The World That Was

A blog dedicated to recreating ancient dishes for a modern palate! New recipes every Friday! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheWorldThatWas Blogspot: https://the-world-that-was.blogspot.com/

[the-world-that-was]

Dulcia Piperata by Apicius

Io Saturnalia! The Roman celebration of the end of the year, Saturnalia, is next week! So celebrate another end of another year, I'm making a simple baked treat to serve for any saturnalia celebrations you have planned - a quick and easy Dulcia Piperata (as recorded by Apicius)

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Check out my Patreon for more!

Ingredients 1 cup / 150g flour 2 eggs 1/2 tsp ground rosemary 75 g chopped almonds 2tsp ground pepper 100 ml sweet white wine (or grape juice) 2 tbsp honey Milk 75g Chopped hazelnuts

Method: 1 - Mix Dry Ingredients Toss about a cup of flour in a bowl. Add in some rosemary, a couple teaspoons of ground pepper, and about 75g of chopped almonds to the bowl. Mix everything together, just so it's all evenly mixed. Rosemary is a commonly-found herb in the Mediterranean, and found it's way into Roman cooking in a variety of dishes! I'm using plain white wheat flour, but wholemeal wheat or spelt would have also been used here.

2 - Mix the Other Ingredients Next, crack two eggs into a measuring jugs, before adding your wine (or grape juice, if you're not using alcohol), and milk. Add in enough milk to bring the total volume of liquid up to about 450ml. Pour the jug of liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. The whole thing will be like a pancake batter. If it's too thin, add a few more tablespoons of flour, and if it's too thick, add a little more milk!

3 - Bake Next, prepare a baking tin by wiping some olive oil over the sides and base of it! Pour the mixture into your tin. Bake at 190ºC / 375ºF for about 30 minutes. It should be done when a skewer comes out clean when the centre of it is poked. Take it out, and let the whole thing cool down in the baking dish. It may collapse a little, but this is totally fine and to be expected!

4 - Finish When the cake is still warm, spread some honey over the top and sprinkle it with chopped hazelnuts and a few whole hazelnuts. The honey will caramelise a little at the edge of the dish, which adds a lovely deep flavour to the whole thing!

Serve up warm with another spoon of honey, and dig in!

The finished dish is super light and sweet, with a tangy undertone from the wine! The honey drizzled over the top infuses into the body of the cake, resulting in a springy, sponge-like cross-section! The rosemary adds a lovely woody kick to each slice, and pairs wonderfully with the taste of the white wine!

[the-world-that-was]

11th century Talbina (Barley Porridge) by Ibn Sina/Avicenna

Today, I'll be making a simple barley porridge, as recorded by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) in the 11th century! This dish shares a lot of similarities to my Sumerian Sasqu recipe from a few months ago, suggesting that it may have been a regional dish in antiquity that has been preserved through the centuries to modernity.

In any case, let’s now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Check out my Patreon for more!

Ingredients (for about 3 portions) 6 tbsp barley 1l milk honey sliced almonds (garnish) cardamom seeds

Method 1 - Simmer Milk and Soak Barley To begin with, we need to prepare our barley. Soak about 5 or 6 tablespoons of barley grains in a bowl of water overnight, to help break them down in the cooking process. So if you want to make this today, you should've started this yesterday. Or at least 4 hours beforehand. Drain these before using them!

Then, pour about a litre of milk into a saucepan, and set it over a medium high heat. Though the original recipe uses undescribed milk, I'm using whole-fat cow milk. But sheep and goat milk, or even almond milk, can also be used here! In any case, let everything heat up until it is just about bubbling.

2 - Add Barley and Spices While the milk is bubbling, go de-husk a few tablespoons of cardamom pods - using the seeds themselves in the dish. Keep these seeds aside for later! When the milk is at a rolling boil, pour in your soaked and drained barley, along with your cardamom seeds.

3 - Serve up Serve up in a bowl of your choice, garnish with a few scoops of sliced almonds, and dig in while it's still hot! Add in some honey, to taste, if the dish isn't to your taste!

The finished dish is a delightfully soft yet fragrant and sweet dish! The barley has broken down slightly into a toothsome paste, and the taste of the cardamom gives the talbina a wonderful floral kick to each mouthful. The original sources for this dish describe it moreso as comfort food - something that is rarely recorded in medieval cookbooks! Typically, contemporary documents would describe similar dishes, or things that would pair with the recipe in question. However Ibn Sina (Avicenna), along with numerous other contemporary Arabic writers, explicitly states that this dish is not a day-to-day thing, rather one that "relieves some sorrow and grief"

"The talbina gives rest to the heart of the patient and makes it active and relieves some of his sorrow and grief." [Saheeh al-Bukhaaree (5325)]

Though I used honey here, pureed and stewed dates may have been used as well - which we can see in my earlier sasqu recipe.

[the-world-that-was]

11th century Byzantine honey cakes

Today, I’ll be taking a look at a medieval Byzantine honey cake - which itself is based on an earlier Greek iron-age cake, amphiphon. This is going to be a light, fluffy cake with a rich, honey flavour!

In any case, let’s now take a look at the world that was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! If you like what you see, consider supporting me over on Patreon!

Ingredients 1 cup flour ¾ cup butter ¾ cup sugar ½ cup walnuts salt orange rind

1 - Cream the Sugar and Butter To begin with, toss about ¾ of a cup of room-temperature butter into a mixing bowl. Into this, place about ¾ of a cup of sugar. Mix everything together using a wooden spoon, smearing the butter into the sugar along the side of the bowl. Do this until it takes on a rich, creamy texture. At this stage, beat three eggs into the mixture, taking care to mix them all thoroughly before progressing!

2 - Add Dry Ingredients Next, toss in about a cup’s worth of plain flour, along with a pinch of salt. Mix this together into a smooth batter. If it’s looking a little dry, add a tiny splash of milk to rehydrate it a little.

When the whole thing is combined, and still sticking to the side of the bowl, toss in about a half a cup of roughly crushed walnuts. While it’s stated that walnuts are served alongside this dish, it’s likely that they would have also been baked into the cakes, which help soften the nuts.

3 - Prepare Tin Using the butter wrapper, grease a baking tin. While metal tins were likely used in late antiquity/the early medieval period, stoneware would have also been widely used! The original recipe doesn’t seem to discuss baking instruments, so I opted for using a shallow square dish.

When it’s been greased sufficiently, grate the rind of an orange into the dish. Though oranges and lemons were seemingly grouped together as “citron” in antiquity, we can assume that cooks would have known the difference between the two. So, I used an orange, as it pairs nicely with the honey and the walnuts here.

4 - Bake When the tin is prepared, pour your batter into the dish. Make sure it’s spread evenly across it, so it all bakes at the same rate. If you want, you can dust the top of your cake with ground cinnamon. Keep in mind that this will brown faster than your cake will, so it may look burnt in the oven, but really it will only be barely cooked!

Place your tin into the centre of an oven preheated to about 200F or 175C for about a half an hour, or until the edges of your cake have browned and turned crisp!

5 - Finish Cake

Take it out of the oven when it’s done, and let it cool to room temperature. But before it’s fully cooled, pour a good amount of honey over the whole thing! This will let the whole cake become infused with the sweetness of the honey!

When the cake has fully cooled, cut it into segments, and serve up with some walnuts!

The finished cakes are wonderfully light and sweet! The caramelised orange rind on the base gives a wonderful zesty kick to the honey taste. The cake rises a fair bit due to the number of eggs used, but retains a great airy texture.

[catgirlcaliphate]

This looks like a predecessor of basboussa!

[the-world-that-was]

That could very well be a possibility! The Byzantine empire's contact with the later Ottoman Empire could have affected the development of basboussa in the late medieval period - through the spread of culinary trends and concepts.

[the-world-that-was]

11th century Byzantine honey cakes

Today, I'll be taking a look at a medieval Byzantine honey cake - which itself is based on an earlier Greek iron-age cake, amphiphon. This is going to be a light, fluffy cake with a rich, honey flavour!

In any case, let's now take a look at the world that was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! If you like what you see, consider supporting me over on Patreon!

Ingredients

1 cup flour

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup walnuts

salt

orange rind

1 - Cream the Sugar and Butter

To begin with, toss about 3/4 of a cup of room-temperature butter into a mixing bowl. Into this, place about 3/4 of a cup of sugar. Mix everything together using a wooden spoon, smearing the butter into the sugar along the side of the bowl. Do this until it takes on a rich, creamy texture. At this stage, beat three eggs into the mixture, taking care to mix them all thoroughly before progressing!

2 - Add Dry Ingredients

Next, toss in about a cup's worth of plain flour, along with a pinch of salt. Mix this together into a smooth batter. If it's looking a little dry, add a tiny splash of milk to rehydrate it a little.

When the whole thing is combined, and still sticking to the side of the bowl, toss in about a half a cup of roughly crushed walnuts. While it's stated that walnuts are served alongside this dish, it's likely that they would have also been baked into the cakes, which help soften the nuts.

3 - Prepare Tin

Using the butter wrapper, grease a baking tin. While metal tins were likely used in late antiquity/the early medieval period, stoneware would have also been widely used! The original recipe doesn't seem to discuss baking instruments, so I opted for using a shallow square dish.

When it's been greased sufficiently, grate the rind of an orange into the dish. Though oranges and lemons were seemingly grouped together as "citron" in antiquity, we can assume that cooks would have known the difference between the two. So, I used an orange, as it pairs nicely with the honey and the walnuts here.

4 - Bake

When the tin is prepared, pour your batter into the dish. Make sure it's spread evenly across it, so it all bakes at the same rate. If you want, you can dust the top of your cake with ground cinnamon. Keep in mind that this will brown faster than your cake will, so it may look burnt in the oven, but really it will only be barely cooked!

Place your tin into the centre of an oven preheated to about 350F or 175C for about a half an hour, or until the edges of your cake have browned and turned crisp!

5 - Finish Cake

Take it out of the oven when it's done, and let it cool to room temperature. But before it's fully cooled, pour a good amount of honey over the whole thing! This will let the whole cake become infused with the sweetness of the honey!

When the cake has fully cooled, cut it into segments, and serve up with some walnuts!

The finished cakes are wonderfully light and sweet! The caramelised orange rind on the base gives a wonderful zesty kick to the honey taste. The cake rises a fair bit due to the number of eggs used, but retains a great airy texture.

[the-world-that-was]

14th Century Rice Pudding from Naples

This week, I'm going to be making a quick and easy rice pudding dessert, recorded in a 14th century Neapolitan cookbook - the Cuoco Napoletano! Rice began being used in medieval Europe intensively around the 9th or 10th centuries AD - though evidence for it's cultivation in the Eastern Mediterranean date back to Alexander the Great's conquests into Asia.

In any case, let's now take a quick look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above!

Ingredients (makes 4 portions) 2 cups rice 4 cups almond milk 1 cup sugar saffron

Method 1 - Wash and Cook Rice To begin with, we need to cook some rice. I used basmati rice, but Arborio or other, fatter-grained rice would have been used in antiquity as well! Begin by washing a couple of cups of rice in some cold water. Move the grains around with your hands, to get rid of excess starch. When the water runs clear, place your rice in a pot, and fill up with cold water until the rice is just about submerged.

Place your pot over a high heat until the water boils. Let everything cook until the rice is almost done - but not quite ready. Take it off the heat and let it cool down.

2 - Prepare Saffron Next, rehydrate your saffron a little. Do this by letting it sit in some boiling water for a few minutes. Saffron is VERY expensive, so you can of course skip this step - it's really only to add colour, and a slight woody taste - to the finished dish!

3 - Prepare the Milk While your rice is cooling, go pour about 4 cups of almond milk into a saucepan, along with a cup's worth of sugar. Bring this to a boil over a medium heat. The original recipe tells you how to make almond milk as well, by combining ground almonds with water. Keep your sugar and milk mixture stirring occasionally, while you wait for it to boil.

4 - Combine Ingredients When the almond milk is at a rolling boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer away. Add in your cooled rice back into the pot, along with your rehydrated saffron! Mix everything together, and let it cook for another ten to twenty minutes. Or until your rice is lovely and soft, and stays in a soft mound when you pile it up with a spoon.

Serve up either warm or at room temperature, and dig in!

The finished dish is quite simple, yet very sweet! The three main ingredients - rice, almonds, and sugar - would have been readily available in many medieval Mediterranean markets - particularly in those markets at the conflux of trade routes, such as along the Italian coast.

The original recipe also mentions that other kinds of milk can be used when making this - such as goat milk. However, it neglects to mention that if you use those kinds of milk, stirring it when it's coming to a boil could cause curds to form - making it more like a kind of cheese, rather than pudding.

[the-world-that-was]

Medieval Irish “praiseach” (savoury porridge)

Today, I'm making a quick and easy accompaniment to any medieval Irish meals you have planned - a bowl of praiseach (pronounced: prashock)! The basis of this is a simple savour porridge, that's then flavoured with some sautéed mustard greens! Although wild mustard (charlock) greens are usually used, any suitably pungent edible greens can be used!

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above!

Ingredients (for 4 portions) Mustard Greens / Turnip Greens 2 cups oatmeal (or oat groats) 2 cups milk (or water) butter Method

1 - Prepare the Greens To begin with, we need to chop some greens. Though praiseach is normally made using wild mustard (charlock), you can also use normal mustard greens, or even turnip greens (like I'm using here). They all have similar taste profiles - being pungent, slightly spicy greens - that react similarly when being cooked.

In any case, chop your greens finely, removing any untoward-looking leaves that escaped your prep-work.

2 - Sautee the Greens When your greens of choice have been chopped to your liking, toss a knob of Irish butter into a pan, and let it melt. You can of course use local butter, I'm just totally not biased. When the butter has melted, toss in your chopped greens, and let everything sauté away over a medium heat for only a couple of minutes. Your greens may shrivel up, but this is normal! Take them off the heat when they've been coated in butter, and are lovely and fragrant.

3 - Prepare Praiseach When your greens are cooling off, go start making your porridge base. Toss equal parts of oats and water (or milk, if you want to be fancy) into a pot, and place this over a medium-high heat. Keep stirring this so it doesn't stick to the bottom of your pot.

While I used rolled oats here, which may have had a similar analogue in antiquity, whole oat groats would have been more commonly used (i.e. the whole, unhusked grains themselves, as opposed to the modern rolled, husked, and crushed grains used here). This would have had a higher fibre content than this dish.

When your oats have been cooked, but are still about 10 minutes from being served, toss in your cooked greens. Stir all of this together, and let it infuse for ten more minutes.

Serve up warm, in a bowl of your choice, and dig in!

The finished dish is quite thin and easy-going. It's not overly flavourful, but has a nice background heat thanks to the mustard greens. By sautéing them, you cut the edge off the taste, and let it mellow out among the oats.

Oats are a wild grain, and can be grown in relatively poor-quality soils - such as those in parts of the midlands and west of Ireland - and as a result were seen as a "peasant grain" for much of the medieval period. Porridge is one of these peasant dishes that persist into the modern day, as it's still a simple yet filling dish that can be altered with the addition of different ingredients!

[the-world-that-was]

Iron Age Honey and Sesame Seed Sweets (koptoplakous/pasteli)

Today, I’ll be making a quick and easy sesame snack from the Cretan Iron Age! A treat so sweet that it’s still popular today (with a few adaptations of course) - the koptoplakous as it’s known in antiquity - or the Pasteli as it’s known today!

In any case, let’s now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video above!

Ingredients 200g sesame seeds 200g honey sea salt (to taste)

Method

1 - Toast the Sesame Seeds To begin with, we need to lightly brown and toast 200g of sesame seeds. Do this by tossing them into a hot pan, and letting them cook over a high heat for a couple of minutes. Don’t let these sit still, keep them moving around the pan so they toast evenly! Do this for about 5 minutes, or until your seeds are nutty and fragrant.

Take these off the heat, but keep them warm while you deal with the honey.

2 - Boil Honey Next, place a pot onto a high heat. Into this, scoop about 200g of honey and let it heat up. Keep stirring it occasionally with a wooden spoon, so it doesn’t burn. Let this cook away over high heat until it foams up significantly. Much like boiling milk, this will happen very quickly, and might catch you off-guard. If it looks like it’s getting too high, take it off the heat and it’ll cool down pretty quickly.

3 - Mix Honey and Sesame After about 10 minutes of foaming, turn the heat down to low before tossing in your toasted sesame seeds. Stir all of this together and let it cook for another 5 - 10 minutes. The honey should start to turn a deeper golden brown, but if it gets too dark, take it off the heat immediately.

When it’s been mixed together, pour it out onto a baking tray lined with paper. Spread it out into a fairly thin layer, but not too thin! Let it sit like this for about 20 minutes or so, before slicing it into segments with a knife.

You can serve this up whenever it’s cooled like this, or leave them overnight to re-solidify a little more! Either way, the finished dish is super sweet, and has a delicious nutty flavour, thanks to the toasted sesame seeds.

The modern name for this dish - pasteli - has its origins in medieval Italian cuisine, as this kind of sweet treat is common throughout Europe, the Near East, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Though obviously, each region has its own takes on this basic formula, such as the addition of local spices, nuts, or other ingredients!

[dragon-teapot]

Gonna think about the history behind them next time I eat one of these.

[the-world-that-was]

Medieval Georgian Baked Apples

As the autumn comes to a close, and the cold of winter sets in, I figured it'd be a great time to make a simple savoury treat from medieval Georgian cuisine - stuffed apples! Though savoury stuffed apples are commonly found in the Caucasus region, this isn't exclusive to Georgia! Armenia, and parts of north-western Iran, western Turkey, and Azerbaijan also have regional variants of this dish!

In any case, let's now take a look at the world that was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! If you like what I make, consider supporting me on Patreon!

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

4 large tart cooking apples honey ground cinnamon ground nutmeg water 1 cup rice butter

Method 1 - Prepare Apples To begin with, we need to prepare our apples. Do this by slicing the top off of about 4 large apples, before carving out the middle - leave about a finger's width of a wall.

Drizzle some honey in here, and sprinkle a little ground cinnamon inside. Honey was used in the civilisations of the Caucasus for millennia, and was an important part of many people's diets in the medieval period.

2 - Prepare Filling Next, pour a cup of rice into a bowl, and pour some water over this. Rinse the grains until the water runs clear. When it's cleaned, keep the grains just about submerged, and bring the pot to a boil. Cook your rice for a few minutes until they fluff up. When they're done, let them cool down a bit, before mixing in a handful of raisins or sultanas, along with some freshly-grated cinnamon, and some freshly grated nutmeg, or mace.

Both of these spices were commonly found in the kitchens of the region in the medieval period, thanks to Georgia's proximity to the silk road and spice trade.

3 - Assemble Stuffed Apples Take your hollowed apples, and fill them to the brink with your rice stuffing. Place a dollop of butter over this, before placing the lids of your apples back on top.

Place your apples onto a deep tray, and pour about a cup of water into this. If you want, you could add some more aromatics or spices in here - such as mint, rosemary, or cloves! Then put the tray into an oven preheated to 350F or 175C for about a half an hour, or until the apples puff up and turn golden.

Take your apples out, and serve up alongside some roast meat and vegetables! Spoon over some of the baking liquid, to rehydrate the rice a little too!

The apples are quite tart, but with a deliciously sweet undertone. The flesh is melt-in-your-mouth, and pairs very well with the texture of the fluffy rice. This pairs really well with roast lamb and pork, and is a fantastic (and easy) side-dish for any feast you're preparing for!

[the-world-that-was]

Medieval Syrian Party Food - Fried Courgettes with Sesame Sauce

This week, I'm going to be making a simple party dish - recorded by a Syrian writer in the 13th century! Though the dish is described very literally as "gourd dish", it is, in fact, a delightfully savoury and crunchy snack that can be served at parties alongside a simple yet nutty dipping sauce! Thanks again to Charles Perry for the translation of the original Arabic!

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! If you like my recipes, consider checking out my Patreon!

Ingredients (serves 4) 1 - 2 courgettes / zucchinis (or 1 bottle gourd / calabash) 1/2 cup walnuts (finely ground) 1/2 cup tahini paste bunch of finely chopped mint 1 tbsp ground coriander 1 tbsp ground cumin lemon juice (to taste) honey (to taste) olive oil / sesame oil (for frying)

Method

1 - Prepare Ingredients To begin making this dish, we need to grind up about a half a cup of walnuts into a fine powder, along with about a tablespoon of cumin seeds, and a tablespoon of coriander seeds. Then, finely mince some fresh mint. All of these ingredients are native to the region in question, i.e. the Near East, and were used throughout history to today!

2 - Prepare Sauce To make the sauce, simply pour about a cup and a half of tahini paste into a bowl, along with your crushed walnuts, ground cumin, and ground coriander to taste! Squeeze the juice from half a lemon, and add it to the sauce, before tossing in your chopped mint, and get to mixing! Taste this when you're done to see how bitter it is. If it's too dry and sour, add a bit of honey to loosen things up a little and sweeten it! Make sure you do this to taste, mind you.

3 - Prepare Gourd When your sauce is done, we need to deal with the gourd! A common issue in antiquity is the ambiguity over the translation of "gourd" as many gourds we see today come from the New World (i.e. the Americas). However the bottle gourds (or calabash) and courgette (or zucchini) were commonly cultivated in the Mediterranean in the medieval period - with evidence for the courgette dating back to the Hellenistic Period! So for this, I'm using a courgette, as it's easier to deal with. Slice this into thin segments, about as thin as your little finger.

4 - Fry Gourd When you've cut the segments, coat them in flour, before placing them into a pan filled with sesame oil over high heat. They should foam a little, depending on the water content of your courgette. Let these fry for a minute or two, or until they're golden brown on one side, before flipping them over and letting them brown on the other side for the same amount of time.

When they're done, place them on some paper towels or a rack to drain off excess oil for a minute. Plate them up with some of your dipping sauce and dig in!

The finished dish is very light and crisp - and pairs wonderfully with the nuttiness of the sauce! The thinner segments act more like modern-day crisps (or chips, depending on where you're from), and are a fantastic dish to have at any medieval parties you're heading off to!

[the-world-that-was]

Pre-Christian Irish Carved Turnip (Samhain 2021)

This weekend is the pre-Christian Irish holiday of Samhain - celebrated more widely as Halloween! Due to my current circumstances, instead of a recipe this week, I'll be doing this instead! Pumpkins weren't present in Ireland until well after the Columbian Exchange, but turnips are an indigenous vegetable here - and were carved for millennia.

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! If you like what I do, consider checking out my Patreon!

Ingredients A Turnip

Method 1 - Cut top off turnip To begin making a carved turnip, you of course need a turnip! Try and get a large turnip, as it'll be more sturdy once carved. Cut the top off the root bulb - alternatively you can cut the base off the turnip, using the leaf bundle at the top as a handle! Either way, be very careful when cutting into this. Turnips are notoriously difficult to cut easily. Plus, if you're careless - like I was earlier - the turnip will win against you.

2 - Core turnip When the top of your turnip has been taken off, start scoring the inside of your turnip with a knife. Leave about a finger's width of a wall of the turnip. This will make it easier to carve a face out of later, and will also give the whole thing a bit of structure when it's done. You may find it easier to use a metal spoon when scraping the inside of your carved turnip - use whatever is easiest for you! But try and not scrape more than your spoon can handle, as it can and will bend to the will of the turnip.

3 - Carve Face When your turnip is suitably hollow, you can now get to grips with gouging out it's eyes and mouth. Traditionally, turnips were carved in the image of scowling faces - in an attempt to dissuade evil spirits present at Samhain. But of course, you can carve whatever you want these days! Try and carve some teeth if you want!

When the whole thing has been carved to your liking, place a lit candle inside it, and set it out somewhere for you to enjoy!

Carving vegetables or fruit is found worldwide, throughout various cultures and time periods. While the art of carving turnips for Halloween has fallen out of style due to the ease and hardiness of the pumpkin, turnips are still used around Samhain in rural areas of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales! The term Jack-o-Lantern is an 18th century name for these decorations, and we are unsure of what they were referred to in antiquity - in Irish it was likely called a carved turnip. A simple name, but it does the job well enough!

[the-world-that-was]

Minoan Bean Salad (Palikaria)

Today, I'm going to be making a simple pulse and leaf salad present in ancient Cretan - and possibly wider Hellenic - culture! It' still eaten today, in a modern dish called "palikaria" which is eaten in the Eastern Mediterranean around feast days. Although the modern version of this dish is associated with Christian religious festivals, its likely that it arose from pre-Christian practices!

In any case, let's now take a look at the world that was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! If you like my recipes, consider checking out my Patreon!

Ingredients 1/2 cup small broad beans 1/2 cup chickpeas 1/2 cup green lentils 1 tbsp salt 1/2 cup olive oil 1/2 cup red wine vinegar parsley arugula sesame seeds

Method 1 - Soak Pulses To begin with, we need to prepare our pulses. If you're using dried pulses, soak these overnight in some water. If you're using them canned, simply drain them. Next, we need to wash these in salted water. Do this by placing into a pot, a half a cup of chickpeas, a half a cup of green lentils, and half a cup of broad beans (or butter beans, if you can't get your hands on them) Pour in some water until the pulses are just submerged. Heat this slightly over a medium heat for a few minutes.

2 - Make Dressing While your pulses are soaking together, go make your salad dressing. Although probably a more modern development, it's not unlikely that a simple olive oil and wine vinegar dressing was made and used in antiquity. In any case, quickly whisk together equal amounts of olive oil and red wine vinegar until it emulsifies into a smooth seasoning. Make sure to taste this and adjust to your preference.

3 - Toss Salad Now, we need to drain our pulses, again. The ritual washing of things in salted water (such as sea water) was a common motif in contemporary Hellenic religious practices - and it's likely that some food types were prepared in a similar manner (particularly dishes being prepared for a ritual) Place a bed of your rocket (or arugula) leaves onto a plate, and spoon on a generous portion of your pulses. Drizzle with a bit of your dressing, and sprinkle a handful of sesame seeds onto the plate.

Serve up and dig in!

The finished dish is a simple yet filling meal, packed full of protein! The pulses used would have been available in antiquity, and archaeological records show that lentils, chickpeas, and broad beans were all cultivated in the Eastern Mediterranean since the Neolithic period - albeit in differing amounts, depending on the size of the settlement, and the quality of the soils.

[the-world-that-was]

Medieval French Carrot and Coriander Soup (Potage De Crécy)

This week, I'm going to be recreating a simple carrot and coriander soup that was popular in medieval French cuisine - the simple Potage de Crécy. Although I'm using orange carrots, which were rare in antiquity, carrots, parsnips, or any combination of these would work well here!

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Check out my Patreon for some more recipes!

Ingredients (for 2-3 portions)

1 onion (or an equal volume to the amount of carrots) chopped 3 carrots (or an equal volume to the amount of onions) diced 2 cloves garlic olive oil ground coriander 500ml stock (e.g. chicken, vegetable, etc.)

Method 1 - Prepare and Cook Onion To begin with, we need to peel and chop one whole onion. Onions of all kinds were a staple of most cuisines from the neolothic period to modernity, as they're hardy, filling vegetables that have a multitude of uses. In any case, chop this into fine chunks, so they cook evenly. When this is done, toss some olive oil into a pot, and heat it up over a medium high heat.

When the oil is shimmering, toss a couple of crushed cloves of garlic into the oil, along with your onions. On top of this, sprinkle some salt, some freshly ground black pepper, and some freshly ground coriander. Put all of this back onto a medium high heat for a few minutes while you deal with your carrots.

2 - Prepare and Cook Carrots Go peel a few carrots - aim for about an equal amount of carrots to onions. When they're peeled, slice them into discs - making sure they're all the same size, so they cook evenly. Although orange carrots were fairly rare in antiquity, they're the dominant strain today. But remember that throwing in some parsnips or heriloom carrots wouldn't hurt either!

When your carrots are prepared, add them to your onions when the pot smells lovely and fragrant, and the onions have turned translucent. On top of your carrots and onions, pour about 500ml of a soup stock of your choice. I went with chicken stock here, to add a more meaty background taste, but any stock would work well enough here!

3 - Cook Place your pot over a high heat, and let it come to a boil. When it hits a rolling boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer away for about 30 minutes, or until a knife, when stabbed into a piece of carrot, comes out easily.

Serve up in a bowl of your choice, garnish with a little sprig of parsley or cilantro, and dig in!

The finished soup is rather sweet, thanks to the carrots and onions, and has a lovely zesty taste thanks to the coriander. The broth thickened up nicely, and the carrot chunks softened into a toothsome mouthful.

[the-world-that-was]

Hello all, here's a little update.

I'll be taking a short hiatus from this blog - I don't know how long this interruption will last, unfortunately.

To cut a long story short, I'm looking for a new place to move to - due to some unfortunate family circumstances and mental health issues, I cannot stay in my current place safely.

So, I won't be making weekly recipes for a while - hopefully this won't last long! If I find time, I'll try and get things posted, but they'll be unlikely to be at the regular time. I'm very sorry for this!

Thank you to all who support this project, and I hope to get back into the routine shortly!

[the-world-that-was]

Medieval Syrian Sweet Chicken with Pistachio Sauce

This week, I'll be taking a look at another medieval Syrian dish - this time, a simple pistachio sauce chicken bake! It's a sweet and savoury take on a staple of near eastern cuisine at the time - fitting for most people in the medieval period to be able to make!

As with a few other recipes like this, many thanks to Charles Perry's translations from the original Arabic textbooks!

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! If you like what I make, please consider supporting me over on Patreon!

Ingredients 250g chicken (any cut of meat) 300g pistachios salt pepper ground cumin ground coriander honey

Method 1 - Season Chicken and Bake To begin with, we need to prepare our chicken. Do this by cutting your cuts of meat with a knife, before seasoning your cuts with equal amounts of salt, pepper, ground cumin, and ground coriander. The original recipe doesn't make note of any spices, but we can infer from elsewhere in the cookbook that cumin and coriander formed the core of medieval Syrian cuisine. So, season this liberally! When this is done, place your chicken onto a lightly greased pan, and then into the centre of an oven preheated to 180C for about 20 minutes. While this is cooking, go prepare your pistachios!

2 - Grind Pistachios, Make Sauce Next, shell 300g worth of pistachios. This will result in a significantly lighter amount of shelled nuts, but this is suitable for about two or three portions of meat.

In any case, when they're shelled, go crush them into a fine powder in a mortar and pestle. Try and go for a very fine sandy texture.

When these have been ground up, toss them into a pot, along with a tablespoon or two of honey, as well as a small splash of water if everything looks too dry. Put all of this over a medium heat, and let it cook away until the honey softens and bubbles. Keep it stirring, so the honey doesn't burn onto the bottom of the pot. This should only take about 15 minutes to cook - if the sauce starts looking a little brown, quickly take it off the heat so it doesn't burn. It's safer to do this slow and low, rather than fast and high.

3 - Assemble Dish When the chicken and the sauce is done, pour a generous amount of the sauce onto a plate, before arranging your chicken on top. Garnish with a few whole pistachios, and a few sprigs of parsley, and dig in!

The finished dish is a succulent and sweet meal, with a wonderful floral sensation from the spices. The original recipe claims the chicken should be cooked in the sauce itself. This could be done, but you'd probably need more sauce than I've made here - it would result in a cut of meat that was tenderly stewed, with the seasoning leeching out into the pistachio and honey sauce. I opted for preparing these separately, as it was more sanitary to do on the day. It's just as likely that it was prepared like this in the medieval period as well, but was not recorded in the original text.

[the-world-that-was]

Iron Age Celtic Cider

Today, I'll be taking a look at some pre-Roman cider, from Gaul! As most of our records come from Roman sources, we don't get much insight beyond "The Gauls are so different to us Romans, they don't even drink wine! They just drink fermented grains and fruits like barbarians"

And while these are, inherently, totally biased records, they provide a decent look at what they drank! Since we know that apples were cultivated in this region, and has a history of cider production, we can assume that Gauls created archaic forms of cider - which I'll now attempt to do now!

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! If you like what I make, please consider supporting me on Patreon!

Ingredients

Enough apples for 2-3L apple juice honey (to taste) dried yeast Special Utensils

Glass Demijohn/Terracotta pot Siphon

DISCLAIMER Before I begin, I have to reinforce that this is a recipe for an alcoholic beverage, so please don't make this if you're underage! Also, check your local laws on home-brewing alcohol - it's legal for personal consumption where I am, but it might be illegal wherever you are!

Method

1 - Peel and Press Apples Start by peeling and chopping them up into small pieces. Any kind of apple will work here, but older strains of apples would be sour - which coincidentally make for great cider!

We don't know exactly how Gauls in antiquity pressed the juice from the apples, it's possible they were mashed together, and then crushed through a thin cloth. This will allow you to extract most of the liquid from the pulp. Modern cider makers have a specialised press to do this, which is much easier than this method - but is unlikely to have been found in this time period.

I used a potato ricer, which provides an easy modern juice extraction!

2 - Combine Ingredients When you've extracted about 2-3 litres of juice, go pour this into a glass demijohn. Or a terracotta pot. Whichever is easiest for you to use! Into this, pour a sachet of dried yeast - while this wasn't available in antiquity, it's a faster and more reliable way of getting the cider to ferment. Wild yeast would have been captured by the juice through contact with the air - but this is unpredictable, and may not result in a strong fermentation process.

Onto all of this, add a few dollops of honey to the mix. This is to sweeten the final mix a little, and even out the sourness of the apples. Adjust this based on how tart your apples are.

When everything is in, swirl it around, making sure everything is combined. Cover the top of your brewing container with a very damp cloth - or a brewing airlock if you have one - and leave the whole thing in a warm, dark place for a few days.

3 - Decant and Drink The cider should have fermented enough within 6-7 days of sealing, so uncork it (if you've corked it) and smell that lovely apple goodness! Decant this using a siphon, taking care not to disturb the sediment at the bottom of the pot.

The finished drink is lovely and smooth, and has a very mild carbonation - thanks to the natural fermentation process. This batch was also quite strong and sweet, due to the honey.

While you can drink this as-is, heating a glass of this up slightly, and adding a spoonful of honey to it really improves the aroma, and cuts the sharpness a little.

All in all, a wonderful drink to keep you warm on an autumn day!

[the-world-that-was]

Medieval German Apple Pie

Today, I'm going to be recreating a recipe for a German apple pie from the Registrum Coquine - the contents of which are suited for a middle-class palette of medieval European world

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Consider supporting me on Patreon if you like my recipes!

Ingredients 6 apples 2 cups flour water butter (or oil) ground cinnamon ground nutmeg cloves (either whole or ground) honey (if the apples are too tart)

Method 1 - Peel and Chop Apples To begin making an apple pie, we need apples. Though the original recipe doesn't state any particular apples, tart apples tend to make the best filling. Peel your apples, and chop them into fairly evenly-sized chunks so they cook evenly. I found that about 6 apples suited a pie fit for about four people.

2 - Prepare the Filling When your apples are chopped, go toss some butter (or oil) into a pot, and let it melt. When it's foaming, toss in your freshly-grated nutmeg, cinnamon, and a few cloves, and stir them around so they're all covered in hot butter. You can, of course, crush your cloves, but I enjoy the sensation of biting into a whole clove - it's up to you!

When your spices have cooked a little, toss in your chopped apples! Stir everything around so they're all covered in butter and let it all cook away over a medium heat for a few minutes - until they soften and turn golden. At this point, take them off the heat and let them rest while you make your dough.

3 - Make Pie Dough Since the original recipe assumes people know how to do this, we're going to be using a cup or two of plain flour mixed with a little water. Add it little by little until it comes together into a cohesive dough. Knead this together until it's smooth, and roll out using a rolling pin. Do this twice - once for the base of the pie, and twice for the lid. Roll the dough out fairly thin, as the whole pie won't be baked for too long.

Pour some olive oil (or butter) into a pie dish, and stretch your pie dough over it, tamping it down with your knuckles into the corners.

4 - Assemble Pie Pour the cooked apples into your pie dish, spreading it out evenly. When this is done, place your other circle of dough over the top. Crimp the edges of the two discs of dough together - it doesn't matter if it doesn't look too pretty! It'll bake wonderfully, and taste delicious either way!

When your pie is ready, toss the whole thing into the centre of an oven preheated to about 180°C/356°F for about 25 minutes!

When the pie is done, take it out of the oven to cool down to room temperature before dividing up and digging in! Drizzle some honey over the slice you're eating to really amplify it's texture!

The finished pie is delicious and sweet, the spices forming a lovely warming sensation with each bite. The texture of the cooked apples is practically melt-in-your-mouth, and contrasts with the pie crust! As a side note, the pie crust itself - once cool - is rather tough. However the crust on the base of the pie is soaked in the juice from the apples during the cooking process, and is a much more palatable part of the pie. If I were to make this again, I'd either omit the top lid of the pie, or remove it before serving.

[the-world-that-was]

Medieval Ottoman Poached Eggs (Çılbır)

Today, I'll be taking a look at medieval Ottoman cuisine - specifically the food seen in ottoman courts! The recipe in question is cılbır, or poached eggs with herbal yoghurt. This is a simple yet tasty recipe that is still eaten today in Turkey!

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Consider checking out my Patreon if you like these recipes!

Ingredients (for 3 portions) 3 eggs 150g greek yoghurt freshly chopped parsley (or dill, or cilantro) 2 cloves garlic ground coriander

Method 1 - Make the Yoghurt To begin with, we need to make a simple yoghurt for the eggs to sit on. Start this by finely chopping some fresh parsley - dill or cilantro would have also been used! Toss this into your yoghurt, along with a clove or two of crushed garlic. Mix all of this together, until it's very well combined. Leave it to sit aside while you poach your eggs.

2 - Poach the eggs Place a pot of hot water over a high heat until it boils. At a rolling boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer gently.

There's a couple of methods of poaching eggs. I cracked an egg into a ramekin, and then dropped this into a ladle, before lowering into the water. Some of the whites of the egg became spidery and flyaway, but don't worry! This will look amazing and silky when it's out of the water.

Let the egg cook for a couple of minutes, before draining it and dunking it in cool water - to stop the yolk from becoming overcooked.

3 - Assemble the dish Place a nice dollop of the herby yoghurt onto a plate, and place one of your poached eggs atop this. Sprinkle with a bit of freshly-ground coriander, and dig in with some fresh bread!

The finished dish is deliciously light yet filling. The herbs really pairs well with the texture of the egg. Although rather plain looking, it's an easy yet luxurious way of presenting an otherwise simple dish in antiquity.

Çılbır is still eaten in turkey today, proving it's role as a cheap yet filling meal for many throughout the centuries.

Ottoman cuisine formed as a fusion of Mediterranean, Near Eastern, and Central Turkic motifs in the early Medieval Period, which is exemplified here - using an array of culinary styles that are seen elsewhere in the region (such as Greek tzatziki being prepared in much the same way as this recipe, with the addition of mint and cucumber)