Love the combination of "Not bad" with "Nope, not gonna finish this." It gives such a feeling of "Wow, I really thought it was gonna be much, much worse."
I would like to think immediately after cutting, he downed the glass, put the training montage from "Spartacus" on his TV, and started lifting weights.
That statistic about left handed fighters is insightful. Apparently the Romans were very into keeping detailed statistics of their games, much like modern sports fans.
Interestingly, the Latin word for left is male-as in malevolent, malicious, maladjusted, malfeasance, etc. The left of everything gets a bad rap, no doubt because of this ancient word.
“Kick back with a soda” Soda is actually one of the names for an alkali which is made mixing ashes with water then boiling the water off. That’s one hell of a pun.
Spent fifteen years living in remote areas of Alaska, and for the six months of the year cooked on a campfire. Which means lots of ash and spruce needles in one's food. Every time I've been to a dentist they always were amazed at how hard my teeth and surrounding bone was. The last said, "That's weird. Usually I stick that drill right through a person's teeth, but yours were so hard that it took a lot of time to drill into them." Which I had noticed. So the gladiators and probably soldiers at a lot of ash, intentionally or otherwise, and it made for very hard bones, which is handy in hacking people to death and not getting hacked to death oneself.
@@jasonbrody8957 Calcium isnt destroyed by heat, and so builds up in what is essentially an extract of burnt plants. Not 100% on that, but thats what popped in my head.
On the chemistry side, most ash does resolve to a base(lye, KOH, and similar) on reacting in water. However adding the vinegar(acid) will neutralize this, creating vitamin salts (in this case mostly acetates) allowing mineral supplement. Now, not necessarily a vitamin pill, but similar, as most vitamin pills carry vitamin c(ascorbic acid) and citric acid, with the minerals, which makes them some more soluble, which aids them being digested instead of just passing through.
It depends on the ash, really. but most ash has less than what was burned, because most carcinogens burn up. Your radioactive rare earths that cause cancer by radiation, can stay, but if you already had a lot of them, being around what has them was already an issue.
@@RonJohn63 Yeah, they didn't know anything about chemistry, so they clarified what they had heard by asking "isn't ash carcinogenic?" Asking questions is how you learn. Don't understand what's the problem here.
I've known about "Gladiator Gatorade" for many years and was always curious to try it. When I first heard about this my understanding was they used a high quality Apple Cider Vinegar and when mixed with Ash and Honey gave it almost a lemonade like refreshing taste to it. The Ash was apparently made using a variety specific mixes of herbs, teas, and other plants many of which came from the different region of the worlds the gladiators themselves hailed from. The exact recipe and list of "herbs and spices" that were turned into ash was never discovered and its possible some of the plants are extinct as of today or thanks to genetic modification the plants today would be very different to what they used back then. I still want to grow a variety of "11 herbs and spices" turn them to ash and create my own Gladiator Lemonade.
That makes a lot of sense, except that I've never heard of people taking herbs and spices as ash, rather than as, essentially, tea. That said, it might be that they wanted to impart fire itself into the drink for spiritual or mythic purposes. Even today, we call sports drinks "Energy Drinks," and the vital expression of pure energy is fire. Heck, for all I know, burning the herbs actually does imbue some value to them. Either way, tough men like to play with fire.
I believe it was mostly the leaves of many plants and teas that were turned to ash. And turning them into ash meant turning them into a compound that was more densely compact with minerals like calcium magnesium and zinc. Imagine trying to eat 500g of spinach raw in a salad vs how much 500g cooked down and concentrated would be to eat. Using ash meant they were capable of breaking down hundreds of grams of minerals into one drink rather than needing to drink hundreds of gallons of tea to achieve the same affect.
My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my Riptide Rvsh, in this life or the next.
@@chrisnemec5644 I never drank much gatorade in my life so I don't know anything about it but Arctic Blitz sounds much better than even beer...so I'd much rather prefer Arctic Blitz than dirt or beer
Max: Drinking History episodes will be little bonus ones, with fun tidbits of history, on weekends. Not as long as Tasting History episodes. Me: *expects 3-6 minute easy-to-edit snippets where Max talks to us while making and trying a drink and am happy about that* Also Max: *cranks out thoroughly well-researched, engaging, entertaining, 10+ minute content, full of graphics, image inserts, and excellent references.
On the ash: It's worth remembering that if you like wood-fired pizza you probably ingested a lot of ash already. Avoid unknown ash, of course, same thing as a ash from poisonous stuff. So long you are not using poison ivy ash or something like that, or using truly tremendous amounts of ash, you'll probably be fine, specially if it's not something you eat every day.
Yeah, and it also depends how you use it. Mixing ash with water creates lye, which can be rather caustic and not good for you in larger quantities or with a very high pH in smaller quantities. The adition of the vinegar should have helped with this, lowering the pH. But we humans eat acidic foods all the time and I'm sure plenty of foods are somewhat basic (in the chemical sense) too.
@@snazzypazzy bases are generally bitter and poisonous. Think soap, bleach, and ammonia. Hominy can get as basic as 8 on the pH scale, but it is literally corn soaked in lye to make it more digestible. Food chemistry is pretty neat
Well...depending on the amounts, mixing acetic acid (C2H4O2) and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) will produce Sodium Acetate (NaC2H3O2) and Water (H2O). Sodium Acetate is a food additive (acidity regulator), and water is good. So if you get the right amounts it's harmless. Also, if you start with Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) instead of Sodium Hydroxide (they are both called lye sometimes interchangeably), you still end up with harmless products: Potassium Acetate (KC2O3) is a preservative and a bioavailable form of potassium in the body, and again...water. The big issue is that both of these reactions will generate lots of heat (probably enough to crack or shatter untreated glassware). Also, while spilling vinegar on yourself is easily fixed with some water...spilling lye on yourself is very uncomfortable and can leave burns if not quickly attended (oddly enough...with vinegar).
Vinegar should neutralize the ash. I'd be surprised if anyone managed to make something with a pH higher than 9 because no one's going to want to put *that* much ash in their drink, but you can test it with a litmus strip if you are worried. When mixing this up you should make sure it's stopped fizzing before you drink it, though.
Is the way he mixed the ash directly into the acidic liquid a problem? I feel like the ash should have been made into a lye solution before adding any acids.
The best approach would probably be to titrate your vinegar with pure soda to establish its precise concentration, then dissolve previously weighted ash in water, filter and boil off the water and then weight and titrate the hydroxides with the already known concentracion of acetic acid in you vinegar using indicator paper. It shold not be too hard, it is lime what you did during some of your chemistry classes in school, but after that you should be able to calculate and create a perfect mixture with almost perfectly neutral or very slightly acetic reaction that after letting all the insluable jusk settle would indeed be a crude but still reasonably OK food supplement you can combine with any drink. Just don't take too much of it at a time or you may end up occupying your porcelain throne for the rest of the day.
In Balinese cuisine, the "smoky/charred" aftertaste is actually a highly sought-after attribute (usually either through charring the food slightly or adding shredded charred coconut to the dish), and this quality is known as .
@@bluegum6438 then you have to try some aged barley wines*, especially if you can get one with some whisky malt. Just don't brew it yourself, makes neighbours call cops on you from the burned rubber aromas (they're not present in the finished product). *It's actually a beer
This word looks so cool, is the language hard to learn for foreigners who don't speak any polynesian languages? (I'd learn some Malay/Indonesian first idk if that helps)
@@Sk0lzky Some experience with Malay/Indonesian would help, as it shares a lot of grammar/vocab details with either language. The most difficult thing with Balinese is that it also has an extremely elaborate honorific system - not as bad as the related language Javanese, but makes both Japanese keigo and Korean jondaenmal/banmal seem like child's play, as you can show both detailed honorifics and some really crass expletives - even in the same utterance if need be!
@@SiKedek I've seen a video regarding expletives and I love it lmao The complex honorific system sounds really interesting, even if I don't end up trying to learn the language I'll definitely dive into this aspect to see how tough it is :)
I just once want to see someone jokingly say, "No, it's not bad," and then immediately slump over. Then a hard jump cut where the person is wearing different clothes. Continuing on.
@@johnr797 lol yeah. Electrolyted are electrolytes. Don't use big brain-hurting words, please. .... I'm joking. If you didn't notice, the quote he made is from a movie. Electrolytes are basically salts (more commonly table salt, but some others can work as such).
The vinegar and lye are going to neutralize depending on the quantities of each, so it should be fairly safe. Also, their lye is not as strong as our highly refined lye.
@Mr Guy - lye is in a lot of our food and beverages - I was going to suggest that lye water could have been used instead of the ash. It's sold as a food ingredient at Chinese markets. Lye makes olives edible, pretzels brown, and so on and so on. You drink a brown soda, yeah, that has lye in it. Dry ramen noodles have lye in them. Don't consume industrial lye. Only use it at safe or pre-processed culinary ingredient levels.
@@liamfisher917 diluted lye would miss the whole the point of the ash though. The point of adding ash is not to make the drink basic, but to add vitamins and minerals from the plant which was burnt. Just adding lye wouldn’t really do much in that regard
Just so you know, as a soapmaker and Cook who works with Lye,, you would have to consume a AWFUL LOT of ash before it would hurt you. Like Several Pounds at one sitting, of culinary ash. Tummy ache, because you would have a hard time digesting it, but otherwise, I'm fairly certain you'd be fine.
The gladiators were counted in pairs because that’s how they fought. A gladiator fighting himself would look pretty silly, plus he’d probably lose all his toes.
This actually makes sense! The plant ash has a lot of electrolytes, the vinegar will neutralize the caustic alkalinity of the ash, and the honey has sugar that will make the electrolyte absorption more effective 🙂
Not sure if there is historical recipes, but would love to see something about the Hopi cuisine you mentioned. Was pretty much taken aback by the "culinary ash" thing. A great episode as always Max! Thanks for doing what you do
"Ash" is a good source of lye, which in turn unlocks the nutrients in maize (corn), it's called nixtamalization. He did cover that in another video, but basically, if you don't wash your corn with lye water, and you eat that for your main grain, you will get sick and die from a lack of niacin. Ash is still actively used in making Hominy in some parts of the South. The tasting history vid on nixtamalization: th-cam.com/video/NPxjQetKPoo/w-d-xo.html
In the Mediterranian regions there are many recipes for cheeses dusted in a coat of ashes, I know of prevalence in France and Italy at least (I never tried one to my knowledge, so can not give a statement about taste). The reference to spagyric preparations (Adrian Aslund) is valid, I know it or a similar method of preparation under the name WALA. It equals in German Wärme/ Asche/ Licht/ Asche (heat/ ash/ light/ ash), which stands for the stages of the process. I am not educated in homoeopathia, so again - no further enlightenment. Ash and earth eating is a valid method to enhance the intake of minerals (= geophagia, I know of this regarding elephants and also humans in Africa). According to the terroir the soil has different characteristics regarding salinity, acidity, alkaline quality (this applies also for crops grown on the respective soil, especially wine! hence my use of "terroir"), so to incorporate concentrated and densified nutrigens as ash in your diet can really make sense. Like Ivan Ambition from another comment, I also would recommend to first let the reaction exhaust itself before the next stage, because the outcome will be much more predictable as the reaction stops, and you can work with a stable ingredient for the next step (acids and bases can be really dangerous working material, caution is advisable in any setting IMO!).
Gladiatorade. Here's a bit of trivia: The first person to taste Gatorade did not like it and declared, "This stuff tastes like piss!" leading one to wonder, "How does he know?"
I had some ash cheese from Quebec once, it was delicious but I felt like I could still feel the ash in my mouth for the rest of the day which wasn't too pleasant.
An interesting episode. Ash is essentially just the soil-born minerals a plant takes up from the roots. The bulk of the plant is carbohdyrates, that is water and CO2 fixed through photosynthesis. Lye is sodium hydroxide (sodium from the soil and hydroxide from a partial reaction of carbohydrates while burning that fixes an OH- with a Na+. Ash is pretty rich in lye, and lye leached from ash was and still is employed in the manufacture of soap. Calcium and sodium carbonate are also present. Adding vinegar should result in a foaming action as the acid from the vinegar, and the bases in the ash react. If you add vinegar until the bubbling stops, or there is a sour flavor to the liquid, you have completely neutralized any lye or carbonates in the resulting solution. Just as a matter of record, I prefer V8 to Gatorade. More potassium, which should also be present in ash, and the other key electrolyte essential in reducing cramps after exercise.
Can also get Chinese Prickly Ash online or at Asian markets. Used to add flavor to chili sauces it is a small shrub who's wood is burned down to a fine white ash and added like any other spice.
Fun fact: strontium is used nowadays in medicine for treating osteoporosis, which is a condition that makes bones porous (the name of the condition says it) and brittle, which can result in fractures from even the slightest force applied.
@@TastingHistory I did fall asleep. Watched the video, went to greet the Sabbath and came back to bed and immediately fell asleep. Went out like a light. Had a long day in the kitchen. Made "Burekas", a savory pastry and a Salmon quiche.
@@andrewsuryali8540Yeah, and pretty sure Attapulgite, the alternative to Activated Carbon to help with Diarrhea and Food Poisoning, is one type of "edible clay"
Great video as usual! Commodus is a super fascinating emperor, but I was sad to see my favourite gladiator get missed off the list because he has such a fun story. Vatinius was a gladiator who played the "heel" sort of role - the crowds loved to hate him, and he played up to it. He even managed to get the aediles to pass an edict saying that if they were going to throw things at him during his matches, they must only throw fruit. Around the same time as this edict was passed, a legal expert named Cascellius was asked for unrelated reasons whether a pinecone counted as a fruit. Cascellius quipped "If you're going to throw it at Vatinius, it's a fruit".
Mixed in the right proportions, the lye from ashes and the vinegar from posca would cancel each other out and make the drink both safe and mild. You might not have any exact numbers to go on, but I'm betting the ones mixing the drinks used some pretty exact ratios.
Can i just say this channel is quite possibly going to be one of the greatest assets available to culinary historians one day discovered it a few weeks ago and am loving the content and the style. Salut.
Ash is perfectly safe to eat. It’s just carbon. Now, depending on what chemicals are burning with the fuel source it may have residuals so only clean dry wood or plant matter should be used for that kinda thing. You basically eat ash when have damn good barbecue with a bark/charred exterior.
It´s more than carbon, in fact, white ash does contain almost no carbon at all, it´s mostly light metal oxides and carbonates like potassium carbonate, which is why it is used to make soap from fat. On the other hand, that explains why it is a perfect ingredient for a refreshing drink, as it adds the valuable electrolytes without lending the salty taste of, like, salt. Also, only using salt would be dangerous, as you sweat out sodium and potassium, and if you only replace sodium, the balance tilts and you can get heart problems. Not what you want in the arena.
A good amount of ash is actually inorganic matter like potassium which when the wood burns turns into potassium hydroxide, a caustic base. That's why ash has historically been used to make soap, as basic chemicals turn fats into a salt version of fatty acids, aka soap.
The ash itself is not the issue. However, ash mixed into water is an old way of making lye. I would imagine if you don't add enough vinegar and water to the drink that you will be drinking a good alkali drain cleaner.
So, a lot of comments and I am perfectly content to be lost amid the mob, however I am very much hopeful for another episode of American Indigenous peoples. Tamales are great, we still eat them, but for the month of Indigenous People's day, it would be really cool to see a recipe from the Hopi or Iroquois or Sioux or any tribe, really. Being from the south, I am more familiar with three sisters soup kind of stuff. I'll gladly learn of any other cuisines still served today. Because honestly, at least here where I live, a lot of the recipes have evolved with the people and we still eat them. Kinda like the tamales.
I loved the "Oup no there it is!" You were so apprehensive before you tasted it and looked so relived you couldn't make out anything horrible from the ash, then it hit. I am glad you are brave enough to try all these wonderful recipes for us. Thank you!
This might be my favorite episode of yours, lol. I not only loved your use of gladiatrix and gladiatrices, but also the fact that you seemed horrified by this drink the entire time and then at the end it turned out to be actually refreshing XD
I believe they may have actually been onto something with this. When you add ad something basic like wood ash to vinegar you get a neutralisation reaction and the formation of probably a lot of calcium, potassium and strontium salts. Meaning it very well may be an early type of electrolyte drink.
Your fans are so smart and witty that I hesitate to comment because I certainly can’t compete but I am definitely a fan and I enjoy every episode. I learn, I laugh and come back for more 😁
Posca it's got electrolytes! It's what gladiators crave! Krombopulous Flamma: I have no desire for freedom. I'll fight in any game, anywhere. Animal games. Triumph games. Doesn't matter, I just love fighting.
On the topic of ash. I remember growing up and the struggle was finding grass that wasn't treated with pesticide, to feed pets. I failed once and never tried again. You never know what's in something, even if it's on your own property. Of course, if you have your own ranch it's a different story, but if you're an urbanite/suburbanite/one-step-divorced-from-that, there is a struggle.
I love his quote "watch me try not to poison myself"! His entertaining skills are just great, and he gets better with every episode! No matter if he recreates something to eat or to drink, he's just absolutely entertaining!!
Great episode ... and it just hit me that the icon buttons for "like" and "dislike" are really appropriate for this week's two episodes. Thumbs up from me!
Vinegar doesnt give any electrolytes. It allows electrolytes from ash to dissolve. You probably should keep ash in the drink for as long as possible and separate it hust before drinking.
i wanted to be like, "oh, the acid from the vinegar should neutralize the alkali of the ash" but literally everyone else has said that so I GUESS I'M COMMENTING FOR THE ALGORITHM NOW hahahaha
In Chinese cooking they use "prickly ash" quite often in chili sauces. It's a small shrub which is burned down to a fine white ash then added just like any other spice. You can buy bags of it online under the name Chinese prickly ash.
"After a long day of training or a fight in the Colosseum a Roman gladiator might need something to kind of refresh themselves" -Yes, something like a blood transfusion! 🩸🩸🩸
As a native Arizonan, I am super proud of you for being such a positive representation of our state. That being said, you are brave as hell for this drink. (And I love the Pokemon guests in the background of each of your videos. Well done, sir
Vinegar is acidic, plant ash contains Potassium Hydroxide, which is a base. So the vinegar gets neutralized, so with the vinegar made from winegrapes, you theoretically should get a cheap grape juice, especially with the honey.
Just a quick note from a biologist with a knack for science history... the Lye of Ash would tend to indicate that you wash the ash, and use the water. The dissolved salts are what provide the electrolytes, and the vinegar neutralizes it. If you add the ash directly to the wine vinegar, then the particulate will act as a flocculant, and drop any material out of the vinegar (think old school natural wine vinegar which is basically just spoiled wine... etc etc) and the acid, plus the base of the ash, would give a slight fizz. Then dilute with your water and honey, and you'll probably wind up with a much more pleasant, less smoky version of the beverage. I really dig your episodes. I tend to watch every few weeks and binge a few episodes at a time. *high five* and *random internet stranger hugs*. Keep up the awesome work my dude.
Fun fact! The reason it specified pairs, was because gladiators, and Roman warriors in general, were "fighting pairs". Meaning that they were lovers, the philosophy was that they'd fight harder to protect their lover, compared to when they were fighting individually
@@jonesnori Actually it was! Ancient Greece was NOTORIOUSLY gay, same with ancient Rome. Actually part if the reason why olive oil was such a huge commodity in ancient Greece
Watching Max's thoughts about ash was funny. I wonder what he would think of the final dish of the feast before Yom Kippur---just as the sun is nearing the horizon, after a filling meal in festal form, sit upon the floor before the fire (these days often the kitchen floor in front of the oven) and taking an egg boiled hard dipping it well into ashes from said fire (wood ash) and partake of the Yom Kippur meal, that our last taste should be bitter rather than sweet as we properly afflict our bodies for the Solemn Shabbat (Sabbath).
This actually makes sense. Endurance athletes will often eat pickles or even drink pickle juice. Now while not ash, there is a sulfur taste in pickle juice.
I love every episode whether it be food or drink. Early in each episode I call my son it to identify the pokemon...whether I know it or not. Sometimes he sticks around, but usually he just tells me why the pokemon suits the episode title. I admit I'm mostly familiar with the original series.
THIS is very similar to a drink many years later that was made and brought out to fields to serve the workers. Honey, water, apple Cider vinegar and ginger. It was called Farmers Punch, basically a farmers Gatorade. I've made it and its actually pretty good. Very refreshing.
If you dilute it enough, vinegar is not only drinkable, but refreshing! Drinking vinegars are a thing in California; switchels and even lemonades are variations on drinking vinegars! After all, they are basically an edible acid (vinegar or lemon juice), fruit flavor (the fruit that the vinegar was made with, or the lemon rind), something sweet (honey or sugar), and lots of water.
Culinary ash is safe to eat in large quantities - Native Americans and Central Americans ate tons of it because it makes corn and beans more digestible (niximalization) and also adds lots of calcium. The only thing you need to worry about is what other toxic crap might accidentally be in what you're burning, so don't use random wood from condemned houses, or paper. They used to use juniper, but onions or leeks actually work great (cook for a long time and mortar them) and make a very nice, fine, safe ash for adding to your cheese, which was another popular use. So eat as much as you want, but yeah, it only takes a little per serving. I now think this might be an interesting way to add smokiness to whiskey though, have to try it!
When i was running track and cross country, we used to drink a mixture called "hunniger." Which was watered down vinegar and honey. Honey for the simple sugars (AKA quick energy), and vinegar to help counteract the sweetness and to help with electrolytes. This was back before gatoraid was a universal name for sports drinks. Not sure of the timeline (this was back in the early 80's), but improvised sports drinks were definitely a thing.
My friend who does competative dance always mixes her own "sports drink" with salt & sugar and I wonder if she adds something acidic too. When it's very hot (I have issues regulating heat so I do not enjoy) I like to mix a lemon and lime juice with both salt and sugar for a lemonade. Is one of the few things that make me feel better. Wonder what factor the acidity has in that.
@@snazzypazzy The thing that made Gatorade work so well, is that scientists analyzed what athletes sweated out. And set about adding those things back. Which works amazingly well. NaCl is not the only thing you sweat out. Potassium chloride is also lost, which is required for optimal muscle performance. So, Gatorade or other sports drinks are really good at providing what your body needs and loses during physical exertion. You can make home made drinks, but they may not be as good as the commercially available stuff.
@@jeromethiel4323 The science behind that is not really strong. The whole drinking water untill you pee every hour thing is one of the strongest medical myths out there. And most people don't need sports drinks. Once you get to really intensive excercise it's a little different but generally we just need to drink and eat what and when our bodies tell us too.
You got my like for "Gladiatorade" alone. Everything else was just a bonus. Fascinating as usual. Lunch is on me if you're ever in town. cheers from sunny Vienna, Scott
19 likes zero views, seems like TH-cam did a little too much drinking history 🤔 p.s massive fan Max, the series has really stayed interesting and entertaining!
@@TastingHistory I've always wondered, good to know. First teaching history & culinary, now TH-cam function, just waiting for next up: Aviation with Max Miller 😂
Dying at 30 doing what you loved while being cheered is smarter than living a long and boring life. It takes balls to go out doing what you are passionate about and he probably didn't regret it.
Where did you get that little pitcher? It looks like what you would call a "gong dao bei" in Chinese tea, aka a "fairness cup" so everyone gets the same strength tea.
This is essentially a form of Switchel. Sort like a lemonade (an acid mixed with sugar/sweetener). The ash is an interesting addition as wood ash tends to be alkaline which would counteract some of the acid of the vinegar in addition to adding a smokiness. Potash which can be extracted from some wood ash can be used as early leavening in bread and I wonder if it could impart a bit of carbonation to a beverage? Ashes in general were also useful for making soap and cleaning cookware.
Love the combination of "Not bad" with "Nope, not gonna finish this." It gives such a feeling of "Wow, I really thought it was gonna be much, much worse."
It's like the Kombucha girl meme.
I would like to think immediately after cutting, he downed the glass, put the training montage from "Spartacus" on his TV, and started lifting weights.
Guy didn't even take a real sip
Well, he didn't aff the lye
@@Alex-fv2qs the ash is the lye, lye used to just mean the ash from the hearth that you could use as a base
That statistic about left handed fighters is insightful. Apparently the Romans were very into keeping detailed statistics of their games, much like modern sports fans.
in the far future the only archeological remains will be MOBA rankings?
@@ernstschmidt4725 and excessively detailed baseball statistics that will make future historians think it was more important than politics
Interestingly, the Latin word for left is male-as in malevolent, malicious, maladjusted, malfeasance, etc. The left of everything gets a bad rap, no doubt because of this ancient word.
@@colleenuchiyama4916 In Italian the word left is sinistra which is cognate with sinister.
Generally still tastes like piss....
“Kick back with a soda”
Soda is actually one of the names for an alkali which is made mixing ashes with water then boiling the water off.
That’s one hell of a pun.
"Soda" can also be simply another word for "lye" or "alkaline substance".
I totally didn't think about this! Awesome.
@@SimuLord oops, yeah. You’re right, the process for production from a historical standpoint is the same, though. Fixed.
@@SimuLord Here in Brazil we call the commercial grade Sodium Hidroxide (NaOH) "soda" too.
no need to be caustic (~_^)
Spent fifteen years living in remote areas of Alaska, and for the six months of the year cooked on a campfire. Which means lots of ash and spruce needles in one's food. Every time I've been to a dentist they always were amazed at how hard my teeth and surrounding bone was. The last said, "That's weird. Usually I stick that drill right through a person's teeth, but yours were so hard that it took a lot of time to drill into them." Which I had noticed. So the gladiators and probably soldiers at a lot of ash, intentionally or otherwise, and it made for very hard bones, which is handy in hacking people to death and not getting hacked to death oneself.
my dad is from a small town in Mexico and they use the burt tortilla as toothpaste..my dad has super strong teeth too
What's the science behind this? I geniunely want to know
@@jasonbrody8957 Calcium isnt destroyed by heat, and so builds up in what is essentially an extract of burnt plants. Not 100% on that, but thats what popped in my head.
@@LANeverSleeps It does make sense though. Thanks
On the chemistry side, most ash does resolve to a base(lye, KOH, and similar) on reacting in water. However adding the vinegar(acid) will neutralize this, creating vitamin salts (in this case mostly acetates) allowing mineral supplement. Now, not necessarily a vitamin pill, but similar, as most vitamin pills carry vitamin c(ascorbic acid) and citric acid, with the minerals, which makes them some more soluble, which aids them being digested instead of just passing through.
OMG chemicals!!!!
Isn't ash carcinogenic though? I know nothing about chemistry lol
It depends on the ash, really. but most ash has less than what was burned, because most carcinogens burn up. Your radioactive rare earths that cause cancer by radiation, can stay, but if you already had a lot of them, being around what has them was already an issue.
@@firmanimad if you "know nothing about chemistry" then don't say "Isn't ash carcinogenic".
@@RonJohn63 Yeah, they didn't know anything about chemistry, so they clarified what they had heard by asking "isn't ash carcinogenic?" Asking questions is how you learn. Don't understand what's the problem here.
I've known about "Gladiator Gatorade" for many years and was always curious to try it. When I first heard about this my understanding was they used a high quality Apple Cider Vinegar and when mixed with Ash and Honey gave it almost a lemonade like refreshing taste to it. The Ash was apparently made using a variety specific mixes of herbs, teas, and other plants many of which came from the different region of the worlds the gladiators themselves hailed from. The exact recipe and list of "herbs and spices" that were turned into ash was never discovered and its possible some of the plants are extinct as of today or thanks to genetic modification the plants today would be very different to what they used back then. I still want to grow a variety of "11 herbs and spices" turn them to ash and create my own Gladiator Lemonade.
That makes a lot of sense, except that I've never heard of people taking herbs and spices as ash, rather than as, essentially, tea. That said, it might be that they wanted to impart fire itself into the drink for spiritual or mythic purposes. Even today, we call sports drinks "Energy Drinks," and the vital expression of pure energy is fire. Heck, for all I know, burning the herbs actually does imbue some value to them. Either way, tough men like to play with fire.
I believe it was mostly the leaves of many plants and teas that were turned to ash. And turning them into ash meant turning them into a compound that was more densely compact with minerals like calcium magnesium and zinc. Imagine trying to eat 500g of spinach raw in a salad vs how much 500g cooked down and concentrated would be to eat. Using ash meant they were capable of breaking down hundreds of grams of minerals into one drink rather than needing to drink hundreds of gallons of tea to achieve the same affect.
@@trublgrl I've never associated my pyromania with being "tough" but I'll take the compliment anyway. lmao
Gladiator lemonade...sounds like a good marketing for a new drink...Gladiade anyone?
@@andydaniels3029 "Gladiade" sounds super happy! 😁
My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my Riptide Rvsh, in this life or the next.
Epic!
I am gladiator, king of electrolytes.
A+
My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius Decimus Maximus Decimus Meridius...
@@hellbound_psyker It has what plants crave.
Which takes on a whole new meaning considering it's also made of plants...
"So what's your new Gatoraid flavour?"
"Ashes."
"Well, still better than Arctic Blitz."
So true!
Dirt tastes better than Arctic Blitz.
@@chrisnemec5644 I never drank much gatorade in my life so I don't know anything about it but Arctic Blitz sounds much better than even beer...so I'd much rather prefer Arctic Blitz than dirt or beer
@@iSyriux No, believe me, it's not. Artic Blitz tastes like cleaning products. And, I've drank cleaning products before, so I'd know.
@@iSyriux Trust me, dirt tastes better.
Maximus: "ARE YOU NOT HYDRATED?"
🤣
Max: Drinking History episodes will be little bonus ones, with fun tidbits of history, on weekends. Not as long as Tasting History episodes.
Me: *expects 3-6 minute easy-to-edit snippets where Max talks to us while making and trying a drink and am happy about that*
Also Max: *cranks out thoroughly well-researched, engaging, entertaining, 10+ minute content, full of graphics, image inserts, and excellent references.
Well thank you. Doing ma best :)
@@TastingHistory seriously, these are great!
I don't even drink! I enjoy these for the history and humor very much.
On the ash: It's worth remembering that if you like wood-fired pizza you probably ingested a lot of ash already. Avoid unknown ash, of course, same thing as a ash from poisonous stuff. So long you are not using poison ivy ash or something like that, or using truly tremendous amounts of ash, you'll probably be fine, specially if it's not something you eat every day.
Same if you've ever roasted anything over an open fire. Generally nothing to worry about.
Yeah, and it also depends how you use it. Mixing ash with water creates lye, which can be rather caustic and not good for you in larger quantities or with a very high pH in smaller quantities. The adition of the vinegar should have helped with this, lowering the pH. But we humans eat acidic foods all the time and I'm sure plenty of foods are somewhat basic (in the chemical sense) too.
@@snazzypazzy Most basic I can think of is tofu, but it's still 7 pH so basically(hehe) neutral.
@@snazzypazzy bases are generally bitter and poisonous. Think soap, bleach, and ammonia. Hominy can get as basic as 8 on the pH scale, but it is literally corn soaked in lye to make it more digestible. Food chemistry is pretty neat
@@snazzypazzy i thought lye is a part of ash. Doesn't ash plus water make thin clay?
"I'm not going to be drinking lye because, well, that's stupid"
That sounds like quitter talk, Max 🤣
DRINK. THE. LYE.
"No, drink da bleach"
Well...depending on the amounts, mixing acetic acid (C2H4O2) and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) will produce Sodium Acetate (NaC2H3O2) and Water (H2O). Sodium Acetate is a food additive (acidity regulator), and water is good. So if you get the right amounts it's harmless. Also, if you start with Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) instead of Sodium Hydroxide (they are both called lye sometimes interchangeably), you still end up with harmless products: Potassium Acetate (KC2O3) is a preservative and a bioavailable form of potassium in the body, and again...water. The big issue is that both of these reactions will generate lots of heat (probably enough to crack or shatter untreated glassware). Also, while spilling vinegar on yourself is easily fixed with some water...spilling lye on yourself is very uncomfortable and can leave burns if not quickly attended (oddly enough...with vinegar).
@@HellecticMojo "Bleach is healthy, its mostly water. And we're mostly water. Therefore, we are bleach."
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
Vinegar should neutralize the ash. I'd be surprised if anyone managed to make something with a pH higher than 9 because no one's going to want to put *that* much ash in their drink, but you can test it with a litmus strip if you are worried. When mixing this up you should make sure it's stopped fizzing before you drink it, though.
Is the way he mixed the ash directly into the acidic liquid a problem? I feel like the ash should have been made into a lye solution before adding any acids.
The fizzing is also going to create gas and form burps. But hey, that's what the customers want.
@@_skysick_ I'd be more worried if these were larger quantities. As it is... ehhh, it's probably OK.
@@_skysick_ It really shouldn't matter as acetic acid is a weak acid.
The best approach would probably be to titrate your vinegar with pure soda to establish its precise concentration, then dissolve previously weighted ash in water, filter and boil off the water and then weight and titrate the hydroxides with the already known concentracion of acetic acid in you vinegar using indicator paper. It shold not be too hard, it is lime what you did during some of your chemistry classes in school, but after that you should be able to calculate and create a perfect mixture with almost perfectly neutral or very slightly acetic reaction that after letting all the insluable jusk settle would indeed be a crude but still reasonably OK food supplement you can combine with any drink. Just don't take too much of it at a time or you may end up occupying your porcelain throne for the rest of the day.
In Balinese cuisine, the "smoky/charred" aftertaste is actually a highly sought-after attribute (usually either through charring the food slightly or adding shredded charred coconut to the dish), and this quality is known as .
People should value charcoal and bitterness more, I'm the kind of weirdo who burns sausages on purpose and enjoys IPAs
@@bluegum6438 then you have to try some aged barley wines*, especially if you can get one with some whisky malt.
Just don't brew it yourself, makes neighbours call cops on you from the burned rubber aromas (they're not present in the finished product).
*It's actually a beer
This word looks so cool, is the language hard to learn for foreigners who don't speak any polynesian languages? (I'd learn some Malay/Indonesian first idk if that helps)
@@Sk0lzky Some experience with Malay/Indonesian would help, as it shares a lot of grammar/vocab details with either language. The most difficult thing with Balinese is that it also has an extremely elaborate honorific system - not as bad as the related language Javanese, but makes both Japanese keigo and Korean jondaenmal/banmal seem like child's play, as you can show both detailed honorifics and some really crass expletives - even in the same utterance if need be!
@@SiKedek I've seen a video regarding expletives and I love it lmao
The complex honorific system sounds really interesting, even if I don't end up trying to learn the language I'll definitely dive into this aspect to see how tough it is :)
I just once want to see someone jokingly say, "No, it's not bad," and then immediately slump over. Then a hard jump cut where the person is wearing different clothes. Continuing on.
*taking notes*
They did that joke in the Gladiator movie, I think, only it was with the puls.
I guess it's a good thing we lost the Roman record about this drink that said "It's got electrolytes. It's what plants crave!"
Never thought I'd see an Idiocracy reference here 😂
LOL yeah, they craved lead instead.
Mmmmmmmm, electrolytes. If plants crave it, then I crave it too.
Do you even know what electrolytes ARE?
@@johnr797 lol yeah.
Electrolyted are electrolytes. Don't use big brain-hurting words, please.
.... I'm joking. If you didn't notice, the quote he made is from a movie.
Electrolytes are basically salts (more commonly table salt, but some others can work as such).
The vinegar and lye are going to neutralize depending on the quantities of each, so it should be fairly safe. Also, their lye is not as strong as our highly refined lye.
It should still work out to be acidic, which is fine because we drink lots of acidic stuff (like orange juice and soda).
I didn’t even think of that
If you hit the right ratio, I think you might form a slightly acidic acetate buffer system, which is just fine for a refreshing beverage.
@Mr Guy - lye is in a lot of our food and beverages - I was going to suggest that lye water could have been used instead of the ash. It's sold as a food ingredient at Chinese markets. Lye makes olives edible, pretzels brown, and so on and so on. You drink a brown soda, yeah, that has lye in it. Dry ramen noodles have lye in them.
Don't consume industrial lye. Only use it at safe or pre-processed culinary ingredient levels.
@@liamfisher917 diluted lye would miss the whole the point of the ash though. The point of adding ash is not to make the drink basic, but to add vitamins and minerals from the plant which was burnt. Just adding lye wouldn’t really do much in that regard
Of course gladiators drank a form of Gatorade that had ashes in it. They really were the Florida Men of ancient Rome.
🤣 no comment, but yeah
@@TastingHistory You missed your chance coining the term "Gladiatorade", smh😞
@@SeymoreSparda I almost spit out my drink
@@ryanmarquez3556 Just change the noun with another noun. A tad longer to roll off the tongue, but hey it works. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@SeymoreSparda H2O!
Just so you know, as a soapmaker and Cook who works with Lye,, you would have to consume a AWFUL LOT of ash before it would hurt you. Like Several Pounds at one sitting, of culinary ash. Tummy ache, because you would have a hard time digesting it, but otherwise, I'm fairly certain you'd be fine.
People eat charcoal for an upset stomach, and it's just a step away from ash, so.... that makes sense.
@@rcrawford42 Activated Charcoal but yes.
@@clothar23 Or when you burn your bread in the toaster...oof.
The gladiators were counted in pairs because that’s how they fought. A gladiator fighting himself would look pretty silly, plus he’d probably lose all his toes.
Also can't train him can you
This actually makes sense! The plant ash has a lot of electrolytes, the vinegar will neutralize the caustic alkalinity of the ash, and the honey has sugar that will make the electrolyte absorption more effective 🙂
Nifty, those romans
Missed the golden opportunity (or ‘occasionem auream’, if you will) to call the video ‘Gladiatorade’.
lmaoo, gladiatorade, love it
😂🤣😂🖖
Huh. Didn't see this post before I said the same thing. It certainly works though!
Umm, that's what it's called now.
Not sure if there is historical recipes, but would love to see something about the Hopi cuisine you mentioned. Was pretty much taken aback by the "culinary ash" thing. A great episode as always Max! Thanks for doing what you do
It'd be cool to see him making some piki on a stone slab.
@@lasagnasux4934 never heard of that before, maybe I will try myself to have some of it !
"Ash" is a good source of lye, which in turn unlocks the nutrients in maize (corn), it's called nixtamalization. He did cover that in another video, but basically, if you don't wash your corn with lye water, and you eat that for your main grain, you will get sick and die from a lack of niacin.
Ash is still actively used in making Hominy in some parts of the South.
The tasting history vid on nixtamalization: th-cam.com/video/NPxjQetKPoo/w-d-xo.html
In the Mediterranian regions there are many recipes for cheeses dusted in a coat of ashes, I know of prevalence in France and Italy at least (I never tried one to my knowledge, so can not give a statement about taste).
The reference to spagyric preparations (Adrian Aslund) is valid, I know it or a similar method of preparation under the name WALA. It equals in German Wärme/ Asche/ Licht/ Asche (heat/ ash/ light/ ash), which stands for the stages of the process. I am not educated in homoeopathia, so again - no further enlightenment.
Ash and earth eating is a valid method to enhance the intake of minerals (= geophagia, I know of this regarding elephants and also humans in Africa).
According to the terroir the soil has different characteristics regarding salinity, acidity, alkaline quality (this applies also for crops grown on the respective soil, especially wine! hence my use of "terroir"), so to incorporate concentrated and densified nutrigens as ash in your diet can really make sense.
Like Ivan Ambition from another comment, I also would recommend to first let the reaction exhaust itself before the next stage, because the outcome will be much more predictable as the reaction stops, and you can work with a stable ingredient for the next step (acids and bases can be really dangerous working material, caution is advisable in any setting IMO!).
Gladiatorade. Here's a bit of trivia: The first person to taste Gatorade did not like it and declared, "This stuff tastes like piss!" leading one to wonder, "How does he know?"
Taste is 80% smell.If you smelled something odds are you already know what it tastes like.
He was right, and I'm glad he said it
If you look at what's in Gatorade and compare it to urine.......
The creators full well admitted to checking and agreeing that it did indeed
+
Ash is also used in the preparation of certain cheeses. Morbier for example has a layer of ash in the middle and it's perfectly safe to eat.
I had some ash cheese from Quebec once, it was delicious but I felt like I could still feel the ash in my mouth for the rest of the day which wasn't too pleasant.
In greece we use ash in some traditional baked goods. We first turn it into ash-water, called alisiva. It makes the texture kinda more velvety.
An interesting episode. Ash is essentially just the soil-born minerals a plant takes up from the roots. The bulk of the plant is carbohdyrates, that is water and CO2 fixed through photosynthesis. Lye is sodium hydroxide (sodium from the soil and hydroxide from a partial reaction of carbohydrates while burning that fixes an OH- with a Na+. Ash is pretty rich in lye, and lye leached from ash was and still is employed in the manufacture of soap. Calcium and sodium carbonate are also present. Adding vinegar should result in a foaming action as the acid from the vinegar, and the bases in the ash react. If you add vinegar until the bubbling stops, or there is a sour flavor to the liquid, you have completely neutralized any lye or carbonates in the resulting solution. Just as a matter of record, I prefer V8 to Gatorade. More potassium, which should also be present in ash, and the other key electrolyte essential in reducing cramps after exercise.
TIL there is such a thing as culinary ash. The wonders of this channel never cease.
Can also get Chinese Prickly Ash online or at Asian markets. Used to add flavor to chili sauces it is a small shrub who's wood is burned down to a fine white ash and added like any other spice.
Fun fact: strontium is used nowadays in medicine for treating osteoporosis, which is a condition that makes bones porous (the name of the condition says it) and brittle, which can result in fractures from even the slightest force applied.
"Sure Jan." :D :D :D
But seriously - you mentioned Hopi cooking with ash and now I am curious: any chance of an episode on that?
Yay, just finished cooking and now to unwind with Max.
What did you cook?
Man gets a reply from THE Maximus Millerius and doesn't respond. The absolute boldness of this man.
@@phoenixantis6994 🤣 maybe he fell asleep
@@TastingHistory It is what it is 🤷♂️
@@TastingHistory I did fall asleep. Watched the video, went to greet the Sabbath and came back to bed and immediately fell asleep. Went out like a light.
Had a long day in the kitchen. Made "Burekas", a savory pastry and a Salmon quiche.
Wait, culinary ash? You need to do an episode on something featuring Hopi cooking!
That's actually fairly normal. There's this thing called edible clay.
@@andrewsuryali8540Yeah, and pretty sure Attapulgite, the alternative to Activated Carbon to help with Diarrhea and Food Poisoning, is one type of "edible clay"
I'd love that! I'm Lakota and we use it too. I make it in my oven sometimes, from juniper berries.
Great video as usual! Commodus is a super fascinating emperor, but I was sad to see my favourite gladiator get missed off the list because he has such a fun story. Vatinius was a gladiator who played the "heel" sort of role - the crowds loved to hate him, and he played up to it. He even managed to get the aediles to pass an edict saying that if they were going to throw things at him during his matches, they must only throw fruit. Around the same time as this edict was passed, a legal expert named Cascellius was asked for unrelated reasons whether a pinecone counted as a fruit. Cascellius quipped "If you're going to throw it at Vatinius, it's a fruit".
Of course, bontanically speaking, only flowering plants bear fruits, and pines are gymnosperms.
Mixed in the right proportions, the lye from ashes and the vinegar from posca would cancel each other out and make the drink both safe and mild. You might not have any exact numbers to go on, but I'm betting the ones mixing the drinks used some pretty exact ratios.
Can i just say this channel is quite possibly going to be one of the greatest assets available to culinary historians one day discovered it a few weeks ago and am loving the content and the style. Salut.
Max:“I’m going to switch to water right now though.”
Perfectly Good Wine: “I’m right here!”
Ash is perfectly safe to eat. It’s just carbon. Now, depending on what chemicals are burning with the fuel source it may have residuals so only clean dry wood or plant matter should be used for that kinda thing.
You basically eat ash when have damn good barbecue with a bark/charred exterior.
You create bad stuff with ash. I believe there called PFA.
I mean the dose makes the poison. The correct word is PUFA.
It´s more than carbon, in fact, white ash does contain almost no carbon at all, it´s mostly light metal oxides and carbonates like potassium carbonate, which is why it is used to make soap from fat.
On the other hand, that explains why it is a perfect ingredient for a refreshing drink, as it adds the valuable electrolytes without lending the salty taste of, like, salt.
Also, only using salt would be dangerous, as you sweat out sodium and potassium, and if you only replace sodium, the balance tilts and you can get heart problems. Not what you want in the arena.
A good amount of ash is actually inorganic matter like potassium which when the wood burns turns into potassium hydroxide, a caustic base. That's why ash has historically been used to make soap, as basic chemicals turn fats into a salt version of fatty acids, aka soap.
The ash itself is not the issue. However, ash mixed into water is an old way of making lye. I would imagine if you don't add enough vinegar and water to the drink that you will be drinking a good alkali drain cleaner.
So, a lot of comments and I am perfectly content to be lost amid the mob, however I am very much hopeful for another episode of American Indigenous peoples. Tamales are great, we still eat them, but for the month of Indigenous People's day, it would be really cool to see a recipe from the Hopi or Iroquois or Sioux or any tribe, really. Being from the south, I am more familiar with three sisters soup kind of stuff. I'll gladly learn of any other cuisines still served today. Because honestly, at least here where I live, a lot of the recipes have evolved with the people and we still eat them. Kinda like the tamales.
Indian tacos! Max meets frybread!
Hominy comes to mind, and would use that ash!
There is something on max's face that makes me want to hug him but also not make him angry because he will rip my head apart from my shoulders
🤣 I would never.
He seems like a teddy bear to me. ☺
@@amandataylor682 yes - but he's José's teddy bear, and José may not be in the mood to share.
@@MikeEvansUK 😂and I'm ok with that. Doesn't make him look less like a teddy bear. I love this show. ☺
The ash and vinegar are base and acid, so counteract each other and make a salt (that is nothing like table salt). If it is too acid add more ash.
And if it doesn’t taste acidic at all, add more vinegar to be safe.
How would i get the ash anything Pacific
@@bobbylad8920 best option is to buy “food grade ash”
I feel bad drinking my premium tea when Max is drinking ash 😅😂
🤣 throw it in my face why don’t ya
@@TastingHistory I'm sorryyyy 😂😂
Was it a smoked tea? Could be pretty much the same if it was.
@@rcrawford42 Lol, no, it wasn't 😅
Max, you're a pioneering experimental archaeologist right up there with Lars Anderson, John Townsend, and Tod Cutler.
oh great, just in time before my swordfight, thanks Max!
Good luck and my the odds he ever in your favor.
Really smart decision to keep this series on the same channel instead of splitting up your viewer base between 2 channels. Love the show :)
I wonder if the gladiators pour this on the Emperor after winning their games. They're going to DisneyLand!
I loved the "Oup no there it is!" You were so apprehensive before you tasted it and looked so relived you couldn't make out anything horrible from the ash, then it hit. I am glad you are brave enough to try all these wonderful recipes for us. Thank you!
"Watch me try not to poison myself while you kick back with a soda."
It's a little early for a soda.
Soda = potash maybe? LOL
It’s a little early for poisoning, too. XD
This might be my favorite episode of yours, lol. I not only loved your use of gladiatrix and gladiatrices, but also the fact that you seemed horrified by this drink the entire time and then at the end it turned out to be actually refreshing XD
I believe they may have actually been onto something with this. When you add ad something basic like wood ash to vinegar you get a neutralisation reaction and the formation of probably a lot of calcium, potassium and strontium salts. Meaning it very well may be an early type of electrolyte drink.
Your fans are so smart and witty that I hesitate to comment because I certainly can’t compete but I am definitely a fan and I enjoy every episode. I learn, I laugh and come back for more 😁
Go ahead and comment, supposedly it helps the video in the algorithm 😆
" Am I going to finish this?......No No I am not." timing! I laughed out loud. muah! Ty for such an amazing show.
Posca it's got electrolytes! It's what gladiators crave!
Krombopulous Flamma: I have no desire for freedom. I'll fight in any game, anywhere. Animal games. Triumph games. Doesn't matter, I just love fighting.
He loved the fame, like a Hollywood star past their prime. It was a bit more deadly back then, that's all.
"I'm not going to be drinking lye because, well, that's stupid." That made me laugh and, you're right of course. :)
Eh, kids today... Back in my days we'd drink all the lye we could get a hold of!
On the topic of ash. I remember growing up and the struggle was finding grass that wasn't treated with pesticide, to feed pets. I failed once and never tried again. You never know what's in something, even if it's on your own property.
Of course, if you have your own ranch it's a different story, but if you're an urbanite/suburbanite/one-step-divorced-from-that, there is a struggle.
I'll bet that's why pet supply places sell grass seed and grass in little planters.
Today's Pokémon: Hitmontop - a fighting type. The handstand Pokémon.
A shitty and hard to get mon.Gen 2 was full of useless crap.
Lugia
@@naamadossantossilva4736 pq.
Nice to reference Pokemon to Gladiators!
@@naamadossantossilva4736 bad take hitmontop is a goated mon
I love his quote "watch me try not to poison myself"! His entertaining skills are just great, and he gets better with every episode! No matter if he recreates something to eat or to drink, he's just absolutely entertaining!!
Great episode ... and it just hit me that the icon buttons for "like" and "dislike" are really appropriate for this week's two episodes. Thumbs up from me!
Vinegar doesnt give any electrolytes. It allows electrolytes from ash to dissolve. You probably should keep ash in the drink for as long as possible and separate it hust before drinking.
That was a great episode. Even a simple recipe like that can be interesting when given historical context.
This is literally the best channel on TH-cam rn. This dude is awesome. Thanks for the videos.
Oh shucks thank you
Salve! Always happy to see Roman recipes.
i wanted to be like, "oh, the acid from the vinegar should neutralize the alkali of the ash" but literally everyone else has said that so I GUESS I'M COMMENTING FOR THE ALGORITHM NOW hahahaha
In Chinese cooking they use "prickly ash" quite often in chili sauces. It's a small shrub which is burned down to a fine white ash then added just like any other spice. You can buy bags of it online under the name Chinese prickly ash.
That's not true tho, prickly ash is just a western name for huajiao
“New phone - who dis?!” Never heard that before. I love and can’t wait for a chance to use it.
"After a long day of training or a fight in the Colosseum a Roman gladiator might need something to kind of refresh themselves" -Yes, something like a blood transfusion! 🩸🩸🩸
As a native Arizonan, I am super proud of you for being such a positive representation of our state.
That being said, you are brave as hell for this drink.
(And I love the Pokemon guests in the background of each of your videos. Well done, sir
I knew nothing about gladiators so this was fun and educational 😃
We'll allow you to not drink the whole thing, Max..... "ARE WE NOT MERCIFUL?!?"
It's a pleasure to watch you two times a week!!! Wonderful work 👏.
It makes sense, you would be creating water soluble acetate salts of the hydroxides in the ash. This literally performs the same function as Gatorade.
Vinegar is acidic, plant ash contains Potassium Hydroxide, which is a base. So the vinegar gets neutralized, so with the vinegar made from winegrapes, you theoretically should get a cheap grape juice, especially with the honey.
8:50 "But umm... Yeah, not bad. Am i gonna finish this? No, no I am not". Love the unabashed honesty.
Electrolytes- it’s what Max craves. It’s in Gladiator Gatorade.
Just a quick note from a biologist with a knack for science history... the Lye of Ash would tend to indicate that you wash the ash, and use the water. The dissolved salts are what provide the electrolytes, and the vinegar neutralizes it. If you add the ash directly to the wine vinegar, then the particulate will act as a flocculant, and drop any material out of the vinegar (think old school natural wine vinegar which is basically just spoiled wine... etc etc) and the acid, plus the base of the ash, would give a slight fizz. Then dilute with your water and honey, and you'll probably wind up with a much more pleasant, less smoky version of the beverage.
I really dig your episodes. I tend to watch every few weeks and binge a few episodes at a time. *high five* and *random internet stranger hugs*. Keep up the awesome work my dude.
Talking about ashes brought "The big Lebowski" to my mind... Don't mess with ashes. Just don't. 😆
Can you believe I just watched that movie for the first time last month!
"This is our most modestly priced receptical..."
@@TastingHistory You're young... I saw it in theatres. Sigh.
Thank goodness for Pliny the Elder and his oversharing ways. He'd have been hell on Facebook.
Ah! My favorite cooking show !
Fun fact! The reason it specified pairs, was because gladiators, and Roman warriors in general, were "fighting pairs". Meaning that they were lovers, the philosophy was that they'd fight harder to protect their lover, compared to when they were fighting individually
I have heard of an army of lovers in a Greek context, but it was by no means the norm. I don't believe it was the norm in Rome, either.
@@jonesnori Actually it was! Ancient Greece was NOTORIOUSLY gay, same with ancient Rome. Actually part if the reason why olive oil was such a huge commodity in ancient Greece
Watching Max's thoughts about ash was funny. I wonder what he would think of the final dish of the feast before Yom Kippur---just as the sun is nearing the horizon, after a filling meal in festal form, sit upon the floor before the fire (these days often the kitchen floor in front of the oven) and taking an egg boiled hard dipping it well into ashes from said fire (wood ash) and partake of the Yom Kippur meal, that our last taste should be bitter rather than sweet as we properly afflict our bodies for the Solemn Shabbat (Sabbath).
“Stares in concern”… loved that!
Thank you for risking your gut for our education and entertainment. Seriously, you rock!
Taking one for the team.
This actually makes sense. Endurance athletes will often eat pickles or even drink pickle juice. Now while not ash, there is a sulfur taste in pickle juice.
Nothing makes me happier than seeing one of your notifications.
That’s a low bar. 😂
@@TastingHistory you're selling yourself short
I love every episode whether it be food or drink. Early in each episode I call my son it to identify the pokemon...whether I know it or not. Sometimes he sticks around, but usually he just tells me why the pokemon suits the episode title.
I admit I'm mostly familiar with the original series.
We do our best, doesn't always fit :)
Good morning Max & Jose! Hugs from Colorado. 🌞🌿💚 I’m about to head to Urgent Care instead of work this morning, so this was perfect timing. 🥴
Oh no! I hope you’re okay. Comment back to let us know you’re okay.
Ahhh! Good thoughts 🤞🏽🤞🏽
@@TastingHistory Thanks so much! 🥰 I will be okay. Doctors were lovely. 🙏❤️
Each and every single one of your episodes is fantastic! I love the format and the wonderful way you deliver everything, long may it continue!
Max: What are the chances of you dressing up in costume to match the period you're discussing. You as a gladiator would be a treat!
Well played, sir, well played.💪🏼
Agreed 👍
Can you imagine some of the comments? "That belt buckle is not in period for the belt you are wearing. It is 50 years off"
THIS is very similar to a drink many years later that was made and brought out to fields to serve the workers. Honey, water, apple Cider vinegar and ginger. It was called Farmers Punch, basically a farmers Gatorade. I've made it and its actually pretty good. Very refreshing.
Gotta say, Max doesn't look happy about having to drink vinegar 🤪🤣
Would you be? 🤣
@@TastingHistory No indeed! You did great! 👏
If you dilute it enough, vinegar is not only drinkable, but refreshing! Drinking vinegars are a thing in California; switchels and even lemonades are variations on drinking vinegars! After all, they are basically an edible acid (vinegar or lemon juice), fruit flavor (the fruit that the vinegar was made with, or the lemon rind), something sweet (honey or sugar), and lots of water.
Speaking from a region that sells pickle juice as a substitute for gatorade....vinegar is just a natural summer sip. 😕
Ash was important because its used for Nixtamalization of Maize in the SW! Learned that after going down a rabbit hole after your tamales video
Learning is fun :D
Gods, what a beautiful man.
Culinary ash is safe to eat in large quantities - Native Americans and Central Americans ate tons of it because it makes corn and beans more digestible (niximalization) and also adds lots of calcium. The only thing you need to worry about is what other toxic crap might accidentally be in what you're burning, so don't use random wood from condemned houses, or paper. They used to use juniper, but onions or leeks actually work great (cook for a long time and mortar them) and make a very nice, fine, safe ash for adding to your cheese, which was another popular use. So eat as much as you want, but yeah, it only takes a little per serving. I now think this might be an interesting way to add smokiness to whiskey though, have to try it!
When i was running track and cross country, we used to drink a mixture called "hunniger." Which was watered down vinegar and honey. Honey for the simple sugars (AKA quick energy), and vinegar to help counteract the sweetness and to help with electrolytes. This was back before gatoraid was a universal name for sports drinks. Not sure of the timeline (this was back in the early 80's), but improvised sports drinks were definitely a thing.
My friend who does competative dance always mixes her own "sports drink" with salt & sugar and I wonder if she adds something acidic too. When it's very hot (I have issues regulating heat so I do not enjoy) I like to mix a lemon and lime juice with both salt and sugar for a lemonade. Is one of the few things that make me feel better. Wonder what factor the acidity has in that.
@@snazzypazzy The thing that made Gatorade work so well, is that scientists analyzed what athletes sweated out. And set about adding those things back. Which works amazingly well.
NaCl is not the only thing you sweat out. Potassium chloride is also lost, which is required for optimal muscle performance.
So, Gatorade or other sports drinks are really good at providing what your body needs and loses during physical exertion.
You can make home made drinks, but they may not be as good as the commercially available stuff.
@@jeromethiel4323 The science behind that is not really strong. The whole drinking water untill you pee every hour thing is one of the strongest medical myths out there. And most people don't need sports drinks. Once you get to really intensive excercise it's a little different but generally we just need to drink and eat what and when our bodies tell us too.
You got my like for "Gladiatorade" alone. Everything else was just a bonus.
Fascinating as usual. Lunch is on me if you're ever in town.
cheers from sunny Vienna, Scott
19 likes zero views, seems like TH-cam did a little too much drinking history 🤔 p.s massive fan Max, the series has really stayed interesting and entertaining!
🤣 I just learned why this happens. TH-cam doesn’t count it as a view until you’re 30 seconds in.
@@TastingHistory And some of us hit like before we start, so we won't need to remember afterward.
@@TastingHistory I've always wondered, good to know. First teaching history & culinary, now TH-cam function, just waiting for next up: Aviation with Max Miller 😂
Dying at 30 doing what you loved while being cheered is smarter than living a long and boring life. It takes balls to go out doing what you are passionate about and he probably didn't regret it.
Love ya Max, but I think I'll stick with the blue flavor
Smart
The timing of you saying kick back with a soda was perfect. I just cracked open a can as u started to say it
Where did you get that little pitcher? It looks like what you would call a "gong dao bei" in Chinese tea, aka a "fairness cup" so everyone gets the same strength tea.
This is essentially a form of Switchel. Sort like a lemonade (an acid mixed with sugar/sweetener). The ash is an interesting addition as wood ash tends to be alkaline which would counteract some of the acid of the vinegar in addition to adding a smokiness. Potash which can be extracted from some wood ash can be used as early leavening in bread and I wonder if it could impart a bit of carbonation to a beverage? Ashes in general were also useful for making soap and cleaning cookware.