Silphium: The Lost Aphrodisiac of Ancient Rome
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Cumin Seed: amzn.to/37Sz3Jb
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SAUCE WITH HERBS FOR FRIED FISH
ORIGINAL ROMAN RECIPE (From De re coquinaria)
“Sauce with herbs for Fried Fish: Whatever fish you like, clean, salt, fry. Pound pepper, cumin, coriander seed, silphium root, oregano, rue, pound. Moisten with vinegar, add dates, honey, defrutum, oil, liquamen. Pour into a pot, let it boil, when heated pour over the fried fish. Sprinkle pepper and serve.”
MODERN RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
- 1 Whole Fish or Filet
- Salt for seasoning
- ½ teaspoon ground Black Pepper
- ½ teaspoon Cumin Seeds
- ½ teaspoon Coriander Seed
- ½ teaspoon optional Asafoetida powder
- 1 teaspoon Fresh Oregano; cut that it half if you want to use dried.
- ½ teaspoon Dried Rue OR 1 teaspoon Fresh Rue.
- 3 Tablespoons Red or White Wine Vinegar
- 3 Minced Dates
- 2 Tablespoons Honey
- 1 Tablespoon Mosto Cotto or reduced grape juice
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil plus more for frying
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce such as Colatura di Alici
METHOD
1. Clean and gut the fish, then make several diagonal slices on each side and season with salt.
2. Add 1/2 inch oil to a frying pan and heat it over medium high heat. Then set the fish in and fry on one side, undisturbed. Then flip and fry the other side. Then place on a wire rack to drain.
3. For the sauce, grind and mix the herbs, then add the remaining ingredients. Transfer to a small saucepan and heat over medium low heat until boiling. Serve hot.
PHOTO CREDITS
Nero & Agripina - By Carlos Delgado: bit.ly/3oFnPOk
Marble relief of the Dioscuri - Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0 bit.ly/3kGmlk9 via Wikimedia Commons
Ferula Tingitana: bit.ly/35LCNJJ
Giant Fennel: bit.ly/3jGxi3Z
#tastinghistory #ancientrome #silphium
What are some of the more difficult to find ingredients you enjoy cooking with?
Sign up for Noom at bit.ly/noom_tastinghistory
Weißlacker. A very, very, VERY aromatic Bavarian cheese that you need to prepare the perfect "Kasspatzen".
I'm part of a medieval recreation group, and I live in Wyoming. I do a lot of online shopping for herbs and other things, as they just aren't available here.
I live in a dead zone in Alaska. Banana ketchup, lumpia wrappers, most Asian ingredients, etc. It's a 100mile drive round trip to get the good stuff 😕
I once had this hard sheep cheese that aged for well over a year. Got it directly from the farm, on the island of Texel, the Netherlands. I want more of that it was so good!
I wouldn’t say it’s severely rare, but we have a salt here in WV that’s pretty special. This family resurrected the salt-works of their greats grandparents that tapped a brine spring in the hills. That brine is the remnants of the central sea in America that was present during the Mississippian period, some 500 million years ago. As such, it is sea salt from a time millions of years before the pollution in our seas today: in effect, it is the sea salt of a fossil ocean trapped beneath the Appalachian range. Pretty neat. Tastes like salt.
Pliny: "Well, I'm bored. Off to go rub Silphium on that bull's snout and watch the drunk snakes explode... Nothing interesting ever happens here in Pompeii..."
Honestly I really wondered who came up with the idea of rubbing Silphium on bulls snouts? Like what effect did the expect? Why should you do that with an expensive ingredient?
I just imagine a lost ancient treatise where they rubbed every herb and spice known on bull's noses and documented the effects.
(Who am I kidding. Ancient Greek/Roman science amounted to "Somebody told me that a guy they know once heard a story about...")
@@agimagi2158 probably they did it to condiment a live the bull.
Is a well know thecnic of condimentation put a bag fille it with herbs and spices covering the mouth and nose of an animal, so later after to sacrifce it, the lungs will be all ready condiment it...
@@virtem7686 Oh that's really interesting! I remember as a child I used to feed our neighbors chicken with chives growing in our garden. Later their eggs tasted like onion so it probably even worked!
@@agimagi2158 Teenagers...
the romans really said "add salt, fermented salt, extra salt, salt sauce, and a fishy salt sauce and oregano"
Or use the Carthage salt and oregano for the simple one
It's not that far away from what we do nowadays with our multiple types of salt - kosher salt, sea salt, fleur de sel, finishing salt, smoked salt, volcanic salt, oftentimes showing up in multiple stages in haute cuisine coupled with our fermented fish sauces like worchestershire and nuoc cham. Remember that these dishes are also their equivalent to haute cuisine and not indicative of what everyone ate, oftentimes what commoners ate simply didn't get written down.
And they say today's chefs have salt cravings.....😖
my blood pressure went through the roof haha
@@TheTommy9898 I agree with you on that haha. I know Max is on the less guilty side of this but several cooking channels give me hypertension and diabetes vibe so hard man! For real 😂
Exciting news: they may have rediscovered silphium! They found a plant that matched its description and medicinal properties in Turkey, a known home to Ancient Greeks back in the day. The theorized that they managed to transport and transplant some silphium to Turkey where they were just forgotten.
What is it called?
@@mary-janereallynotsarah684
Ferula drudeana
@@mary-janereallynotsarah684 Ferula drudeana
@@mary-janereallynotsarah684 Ferula drudeana
go on...
Imagine if Silphium was just growing on some random guy's backyard
Some people in N Africa are looking for it!
It would probably look like a weed and be pulled out of a "nice" garden. They are finding new species of plants all the time so I'm sure it is still out there somewhere, just that we don't know what it is.
with the mention of "black rain" being likely volcanic ash, it possibly just an existing plant that had gained a specific flavor from the temporary change in the environment
I will literally start crying with joy if they can find it. I've been fascinated by this plant since I was a kid. If they can't find it growing wild in some secluded location, then with luck some ancient preserver put some seeds away stashed in a historical cache not yet found. I hope to see that in my lifetime.
@@widowkeeper4739 if it needed to be grown in the wild, it might not be grow-able even if we found seeds :(
No one:
Pliny: Don't feed alcoholic snakes silphium, they'll explode
Words of wisdom
So let's distribute wine cups in the cyrenaica and look for exploding snakes. Gotcha!
And please, when you rub a bull's nose, just don't use silphium! I've laughed so much at this ancient weirdness.
that absolutely cracked me up^^
words to live by
My first thought about that “black rain” that magically grew silphium is a volcanic eruption. The ash rained down, carrying a bunch of minerals that helped the plants grow.
Great take.
Maybe its sulphur
That idea about volcanic ash is something I have seen attributed for the fertility of both the Neapolitan tomato farms (which are all over the slopes of Vesuvius) and some of the wild lands in Africa (probably the Serengeti, as it's near some active volcanoes).
@@user-qb4on2qm7z Aha...Sulphur is also present in garlic, also considered an aphrodisiac (Russians used put a clove of garlic in a tomato and eat it before lovemaking) I think you're on to something.
Yes! I agree with this! So it was also stated the seed pods were heart shaped, if this is so.... and they know the place the Roman's found it, they should be able to find a plant, that grows in that region (i forget where he said it grew, a coastline somewhere?), near a volcano, a place with volcanic rich soil, thats seeds are heartshaped...
Oh Pliny the Elder, I love him, he was so wrong about so much! The fact that he wrote it all down is why we can enjoy it in delight to this day. He's a regular feature on Sawbones.
My favorite wacky Pliny fact is that he believed the souls of the dead resided in beans.
@@emilysmith2965 Hah, that's great. This so sounds like a roundabout way of him trying to explain his flatulance by saying it's those souls trying to escape after you've eaten beans... Which would be right on point for him.
@@Latchfpv "I swear I didn't fart, it's the soul of my grandpa trying to escape from my bowels!"
@@Latchfpv 😂
Oooh as a newbie to thing kind of stuff is there somewhere you could direct me to learn more about someone who sounds real quirky?
@Tasting History with Max Miller ~ I am a Libyan, from Benghazi. I am not so sure about Silphium, but there is a plant that grows wild near the green mountain in the east of Benghazi that cannot be cultivated no matter what. It is similar to the Egyptian Artichoke but much smaller and very spiky. We usually burn the spiked edges off on a fire for a little bit and pick it. the end of it contains a small little bulb of meat. Then after we remove the top half which is like feathers and eat the bottom meaty part which contains a huge amount of iron. Like I said, it's quite similar to artichoke but very small and a lot rougher. It is wild. I hope this was informative.
Interesting!
“Causes serpents to burst” - I just had this mental image of a snake wine-tasting and suddenly;
“Oh yes, this merlot is quite fine, quite deli-“
*explodes*
A snake tasting wine? Must be Crowley.
i just imagine a hoop snake rolling down the road and then exploding xD
I used to have a roommate that would share beer with his python. Side note, don't do that, you will become violently ill with salmonella.
I could imagine that the herb somehow made the snakes drink so much that they would be way too full and then just you know... crack open... Like imagine very very heavy stretchmarks...... poor snakes....
@@deathpyre42 same same on iguanas 😂
Little know fact, Snakes love of wine is the real reason wine is stored in barrels, they can't open them.
🤣 clever wine makers
Oh my god it all makes sense now
And I just got an image of a snake trying to break into a barrel of wine, and being like, "Curse my lack of appendages!"
Unless they get stuck in the barrel by a bear...Disney’s Robin Hood cartoon?
@@cherisseepp5332 that’s just what I thought of haha! Hiss!
It's like a Frank's Red Hot. "Silphium, I put that shit on anything."
I wouldn’t put either on a bulls nose
😂
No that's garum lol
you teach more history in your cooking show then most teachers in their history classes. Bravo good sir bravo.
What if I am showing my students these videos in my history class?
@@simone6090 then you are the acception.......correction, If your playing these videos then your not the one teaching he is
@@ciceroaurelius3757 Whoever taught your English classes did a terrible job.
future historians will note that in the 21st century we shifted from a heart symbol to an eggplant symbol. ahh...love...
🤣 that’s hilarious
Fun fact! The heart symbol is probably derived from the shape of a bent-over woman. So the eggplant representing a penis is actually more subtle than the shape commonly referred to as a "heart" symbol.
@@angolin9352 Huh... yeah, now that you mention it, i kinda see the resemblance. Sending the emoji with hearts for eyes to my gf suddenly took on an entirely different meaning. Thanks Angolin!
Tfw you tell a girl you love her and she goes "I 🍆 you too!"
@@EinFelsbrocken "I eggplant you too!" is going to be my new answer to everything!
"It's the history that's made me fat" is probably one of the best unintentional tag lines for this channel ever.
🤣 I’m making a shirt with this
@@TastingHistory I'll buy two
@@TastingHistory Gonna need a triple xl lol
I'll buy one!!!
Can I have one of those shirts in a XXS? Ok a large...but a super small large
Your picture with Hippocrates was actually Hermès (Mercury) staff. The staff of Aesculapius was a staff with only one snake twined around it.
Sincerely, a physician who study Latin & classical history in college
Hi Max, it seems they might have discovered which plant Silphium was. The plant known as Ferula Drudeana carries allot of similarities. They published an article in natgeo about it a few days ago.
This man is single handedly keeping me alive during quarantine
You are too kind
pretty sure my friends think I'm making some kind of exotic drugs with all the weird ass herbs I've been ordering from all over the place. I means is seasoning the first thing that comes to mind when you first heard "grains of paradise".
@@TastingHistory I’m thinking the food and water helped too. 😉
@@MrKago1 where did you find grains of paradise? I’d love to try them?
@@marthahawkinson-michau9611"" "Grains of Paradise are part of the African cardamom genus of Aframomum and includes Melegueta pepper and Bastard Melegueta pepper.These are entirely different from black peppercorns and incomparably better. It has, like coriander, a billowing aroma, and a slowly intensifying heat, like pepper at the back of your mouth. The taste changes in a second and the heat lingers. The spice flavour is pleasantly tempered, ripe with flavours reminiscent of jasmine, hazelnut, butter and citrus, and with the kind of oiliness you get from nuts.
Other names
Melegueta pepper (incorrectly), Alligator Pepper (when in pods), Guinea Grains, Guinea Pepper, Paradise Grains". I get them from Ghana, West Africa.
Find yourself someone that talks about you the same way Max talks about Pliny the Elder.
🤣 he’s just a never ending source of entertainment
Honestly, it's great that there are so many writings miraculously left about ancient cuisine. But if you stumble about ingredients that are no longer available it's enormously saddening. That being said, it is still very interesting to get a little insight of what people liked to eat back then.
@J Wilt I too saw this article
You should opening a restaurant called "tasting history" and you just serve these dishes.
A fun novelty. But I don't know how long any restaurant will survive when "Spartan Black Broth" is on the menu.
@@kgpspyguy good point, maybe just a booth at a county fair or something lol
@@kgpspyguy I honestly feel if he opened it in Los Angeles health freaks would go nuts over that kinda shit lol
@@kgpspyguy make the spartan broth a food challenge for the restaurant.
@@kgpspyguy Honestly, throw in some better herbs and veggies and it doesn’t sound half bad. Hell, given how much the Spartans ate it, it was probably some proto-protein shake.
I feel like most things, if rubbed on the muzzle of a bull, will irritate him to an extraordinary degree.
Bulls just be like that, honestly.
Right!
I wonder how many other ingredients had that same warning...
I imagine fresh lobsters would
"My name is Janus Noxvilla, and this is Jackass!"
*rubs herbs on bull nose*
highly underrated comment
Now thou shalt see an exceptional feat of madness, a stunt.
This is the best comment I’ve ever seen on TH-cam
The first youtube comment to make me actually laugh out loud
Or a country boy pranking some city slicker.
"Yeah, that bull's not feeling so great, but if you rub some of that thar silphium on his nose, it'll calm him right up! Hipppcratese said so, dontcha know?"
"...Dude why'd ya tell 'm to do that? Ya know that bull hates anyone touching his nose."
"Yup. Look at that city boy run! He's got a pair of legs on him don't he?"
Man, you deserve 100 million subs.
Intelligent, informative, witty, and made me watch a cooking show.
Just made this dish. Even without the asofoedita, it's an amazing sauce; though I did replace it with turmeric and garlic powder.
If you know how to cook it, Asafoetida is an amazing spice. We use a lot of it in Indian cooking. However, there are tricks involved, and if you don't use it a lot it would be a waste of money for you.
Things I knew about Pliny the Elder before this video: he observed the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79 and was suffocated by the fumes.
Things I know about Pliny the Elder now: he thought snakes exploded after drinking wine.
This channel is an education in so many ways.
if you want to know more wacky things about Pliny, the Sawbones podcast did a great episode just on him (and he comes up in plenty of other episodes)
I almost thought that part about snakes exploding was a mistranslation or sth
"What you don't want to add is any lead"
Me: ooooh its one of those recipes
🤣
This might be of interest when it comes to roman use of lead for sweetening.
th-cam.com/video/lOjLuJyMmUQ/w-d-xo.html
Ah yes, lead acetate or "sugar of lead".
A lot of lead never hurt anyone
I run better on unleaded.
Watching the description of Silphium it reminds me a lot of a herb that we have in Guatemala, called Loroco (Fernaldia Pandurata).
Like Silphium, if we believe the story, it grows only in certain areas with volcanic activity, the pictures are very similar and it's a very sought after ingredient that its only available during a certain time of year.
omg my family is from el salvador and we eat loroco in pupusas! so yummy :-)
I must find this plant.
they definitely don't look the same
@@declanjones8888 looks liek goya sells it in jars
@@extropiantranshuman yeah kinda does.
So Max! Some side notes on Rue. In Brazil it’s common for us to plant our own Rue. It is said the plant provides protection against envy; there’s a popular saying about how Rue, in the presence of envy, dries to dearth. The reason a pregnant woman shouldn’t ear Rue, is due to the fact that it might cause a miscarriage. But it is also used by the new moms, just after having a baby, in a kind of “shot” so It helps the womb’ to cleanse and also it allegedly helps scarring and stuff…
Oh, so the warnings make sense now
Me, shovelling popcorn down my gullet while watching this man prepare, cook, and eat a luxury dish: ah yes, i see you are also a lover of noble cuisine
I wouldn't say this exactly a luxury dish in Rome it would have probably just been a home cooked meal that you could make using ingredients you bought at the market
the mystery of silphium is infinitely interesting to me. imagine if chocolate was found and lost within a century and having to figure out how to make literally any dessert
This might happen in the next century or so!
* eating a thousand year old recipe*
“Hmm, it tastes foreign!”
😂
Compared to the modern American diet, it is!
"The past is another country "
As someone who suffered a tooth ache from an abcess the story of the guy that stuck silfium in his tooth cavity and jumped off a building is SO god damned relatable
"I love you plini, never change"
Well considering he is probably cast in volcanic ash somewhere, that worked out well!
Pliny survived the eruption and wrote the first and arguably best witness account of an eruption. He wrote from a ship offshore in the bay of Naples.
@@warpdriveby I took some creative liberties for the sake of the joke but he actually did die near Herculaneum during the eruption, although more modern accounts seem to favor a heart attack rather than the volcanic fumes as the cause of this death. His body was recovered though, so he is not cast in volcanic ash either
@@LKAChannel I didn't know that. It turns out we are both correct!! LMAO!! Pliny the elder died in Stabiae, of fumes or as you said a heart attack. Pliny the younger, did write the account of Vesuvius in 79AD and survived to author a number of historical works.
@@warpdriveby yeah I was already suspecting you meant Pliny the Younger, pretty sure the Pliny mentioned in the video is the elder though :)
Yes, I ought to have distinguished. Mea Culpa 😁
There are actually a lot of herbs that you shouldn't use while pregnant. Most of these herbs have antispasmodic properties which could lead to miscarriages. But then again because of that many of them were used back in the day to help giving birth.
I love learning about herbs so this episode was especially interesting to me :D
Exactly! The standard advice now for pregnant women is that you shouldn't consume an herb before consulting your doctor. Or at least some research.
It's worth noting that those same sorts of herbs were well-known among women and what they would think of as doctors in Roman times as a way to induce miscarriage if you were pregnant and didn't want to be.
Yeah, this has at least three ingredients that were common abortificents. It's basically Miscarriage Fish. Pregnant people absolutely should NOT eat this dish!
Rachel Fields unless of course they’re trying to abort lol
Oh come on. All of these herbs are used in Indian cooking on a daily basis. Such a tiny amount is not going to cause a miscarriage. Taking heaping spoonfuls might. They act as abortifacients only if you apply per vaginal or ingest really large amounts.
Viewer: What is the hardest ingredient to get?
Max: Dodo
Thank you for mentioning that Rue is dangerous for pregnant people. It can also have horrible interactions with certain heart medications, so diner beware with that one.
There’s a restaurant outside of Rome on the ancient Appian Way (via Appia antica) that serves ancient Roman cuisine. I can confirm that Roman dishes are so foreign, yet often thought provoking and sometimes sublime. Along with the classic veal medallions in lemon-sage sauce, to this day a classic dish in Rome, we were served this sort of bread pudding seasoned with honey and black pepper. It lives in my mind to this day, now twenty years since I had it.
I want to go to there!
There is (or was 10 years ago) a similar restaurant serving Roman cuisine in Trier, Germany, at the main market place.
@@TastingHistory - You’d adore it, I’m certain. If you haven’t had the chance yet, I can’t recommend Rome more for a history-buff slash epicurean to visit. Then Florence but really the medieval city of Siena, especially during their games in the campo where the various medieval quarters of the city compete.
I’ve been all over, though not to Greece yet, and nothing compares to the feeling of connectedness to history I’ve felt in Rome, especially as you cool your face from little water fountains that still run with water from the aqueducts and the manhole covers say SPQR on them. It’s wild - the Italians still live in their history where in other places it’s on display but beyond a barrier.
@@TastingHistory me too!!
What is it called? I live in Rome, yet I've never heard of it!
Tasting History has to be one of the best new channels to come in 2020. I enjoy watching every video you make, and it's nice to see how you've become more comfortable in front of the camera since the start. I love food, and now I also love history, keep it up!
Thank you so much!
I remember studying a little about this plant in one of our school books here in Libya. It was apparently valued very highly for medicinal and culinary purposes to the point that its image was even on coins at some point. Overhavesting caused its extinction(?)
Asafetida is used in Indian cooking in small pinches as a taste enhancer, but by itself, it is FUN-KEY. The fetida part does indeed mean fetid.
You are the first person I've seen ever start their channel with such quality. The hosting, humor, relaxation, and research are all top notch. I'm just happy to watch and support however I can.
Similarly to laserpicium, asafoetida is made from the resin extracted from the taproot of a plant. Because asafoetida is made from fennel and because silphium is probably a close relative of fennel, asafoetida is probably an excellent substitute.
Huh. Have you ever smelled Herb Robert, a hing cousin? More like crazy onions.
How do we know silphium is extinct?
@@konjuer We don't, it may be one of the species he listed at the end. However, it is suggestive that the Romans themselves claimed it was, and that unlike near enough every other spice they used, we can't really link it up with any spices used in the region later.
The obvious exception is asafoetida, which it does resemble - but I agree with the theory that it's most likely to be the "worse substitute" the romans mentioned.
@@dnebdal thanks for the info. I'd probably hate it, but now I want to try lol
@@konjuer Asafoetida? It's in a _lot_ of indian food, so you may already have had it. :)
THE Next time you encounter a recipe calling FOR the uterii of sterile sows, you can find them at well-stocked Asian supermarkets and butcher shops like 99 Ranch in the butcher's dept. labeled as hog maws". They're considered quite a delicacy in Chinese cuisine, and here in the San Francisco BayArea, it's not uncommon to see hog maws featured on the menus of more authentic Chinese restaurants. I've never tried them myself, but then I never say never. The first time I was offered beef tendon at a Chinese restaurant I couldn't bring myself to try it, but now I absolutely adore beef tendon, especially in Vietnamese pho.
Everytime he does a recipe from Ancient Rome, I just want to shout, "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!"
I am, at least.
Is that the line from the travel commercial I get 3 times during the video?
@@4philipp No, it is from the film Gladiator. ;) (Although I suspect you know that anyway.)
"Silphium" was likely a naturally occurring hybrid of North African Giant Fennel and Asian Asafoetida, both related plants from different parts of world. But this hybrid likely produced sterile seeds and could not grow outside its own environment. Asafoetida was potentially brought to North Africa by Phoenicians or Egyptians, and was probably planted near Giant Fennel fields. Cross pollination probably created the Silphium hybrid plants. But decades of over-harvesting for Rome probably caused its extinction.
It is possible experiments with Ferula species could recreate Silphium in a controlled environment if botanists and biologists wanted to.
....I feel a botany project coming on
Do you know if anyone has tried to replicate it?
Another problem is probably the changing climate. 2000 years ago, north africa was a lot greener with lush forests. Now we have deserts.
Sounds like a job for a very carefully controlled greenhouse and some very dedicated botanists. We can rebuild it, we have the technology.
I'm sure it could easily be rebuilt. If there were anything existing that could specify what it was exactly.
Weirdly enough I was researching aphrodisiacs the other day. Tldr is that because of the myth surrounding Aphrodite a lot of sea creatures were thought to be aphrodisiacs and while some plants do alter the consumers physiology, the shape of the plant throughout its ‘life cycle’ looking like human genitalia was slightly more important for folk beliefs. IMO the ‘heart’ looks more like stylized testes or labium; perhaps they wanted to give the romans the benefit of the doubt. Plants that mimic estrogen in the body can be used as abortifacients and contraceptives by altering the hormones, which is why pregnant women can’t/shouldn’t eat certain herbs like rue or clove.
Basically every single ingredient on earth has at some point in history been thought to be an aphrodisiac somewhere. There was a hypothesis for a while that even potatoes were aphrodisiacs because the population of Ireland boomed after its introduction.
@@al4381 The two constants in life; people are hungry, people are horny!
Snail Male It can be funny looking back at folk beliefs, now knowing the science, but I think it’s really interesting that they made the connections they did. If a well fed(potato fed) population makes a lot of babies, I’d think potatoes were an aphrodisiac too.
Yes! Thank you for mentioning the abortifacient and contraceptive properties of this herb! I've always heard that it was such an effective herb for birth control that's why it was harvested to extinction! Considering the risk involved with other abortifacient herbs and methods at the time, it would make sense if this theory was true imo.
yes, yes! mugwort is also a very good example of an abortifacient! i usually drink mugwort tea if my period is acting strange and it helps me pass the clots. it was a fantastic birth control in places like india!
The range of facial expressions you show whenever you taste something is a highlight of the show.
"What you _don't_ want to add is any lead, which, probably would've been included in the original recipe, but... Don't add that."
Should sugar or something else which is sweet be added in place of lead when it's called for in Roman cooking?
Don't ask me how I know this. But the flavour of Lead with that "sweet, sour, slightly tart-ish" profiles can be made with a bit of ascorbic acid, malic acid and some fruit juice BUT NOT from a citrus. Citruses have oils and Citric acid that will change the flavour.. Since we're working with wine and/or grape juice/must... Just experiment with that 2 acid ingredients... Should be available in some baking/mixologist specialty stores.
I assumed that lead would have been in it because it would have leached from the cooking or storage vessels or water pipes, etc. rather than because it was a listed ingredient (it didn't seem to be on the list) but I may be wrong...
"It calls for a mysterious ingredient"
*Cracks open 5 pills of viagra*
🤣
RIP to Justin jr
*Reading the ingredients* "Fleur de Sel (Fancy Salt)" ... Me: ROFLMAO
@@ArchArturo fleur is flower
@@mirabletest don't think he meant "Fleur is French for fancy", but it is considered extra fancy. Needlessly fancy in my oppinion.
Sponsorship! Truly a milestone on your TH-camr journey.
Movin up 😁
@@TastingHistory good luck with noom - I used it and lost 20kg without feeling that life was horrible, so I can recommend it 🙂
So interesting!! Well i'm not sure about the historical accuracy but in the southern reign of Iraq we have some fish dish called Masmootah it's a dried fish broth usually eaten with iraqi flat bread...it's been said that this dish is actually an ancint Sumarian dish and we the southern iraqis has Inherited it from our ancestors but yeah i've never searched about it so idk if it's true but maybe you'll find something if you're intersted.
Good news comment readers. Silphium has recently been rediscovered! Botanist in Turkey found some while hunting weird carrots. Hopefully we can overcome the challenges they faced back then with cultivation and bring this back to the mainstream.
@J Wilt it will be worth an insane amount of money when it first hits the market
now I need to know more about the weird carrots
They are ancient volcanoes in that area and the cloud seeding effect of volcanic ash often causes "black" rain similar to large wildfires. The plant most likely requires/required a nutrient dense rich soil and an exceptional soaking of the seeds for germination. It is not far fetched to believe that the climate, with the volcanoes becoming dormant, no longer supported the plants requirements. Over harvesting of what may have already been a plant on its way to extinction could easily have sped its demise. The soil additives and ph adjustments added by the volcanic ash, as well as other unknown factors, could have made the plant near impossible to propagate outside of its natural environment without a much more scientific analysis into the plants native soil. Also there was an active volcano in Libya at the time frame mentioned.
Makes sense!
Also, the Romans killed all the North African Barbary lions, which, as the apex predator in the ecosystem, could have had massive effects on the balance of herbivores and plant life, similar to the effects that the eradication (and subsequent reintroduction) of wolves had in Yellowstone.
@@farley.gwazda Ah, that would of course be a requirement for safe grazing lands for livestock. Thank you for that.
Good hypothesis!
This is what makes great education channels!!! When the content and the comments are just as informative!!!! I knew there was a reason I've been binging this channel all year haha
Sorry, I have drunk snakes to attend to.
Thee and me!
That's what she said.
@@beardedgeek973 Such as she proclaimed!
As a classicist and foodie I really, really enjoy your videos. More history should be taught and experienced like this :-)
They found actual live silphium in Turkey!!! Researchers examined the plants there, thinking it was just another species of fennel but then concluded that it really was Silphium!
a contraceptive *and* aphrodisiac. no wonder they loved it so much
🤣
Yeah I feel like even today people would pay a lot of money for something similar. + it supposedly tasted good
@@agimagi2158 The trifecta.
I dread to think of the prices people would may for a non addictive aphrodisiac+contraceptive.
Makes sense it cost it's weight în silver when it tastes good enough to ignore the gods, îs an aphrodisiac AND a contraceptive, not to mention having the ability to cure like 20 different ailments
I love how the captions for eating are “monch monch”
That’s my fiancé’s humor
@@TastingHistory dang, now i'm going to have to start watching with the subtitles on! XD
I love the passion that you show, the way your eyes move as you're tasting it for the first time, and the way that you can process that and describe it in ways that are approachable.
Synaesthesia is strong within you.
Feedback on historical symbology: It would be more correct to use the Rod of Asclepius as a symbol of medicine rather than the Caduceus. The use of the caduceus as a symbol of medicine is much more recent than the Ancient Greeks and Romans. So basically one snake, not two.
And also the wings of Hermes are the symbol of commerce, it makes medicine a commodity which goes against the Hippocratic ideal
"Promotes menstrual discharge" might have been code for things that could induce an abortion. Although Hippocratis was very much against those, so it might be just for irregular periods.
I read about silphium years ago. Not much about it being an aphrodisiac. A shit ton about it being used to cause abortions.
AMENORRHOEA to that!
I love the fact he has a random Pokémon plush in the background that he swaps out . Love this mix of cooking and history.
Every single episode, and I haven't noticed a repeat. It's fantastic.
Really makes me ponder how large his Pokémon collection is. Given that they also seem somewhat on topic, at least the ones I know have had some connection. However this one I don't know the name of.
I’m so excited by the news that silphium may have been rediscovered!!!!
I would love to see a collab with how to cook that !
A silphium episode? Oh my, my, my. It's not even Valentine's Day yet. Also: SPONSOR!
Right? I’m evolving 🤣
@@TastingHistory did you find a rare candy this Halloween?
Max please look up a recipe called Churchkhela. This is a string of walnuts which is coated in a grape and wheat flour reduction. No sugar is used to make this recipe but when you reduce the grapes with the wheat you get a thickened mixture which hardens into a fruit leather. These strings of candy were given to soldiers to fuel them in war. The fruit leather preserve the nuts inside and such candy can be eaten many years after it is made if it is stored properly. I imagine that it just tastes like raisins and nuts probably tastes pretty good.
So interesting! I’ve spent many hours in Ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt (in books) and it’s wonderful to see you bring their cuisine back to life! So very cool. ❤️🇨🇦
Omg this is amazing. Thank you so much for all of your time, work, and research. I think this is the TH-cam channel I’ve always hoped to stumble upon, but never knew I would find❤️
Thank you!
"All this history is going straight to my thighs!"
Max: But DON'T USE LEAD
Me putting away my old timey paint chips: Oh.
But the lead is my favorite part!
They didn't actually "add lead", they used lead cooking vessels. Due to the acidic nature of the grape juice and the heat, a small amount of lead dissolved during the cooking process. Still not healthy, though...
@@necronomicon1472 fun fact that's why tomatoes used be considered poisonous because the acidic juices of the fruit would leech the lead out of pewter plates. There is a famous case of an Assasin trying to assassinate someone (cant remember who) by putting tomato in the soup that they were going to be served unfortunately for the Assasin the soup bowl was not made of pewter so the victim was fine and even said that the soup tasted better than usual
@@shadowxxe The amount of lead that would dissolve from a plate is so small, you would have a hard time detecting it without the use of some very sensitive analytical equipment.
The lethal dose of lead acetate is about 400mg/kg, which for an everage adult means you would need several grams of lead in order to kill them, so unless the soup literally puts a hole into the plate, no one is going to die from eating tomato soup off a pewter plate.
The real danger with lead isn't its immediate toxicity, but rather the fact that, like other heavy metals, it accumulates in your body over time.
The main reason tomatoes were initially considered to be poisonous is because they belong to the nightshade family of plants which does have a few poisonous members.
My guy,
You have a great series here.
I can honestly say that I enjoy the detail in which you tread on the historical aspects of your video. It almost makes me forget about the cooking segment, which you weave back in seamlesly after reaching just far enough into digression for it to be a fun loop.
Also, that plant from the coins looked a lot like some of the drawings from the Voynich Manuscript.
A book to be believed to be closely related to medicine/alchemy, but written in an old unknown language. Mostly untranslated till this day.
Food for thought.
I love the way you tell a story, explain recipes and your verbalizing the words, almost like singing a wonderful song🥰👍
"it's Pliny the Elder so it has to be true" honestly made me laugh SO hard, A+ delivery
Who is the guy so wealthy and crazy rubbing herbs/spices onto bulls noses. Surly there must be a test group, silphium makes them angry. Compared to oregano makes them sleepy.
He had an inquisitive mind
Don't forget that he stated that "it is a well known fact" so this was not some underground, super secret info but something that people knew. "Have a nice day! Remember not to rub silphium on a bull's nose or put it into wine, thats how you get snake explosions!"
And salt, which makes them tasty...
You are incredible! Your channel adds seassonings to history, and everything so well researched, and graciously presented, Thumbs up!
14:05 This is why i love your channel! Your charme & humor gets me every time :) You have so much passion for history and its little curiosities, anecdotes and its funny absurd pieces of candy, it´s just lovely and adorable! This combined with sometimes wonderful food? Perfect :)
If you´re interested in a traditional, really heart and soul warming German / Dutch dish from the 18th century, try "Himmel un Äd" / "Hete bliksem" It´s wonderful! Greetings from good old Germany!
Oh, and make it with a good Blutwurst or Leberwurst! Very important ;)
Your channel has been such a comfort over the past few weeks, Max. You've inspired me to write my undergrad independent study on historical cookbooks!
I love that! Let me know if you come across anything fantastic.
Your expressions when you taste the food are priceless. If it is an aphrodisiac, perhaps the exploding serpents Pliny refers to are not snakes in the reptilian sense, but the other, more naughty version. :P
Such snakes are not known to be OVERLY fond of wine; they lose interest in all stimuli when excessively inebriated
If it was the dish with silphium indeed, he will show his manhood and will shower us with his seeds👅
@@jungkookiekutter657 lmaooo are you an erotic writer?? Manhood and seed? Haha erotic stories always use those types of really awkward synonyms
@@Kyharra do you know a certain kittydock?
@@Kyharra I see. I've heard of you from them, and I find it interesting to stumble across you here
I'm from Trinidad and Tobago and I'm so glad I found your channel! I can't count how many of your videos I've watched so far. My inner food nerd is being nourished ❤
Man, it’s 2023 and we’re still loving this dudes acid trip! 14:16
Max gotta be one of the best hosts of all of TH-cam. This channel is entertaining, relaxing, informative and funny all of the same time.
Thank you so much 😊
Pliny was probably talking about "trouser snakes"
I wish I could find the link to the article I read a few days ago, but a scientist recently identified a plant in Turkey that they are almost sure is silphium. It’ll be amazing if that’s true, although I’m not sure how they could positively identify it one way or another
th-cam.com/video/RLNR8rudqT4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=kDJ286KWWfpT6vUJ
“RC Cola” 😂😂🤣🤣 this guy cant tell me he doesn’t have Southern roots. Parents/grandparents....something, I can hear it every video!
in one of his recent videos he mentions "Picadilly" so he is DEFINITELY southern
@@Dregkar isn’t piccadilly in London?
RC cola and moon pie
We have RC in Michigan
He was raised in Arizona, so you're right, i think
YOU GOT ANOTHER SPONSORSHIP!!! CONGRATS!!!🍾🎊🎉 Also, I appreciate the transparency of that ad. “Haven’t tried it yet. Going to. Let’s see what happens.” No BS, just the basic objective facts. Thank you.
Thank you 😊 And hopefully it’ll help me lose weight 🤣
@@TastingHistory you pretty much have to lose weight now that the whole world is watching...
Fear Factor - Ancient Greece: "Dude, I'll give you 5 pieces of silver to walk up to an enraged bull and sprinkle this Sylphium on his muzzle" Let's see what happens.
🤣
after like the tiniest bit of thought, the ancient greeks and romans would have loved shit like Jackass tbh
"I'm King Midas, and this is Jackass-Ears!"
It was those damn Cretans! They're always doing strange things with bulls!
Never trust a Greek bearing drachmae
Genuinely never had a channel become my favourite so fast. I love everything about this channel 😍 great work!
Wow, I was listening to the ingredients in this and when it got to oregano I had to do a double take I say this so differently in the UK, I like what you are doing on this channel I like what was done with that chicken dish, a hidden gem, fasicnated in history and food.
Tf when you’re grating silphium and some random god comes expecting to be greeted ?? Read the room!
🤣
I'm doing medico-historical research on the herbal lore of Theophrastus so I'm really happy to see my boi featured in this one! Super nice!
Oh, and for Christmas, why not try the grandest of all Mediterranean meals, the Shield of Minerva? :D
Here's the recipe from Suetonius' Vitellius.
"Yet even this supper he himself outdid, at a feast which he gave upon the first use of a dish which had been made for him, and which, for its extraordinary size, he called 'The Shield of Minerva.' In this dish there were tossed up together the livers of char-fish, the brains of pheasants and peacocks, with the tongues of flamingos, and the entrails of lampreys, which had been brought in ships of war as far as from the Carpathian Sea, and the Spanish Straits."
[EDIT: Added the ingredients]
Pheasant and peacock brain should be acquire-able easily enough....
@@Skinfaxi Duck tongue isn't too hard to come by but it does actually have a bone inside it. Not sure though, do flamingo tongues have a bone?
Theres something incredible about this channel, his face is so goddamn handsome that looking at his face puts me in a good mood and he's talking about history! My favorite subject, and he's funny! This channel truly has it all
You never fail to make amusing, informative and refreshing videos! I'm always looking forward to new episodes. Kudos!
Definitely going to make this -- I live just north of where Parthea used to be! Max, when you're filming the scenes where you try food, could you have another camera on the food as you eat it? We get to see what it looks like before you eat it, but we don't actually get to see you cut into it -- it'll help those of us who like to make your recipes at home. Great video as always!
I do need to get a second camera for that. It’s on my Christmas list ☺️
i wonder if silphium had an addictive quality to it, contributing to it being harvested into extinction
Could be but also Roman's were known for their excess so I wouldn't bet that was the reason
this is a great thought! salvia yangii (russian sage) is used as euphoriant
Max's deadpan face after stating "I can't read" cracks me up!
Incredibly interesting content.
I love the depth of research, learning the pronunciation then actually cooking and eating the reasearched recipe.
Great idea. Great execution.
I guess that "sus sterilis" in context means a sow that had not littered before she was slaughtered. So, a young sow. I guess the muscle structure of a womb changes severely during pregnancy and the meat is rather chewey afterwards.
Appetizing
@@TastingHistory Chef Wang has a video about the differences between a breeding sow and a non littered sow. It's in Chinese but has English subs available. Definitely with checking out in this instance!
Well, it's extremely lean muscle meat... I imagine it pretty much similar to tongue. And I know many folks who swear by tongue in jelly (I myself have a certain weakness for that, too).
@@Baccatube79 Tongue tacos (usually called "lengua") are the BEST. Well, when done properly. One local place cooks it the typical way, but then gives it a tiny bit of crisping on the grill. WOW.
German "Zunge in Aspik" ("Tongue in jelly") is a dish I love very much on hot summer days as it provides a full savoury meal but is still a cold dish. You dice the tongue in its jelly block and dress it with spring onions, diced pickles, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and serve it with either sourdough rye bread and butter or cold, boiled potatoes. Wonderful!
it's true that snakes like wine. they are especially fond of a good ssssshirazzz
Oh boy 🤣
Or a mossssscato. 🐍🥂
@@sarahgilliss3503 or a Riessssssling...
If you have a Mexican super market nearby, you'll likely find dried rue in their "alternative" spice rack, along with Palo Santo, Flor de Pena, etc.