Looking at what warriors of this period prefered to eat during the classical times would also suggest barley or oats would be used as it promoted a fat layer over muscle which offered some protection and aided healing of shallow blade cuts, also it helped to bulk up fighters more than meat. As it is also suited to broths and stews I would guess it might be included in such recipes. Just a thought. Also another point to mention is that modern pork has been bred to not have as much 'boar taint' ( androstenone) which gives the meat a urine smell of dried ammonia, not very nice (sometimes you get that still in supermarket pork especially pork belly). On the other hand white laundry was usually washed in urine to get it whiter, so maybe they were used to that odour, it's one of those mysteries of history.
I was about to comment by mentioning dinuguan filipino food, but upon watchin the cideo it was mention already, i think spartansfood taste like it, and it is really good food
There was a Greek joke that the reason that Spartans were so willing to fight to the death is that they wouldn't have to go back and eat this dish again.
Funnily enough that's exactly what the Russians said after they entered Germany in 1944 seeing how the Germans lived, wondering why they would invade their poor lands. History repeating itself :D
Actually spartans were not in poverty wealth wise, they just were brought up in such a frugal way, and the also laughed at people who considered riches to be important, in a spartan household they had golden objects such as small statues and other things but never did they care about it, and most things he said about sparta and spartans is complete false, not his fault though, it's what foreigners teach about Greece, anything that can make them look bad and what not, and he also didn't prepare the meal properly.
@@alexanderka1956 how does this video make Greece look bad? It makes Spartans sound metal as shit. Also, if you know how to make the meal properly then you should tell us cause apparently the recipe is lost to time.
I think Kratos would appreciate Tyr making something from his homeland, while Freya would joke that they intended to make Hildisvini into a stew Chances are that Kratos intended to do just that I'd also think they'd have a conversation like: Mimir: "Brother, I heard a rumor that Spartan mothers would bathe their newborns in wine to test their strength. You didn't happen to do something similar with Atreus, did you?" Kratos: "No." (Kratos takes a bite from his Mela Zomos) Kratos: "Freya wouldn't allow it" (Freya and Mimir share a look of shock, while Tyr tries to keep himself from laughing. Kratos makes a small, unnoticeable smirk)
@@lawrencesaavedra758 Let's not forget Mother Dearest giving newborn baby their first greeting by dunking them into a urn of wine. That certainly won't immediately breed stress. Lmao
The Spartan story of the boy getting disemboweled by a fox wasn't some morality tale abut how you shouldn't steal btw. Instead, it was an inspirational tale of how tough and proper the boy was when he would rather die a painful death than getting caught stealing.
neglection was consider to shape a better attitude and help young kids to mature more... in those times they probably confused showing surface stoicism due to chilhood traumas , with "being mature".
I'm guessing the reason for the nurse to do it was also tied to experience. They are trying to train the baby to suffer in silence, but they also need to provide just enough care that it can grow up strong, and that's probably a fine line
They produced strong willed, physically fit and self sufficient kids though. Their methods were gruesome but you can't deny the results. Nowadays we have "warriors" like Emma and her two moms who keep talking about inner strength in a painfully obvious attempt to assure themselves in spite of everything else they lack. As if inner strength was all anyone ever needed. Lol!
Then it may also interest you to learn that the bones of neonates aren't preserved nearly as well as those of adults, and even if they are there, they can be extremely difficult to spot in the field if you're not excavating very thoroughly.
Younger bones decay faster than older bones. Hence why in the tower of Londons chapel, they found bones believed to be Anne Boleyn and other adults but the bones where Katherine Howards were supposed to be had dissolved over time bc she was a teenager
Spartan were known for their quick witty responses, their 'bon mot'. Another king to a spartan one presenting his city walls, wanting to impress him got for answer "what fine quarters for women", so you can imagine, pretty much like Frank Miller's comic and the subsequent adaptation.
Nils Pochat I’d guess that being quick with a response would come about naturally if you’ve spent your whole life with your “friends” constantly and intensely mocking every aspect of you
@@johngenericlastname9781 I mean I personally know several people who got sick from *something* at least, if you want to dispute whether it's COVID or something else.
@@johngenericlastname9781 so why have like 200,000 more people died this past year? Coincidentally it started right when the pandemic started. What a weird coincidence that like 20k people a month MORE THAN AVERAGE died right after COVID started spreading. I mean, are those bodies fake? Are all the families who have lost relatives paid actors? What about the morgues that ran out of room because most hospitals only have a dozen or less capacity? Its all fake? My aunt wasnt a real death? Because the flu doesn't kill 20k people a month. You can't argue with facts. A shitload more people died this past year than is normal.
@@johngenericlastname9781 flu does NOT kill 3 million a year. Google it. You are delusional. Flu is average 60k per year. Covid has been over 3x that. Wtf. And deaths being attributed to COVID is a Red herring. 200K MORE PEOPLE DIED IN THE PAST YEAR THAN THE PREVIOUS 10 YEARS. WHAT A COINCIDENCE.
“It doesn’t look good, but it’s not terrible.” Fun fact! For most of human civilization, including Ancient Greece, presentation of food was considered much, much more important than taste, so maybe that WAS what they were complaining about.
Watched a documentary on Food of the Middle Ages an they had a similar mentality. Not me, give me the PEASANT food that tastes good rather than some Modern Art Masterpiece that tastes like the bottom of my Chamber Pot lol.
maybe they cooked it more crudely than tastinghistory did. not much water if at all, just boil everything in the blood with a ton of vinegar. maybe there would have been some oats or beans, and the pork cooked rare. all the organs as well, the heart and liver, perhaps intestine. they didnt waste anything. now that would probably be a different experience than what we saw here lol
@@mingolaflare6224 No it was a specific documentary on Food of the Middle Ages about an hour long. You can find it here on TH-cam. They talked about stuff like live birds inside a pie and Elaborate cakes made to look like Castle that took days to make but werent meant to be eaten.
Now usually the secret ingredient to homemade soup is love and the joy you have for family and friends, but here we are going to substitute that for fear of helot rebellion and hatred for Athens. But not too much, lest we become spoiled.
Funnily enough, the supposed rivalry between Athens and Sparta is more of a historical artefact, due to the striking differences in the two conceptions of government and the Peloponnesian War. However they were allies on numerous occasions, and after Athens lost the Peloponnesian War, Sparta was rather lenient on Athens (Thebes and Corintus wanted a much harsher punishment on what was essentially the imperialistic power of fifth-century BCE Greece). Real hate was between Sparta and Argos, sworn enemies so much that when Persia invaded Greece, Argos remained neutral in order not to be allied with Sparta.
The version I heard of that story was it was a fighting cock used for gambling that was stolen by the boy, which makes more sense than someone raising foxes at that time.
I love one line I heard in my War in the Ancient World class: A Spartan fled the field of battle and returned home. Upon reaching his mother's home, the woman walked out and (upon seeing him) lifted her skirt and said "Do you want to climb back inside too?"
there was another case of a young Spartan soldier preparing for war and thus getting the family weapons (apparently his father's). He looked at the short sword and lamented, "this sword is too short to be any effective" to which his mother replied "just approach a bit more your enemy". LOL! Heartless women.
@@TastingHistory Watch out: we'll turn Mary Poppins on you! The recipe reminded me of Asturian bean stew, which is essentially a load of pork belly, a bunch of white beans and slices of black pudding (blood sausage) which disintegrates and makes the rich sauce.
I imagine the mother or other family members retrieved the bodies and buried them. Maternal instinct is no joke even for a spartan woman. Besides, I genuinely doubt the degree of callousness attributed to the Spartans. One must remember the Persians and Greeks tried to erase any record of their society, and what information did survive was rife with disinformation.
The bodies found at the bottom of the cliff were traitors and war captives, and the babies were left outside of the city to die. Sometimes the perioeci (more info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perioeci) or the helots took them and raised them.
Honestly, I think that "I would never crave this" is the highest compliment the Spartans would hope for with this dish. So much of their social regulations were about curbing different types of greed that they would be delighted that even millennia after their decline, their food still stifled what they referred to as "greed of the stomach".
@@kyonkochan And those selected instances are based on a time of Sparta losing tons of money because the entire Greek world ganged up on them, so Sparta took everything owed to them and more. The Greeks had a habit of loving Sparta when there was a foreign enemy, but as soon as things were cool and normal Sparta was GARBAGE to them. Sparta was fairly reclusive in the amount of battles it would take part in, but the Greek world sure loved to taunt the people they were most afraid of. And in the end, Sparta won.
Granny Goodness pro-tip: After you add the pork, add the vinegar, salt and bay leaves. Don't stir... yet. let the vinegar boil, otherwise it won't "cook" well (the vinegar) and leave a slightly bitter taste. Once it boils you can add the water and stir. Some variants of this dish utilise pork intestines (well cleaned of course) and pork liver. The insight for this is in the past, it was common practice to be frugal with meat, that as little of the animal as possible should go to waste. Sometimes the "waste" products denoted hierarchy or caste standings as in the case of Umbel pie, however other times culture and tastebuds win over social norms as noted with Chitlins and other African American delicacies and Haggis.
I’ve had the Argentinian version of grilled intestine. (Specifically the large intestine) it wasn’t “bad” it just kind of lacked flavor. I wonder if it was just that one batch that had no real flavor. Idk.
Marrow is the best. I created this soup where you boil beef bones all day then to the broth, add a lot of chopped up portabellas and a few cans of great northern beans and some chopped up steak and just let it cook in a slow cooker for hours in the marrow broth. Add a few bay leaves. ad far as I can tell bay leaves just act as an emulsifier and let the fats and oils mix with the water better. Only salt and pepper for spices with that. My wife and I deal with winter by making it 'soup season.' and making all sorts of great soups. she just made her Kale, ground sausage, potato soup in a cream and butter broth. Then I have my Split pea soup with lots of ham and bacon and all the bacon greese in there. there's so many great soups. I have a great White chicken chille I make. Sorry I'm hungry I guess. Can't forget creamy buttery chicken and wild rice soup.
Blood, marrow, bone dust, lentil paste, and scraps from the warriors feasts you are absolutely nothing until you are a warrior, your a spartan so you aren't a slave, you will be given nothing but what builds you as a boy, as a man you will have broth and meat, but lentils where easier to grow and had more portien per gram. Spartan women make spartan warriors so they get the choice cuts, you a warrior make due.
I’m actually surprised cooking with blood has become such an oddity in the West. Most cuisines have dishes that use blood. Europe has multiple traditional blood sausages, soups and stews.
I think that came from the mindset of setting ourselves apart and more “civilized” as a new culture overall during and after the time of the revolutions. So many cultural practices including food were slowly left out in favor seeming less barbaric or uneducated. This also helped the many cultures assimilate better and not stand apart. I could be wrong, but it seems that may be the case. Just like black pudding in Scotland is still used today, but it didn’t survive in the americas as a main dish despite the heavy Scottish population in many regions.
@@kcarter0265 Something to do with the Puritan movement apparently. Following the Bible more closely than other Christian denominations. Puritans got bigger in the US than it ever caught on in the UK or Europe.
You get the chance to find a Portugese or Brazilian restaurant and ask if they got Feiojada, the ingredients found in that dish shares ingredients with black broth
In Poland "Czarnina" is made from blood of a duck or a goose. There is also a tradition in Poland (altough almost nonexistent nowadays), that if a boy came to a girls house and her family would serve him czarnina, that meant the family will not accept him and he should gtfo. And here is an actual recipe for a polish goose blood soup, with a touch of dried fruits (no english subtitles unfortunately) th-cam.com/video/DtPPhq-OyBg/w-d-xo.html Also (as you can see in the video) the base of the soup is made by boiling the otherwise "throw-away" parts of the bird. It is a common thing in eastern europe (and it was a common thing all over the world not that long ago) and it's surprisingly tasty. However I am quite sure that your players won't be familiar with it. You can start by describing a big pot full of boiling bird carcasses, feet, heads, necks etc. and when they are repulsed by that, then you describe pouring the blood into the soup. Have fun :D
@@Wasserkaktus Actually the customs and simplicity is what made it strong. Greek politics are what killed Sparta. Sparta won the Peloponnesian war against Athens. It’s just every part of Greece hated Sparta (bar maybe Boeotia) and worked together to make sure Sparta stopped having any money. As well, Sparta sort of loses favor if there isn’t an immediate war as well. That is all they were considered good for, they worshiped Ares for crying out loud ;)
@@GokuInfintysaiyan This is complete bullshit. Sparta was fundamentally unstable. The entire society was built on oppressing their enslaved population with a level of tyranny unmatched almost anywhere else at that point, and then also expecting other lower castes such as the Perioeicei to do literally everything else for them, including trade, manufacturing, food production, and even supplying the bulk of their armies (Most of the soldiers in Spartan Armies were Perioeicei; Spartiates were a minority in their own Armies.). This all happened while the Spartiate population continued to shrink over time because of their extremely strict and rigid citizenship rules, and the only jobs Spartiates could themselves do were military work, police work such as the Krypteira, or participating in governance. They were explicitly prohibited from ever leaving Spartan Territory unless they were ordered to do so on military campaigns or emissary missions. Even in what you Fanboys and Spartans themselves claimed to be their biggest strength, war, was in fact inefficiency performed by Spartans. The Agoge taught resilience and tactics very well suited for irregular warfare, which apart from the Krypteira, was something Spartans shunned and avoided, opting instead to put all their effort into their Phalanx, and this almost never changed even as military technology, strategy and tactics evolved and improved all around them. The Spartan Army was squarely defeated by Thebes even before Philip I of Macedon came into the picture, and their supposed "crowning achievement", which you point out as the Peleponnesian War, was only really won by the DORIAN LEAGUE (Sparta was just the leading State of this League) because Athens suffered a Plague in the middle of the War which killed a huge portion of their population, a population much larger, more flexible and superior to Sparta's, and it also killed Pericles, who would have absolutely lead Athens and its Delian League to victory had he not been killed by the Plague. He was about to instigate and arm a massive Helot revolt which would have completely destroyed Sparta, had he not died and a bunch of bad leaders took his place. I haven't even talked about several other topics which made Sparta just awful. Face it, Sparta sucks.
@@Wasserkaktus First of all, calling me a fanboy? Really? Just shut up and debate me normally. Ad hom isn’t gonna get either of us anywhere so can we please just act like grownups? Now for one, you’re not considering the strict limitations placed on Sparta due to location and culture. They were shunned for worshipping Ares, shunned for bad-mouthing, treated as brutes with no intelligence by many commoners (despite it being WELL known by Athens that Spartan education was fairly wholistic), etc For another, I grant you that they placed too much in the Phalanx when they could’ve had equal and possibly greater success if they just skirmished based on their level of conditioning and training (Boeotia, Vikings, and many other cultures understood this). You’re also not considering leadership and placement of their troops. How many times did Sparta have the land advantage? Hell they always went far away from home and ended up fucking themselves in that regard as well. I’m not arguing it was perfect, but sucks? Sparta was crucial in winning the war against Persia. Athens, even if it’s ENTIRE main population had died, had gained MANY allies with huge populations to assist them in the sagas, and their naval fleet was still fairly protected. Besides that, Athens governing system was better, while the Ephor and Oracle often made really stupid calls against the judgement of Kings who knew war (literally Leonidas and his 300... plus 6000 other greeks and a supply line consisting of about 10,000 slaves). But that was also relative to the time not just to Sparta. And again, Spartans won more battles than they lost. Also I saw Thermopylae as the crowning achievement based on sheer numbers and level of attrition, you know, a showcase of their training actually making a difference. Besides that, take Spartan women, who were trained in similar respects to the men, and the success they found outside of Sparta due to their training! Sparta’s flaw is that is governing system operated under the assumption that as long as they were strong warriors, everyone would be cool with taking care of all the other crap they needed. And this isn’t exactly flawed thinking since this is essentially how mercenaries get by. But Sparta wasn’t respected for anything except combat so no one was interested in that status quo, and even if a king did want to change that it’s ultimately up to 5 Ephor to tell him if he can or can’t. Spartans made strong citizens capable of any task, but it’s problems were not just internal but a reflection of the same issues that caused all the in-fighting of the Greek world. And you know that’s true. Sparta was a society that had its potential squandered. It’s training was effective, it’s methods of training were practical, but the execution was never great because the leadership was usually a shitshow of “will I be allowed to do this? Hope so!” and getting shot down, and then being the most reluctantly supporter society imaginable. Sparta would’ve been fine with a more streamlined governing system and a focus on having more Spartans. The slave/helots issue was always present, but again, the conditions of that come down to being mainly a political issue and could be negated by more troops regardless.
"Alcibiades had a Spartan Nurse and he turned out great." Alcibiades, history's first militant NTR antagonist. The Char Aznable of ancient Greece. The man who stabbed so many backs he made Revolver Ocelot look loyal by comparison.
@@aguywithahand502 so chars dad was killed, he was the beginning of a revolution for people born in space, this is in the future. Anyways to get revenge he plays both sides and starts a war so he can take out the people involved. Alcibiades went and betrayed Athens and seduced a spartan queen, it lead to a whole host of problems, I highly suggest watching count dankulas mad lads video about Alcibiades
Polish guy here. Our blood soup is called "czernina" (which loosely translates to black soup). While made out of duck (or sometime geese) blood instead of pig blood, it does actually taste quite good.
@@astrorafhan First recorded chips in Europe were in belgium, but it's known that South Americans were frying potatoes before anyone in Europe knew what one was.
@Mike J I am english and some of it IS bland though, but the reality is a lot of northern and eastern european food isn't as tasty as much of the rest of the world. I live in Germany and can honestly say the food here is really bad, they use even less herbs and spices than brits do and really rely on the Turkish for nice tasting things. For example Germans don't really have savory snacks in their bakeries, you need to get those from Turk bakeries.
An update for anyone who is thinking of trying this! After having the first batch made following this recipe with no deviation, I had a few things I liked and a few I disliked! Biggest dislike is the blood going grainy once cooked, the thought of eating blood doesn’t bother me, however the texture of curdled things does! I played around when making another batch and changed a few things to make it what I think is a little more palatable since we are spoiled with good tasting, non boring foods. For the meat I used a pork loin since it’s leaner- which in part was an issue I had since I don’t love chewing fat or greasy broths. I believe this also helped lessen the graininess of the broth. I used more onion, more salt, celery salt, pepper, garlic clove, garlic powder, onion powder, half the amount of white vinegar with the other half being balsamic vinegar, some wine to cook with the pork as well as to finish off at the end, more water as I felt necessary and I think that’s about it! I’m not a chef, and maybe it’s just watered down lipstick on a pig, but the clarity of the broth is way better, the meat itself isn’t as bland and porky, the vinegar isn’t quite as overwhelming and there is a verrrry distinct Umami flavor I didn’t notice with the original! If nothing else hopefully the idea is interesting or maybe someone who is actually good at cooking could make an adaptation and I’ll try it!
TastingHistory oh so many things. Bird Nests from Asia, snails from Europe, horse meat from Italy. As a cooking ingredient, blood is a staple of German cuisine, and, in Scandinavia, blood is baked into many breads. My great grandmother apparently liked to make Bludwurst.
Brok: I made some svartsoppa! Had to use pig instead of goose for the blood ‘n all but I think it’s adequate Kratos: It reminds me of the melas zomos from back home… Mimir: Aye, I’d eat it like the black puddings from my homeland if I didn’t think it’d fall out my neck hole Atreus: I think I’m gonna be sick 🤢 Kratos: You are spoiled Boi…
This is semi-relevant at best but one of my weirdest memories when I was a kid is the time me and a friend noticed that someone whose backyard was next to the school playground was growing rhubarb, and my friend just decided to scale the chain-link fence and steal that rhubarb. He rinced it in a water fountain and we ate some rhubarb during lunch hour, and no one really asked any questions even though kids carrying several whole stalks of rhubarb around the playground cannot possibly have been common. So, I'll vouch partly for stealing edible plants.
I don't see why not. The availability of blood might be the main limiting factor. But for example I would gladly add slices of black pudding into a pork stew.
"Alcibiades turned out just fine" I assume that's a subtle in-joke. The man is often used as an example of a historical figure who was probably a psychopath.
Based on descriptions, it sounds like a society which breeds, encourages, and rewards sociopathy openly, which does make me wonder just how accurate historical accounts actually are.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine yes, it has to be an exaggeration if only because such a disfunctional society would be able to last one or two generations at most
It's important to remember that it's still not known on what occasion the Spartan's ate this soup. They almost certainly didn't eat it while on the march or on the battlefield, as their rations largely involved grains for porridge, with cheese and wine (as well as anything they could get out in the field). More than likely, outside of the meals in the Syssitia, it's likely that it was made during either sacrifices or big state festivals. Keep in mind: unlike Athens or Crete, the Spartans were land-locked which meant that they relied more on livestock and game for meat than other city-states of that period. Also important to remember: Spartans held the art of cooking in high esteem, so the epaiklon was also meant to show one's cooking skills as well as their skill in the hunt.
TBH as I had commented some time back, I think that the true "blood soup" as you said was prepared only on special occasions (blood spoils quickly so it can't be preserved, and carrying enough animals on campaign to feed daily an army would mean destroying a herd every battle) whereas on the field they could have used a differend "black broth" made of staining ingredients (lentils, wine, roasted olives etc.), that were normally carried on march and would make an basically even more bland/unappetizing soup (especially mixed with some boiled salted meat like what you'd carry on campaign) than actual blood-based soup. The idea of Spartans eating blood on the regular was also probably PR on their part to give them an additional aura of badassery (and Spartans, as their recorded witty remarks show, were masters of selling their legend as warriors as much as proving it on the battlefield)
This is literally everything there is in a Northern German Schwarzsauer dish, only the consistency is a little bit less liquid. It honestly was one of my favourite dishes as a child. It’s more typically made with pork belly, so definitely a fattier piece of meat then the one you used, and maybe one or two more spices might be added (some cloves maybe, maybe using a good broth), but not a big difference at all. It can be a really tasty dish, combined with potatoes and maybe some sweet and sour pickled pumpkin, which is what we prefer. The orange of the pickled pumpkins and the yellow potatoes are a satisfying contrast to the blackish brown dish.
Kind of, I guess. It’s a different taste, but of course you have the same „earthy“ and kind of sweet tastes you can find in many of the German and Central European blood sausages or black pudding, but with a little bit of sourness from the cooked vinegar.
Someone mentioned the German blood sausages, we have a similar thing here in Bulgaria, it's mostly pork liver, lungs, some blood and rice, leeks as well, all packed into an intestine and boiled. I hated it as a youngster, but perhaps it's an acquired taste for me now, absolutely love a good homemade one during the cold winters (with a glass of red wine and some cheese and bread), nothing beats it. Not even prosciutto.
@@peterkroger4311 are they small / baby pumpkins or just normal chopped in pieces. I've never tasted picked pumpkins either, but we did pickle baby watermelons (the lucky ones who grew those on their own land at least - I just recall my grandpa doing it, also grapes and that tasted really odd, but nice). Not sure how things are now, since I've lost my touch with the land. Not available in the stores for sure.
@@reverendglitch Yea, but as the Man above you comments, no matter what you're eating, if it's the same thing over and over again, human beings enter a weirdly suggestible psychological state. Which is pretty useful for keeping absolute consistency in such stagnant, insular insignificance as the Spartans.
@YouveBeenGreeked Not quite an inch of wood, but close to an inch overall. Bronze facing, wood core, leather, and felt, and often a hanging leather apron against arrows. It was close to 15 lbs. Unlikely to break.
I do remember eating some type of black soup in a Persian restaurant, it was made with lamb and and unholy amount of saffron, it tasted pretty good. I think it was served with flatbread.
the pithy comebacks aren't just a meme, they literally practiced it. called Laconic phrase, named for the area (in which sparta is located), the spartans were well known for their sharp wit. and to add to your shield story; there's a story where a young man did come back without his shield. and his mother hiked up her skirt and basically implied he might as well climb back in.
I heard that he only came back because he ran away from battle and asked his mother that if he could hide home. That's when she pulled up her skirt and told him he might as well climb back. I.e, mom tells coward son he's a lil baby bitch.
@@danidejaneiro8378 the shields they used were heavy, and if you were running away, the first thing you drop. but not something a victorius army would need to worry about, only deserters. hence "come back with it (victorius) or on it (dead)". and not without it (deserter).
This is quickly turning into my favorite history channel. Most other channels only focus on the wars, but you show and tell how the people lived. It's really refreshing to be able to see them in a human light rather than just statistics on a board game-like battlefield. Definitely going to continue looking through your content, I can't get enough. :)
Now to my history of modern diplomacy and political science ears - these stories about Spartans sound about 25% local boasting, 25 % crazy humor, 25 % xenophopia and 25 % athenian war propaganda. And theuy thought these in school like facts. 😂
Shades of Discworld’s jokes about Klatchian food, where it turns out that “vindaloo” is Klatchian for “mouth-scalding gristle for macho foreign idiots.”
I'm Filipino and I love dinuguan, there should be more spices for this blood stew for someone to enjoy it, It's usually added on rice, a dip to puto and topping to pancit ^^ It's funny to imagine Kratos eating Melas Zomos during his spartan warrior times~
Acually the recipe was: 1.They slaughtered the pig and took great care to collect its blood. The blood was mixed with vinegar so that it would not thicken. 2.Then they fried the pig meat and the pig fat (salt and bay leaves). 3.Add water (not specifying quantity). 4. Once the water started to boil, they mixed barley flour in it and gradually added all the blood and vinegar. 5.Then, while everything was simmering, they poured water so that it was always kept slightly watery. 6.Once the flour did not absorb any more water it meant that it was ready to be served. 7.The soup was accompanied with barley bread.
@@gravygraves5112 Guarantee everyone seasoned and spiced it in practice. I've seen old recipes many times where seasoning and spices were left out or sometimes added lines about seasoning to taste since herbs and spices were limited to what was available.
As someone who comes from a predominantly Polish background, to me this sounds a lot like czarnina (which means "black soup", and is made from duck, duck's blood, and vinegar). There's also a version made from smoked pork - only this version uses raisins and prunes to achieve the dark color. It still includes vinegar, though - even though it's not required for anti coagulation.
@@SG-js2qn Recipe for czarnina smega (or "blind czarnina"): Put a pound of smoked ham hocks into a large saucepan or a stockpot, cover with water by about an inch, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and simmer for at least 4 hours - overnight is fine. Skim as required. Put it into the refrigerator, and chill until the fat solidifies. Remove the fat. Separate the meat from the bones, chop it into bite-sized pieces, and return it to the stock. Chop about 1/4 lb. each of raisins and prunes and add to the stock. Bring back to a boil, and return to a simmer. Simmer for about 1/2 hour. Add either red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar to taste. Serve as is, or with wide egg noodles (kluskis). And as always... *ENJOY* !
@@supergeek1418 I would probably do a simplified version that cooks up fast, like an adaptation of an Indian korma or biryani, which uses nuts and raisins along meat, vegetables, and rice.
@@Mark-zu6oz While I really do enjoy pierogi, I probably like this as much. It pretty much tastes like barbecue soup. Don't knock it until you've tried it.
If you reduce the water and add garlic and ginger, you’ve got dinuguan. The Asian stores may sell frozen pig blood (cabalen’s) which will be significantly better than blood curd as it will be a smooth, thick ‘gravy’ without any grittiness.
Oh, thank goodness! Because grittiness was my main concern. 😒(Sarcasm) But seriously, even if I would try the blood, if it was gritty as well? GAME OVER! 😝👎
goldilox369 haha my friends said the same thing before they tried it. Having said that, it doesn’t necessarily taste as you’d expect. In a strange way it has a subtle earthy creaminess or atleast a creamy mouthfeel. But if you use blood curd then that’s different. Not that nice at all.
All that vicious mockery on their teenage years probably made them the masters of retorts later in life because the Spartans had some of the best lines and comebacks ever
"Pork leg" Back then they didn't waste anything from the animal's body, so they probably included literally every part of the pig, including the brain, eyes, liver, hearth, etc and only cleaned out the inedible parts (or maybe they didn't even do that). So yeah, I can definitely imagine why it was a shitty dish, even without taking into account the potential poor skills of some cooks.
They probably burned the inedible parts as sacrifice to the gods. Pigs were the most popular sacrifice animal due to how quickly they breed. After the sacrifice ritual, the meat would either be cooked and eaten or sold in the marketplace.
Most people outside the western/ developed world still eat organ meat. Even in the west/ developed world the body parts you mentioned are still utilised either in cultural dishes e.g. haggis, or in things with a homogeneous meaty texture like nuggets or processed sausages.
There happened the opposite as well. In early 4th century king Agisilaos II organised a campaign in Minor Asia against Persia. When moving with this army deep inside he raided the region of Phrygia which was governed by satrap (Persian governor) Pharnavazos. Pharnavazos called Agisilaos II to a meeting to talk and they arranged it at a neutral zone out on the field. Agisilaos and his guards were sitting on the ground while Pharnavazos arrived with a whole team fully equipped with a tent, carpets, pillows and plenty of food to give and invited Agisilaos to come and sit to talk. However Agisilaos did not stand up to go sit there. Pharnavazos, who was quite older than Agisilaos, was not vexxed at all, he understood that a Spartan would be reticent to do such especially in front of his troops, he stood up and approached Agisilaos and sat down on the ground next to him and then they talked. Pharnavazos' manners highly impressed Agisilaos and if I remember well they came to an agreement to cease Greeks' attacks against Phrygia.
For anyone who has tried pulling reeds without a knife like a Spartan trainee, no it isn't hard strength wise. But it will cut your hands HEAVILY getting them all. It's a callous building exercise, the same as making them walk barefoot but faster and more painful because it's the hand version.
@FlyingMonkies325 You think a society that basically lacks any empathy would give boys gloves to pull out the reeds? The whole point is to harden them, gloves would go directly against that...
@@jasonhunter2819 First day in the guard: "Men! Here before you are your standard issue cardboard boxes, flashlights, and wheelbarrows. With them, you will be fighting against the largest and most monstrous beings in existence. None of you will survive. I won't survive. But I'll be damned if we survive. Win or lose, we we die... Any questions?" "What are the wheelbarrows for, sir?" "They are for facilitating the mobility of your massive brazen testicles! FOR THE EMPEROR!"
In Brazil we have the "Galinha ao molho pardo" (loosely translated as "chicken in brown sauce") wich is a very common stew made from chicken pieces, cooked in the chicken's blood with herbs and such. We learned that from the Portuguese.
That sounds delicious. Here in the UK we have a traditional blood sausage called 'black pudding' but it's not popular really, it's mostly older people who like it. Fresh blood is basically impossible to get, because of the lack of demand, so we can only get dried blood, which isn't the same.
@@DZrache I've never had the British one, but I had the Finnish mustamakkara (often served with jam), and I really love the taste. I wonder if this dish would taste similar
I have a few theories about the dish. It’s possible that it was made with pig’s organs, and considering this is a pre-fridge time, they’ve would’ve been in awful conditions
@@DZrache Cabidela the portuguese dish is not popular either I only ever eaten it in special occasions and it was always made by my grandfather and since he died I never have eaten it again. My grandfather raised chickens so he would kill them himself and make the cabidela. But i live in a big city maybe it's a lot more popular in more remote regions of the country.
We have a dish made with blood here, it's called dideh, fried patties of blood. The one I usually eat is made from chicken blood, so delicious. It's so interesting how many cultures make use of every last bit of the animal.
dinuguan or “fritada” as we call it where i’m from is one of my favorite foods. it doesnt bother me personally but if you can get past the black color and the fact that it’s blood, it’s a pretty good meal when made right.
I've had pork blood and meat soup with a hint of chilly that was authentic mexican food made by my friend's great grandma. I was 1 of the only ones who would eat it, thought it was good. Chances are they kept it cooking so it wouldn't rot if it was a warm area and there was no way to preserve it. Now I want some lol. I guess I'll have to settle for (beef) liver and onions and some garlic buttered toast.
Hearing about Spartan life growing up was really interesting. They literally trained and encouraged their kids to have the mentality of modern high school chads, with the notable exception being the taunting. The fact that they were ruthless about it until they were told to stop implies that it wasn't for deprecation of the one on the receiving end, but to temper their patience.
@@lotharbeck71 Probably how they were able to dab on Persia. Master the body, and you'll be tough. Master the _mind_ too, and ascend to true Gigachadom.
Unfortunately, one fact of Spartan youth many never mention is that, during their military training, the young boys were sexually abused. That and the dirty sleeping conditions and starvation was an effective way to traumatise them, leading them to be less compassionate and more ruthless.
Quick correction, It was Gorgo who said "come back with it or on it", Leonida's wife, and told him that when he gave him his shield before marching to Thermopylae to fight against Xerxes's army. Thank you for this recipe! I've always had the question of how they made it, but never got around to goggling it
I don't know about that (seemed to be quite customary anyway), the known dialogue before Leonidas' departure was Gorgo asking him what she should do and him answering "Marry a good man and raise good children".
It was flavorless? That really surprised me. I imagined a sour metallic taste. I was waiting for you to pull a face like you did in your Kykeon video! I give you kudos on this one, Max. That was pretty brave. 💜
Dishes with blood in them don’t really taste much like blood at all. Here in Taiwan there’s duck blood soup, that has big loafs of coagulated blood in it, and they just taste like... mush. There’s also pig blood cake, which is rice mixed with pig blood, slice into long cubes, and rolled in crushed peanuts (with cilantro and chilli, as you desire) and it just tastes like... rice and peanuts. I think the blood is mostly used as a thickener, it honestly has little taste of its own. I have also had a Filipino blood soup that was just amazing. Lots of cultures use blood, and once you try it out you can kind of see why. It’s not as weird as you’d expect! When I saw the thumbnail for this video I thought the soup looked amazing, but after hearing the ingredients I wasn’t surprised at all that it was bland.
@@MrBobillion I was hoping it'd taste better too in this video. I agree, it's practically like red tofu, not tasting like much, and depending on various things, its texture can be like very soft tofu to dry hardened ones (that is usually either stewed in some kind of braising liquid that has some form of anise or stir-fried). And yep, not weird to me as I had a number of pork and duck blood dishes growing up.
Cooked blood has a mild, earthy, organ-y taste. Kind of like boiled liver, but milder. I personally think dishes with blood benefit a lot from vinegar and strong seasonings, so that the taste of the cooked blood just fades into a pleasant note in the background.
@@TastingHistory I eat morcillas in Spain quite a lot, it's a type of blood sausage and yeah, not at all metallic, kind of an earthy flavour, deep but not in an overpowering way.
I grew up eating quite a bit of blood sausage and offal. My favorites were intestines and my paternal grandmother's blood sausage she would make with a sheeps stomach turned inside out, potato, bits of liver/organ meat, blood, and other stuff I can't remember. So, this meal has definitely caught my attention and is something I'd love to try and make this coming winter. 😋
Geez, no wonder Gerard Butler was so cranky in that movie. I always assumed it was because his leather jockstrap was chafing him. And can I just say I admire your restraint? A video about blood soup during Halloween month and not a single vampire joke. Impressive!
blood is also rich in nutrients, mostly iron, so yeah, it's needed for developing nice muscles and a healthy body. Blood sausages are a thing in many cultures, and here in Hungary we usually eat the blood of the pig after pig slaughters, it's either cooked or fried with herbs and salt, and it's SO delicious.
They would have ate majority of grain like barley and other carbs. 50% of their diet actually.. Would be sufficient in iron. And protein was easily achieved and even excessive with their diet.
Wolves, lions, bears, vultures and several other predators/scavengers would readily eat newborn corpses... It wasn't related to this video, but Spartiate men were also known to breed (often through rape) with lower caste women, and if those women had boys, those boys would become Perioeicei, who were the real backbone of Spartan Armies, and if those women had girls, the girls would be quickly killed because they served no "purpose". Seriously, fuck Sparta.
@@Wasserkaktus Are you sure? Pretty sure Spartan women were somewhat respected as they taught them to read and take care of the Homefront/children. Without the women there were no Spartan soldiers, the most important thing to them.
Watched this whilst making lunch... Tried to figure out how to make black egg burritos for my children, without ruining them. Fortunately for my kids, the eggs finished before I could begin experimenting.
Laird Cummings I doubt replacing the water/milk in your scrambled eggs with blood would be enough, although you could probably add a lot more per egg than you would with milk or water.
@@ragnkja I was thinking more along the lines of sauces and ingredients. There are some very flavorful black sauces; was just trying to think of what I had, that would go well.
Max, I love your comments in telling the story of the recipe and in the history. You are doing some amazing research and in telling the story behind the recipe. Personally i have managed to avoid eating any form of blood soup...basic disgust at the thought. At this point in my life I doubt I will change my mind. I wish I had you around when I was studying and teaching ancient history...would have been MUCH more fun.
Tip: Asafoetida is also called "Hing"; it's found in Indian food stores & general spice shops (in CA). This recipe sounds delicious! In hearing you recite the ancient version -- perhaps the bird remains whole & 1st batch of wine/garum/herb liquid is poured inside the "square" opening of tail-end cavity; the 2nd batch of Asafoetida/water poured over outside of bird; bake. Just an idea :) Love your channel!
Being a butcher's grandson, this brings back memories from when I was little, every time a pig got slaughtered at my grandfather's farm. Schwarzsauer is so good! "Using the whole animal" includes its blood. If you never tried anything with pork blood in it, try it, then complain. :)
Me: Oh cool! New video! I'll watch it while having breakfast. Max: (putting blood brick into blender) "...There might still be some chunks in there." Me: :: slowly pushes breakfast away::
More like to spite themselves. They only became so militant because of a slave revolt that they barely managed to put down. Afterwards, they made some changes.
Honestly, given that most of our sources are Athenian, they probably just wanted to portray their most hated foes as artless barbarians. We have precious little unbiased intel on what the Spartans were actually like; they were certainly warrior-men of great report with every soldier held to an elite standard, but other than that... I guess we're pretty clear that they respected women? Athens certainly found it strange that Spartan women could vote.
Cooking with pig's blood isn't uncommon in the Philippines. In fact, we have stew that's very similar to Melas Zomos. "Dinuguan" (which roughly means "bloody" in Filipino) is a stew made with cubes of pork cooked in pig's blood and vinegar, sometimes a green chili is added as well. The vinegar and the chili are there to help get rid of the mineral taste that blood can have. (Vinegar is also added to prevent coagulation as Max previously mentioned). Sometimes it's jokingly called "chocolate soup" to convince children to eat it.
As a teenager I used to hang around and help(and also learn a lot from) a relative who was a butcher by trade. I often had something very similar to what is described here. I actually developed a taste for it. years later I encountered a similar dish in Scotland. The locals were surprised that I actually ate it and was not disgusted by it.
Before my hubby retired, when he went off to work carrying his briefcase, I would tell him 'Come back with your briefcase or on it.' It doesn't have the same ring as the Spartan mother's saying, but it made me smile.
Filipino here, I'm glad you pointed out our dinuguan! Your recipe was really close to how we make dinuguan, just add some pepper and chilies and you're good to go.
Pepper is a new addition, after America was discovered and peppers / chilies brought to the rest of the world, this recipe is from much earlier times. :) But some local herbs must have been used, oregano, thyme, juniper, rosemary, also perhaps lemons instead of vinegar, they grow naturally in Greece. Just guessing.
"Come back with your shield, or on it" could also have another meaning, as shields were used as stretchers to carry the wounded. So it could very well be that the mother is not saying "victory or death" but rather "fight bravely, and never run" as most deaths in ancient battles occurred during a rout. Thus to stand and take a wound means you are actually more likely to survive and return home alive.
@@ContentConfessional A Spartan soldier did come home without his shield once. His mother lifted her skirt, the implication being that she was telling him “you might as well climb back in”
It meant, do not flee from battle. In Greek there is a word for a coward who flees the battle, ρίψασπις which translates to “shield-thrower” as soldiers fleeing would throw down their shields to run faster. There was a funny quote about a Greek fighting some Gauls where he said “the Spartans say to come back with the shield or on it, I see a Gaul man picking up the shield I threw down, it’s okay I’ll buy a new one”
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Looking at what warriors of this period prefered to eat during the classical times would also suggest barley or oats would be used as it promoted a fat layer over muscle which offered some protection and aided healing of shallow blade cuts, also it helped to bulk up fighters more than meat. As it is also suited to broths and stews I would guess it might be included in such recipes. Just a thought. Also another point to mention is that modern pork has been bred to not have as much 'boar taint' ( androstenone) which gives the meat a urine smell of dried ammonia, not very nice (sometimes you get that still in supermarket pork especially pork belly). On the other hand white laundry was usually washed in urine to get it whiter, so maybe they were used to that odour, it's one of those mysteries of history.
Swap the vinegar for milk and a pinch of all spice and it's basically the black pudding (British blood sausage) recipe. Don't see the issue here.
2:25 Aisle three, next to the pangolin's right? **cough**
I was about to comment by mentioning dinuguan filipino food, but upon watchin the cideo it was mention already, i think spartansfood taste like it, and it is really good food
Gotta correct you on one of the ingredients:
Pork wasn’t readily available during war marches. Guess what was though: dead soldiers. ;)
There was a Greek joke that the reason that Spartans were so willing to fight to the death is that they wouldn't have to go back and eat this dish again.
I guess you decided to post a comment before watching the first minute of the video.
It's not a joke it's a fact
@@2Cerealbox might be a joke in the same line as Napoleon joked about the british, 'the reason they're suicidal is because it rains a lot'
@@jhnshep Or the classic, "France has one religion, and hundreds of sauces. England has hundreds of religions, and only one sauce."
@@Lucius1958 mint sauce, my french girlfriend still cant get over the Idea that mint can go with lamb or boar lol
"They came to Greece to rob us of our poverty."
Say what you will about Spartans, but they absolutely mastered the art of dry humor.
Funnily enough that's exactly what the Russians said after they entered Germany in 1944 seeing how the Germans lived, wondering why they would invade their poor lands. History repeating itself :D
That one drew a wholehearted laugh out of me.
That line had me crying!
Actually spartans were not in poverty wealth wise, they just were brought up in such a frugal way, and the also laughed at people who considered riches to be important, in a spartan household they had golden objects such as small statues and other things but never did they care about it, and most things he said about sparta and spartans is complete false, not his fault though, it's what foreigners teach about Greece, anything that can make them look bad and what not, and he also didn't prepare the meal properly.
@@alexanderka1956 how does this video make Greece look bad? It makes Spartans sound metal as shit. Also, if you know how to make the meal properly then you should tell us cause apparently the recipe is lost to time.
Leonidas: "Spartans! Tonight we dine in HELL!"
Spartans: "Oh thank God"
"What's the occasion?!"
So the same thing but with ghost pepper chilis.
Spartans: Finally, some decent fucking food.
Pretty sure it was Apollo they thanked.
666th like. Perfection
Melas zomos is the perfect dish to feed a calm and reasonable person :)
Are you a calm and reasonable person?
@@ronramen5827 if the moment calls for calm
I think Kratos would appreciate Tyr making something from his homeland, while Freya would joke that they intended to make Hildisvini into a stew
Chances are that Kratos intended to do just that
I'd also think they'd have a conversation like:
Mimir: "Brother, I heard a rumor that Spartan mothers would bathe their newborns in wine to test their strength. You didn't happen to do something similar with Atreus, did you?"
Kratos: "No."
(Kratos takes a bite from his Mela Zomos)
Kratos: "Freya wouldn't allow it"
(Freya and Mimir share a look of shock, while Tyr tries to keep himself from laughing. Kratos makes a small, unnoticeable smirk)
@@KoJIJoky i'd say the moment calls for calm, yeah
@@vermagupta5432 *knock knock*
So this is why Kratos was always so angry.
That’s why they were all angry , they had terrible wives who couldn’t cook
@@lawrencesaavedra758 Let's not forget Mother Dearest giving newborn baby their first greeting by dunking them into a urn of wine. That certainly won't immediately breed stress. Lmao
@@Geminei Yea whoever founded that city was clearly a psychopath
@@lawrencesaavedra758 keep this up and you will get canceled on Twitter
@@lawrencesaavedra758 Psychopath - Real Man, what's the difference?
The Spartan story of the boy getting disemboweled by a fox wasn't some morality tale abut how you shouldn't steal btw. Instead, it was an inspirational tale of how tough and proper the boy was when he would rather die a painful death than getting caught stealing.
Hey, perspective, am I right?!
Well, it's still a morality play or fable; the moral is just the opposite of what we would conclude.
I remember the story of a man in sparta, he offers his life to god ares, and killed his family by accident......
@@justineanddreilogan4825 hmmmm sounds familiar……
@@Bigdoghirohito hmmm, it said that he was dangling in the hip of the ghost of sparta?
“I don’t think I’m neglecting my child enough, so I think I’ll get a Spartan nurse to help me neglect it properly”
neglection was consider to shape a better attitude and help young kids to mature more... in those times they probably confused showing surface stoicism due to chilhood traumas , with "being mature".
@@Dan_Kanerva
And yet, the adults, who were ALSO raised this way as children, still believed it was for the best.
I'm guessing the reason for the nurse to do it was also tied to experience. They are trying to train the baby to suffer in silence, but they also need to provide just enough care that it can grow up strong, and that's probably a fine line
They produced strong willed, physically fit and self sufficient kids though. Their methods were gruesome but you can't deny the results. Nowadays we have "warriors" like Emma and her two moms who keep talking about inner strength in a painfully obvious attempt to assure themselves in spite of everything else they lack. As if inner strength was all anyone ever needed. Lol!
@@lespectator4962 Sure, can't deny the result that today there's no Sparta around anymore :v
"But modern archeology disputes this, because all of the bodies found there were adults!"
I've never felt less reassured by anything.
Then it may also interest you to learn that the bones of neonates aren't preserved nearly as well as those of adults, and even if they are there, they can be extremely difficult to spot in the field if you're not excavating very thoroughly.
Plus, it is easier for scavenging predators to walk off with a whole baby than a whole adult...
@@Beannin That was my thought, yes!
Younger bones decay faster than older bones. Hence why in the tower of Londons chapel, they found bones believed to be Anne Boleyn and other adults but the bones where Katherine Howards were supposed to be had dissolved over time bc she was a teenager
"They came to rob us of our poverty" is such a great line.
It has "what are you protecting, the Struggle?" energy.
LMFAO 🤣
Spartan were known for their quick witty responses, their 'bon mot'. Another king to a spartan one presenting his city walls, wanting to impress him got for answer "what fine quarters for women", so you can imagine, pretty much like Frank Miller's comic and the subsequent adaptation.
Nils Pochat I’d guess that being quick with a response would come about naturally if you’ve spent your whole life with your “friends” constantly and intensely mocking every aspect of you
That sums up how brazilians feel about anything left from feudalism!
"Spartan nurses were so prized for their skill at neglect and their complete lack of empathy." sounds like some nurses I used to work with..
@@johngenericlastname9781 Maybe not current year, pre-pandemic though
@@johngenericlastname9781 I mean I personally know several people who got sick from *something* at least, if you want to dispute whether it's COVID or something else.
@@johngenericlastname9781 Flu season is year round? You could just say its really the flu without specifying the time period.
@@johngenericlastname9781 so why have like 200,000 more people died this past year? Coincidentally it started right when the pandemic started. What a weird coincidence that like 20k people a month MORE THAN AVERAGE died right after COVID started spreading. I mean, are those bodies fake? Are all the families who have lost relatives paid actors? What about the morgues that ran out of room because most hospitals only have a dozen or less capacity? Its all fake? My aunt wasnt a real death? Because the flu doesn't kill 20k people a month.
You can't argue with facts. A shitload more people died this past year than is normal.
@@johngenericlastname9781 flu does NOT kill 3 million a year. Google it. You are delusional. Flu is average 60k per year. Covid has been over 3x that. Wtf.
And deaths being attributed to COVID is a Red herring. 200K MORE PEOPLE DIED IN THE PAST YEAR THAN THE PREVIOUS 10 YEARS. WHAT A COINCIDENCE.
Plot twist : he’s really an immortal spartan who retells history while eating all the meals he’s had thru the millennia
Yes.
Could explain how he can pronounce all of these foreign words perfectly
Also explains why he liked the soup. You can see the nostalgia in his eyes when he sipped the broth.
Seriously he was smacking them lips 👄
He's actually part of The Old Guard... Andi collects art, he collects recipes and stories...
He was craving it
“It doesn’t look good, but it’s not terrible.”
Fun fact! For most of human civilization, including Ancient Greece, presentation of food was considered much, much more important than taste, so maybe that WAS what they were complaining about.
Really? How do we know? Can you point me to some sources or something?
Watched a documentary on Food of the Middle Ages an they had a similar mentality. Not me, give me the PEASANT food that tastes good rather than some Modern Art Masterpiece that tastes like the bottom of my Chamber Pot lol.
maybe they cooked it more crudely than tastinghistory did. not much water if at all, just boil everything in the blood with a ton of vinegar. maybe there would have been some oats or beans, and the pork cooked rare. all the organs as well, the heart and liver, perhaps intestine. they didnt waste anything. now that would probably be a different experience than what we saw here lol
@@Mutiny960 was it modern history? He shows what peasants are vs. knights vs. nobility and the peasant food looked (and seemed to taste) the best.
@@mingolaflare6224 No it was a specific documentary on Food of the Middle Ages about an hour long. You can find it here on TH-cam. They talked about stuff like live birds inside a pie and Elaborate cakes made to look like Castle that took days to make but werent meant to be eaten.
Now usually the secret ingredient to homemade soup is love and the joy you have for family and friends, but here we are going to substitute that for fear of helot rebellion and hatred for Athens. But not too much, lest we become spoiled.
😂🤣🤣
Funnily enough, the supposed rivalry between Athens and Sparta is more of a historical artefact, due to the striking differences in the two conceptions of government and the Peloponnesian War. However they were allies on numerous occasions, and after Athens lost the Peloponnesian War, Sparta was rather lenient on Athens (Thebes and Corintus wanted a much harsher punishment on what was essentially the imperialistic power of fifth-century BCE Greece). Real hate was between Sparta and Argos, sworn enemies so much that when Persia invaded Greece, Argos remained neutral in order not to be allied with Sparta.
This is woefully underrated
I award you best comment of the day... nay, the week! (I would say the whole month but, yanno, the whole spoiled thing...)
Love for your Spartan bros, love for freedom, love for Sparta.
"Moral of the story? Steal vegetables."
I died.
Or just not steal small predatory animals....
So did the kid after stealing the fox lol
@@c4call Or just kill the fox before you stuff it into your trousers.
Distortion Nation Damn you beat me to it
The version I heard of that story was it was a fighting cock used for gambling that was stolen by the boy, which makes more sense than someone raising foxes at that time.
I love one line I heard in my War in the Ancient World class: A Spartan fled the field of battle and returned home. Upon reaching his mother's home, the woman walked out and (upon seeing him) lifted her skirt and said "Do you want to climb back inside too?"
Hot
@@AndreLuis-gw5ox 🤨📸
there was another case of a young Spartan soldier preparing for war and thus getting the family weapons (apparently his father's). He looked at the short sword and lamented, "this sword is too short to be any effective" to which his mother replied "just approach a bit more your enemy". LOL! Heartless women.
@@dinos9607 ya think thats the same thing his mom said when seeing his fathers other sword?
@@AndreLuis-gw5oxya thats going on the record
"Spartan nurses were so prized for their skill at neglect and complete lack of empathy..." lol that's where I lost it.
Like the British nannies of the 19th century.
I too laughed very hard at that part. Maybe too hard.
I'm sorry. I laughed many times during this video presentation.
@@TastingHistory Watch out: we'll turn Mary Poppins on you! The recipe reminded me of Asturian bean stew, which is essentially a load of pork belly, a bunch of white beans and slices of black pudding (blood sausage) which disintegrates and makes the rich sauce.
@@TastingHistory Hope people now realize the importance and revolution of Dr. Benjamin Spock [1903].
"Don't worry, modern archeology disputes this."
Oh good-
"All the bodies they found there were adults."
Oh god.
Maybe the babies' bodies were carried away by scavengers/necromancers
I imagine the mother or other family members retrieved the bodies and buried them. Maternal instinct is no joke even for a spartan woman. Besides, I genuinely doubt the degree of callousness attributed to the Spartans. One must remember the Persians and Greeks tried to erase any record of their society, and what information did survive was rife with disinformation.
@@ubermenschmexa a yes the mountain necromancer, a common sight in ancient Greece.
@@swedishm90camouflage17 Sadly now extinct.
The bodies found at the bottom of the cliff were traitors and war captives, and the babies were left outside of the city to die. Sometimes the perioeci (more info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perioeci) or the helots took them and raised them.
Honestly, I think that "I would never crave this" is the highest compliment the Spartans would hope for with this dish. So much of their social regulations were about curbing different types of greed that they would be delighted that even millennia after their decline, their food still stifled what they referred to as "greed of the stomach".
brilliant
The Peloponesian War really exposed Sparta as being nothing more than a legion of thugs who only cared about money at the end of the day.
@@kyonkochan ah yes, the good old practice of painting a whole people with the same brush based on selected instances
@@mokkaveli Those "Selected instances" are the historical documents everyone quotes when talking about Sparta. Most of it comes to us from Plutarch.
@@kyonkochan
And those selected instances are based on a time of Sparta losing tons of money because the entire Greek world ganged up on them, so Sparta took everything owed to them and more. The Greeks had a habit of loving Sparta when there was a foreign enemy, but as soon as things were cool and normal Sparta was GARBAGE to them. Sparta was fairly reclusive in the amount of battles it would take part in, but the Greek world sure loved to taunt the people they were most afraid of. And in the end, Sparta won.
Granny Goodness pro-tip: After you add the pork, add the vinegar, salt and bay leaves. Don't stir... yet. let the vinegar boil, otherwise it won't "cook" well (the vinegar) and leave a slightly bitter taste. Once it boils you can add the water and stir.
Some variants of this dish utilise pork intestines (well cleaned of course) and pork liver. The insight for this is in the past, it was common practice to be frugal with meat, that as little of the animal as possible should go to waste. Sometimes the "waste" products denoted hierarchy or caste standings as in the case of Umbel pie, however other times culture and tastebuds win over social norms as noted with Chitlins and other African American delicacies and Haggis.
I’ve had the Argentinian version of grilled intestine. (Specifically the large intestine) it wasn’t “bad” it just kind of lacked flavor. I wonder if it was just that one batch that had no real flavor. Idk.
@@AwesomeMusicLady That's kind of like eating a sausage casing without any filling, I figure, considering guts are commonly used as sausage casings.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine fair point.
"how often do you get to eat black food? Not too often"
me looking at my lack of cooking skills
black eggs with too much salt is my level of cooking
@@muhhammadilham4743 how do you fuck up an egg bruh 😂
He must not like Popeyes chicken
I recommend use the plate assisted flip to make that omelette keep that nice round shape 👌👌👌... even tho it's half burned...
@@joshuasalomon3289 Start with century eggs?
"Brick of blood"
Well, there's three words that should never appear together.
🤣 it’s my new death metal band name.
@@TastingHistory LOL! I hear it's also the preferred building material in Transylvania.
It is a thing as the blood would coagulate into a block and can be handled. Found in some Chinese and other culture cuisines today.
"Brick of blood" is a more or less apt way of describing Black pudding
Super delicious though
I'd be suprised if it didn't have heart, liver, or marrow in it. Extremely nutrient dense.
A little Helot
Surprised that he didn't use olive oil, they put that stuff on everything, even themselves.
Marrow is the best. I created this soup where you boil beef bones all day then to the broth, add a lot of chopped up portabellas and a few cans of great northern beans and some chopped up steak and just let it cook in a slow cooker for hours in the marrow broth. Add a few bay leaves. ad far as I can tell bay leaves just act as an emulsifier and let the fats and oils mix with the water better. Only salt and pepper for spices with that. My wife and I deal with winter by making it 'soup season.' and making all sorts of great soups. she just made her Kale, ground sausage, potato soup in a cream and butter broth. Then I have my Split pea soup with lots of ham and bacon and all the bacon greese in there. there's so many great soups. I have a great White chicken chille I make. Sorry I'm hungry I guess. Can't forget creamy buttery chicken and wild rice soup.
Blood, marrow, bone dust, lentil paste, and scraps from the warriors feasts you are absolutely nothing until you are a warrior, your a spartan so you aren't a slave, you will be given nothing but what builds you as a boy, as a man you will have broth and meat, but lentils where easier to grow and had more portien per gram.
Spartan women make spartan warriors so they get the choice cuts, you a warrior make due.
That sounds delicious
I’m actually surprised cooking with blood has become such an oddity in the West. Most cuisines have dishes that use blood. Europe has multiple traditional blood sausages, soups and stews.
I think that came from the mindset of setting ourselves apart and more “civilized” as a new culture overall during and after the time of the revolutions. So many cultural practices including food were slowly left out in favor seeming less barbaric or uneducated. This also helped the many cultures assimilate better and not stand apart. I could be wrong, but it seems that may be the case. Just like black pudding in Scotland is still used today, but it didn’t survive in the americas as a main dish despite the heavy Scottish population in many regions.
I know it's common for people who eat meat.
@@kcarter0265 instead the big Mac thrived in the US 😏😇
@@kcarter0265 Something to do with the Puritan movement apparently. Following the Bible more closely than other Christian denominations. Puritans got bigger in the US than it ever caught on in the UK or Europe.
I mean some in the East can think that cooking with blood is an oddity too
Just the concept of blood soup is so metal that I’m adopting it into my dnd campaign
You get the chance to find a Portugese or Brazilian restaurant and ask if they got Feiojada, the ingredients found in that dish shares ingredients with black broth
In Poland "Czarnina" is made from blood of a duck or a goose.
There is also a tradition in Poland (altough almost nonexistent nowadays), that if a boy came to a girls house and her family would serve him czarnina, that meant the family will not accept him and he should gtfo.
And here is an actual recipe for a polish goose blood soup, with a touch of dried fruits (no english subtitles unfortunately)
th-cam.com/video/DtPPhq-OyBg/w-d-xo.html
Also (as you can see in the video) the base of the soup is made by boiling the otherwise "throw-away" parts of the bird.
It is a common thing in eastern europe (and it was a common thing all over the world not that long ago) and it's surprisingly tasty.
However I am quite sure that your players won't be familiar with it. You can start by describing a big pot full of boiling bird carcasses, feet, heads, necks etc. and when they are repulsed by that, then you describe pouring the blood into the soup. Have fun :D
@@MrAsaqe I got the opportunity to eat feijoada one time from a brasilian friend, it was delicious
There are lots of versions across many cultures. Not a US thing
Come to germany! We have soup, sausages, pudding and cake made with blood. But we lack spartan humour or in fact any humour.
"How to make a spartan ?"
Take a baby you judge strong (toss the weak in a ravine) then proceed to
T R A U M A T I S E
@@omkr0122 If you dunked it in wine and it survived then it was judged as strong; enough of your tautology!
And people wonder why Spartan Society was fundamentally unsustainable..
@@Wasserkaktus
Actually the customs and simplicity is what made it strong. Greek politics are what killed Sparta. Sparta won the Peloponnesian war against Athens. It’s just every part of Greece hated Sparta (bar maybe Boeotia) and worked together to make sure Sparta stopped having any money. As well, Sparta sort of loses favor if there isn’t an immediate war as well. That is all they were considered good for, they worshiped Ares for crying out loud ;)
@@GokuInfintysaiyan This is complete bullshit.
Sparta was fundamentally unstable. The entire society was built on oppressing their enslaved population with a level of tyranny unmatched almost anywhere else at that point, and then also expecting other lower castes such as the Perioeicei to do literally everything else for them, including trade, manufacturing, food production, and even supplying the bulk of their armies (Most of the soldiers in Spartan Armies were Perioeicei; Spartiates were a minority in their own Armies.).
This all happened while the Spartiate population continued to shrink over time because of their extremely strict and rigid citizenship rules, and the only jobs Spartiates could themselves do were military work, police work such as the Krypteira, or participating in governance. They were explicitly prohibited from ever leaving Spartan Territory unless they were ordered to do so on military campaigns or emissary missions.
Even in what you Fanboys and Spartans themselves claimed to be their biggest strength, war, was in fact inefficiency performed by Spartans. The Agoge taught resilience and tactics very well suited for irregular warfare, which apart from the Krypteira, was something Spartans shunned and avoided, opting instead to put all their effort into their Phalanx, and this almost never changed even as military technology, strategy and tactics evolved and improved all around them. The Spartan Army was squarely defeated by Thebes even before Philip I of Macedon came into the picture, and their supposed "crowning achievement", which you point out as the Peleponnesian War, was only really won by the DORIAN LEAGUE (Sparta was just the leading State of this League) because Athens suffered a Plague in the middle of the War which killed a huge portion of their population, a population much larger, more flexible and superior to Sparta's, and it also killed Pericles, who would have absolutely lead Athens and its Delian League to victory had he not been killed by the Plague. He was about to instigate and arm a massive Helot revolt which would have completely destroyed Sparta, had he not died and a bunch of bad leaders took his place.
I haven't even talked about several other topics which made Sparta just awful. Face it, Sparta sucks.
@@Wasserkaktus
First of all, calling me a fanboy? Really? Just shut up and debate me normally. Ad hom isn’t gonna get either of us anywhere so can we please just act like grownups?
Now for one, you’re not considering the strict limitations placed on Sparta due to location and culture. They were shunned for worshipping Ares, shunned for bad-mouthing, treated as brutes with no intelligence by many commoners (despite it being WELL known by Athens that Spartan education was fairly wholistic), etc
For another, I grant you that they placed too much in the Phalanx when they could’ve had equal and possibly greater success if they just skirmished based on their level of conditioning and training (Boeotia, Vikings, and many other cultures understood this).
You’re also not considering leadership and placement of their troops. How many times did Sparta have the land advantage? Hell they always went far away from home and ended up fucking themselves in that regard as well. I’m not arguing it was perfect, but sucks? Sparta was crucial in winning the war against Persia. Athens, even if it’s ENTIRE main population had died, had gained MANY allies with huge populations to assist them in the sagas, and their naval fleet was still fairly protected. Besides that, Athens governing system was better, while the Ephor and Oracle often made really stupid calls against the judgement of Kings who knew war (literally Leonidas and his 300... plus 6000 other greeks and a supply line consisting of about 10,000 slaves). But that was also relative to the time not just to Sparta.
And again, Spartans won more battles than they lost. Also I saw Thermopylae as the crowning achievement based on sheer numbers and level of attrition, you know, a showcase of their training actually making a difference. Besides that, take Spartan women, who were trained in similar respects to the men, and the success they found outside of Sparta due to their training!
Sparta’s flaw is that is governing system operated under the assumption that as long as they were strong warriors, everyone would be cool with taking care of all the other crap they needed. And this isn’t exactly flawed thinking since this is essentially how mercenaries get by. But Sparta wasn’t respected for anything except combat so no one was interested in that status quo, and even if a king did want to change that it’s ultimately up to 5 Ephor to tell him if he can or can’t. Spartans made strong citizens capable of any task, but it’s problems were not just internal but a reflection of the same issues that caused all the in-fighting of the Greek world. And you know that’s true.
Sparta was a society that had its potential squandered. It’s training was effective, it’s methods of training were practical, but the execution was never great because the leadership was usually a shitshow of “will I be allowed to do this? Hope so!” and getting shot down, and then being the most reluctantly supporter society imaginable. Sparta would’ve been fine with a more streamlined governing system and a focus on having more Spartans. The slave/helots issue was always present, but again, the conditions of that come down to being mainly a political issue and could be negated by more troops regardless.
"Alcibiades had a Spartan Nurse and he turned out great."
Alcibiades, history's first militant NTR antagonist.
The Char Aznable of ancient Greece.
The man who stabbed so many backs he made Revolver Ocelot look loyal by comparison.
The char aznable of ancient Greece hahahahaha holy shit dude haha so true
I'm bad at both history and anime someone please explain
@@aguywithahand502 so chars dad was killed, he was the beginning of a revolution for people born in space, this is in the future. Anyways to get revenge he plays both sides and starts a war so he can take out the people involved. Alcibiades went and betrayed Athens and seduced a spartan queen, it lead to a whole host of problems, I highly suggest watching count dankulas mad lads video about Alcibiades
@@FUBARGunpla you're a legend thanks
I'm going to get a petition going to put that characterization in our history textbooks!
Polish guy here. Our blood soup is called "czernina" (which loosely translates to black soup).
While made out of duck (or sometime geese) blood instead of pig blood, it does actually taste quite good.
Also Kaszanka sausage is made using blood, similar to black pudding.
@@phenethylamine91 Black pudding in Canada and Germany.
I've had this before at a Polish restaurant in Buffalo, NY. It was lovely :).
@@Misses-Hippyalso in the UK
I love how you've got a unique Pokemon plushie in your videos depending on the food. Magmar for Pompeii and Hitmonchan for Sparta
Nice that you spotted that
Never noticed, but now I have to go back and watch them all to see
I appreciate that you add metric measurements! Many North American cooking shows/videos fail to do so. Plus, it could help attract audiences.
My husband pointed that out after I'd spent a day binging and didn't notice that they changed 😆
I personally would have chosen a Spoink or something like that! XD
British Cuisine:
*”Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary!!!”*
Black puddings the best
"British contribution to world cuisine : The chip"
@@astrorafhan First recorded chips in Europe were in belgium, but it's known that South Americans were frying potatoes before anyone in Europe knew what one was.
@Mike J I am english and some of it IS bland though, but the reality is a lot of northern and eastern european food isn't as tasty as much of the rest of the world. I live in Germany and can honestly say the food here is really bad, they use even less herbs and spices than brits do and really rely on the Turkish for nice tasting things. For example Germans don't really have savory snacks in their bakeries, you need to get those from Turk bakeries.
@Mike J It is a stereotype, I’ll concede, but it is still pretty lacklustre, speaking as a native.
you just sound like the history teacher everyone at school says is cool
nah mine was from texas and would be like "anyone mess around here, imm have the security here faster then you can say "ohh shit my bad""
Maybe because he's the same age that your History teacher was at the time you were taught.
@@PickleJuice76 man my social studies teachers in texas are mainlycoaches and they don't care if you talk as long as you aren't too loud
and he also looks like the history teacher everyone at school says is hot
Teachers who are actually passionate about what they're teaching are the best.
An update for anyone who is thinking of trying this! After having the first batch made following this recipe with no deviation, I had a few things I liked and a few I disliked! Biggest dislike is the blood going grainy once cooked, the thought of eating blood doesn’t bother me, however the texture of curdled things does! I played around when making another batch and changed a few things to make it what I think is a little more palatable since we are spoiled with good tasting, non boring foods. For the meat I used a pork loin since it’s leaner- which in part was an issue I had since I don’t love chewing fat or greasy broths. I believe this also helped lessen the graininess of the broth. I used more onion, more salt, celery salt, pepper, garlic clove, garlic powder, onion powder, half the amount of white vinegar with the other half being balsamic vinegar, some wine to cook with the pork as well as to finish off at the end, more water as I felt necessary and I think that’s about it! I’m not a chef, and maybe it’s just watered down lipstick on a pig, but the clarity of the broth is way better, the meat itself isn’t as bland and porky, the vinegar isn’t quite as overwhelming and there is a verrrry distinct Umami flavor I didn’t notice with the original! If nothing else hopefully the idea is interesting or maybe someone who is actually good at cooking could make an adaptation and I’ll try it!
respect for trying it out and coming back with the update 🫡
I bet you have a pattern where thinking outside the box has improved other areas of your life!
Though it may not be too popular today, cooking with blood has been common throughout history. What other ingredients make you squirm?
TastingHistory oh so many things. Bird Nests from Asia, snails from Europe, horse meat from Italy. As a cooking ingredient, blood is a staple of German cuisine, and, in Scandinavia, blood is baked into many breads. My great grandmother apparently liked to make Bludwurst.
Tripe. It’s a texture thing.
Brain... Eugh
Offal in general is unpopular in the West. But I find myself quite liking Liver, one of the tamest of Offal.
It is Greek. You don't dissapoint ever. I love you, but don't tell Jose.
“Who’s that Pokémon!”
*Looks behind Max*
“It’s Hitmonchan!”
A perfect choice
Hitmonlee is more bangable imo.
"It's Pikachu!!.....awww dammnit!"
@@TastingHistory you should make a special Halloween episode making Pokémon foods xD
@@TastingHistory Hitmonlee would be a pro at the Spartan kick.
"How often do you eat black food?"
Excuse me I eat oreos every day
I love liquorice. But I know I'm weird.
Black Lunch Matters!
haha thanks bart
Black beans, cuban style.
Dark Chocolate be like "Am I a joke to you?"
I just imagined Kratos eating Melo Zomos and Atreus spitting it out while getting Krato's death stare for spilling a 10/10 Gordon Ramsey's level dish.
Brok: I made some svartsoppa! Had to use pig instead of goose for the blood ‘n all but I think it’s adequate
Kratos: It reminds me of the melas zomos from back home…
Mimir: Aye, I’d eat it like the black puddings from my homeland if I didn’t think it’d fall out my neck hole
Atreus: I think I’m gonna be sick 🤢
Kratos: You are spoiled Boi…
@@Abdega I see you are a man of culture!
Moral of the story: "Steal vegetables" Time to forever steal potatoes.
PO-TA-TOES.
No potatoes in ancient Greece I'm afraid.
I laughed so hard at that part
This is semi-relevant at best but one of my weirdest memories when I was a kid is the time me and a friend noticed that someone whose backyard was next to the school playground was growing rhubarb, and my friend just decided to scale the chain-link fence and steal that rhubarb. He rinced it in a water fountain and we ate some rhubarb during lunch hour, and no one really asked any questions even though kids carrying several whole stalks of rhubarb around the playground cannot possibly have been common. So, I'll vouch partly for stealing edible plants.
If someone died because of a blunt force of a shillelagh against the back of your head, I would know it would be you.
I love how he's presenting this recipe as if someone is going to make this.
I don't see why not. The availability of blood might be the main limiting factor. But for example I would gladly add slices of black pudding into a pork stew.
@@Kinotaurus I don't think it's about it being hard to make...
Blood, meat, and onions. Sounds pretty damn delicious to me
@@Gabranicus So do crickets to lizard people...
(= - =) (slowly backs away)
I'm a Filipino and we have our famous Pork Blood Stew, it has intestines yum! Perfect with a loaf of bread.
"Alcibiades turned out just fine"
I assume that's a subtle in-joke. The man is often used as an example of a historical figure who was probably a psychopath.
Yes 😉
Based on descriptions, it sounds like a society which breeds, encourages, and rewards sociopathy openly, which does make me wonder just how accurate historical accounts actually are.
Yea I think the going comparison is that in history there have been two hitlers, one named Alcibiades and the second named Hitler :-/ lol
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine yes, it has to be an exaggeration if only because such a disfunctional society would be able to last one or two generations at most
Can't hear your accusations. Too much charm and Henry Cavill-with-anime-eyes. "Whatever you want, Alcibiades." (q.v. Overly Sarcastic Productions)
As a history student I just discovered this channel and I'm absolutely floored because I've always had an interest in food of the past.
It's important to remember that it's still not known on what occasion the Spartan's ate this soup. They almost certainly didn't eat it while on the march or on the battlefield, as their rations largely involved grains for porridge, with cheese and wine (as well as anything they could get out in the field). More than likely, outside of the meals in the Syssitia, it's likely that it was made during either sacrifices or big state festivals. Keep in mind: unlike Athens or Crete, the Spartans were land-locked which meant that they relied more on livestock and game for meat than other city-states of that period. Also important to remember: Spartans held the art of cooking in high esteem, so the epaiklon was also meant to show one's cooking skills as well as their skill in the hunt.
Must have been a very dry cheese because that sounds like the worst thing to take on a march
TBH as I had commented some time back, I think that the true "blood soup" as you said was prepared only on special occasions (blood spoils quickly so it can't be preserved, and carrying enough animals on campaign to feed daily an army would mean destroying a herd every battle) whereas on the field they could have used a differend "black broth" made of staining ingredients (lentils, wine, roasted olives etc.), that were normally carried on march and would make an basically even more bland/unappetizing soup (especially mixed with some boiled salted meat like what you'd carry on campaign) than actual blood-based soup. The idea of Spartans eating blood on the regular was also probably PR on their part to give them an additional aura of badassery (and Spartans, as their recorded witty remarks show, were masters of selling their legend as warriors as much as proving it on the battlefield)
I find it difficult to believe the Spartans placed any value in ANY form of art.
@@WobblesandBean war is an art and they placed more value in that than literally anything else.
@@WobblesandBean Spartans were known for the art of wordsmithing, both in their laconic retorts and poetry
This is literally everything there is in a Northern German Schwarzsauer dish, only the consistency is a little bit less liquid. It honestly was one of my favourite dishes as a child. It’s more typically made with pork belly, so definitely a fattier piece of meat then the one you used, and maybe one or two more spices might be added (some cloves maybe, maybe using a good broth), but not a big difference at all. It can be a really tasty dish, combined with potatoes and maybe some sweet and sour pickled pumpkin, which is what we prefer. The orange of the pickled pumpkins and the yellow potatoes are a satisfying contrast to the blackish brown dish.
Does it taste like vinegary blood sausage?
Kind of, I guess. It’s a different taste, but of course you have the same „earthy“ and kind of sweet tastes you can find in many of the German and Central European blood sausages or black pudding, but with a little bit of sourness from the cooked vinegar.
Someone mentioned the German blood sausages, we have a similar thing here in Bulgaria, it's mostly pork liver, lungs, some blood and rice, leeks as well, all packed into an intestine and boiled. I hated it as a youngster, but perhaps it's an acquired taste for me now, absolutely love a good homemade one during the cold winters (with a glass of red wine and some cheese and bread), nothing beats it. Not even prosciutto.
Good question! It‘s a mildly sweet and sour taste, in a way comparable to beetroots, especially regarding the consistency.
@@peterkroger4311 are they small / baby pumpkins or just normal chopped in pieces. I've never tasted picked pumpkins either, but we did pickle baby watermelons (the lucky ones who grew those on their own land at least - I just recall my grandpa doing it, also grapes and that tasted really odd, but nice). Not sure how things are now, since I've lost my touch with the land. Not available in the stores for sure.
Spartans be like: Ha look at those sissies eating well seasoned and carefully prepared meals
Other Spartan: Yeah! Pathetic! Hahaha! *Internally cries as he is served the same meal for the past 5 years*
I imagine it's pretty energy dense so honestly it checks out for Spartans
Yeah except that peloponisian war ......
@@reverendglitch Yea, but as the Man above you comments, no matter what you're eating, if it's the same thing over and over again, human beings enter a weirdly suggestible psychological state. Which is pretty useful for keeping absolute consistency in such stagnant, insular insignificance as the Spartans.
They even have sex with women for pleasure 😆😆😆😆 that what slaves and teen boys are for! Spartans were men of tase !!!!
Spartan mom: "Come back with this shield, or on it"
Her son: **wins fight but shield breaks** "The frick do I do now"
Well, the phrase doesn't say the shield has to be whole..
Apparantly if a spartan never had his shield he would be ostracised humiliated and charged for treason. True story
@@stylianosavraamides9286 happened to me once.
Bind it back together with the leathers of your enemies boiled skin.
@YouveBeenGreeked Not quite an inch of wood, but close to an inch overall. Bronze facing, wood core, leather, and felt, and often a hanging leather apron against arrows. It was close to 15 lbs. Unlikely to break.
I do remember eating some type of black soup in a Persian restaurant, it was made with lamb and and unholy amount of saffron, it tasted pretty good. I think it was served with flatbread.
the pithy comebacks aren't just a meme, they literally practiced it. called Laconic phrase, named for the area (in which sparta is located), the spartans were well known for their sharp wit.
and to add to your shield story; there's a story where a young man did come back without his shield. and his mother hiked up her skirt and basically implied he might as well climb back in.
I heard that he only came back because he ran away from battle and asked his mother that if he could hide home. That's when she pulled up her skirt and told him he might as well climb back. I.e, mom tells coward son he's a lil baby bitch.
That's hilarious.
Come back with your shield or on it.
I don’t get what’s so offensive about losing a Shiel though. Presumably it did its job...?
@@danidejaneiro8378 the shields they used were heavy, and if you were running away, the first thing you drop. but not something a victorius army would need to worry about, only deserters. hence "come back with it (victorius) or on it (dead)". and not without it (deserter).
This is quickly turning into my favorite history channel. Most other channels only focus on the wars, but you show and tell how the people lived. It's really refreshing to be able to see them in a human light rather than just statistics on a board game-like battlefield. Definitely going to continue looking through your content, I can't get enough. :)
I bet they only made this for when they were "entertaining" Athenian diplomats.
🤣 right? Jokes on them.
"Oh my god, I can believe they fell for it. They ate that crap!"
"Hey I have an idea, what if we make a vinegar and pig blood soup for this Athenian, and tell him it's one of our main dishes"
Now to my history of modern diplomacy and political science ears - these stories about Spartans sound about 25% local boasting, 25 % crazy humor, 25 % xenophopia and 25 % athenian war propaganda. And theuy thought these in school like facts. 😂
Shades of Discworld’s jokes about Klatchian food, where it turns out that “vindaloo” is Klatchian for “mouth-scalding gristle for macho foreign idiots.”
I'm Filipino and I love dinuguan, there should be more spices for this blood stew for someone to enjoy it, It's usually added on rice, a dip to puto and topping to pancit ^^
It's funny to imagine Kratos eating Melas Zomos during his spartan warrior times~
I always have to remind myself that while Mexicans and Filipinos share a language, certain words(puto) have very different meanings
@@prestonnormile9996 Oh yeahh that is true ahahahhahaha
I’m sorry to hear that, I will pray for you
@@prestonnormile9996 We share a couple words, but not a language. The Philippine Dialect of Spanish is pretty Mexican (it's pretty much extinct btw).
I Hoped to find a dinuguan lover like me ahahahah
Acually the recipe was:
1.They slaughtered the pig and took great care to collect its blood. The blood was mixed with vinegar so that it would not thicken.
2.Then they fried the pig meat and the pig fat (salt and bay leaves).
3.Add water (not specifying quantity).
4.
Once the water started to boil, they mixed barley flour in it and gradually added all the blood and vinegar.
5.Then, while everything was simmering, they poured water so that it was always kept slightly watery.
6.Once the flour did not absorb any more water it meant that it was ready to be served.
7.The soup was accompanied with barley bread.
Sounds pretty good. A somewhat bland but hearty meal.
Cool, source?
@@kylew.4896 It's from an article of a greek historian. Article name "Φάρος της Λακωνίας αρ.φ.463/28.04.83"
@@gravygraves5112 Guarantee everyone seasoned and spiced it in practice. I've seen old recipes many times where seasoning and spices were left out or sometimes added lines about seasoning to taste since herbs and spices were limited to what was available.
You did your research 🧐
As someone who comes from a predominantly Polish background, to me this sounds a lot like czarnina (which means "black soup", and is made from duck, duck's blood, and vinegar).
There's also a version made from smoked pork - only this version uses raisins and prunes to achieve the dark color. It still includes vinegar, though - even though it's not required for anti coagulation.
The raisin and prune version sounds good. I can't get behind eating scabs, even if they are liquified.
@@SG-js2qn
Recipe for czarnina smega (or "blind czarnina"):
Put a pound of smoked ham hocks into a large saucepan or a stockpot, cover with water by about an inch, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and simmer for at least 4 hours - overnight is fine. Skim as required.
Put it into the refrigerator, and chill until the fat solidifies. Remove the fat. Separate the meat from the bones, chop it into bite-sized pieces, and return it to the stock.
Chop about 1/4 lb. each of raisins and prunes and add to the stock. Bring back to a boil, and return to a simmer. Simmer for about 1/2 hour. Add either red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar to taste. Serve as is, or with wide egg noodles (kluskis).
And as always... *ENJOY* !
I'll stick with pierogi, thanks!
@@supergeek1418 I would probably do a simplified version that cooks up fast, like an adaptation of an Indian korma or biryani, which uses nuts and raisins along meat, vegetables, and rice.
@@Mark-zu6oz
While I really do enjoy pierogi, I probably like this as much. It pretty much tastes like barbecue soup.
Don't knock it until you've tried it.
If you reduce the water and add garlic and ginger, you’ve got dinuguan. The Asian stores may sell frozen pig blood (cabalen’s) which will be significantly better than blood curd as it will be a smooth, thick ‘gravy’ without any grittiness.
Mmmm blood curd, now I have an idea for gothed-up poutine.
Joe Mama 😂
Oh, thank goodness! Because grittiness was my main concern. 😒(Sarcasm)
But seriously, even if I would try the blood, if it was gritty as well? GAME OVER! 😝👎
Don't forget the puto (sweet rice cakes) to accompany it
goldilox369 haha my friends said the same thing before they tried it. Having said that, it doesn’t necessarily taste as you’d expect. In a strange way it has a subtle earthy creaminess or atleast a creamy mouthfeel. But if you use blood curd then that’s different. Not that nice at all.
All that vicious mockery on their teenage years probably made them the masters of retorts later in life because the Spartans had some of the best lines and comebacks ever
"Pork leg" Back then they didn't waste anything from the animal's body, so they probably included literally every part of the pig, including the brain, eyes, liver, hearth, etc and only cleaned out the inedible parts (or maybe they didn't even do that). So yeah, I can definitely imagine why it was a shitty dish, even without taking into account the potential poor skills of some cooks.
Well... besides the hooves, hair, bones (excluding gelatin) and gall bladder you can eat everything from a pig. Innards are delicious.
I'm sure the Spartans understood that the organ meats are the most nutrient dense part of the animal . The pork leg was probably fed to the dogs.
They probably burned the inedible parts as sacrifice to the gods. Pigs were the most popular sacrifice animal due to how quickly they breed. After the sacrifice ritual, the meat would either be cooked and eaten or sold in the marketplace.
These days we only do that in hot dogs.
Most people outside the western/ developed world still eat organ meat. Even in the west/ developed world the body parts you mentioned are still utilised either in cultural dishes e.g. haggis, or in things with a homogeneous meaty texture like nuggets or processed sausages.
Spartan "Waiter there's a fly in my Melas Zomos"
Waiter "OMG that poor fly... "
🤣
That could be an improvement, anything to add a bit more flavor.
Stu Saville - Waiter: “Sorry sir, that’s an extra obol for the fly”.
"So if you have fresh blood add it right into the soup"
Yes officer, this guy right here.
imagine tho, CSI guys come in with the blue light & the freaking blender is the only thing that lights up lmaooo
"If."
I love that the Spartans that saw the difference between the twos food weren't even mad just impressed that the preseason army had such good food
There happened the opposite as well. In early 4th century king Agisilaos II organised a campaign in Minor Asia against Persia. When moving with this army deep inside he raided the region of Phrygia which was governed by satrap (Persian governor) Pharnavazos. Pharnavazos called Agisilaos II to a meeting to talk and they arranged it at a neutral zone out on the field. Agisilaos and his guards were sitting on the ground while Pharnavazos arrived with a whole team fully equipped with a tent, carpets, pillows and plenty of food to give and invited Agisilaos to come and sit to talk. However Agisilaos did not stand up to go sit there. Pharnavazos, who was quite older than Agisilaos, was not vexxed at all, he understood that a Spartan would be reticent to do such especially in front of his troops, he stood up and approached Agisilaos and sat down on the ground next to him and then they talked. Pharnavazos' manners highly impressed Agisilaos and if I remember well they came to an agreement to cease Greeks' attacks against Phrygia.
For anyone who has tried pulling reeds without a knife like a Spartan trainee, no it isn't hard strength wise. But it will cut your hands HEAVILY getting them all. It's a callous building exercise, the same as making them walk barefoot but faster and more painful because it's the hand version.
@FlyingMonkies325 You think a society that basically lacks any empathy would give boys gloves to pull out the reeds? The whole point is to harden them, gloves would go directly against that...
@@johannesruf5903 Cadia broke before the guard did! Wait...
@@nflippo6201 Let it be known; the planet broke before the Guard did.
@@jasonhunter2819
First day in the guard:
"Men! Here before you are your standard issue cardboard boxes, flashlights, and wheelbarrows. With them, you will be fighting against the largest and most monstrous beings in existence. None of you will survive. I won't survive. But I'll be damned if we survive. Win or lose, we we die... Any questions?"
"What are the wheelbarrows for, sir?"
"They are for facilitating the mobility of your massive brazen testicles! FOR THE EMPEROR!"
We modern folk, My dad would judge a fellow by his handshake, I'd be judged a pansy not a callus or scar
In Brazil we have the "Galinha ao molho pardo" (loosely translated as "chicken in brown sauce") wich is a very common stew made from chicken pieces, cooked in the chicken's blood with herbs and such. We learned that from the Portuguese.
That sounds delicious. Here in the UK we have a traditional blood sausage called 'black pudding' but it's not popular really, it's mostly older people who like it. Fresh blood is basically impossible to get, because of the lack of demand, so we can only get dried blood, which isn't the same.
@@DZrache I've never had the British one, but I had the Finnish mustamakkara (often served with jam), and I really love the taste. I wonder if this dish would taste similar
In Portugal we call that "Cabidela de Galinha/Galo", traditionally its made with rooster
I have a few theories about the dish. It’s possible that it was made with pig’s organs, and considering this is a pre-fridge time, they’ve would’ve been in awful conditions
@@DZrache Cabidela the portuguese dish is not popular either I only ever eaten it in special occasions and it was always made by my grandfather and since he died I never have eaten it again.
My grandfather raised chickens so he would kill them himself and make the cabidela.
But i live in a big city maybe it's a lot more popular in more remote regions of the country.
We have a dish made with blood here, it's called dideh, fried patties of blood. The one I usually eat is made from chicken blood, so delicious. It's so interesting how many cultures make use of every last bit of the animal.
Waste not, want not.
When every hunt is a blessing, you learn quick to use EVERYTHING.
Where would that be? Google is failing me.
When life is one bad harvest away from massive famine, wasting food is a capital offense that could result in divine punishment in some cultures.
Are you by chance a Minang?
dinuguan or “fritada” as we call it where i’m from is one of my favorite foods. it doesnt bother me personally but if you can get past the black color and the fact that it’s blood, it’s a pretty good meal when made right.
Oh boy, something I actually learned about in school. You are a brave man than I to try such a thing.
Brace or dumb
“Tonight we dine in hell”, less of a threat and more of a promise of better things to come. LMAO
"Thank God, I'd love a barbecue right now"
A Hollywood phrase right?
Thanks. I didn’t hear it the first time
I'm sure Hades served tasty food
Max: “How often do you get to eat a black broth?”
Brazilians: Every week?
Rsrsrs
@@TastingHistory wait a minute, do you speak Portuguese?
Kkkkk
toda semana feijoada ou só o feijão preto
Everyday with rice.
I've had pork blood and meat soup with a hint of chilly that was authentic mexican food made by my friend's great grandma. I was 1 of the only ones who would eat it, thought it was good. Chances are they kept it cooking so it wouldn't rot if it was a warm area and there was no way to preserve it. Now I want some lol. I guess I'll have to settle for (beef) liver and onions and some garlic buttered toast.
"It's fine."
Clearly your inner spartan is nostalgic.
Hearing about Spartan life growing up was really interesting. They literally trained and encouraged their kids to have the mentality of modern high school chads, with the notable exception being the taunting. The fact that they were ruthless about it until they were told to stop implies that it wasn't for deprecation of the one on the receiving end, but to temper their patience.
A Chad of Patience?
@@lotharbeck71 Probably how they were able to dab on Persia. Master the body, and you'll be tough. Master the _mind_ too, and ascend to true Gigachadom.
This all sounds extremely overblown. I believe a lot of historians took some liberties with how Spartans lived.
Spartans didn't raise their kids to be snowflakes.
Unfortunately, one fact of Spartan youth many never mention is that, during their military training, the young boys were sexually abused. That and the dirty sleeping conditions and starvation was an effective way to traumatise them, leading them to be less compassionate and more ruthless.
After 6 years enlisted, if a local restaurant had that, I'd definitely go for it. Mmm. Meat, blood, onions, vinegar.
Modern military provide worse meals than ancient military
@@iggy1979 I mean roman military meals weren't great
If you haven't already you should check out black pudding
I feel the very same 🤤
Blood sausage on rye is an old (polish?) meal that still makes me salivate just thinking about it. And I've been vegan 5 years lol
Quick correction, It was Gorgo who said "come back with it or on it", Leonida's wife, and told him that when he gave him his shield before marching to Thermopylae to fight against Xerxes's army.
Thank you for this recipe! I've always had the question of how they made it, but never got around to goggling it
*Leonidas'
I don't know about that (seemed to be quite customary anyway), the known dialogue before Leonidas' departure was Gorgo asking him what she should do and him answering "Marry a good man and raise good children".
"If Billy avoided the pit" is one of the funniest phrases ever said on this channel, it gets me every time
"Now if Little Billy *doesn't* have his guts ripped out by a woodland creature..."
@@wandanemer2630 🤣🤣
They came to "rob us of our poverty"
That is some next-level self deprecation
Like wtf 🤣🤣. Probably thinking these idiots 😂😭😭
It was flavorless? That really surprised me. I imagined a sour metallic taste. I was waiting for you to pull a face like you did in your Kykeon video! I give you kudos on this one, Max. That was pretty brave. 💜
I’d expected it to be metallic too, but not at all.
Dishes with blood in them don’t really taste much like blood at all. Here in Taiwan there’s duck blood soup, that has big loafs of coagulated blood in it, and they just taste like... mush. There’s also pig blood cake, which is rice mixed with pig blood, slice into long cubes, and rolled in crushed peanuts (with cilantro and chilli, as you desire) and it just tastes like... rice and peanuts. I think the blood is mostly used as a thickener, it honestly has little taste of its own. I have also had a Filipino blood soup that was just amazing. Lots of cultures use blood, and once you try it out you can kind of see why. It’s not as weird as you’d expect!
When I saw the thumbnail for this video I thought the soup looked amazing, but after hearing the ingredients I wasn’t surprised at all that it was bland.
@@MrBobillion I was hoping it'd taste better too in this video. I agree, it's practically like red tofu, not tasting like much, and depending on various things, its texture can be like very soft tofu to dry hardened ones (that is usually either stewed in some kind of braising liquid that has some form of anise or stir-fried). And yep, not weird to me as I had a number of pork and duck blood dishes growing up.
Cooked blood has a mild, earthy, organ-y taste. Kind of like boiled liver, but milder. I personally think dishes with blood benefit a lot from vinegar and strong seasonings, so that the taste of the cooked blood just fades into a pleasant note in the background.
@@TastingHistory I eat morcillas in Spain quite a lot, it's a type of blood sausage and yeah, not at all metallic, kind of an earthy flavour, deep but not in an overpowering way.
I grew up eating quite a bit of blood sausage and offal.
My favorites were intestines and my paternal grandmother's blood sausage she would make with a sheeps stomach turned inside out, potato, bits of liver/organ meat, blood, and other stuff I can't remember.
So, this meal has definitely caught my attention and is something I'd love to try and make this coming winter. 😋
Geez, no wonder Gerard Butler was so cranky in that movie. I always assumed it was because his leather jockstrap was chafing him.
And can I just say I admire your restraint? A video about blood soup during Halloween month and not a single vampire joke. Impressive!
I try to be subtle 🤣
To both you and Max: make an episode on Hungarian blood pie!
I think the bit about ze blüd might qualify as half a vampire joke.
@@alexandresobreiramartins9461 You mean blood sausage? I have never heard of blood pie in Hungary.
Hey he had the "mwa ha ha ha ha"
"So if you have fresh blood, pour it into the soup right now."
Okay!
*slash*
Man, this soup is to die for.
Noooo 🤣
"if you ain't born a badass, you can't eat the badass blood broth" - Spartan cook basically shading Dionysius I
Cómo ADORO que esté canal tenga la mayor parte de sus videos con subtítulos al español, es simplemente glorioso, un ejemplo a seguir.
blood is also rich in nutrients, mostly iron, so yeah, it's needed for developing nice muscles and a healthy body. Blood sausages are a thing in many cultures, and here in Hungary we usually eat the blood of the pig after pig slaughters, it's either cooked or fried with herbs and salt, and it's SO delicious.
How much protein it got tho?
@Channelnamehere Nice
They would have ate majority of grain like barley and other carbs. 50% of their diet actually.. Would be sufficient in iron. And protein was easily achieved and even excessive with their diet.
@@zoarmhirr2964 Not much protein, meat has more. But blood is tasty.
Usually with onions.
"Bricks of blood"
Sounds metal
In my country we call them "betamax" after the cassette tapes that they... kinda resemble
Also tastes metal
@@zellodine4708 also true XD
Build a house with it
It can also taste good in certain circumstances. Like a uh savory pudding. But it’s blood. Coagulated blood.
"Now don't worry, modern archeology refutes this because all the bodies found there have been adults."
Thanks man, that makes me feel better.
birds ate them and thow them away
It was the place of execution of traitors
Wolves, lions, bears, vultures and several other predators/scavengers would readily eat newborn corpses...
It wasn't related to this video, but Spartiate men were also known to breed (often through rape) with lower caste women, and if those women had boys, those boys would become Perioeicei, who were the real backbone of Spartan Armies, and if those women had girls, the girls would be quickly killed because they served no "purpose".
Seriously, fuck Sparta.
@@Wasserkaktus Are you sure? Pretty sure Spartan women were somewhat respected as they taught them to read and take care of the Homefront/children. Without the women there were no Spartan soldiers, the most important thing to them.
@@gagewileman9434 That status was only reserved for Spartiate women not Periokoi like George said
"today we are eating my cheat meal melas zomos, olives, and lemnian wine"
-kratos probably.
Well, It's only 10:00 am, but I think I'm done eating for the day.
Ha! Sorry about that.
Watched this whilst making lunch... Tried to figure out how to make black egg burritos for my children, without ruining them.
Fortunately for my kids, the eggs finished before I could begin experimenting.
Laird Cummings
I doubt replacing the water/milk in your scrambled eggs with blood would be enough, although you could probably add a lot more per egg than you would with milk or water.
@@ragnkja I was thinking more along the lines of sauces and ingredients. There are some very flavorful black sauces; was just trying to think of what I had, that would go well.
Max, I love your comments in telling the story of the recipe and in the history. You are doing some amazing research and in telling the story behind the recipe. Personally i have managed to avoid eating any form of blood soup...basic disgust at the thought. At this point in my life I doubt I will change my mind. I wish I had you around when I was studying and teaching ancient history...would have been MUCH more fun.
Thank you so much! Maybe they’ll use my videos in history classes 😉
Roy Shelly have you tried blood pudding?
Martin N. Yes I have. Not disgusting but not something I would go searching for unless really hungry. But thanks for asking.
@@TastingHistory if they did im sure more people would take them!
Chicken soup for me! 😉
" Don't worry about death, the food is better there " 😅
Leonidas:"tonight we dine in hell"
Spartans:"Finally, some good fucking food"
Tip: Asafoetida is also called "Hing"; it's found in Indian food stores & general spice shops (in CA). This recipe sounds delicious! In hearing you recite the ancient version -- perhaps the bird remains whole & 1st batch of wine/garum/herb liquid is poured inside the "square" opening of tail-end cavity; the 2nd batch of Asafoetida/water poured over outside of bird; bake. Just an idea :) Love your channel!
Being a butcher's grandson, this brings back memories from when I was little, every time a pig got slaughtered at my grandfather's farm. Schwarzsauer is so good! "Using the whole animal" includes its blood. If you never tried anything with pork blood in it, try it, then complain. :)
Nothing should go to waste
This is why I'm vegetarian lmao
@@JenIsHungry Nothing wrong with that at all. :)
Pretty much every culture, even west European cuisines, have their own blood-based recipes. Mainstream American culture is if anything the outlier.
I think demands a retitle such as "Spartan Keto chow" Then a graphic of a spartan helmet and the word "tactical" thrown in for no reason.
You could be very, very rich. I have no doubt there are some keto bros who'd love this.
This soup is VERY keto.
Me: Oh cool! New video! I'll watch it while having breakfast.
Max: (putting blood brick into blender) "...There might still be some chunks in there."
Me: :: slowly pushes breakfast away::
Yeah. Best to save this one.
hahaha. Me here eating a bowl of leftover chicken and rice.
Yeah. The blender was the hardest part. I might put the scene on repeat, next time I'm craving for junk food.
Mmm, looks good (eating vinegary garlicky rice with fried eggs)
"You're moth-"
"cease"
"i wasnt even fin-"
"CEASSSSEEEE"
The spartans and their way of life, even all the way down to their quisine existed solely to spite the weakness of mankind
True men
Well true warriors
@@howmuchbeforechamp yeah...booty warriors
@@howmuchbeforechamp they were also cucks
Did you just spell cuisine with a Q???
More like to spite themselves. They only became so militant because of a slave revolt that they barely managed to put down. Afterwards, they made some changes.
"The ancient Greeks were just being little babies" - Max Miller, 2020
🤣
As a Roman legionnaire he’s gotta get those little jabs in against the Greeks whenever he can.
Astavyastataa at Pydna it was mostly butchers’ work. Less jabbing, more cleaving.
Honestly, given that most of our sources are Athenian, they probably just wanted to portray their most hated foes as artless barbarians. We have precious little unbiased intel on what the Spartans were actually like; they were certainly warrior-men of great report with every soldier held to an elite standard, but other than that... I guess we're pretty clear that they respected women? Athens certainly found it strange that Spartan women could vote.
@@clockworkkirlia7475 Plutarch wrote much about Spartans, and overall, was a decent source of info.
This channel combines my two favorite things, history and food.
Why was I not notified of its existence before?
Came for the recipe, stayed for the history lesson.
Me in every video he uploads
Most annoying part of the show imo. I come here for a historical cooking show but he barely spends any time cooking.
@@TsunaXZ Me too!
Why would you want this recipe?
Cooking with pig's blood isn't uncommon in the Philippines. In fact, we have stew that's very similar to Melas Zomos. "Dinuguan" (which roughly means "bloody" in Filipino) is a stew made with cubes of pork cooked in pig's blood and vinegar, sometimes a green chili is added as well. The vinegar and the chili are there to help get rid of the mineral taste that blood can have. (Vinegar is also added to prevent coagulation as Max previously mentioned). Sometimes it's jokingly called "chocolate soup" to convince children to eat it.
"Moral of the story... Steal vegetables!"
Almost choked
So did the kid.....while he was vomiting up his own blood lol. He didn't though, Spartans kids are trained not to vomit, it shows weakness haha.
As the son of a Filipino man, I quite like pork blood stews and soups. The one my Tita makes for us is really tangy.
As a teenager I used to hang around and help(and also learn a lot from) a relative who was a butcher by trade. I often had something very similar to what is described here. I actually developed a taste for it. years later I encountered a similar dish in Scotland. The locals were surprised that I actually ate it and was not disgusted by it.
Before my hubby retired, when he went off to work carrying his briefcase, I would tell him 'Come back with your briefcase or on it.' It doesn't have the same ring as the Spartan mother's saying, but it made me smile.
Now I’m imagining a bunch of sad office pallbearers trying to drag a corpse along supported by an average-sized briefcase.
Thank you for the chuckle.
@@Ajehy What a fun image! Thank you for the chuckle, too!
@@Ajehy
No, wait; the coffin dance meme with the dancing pallbearers carrying the corpse on a briefcase.
Filipino here, I'm glad you pointed out our dinuguan! Your recipe was really close to how we make dinuguan, just add some pepper and chilies and you're good to go.
Pepper is a new addition, after America was discovered and peppers / chilies brought to the rest of the world, this recipe is from much earlier times. :) But some local herbs must have been used, oregano, thyme, juniper, rosemary, also perhaps lemons instead of vinegar, they grow naturally in Greece. Just guessing.
"Come back with your shield, or on it" could also have another meaning, as shields were used as stretchers to carry the wounded. So it could very well be that the mother is not saying "victory or death" but rather "fight bravely, and never run" as most deaths in ancient battles occurred during a rout. Thus to stand and take a wound means you are actually more likely to survive and return home alive.
Spartan mothers were not known for their compassion.
@@ContentConfessional
A Spartan soldier did come home without his shield once. His mother lifted her skirt, the implication being that she was telling him “you might as well climb back in”
@@GokuInfintysaiyan lol imagine if the soldier took the "you might as well climb back in" literally and attempted to go under her skirt 😅🤣
@@Skycube100
“Yes mother” *shameful crawl*
It meant, do not flee from battle. In Greek there is a word for a coward who flees the battle, ρίψασπις which translates to “shield-thrower” as soldiers fleeing would throw down their shields to run faster.
There was a funny quote about a Greek fighting some Gauls where he said “the Spartans say to come back with the shield or on it, I see a Gaul man picking up the shield I threw down, it’s okay I’ll buy a new one”