisine
Ancient Buddhist Cuisine also included a large number of beverages and sweets which were domestically prepared. Honey was commonly used which was commonly produced from small and big bees. Juice of Sugarcane was used which was extracted with the help of machines. This was common with Gur that were included as sugar items by Buddhist community. Along with sweet fried rice the food in Buddhist community was prepared with specific spices and oilseeds. Lord Buddha allowed his followers to take fruits and vegetables which included jojoba, mango, rose apple, etc. Among the beverages and drinks plain cool water was largely preferred along with fresh fruit juice.

Thus, Ancient Buddhist Cuisine had been more or less similar with rest of Indian cuisines. With a number of etiquettes which was to be followed while taking food, the ancient Buddhist cuisine represented the same tradition of ancient India.