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
½ 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!

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.

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 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.

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.

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!

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!

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)
½ cup walnuts (finely ground)
½ 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!

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
½ cup small broad beans
½ cup chickpeas
½ cup green lentils
1 tbsp salt
½ cup olive oil
½ 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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

This week, I’m making some hard-boiled eggs in a pine nut sauce, as recorded by Apicius. This is a quick and easy recipe that would have served as a cheap but filling meal for many Romans in antiquity - requiring at least eggs, pine nuts, and garum. However, the recipe recorded by Apicius gives us a glimpse at a more middle-class meal!

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 on Patreon!

Ingredients
200g pine nuts (soaked overnight in water)
4 eggs
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp garum (or fish sauce)
pepper
salt
dried lovage (or celery seeds, ground)

Method

1 - Prepare the Sauce
To begin making this recipe, we need to soak our pine nuts in some water overnight. So start making this the day before you want to eat it!

Place the soaked pine nuts into a mortar and pestle, and get to grinding. They should break down fairly easily. Grind this into a consistency you like - I enjoy a few whole pine nuts here, but you could of course make this entirely smooth!

Then, add in some pepper, and some dried lovage. This herb can be a little hard to come by, so you can of course use some celery seeds instead! They both have a similar taste profile.

On top of the seasonings, add a tablespoon of honey, a tablespoon of vinegar, and a tablespoon of garum - the staple of Roman cuisine! Garum is a fermented fish sauce, which appears frequently in Roman recipes, but is difficult to come by today - mainly because the method used to make it has been replaced by more sanitary methods - but Vietnamese fish sauce works well as a substitute! Mix everything together until it’s well combined. Don’t be dissuaded by the addition of fish sauce here! It won’t actually have a fishy taste!

2 - Boil Eggs
Next we need to do the most technically challenging part of this recipe: boiling some eggs. Place four eggs into a saucepan and fill it up with cold water until the eggs are just submerged. Place this pot over a high heat and let everything boil for 3-5 minutes.

When the eggs are cooked to your liking, shock them by dropping them into some very cold water, and peel them.

Cut the eggs in half and arrange them in a fancy pattern in a bowl. Onto these eggs, spoon a little bit of your sauce. Eat at room temperature and dig in!

The finished dish is a wonderfully savour treat! The sauce has a deep, meaty flavour thanks to the garum and pine nuts, with a warm background due to the addition of pepper!

Though I hard-boiled these eggs, it is likely that they were served soft-boiled as well - the yolk mixing with the sauce to form a rich luxurious sauce in the bowl!

Although I used chicken eggs here, the Romans would have most likely made use of pigeon/dove eggs, or other wildfowl (such as quail or duck). Ostrich eggs from North Africa may have also been used! Although these would have been reserved for only the most extravagant events in Rome - given the rarity of ostriches within the city normally.

Today, we’ll be looking at a recipe from Le Ménagier de Paris - The Goodman of Paris - and recreating some grilled steaks from the 14th century. This book isn’t explicitly a cookbook, but moreso a glimpse at everyday life in Paris in the 1300s - including descriptions of social norms - a relative rarity for medieval literature!

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 supporting me on Patreon!

Ingredients (for two steaks)
2x cuts of beef (I used striploin, but other cuts work just as well. Adjust cooking time as necessary)
3tbsp red wine vinegar
2tbsp Seville orange juice (or 2tbsp orange juice + 1 tsp lime juice)
pepper
salt
cinnamon
oil or fat (for cooking)

Method
1 - Prepare the Meat
To begin with, we need to deal with our meat. Start by seasoning each side with some salt and freshly-ground black pepper. The original recipe claims that venison could also be used here - but since that’s a bit outside of most people’s price ranges, beef is a common substitute!

In any case, when your meat has been seasoned liberally, set this aside while you make your basting sauce.

2 - Make the Sauce
Next, cut an orange in half, and juice it using a juicer. Or just crush them in a bowl by hand - whichever method suits you. Seville oranges are also known as sour oranges, but if you can’t get your hands on any then regular oranges would work just as well! Just add another teaspoon or two of lime juice to your regular orange juice.

Next, toss in a couple of tablespoons of red wine vinegar (or malt vinegar, if it’s more your style) and mix everything to combine.

3 - Cook and Baste the Meat
Moving to the stove, place a liberally oiled frying pan over a medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, place a cut of meat onto the pan, and let it cook untouched for about 3-5 minutes, depending on the thickness of your meat. When one side is cooked, flip it over and let the other side cook away. Over the cooked side, pour a little of your sauce over it. Be very careful at this stage, as the oil could spit violently if it comes in contact with the water!

Cook each steak to the doneness you desire, before taking them off the heat, and letting them rest for a few minutes. This is to improve the texture of the meat, and let the juices inside rearrange.

When they’re done, serve them up with a bit of cinnamon, and dig in!

The finished dish is super succulent, and has a wonderful sauce - it has a slight sharpness that really suits the beef here. Though this is a very simple way of cooking - using few seasonings and aromatics - it can be combined with a multitude of other side-dishes (such as onion soup or a pottage of some kind).

Today, I’ll be making a quick side-dish from Rome, as recorded by Apicius! He has a few ways of preparing mushrooms, but this is one of the more flavourful methods he shows us!

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 page!

Ingredients
500g mushrooms (I used chestnut mushrooms)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar (or malt vinegar)
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper
fresh coriander or parsley

Method

1 - Chop the Mushrooms
This is a rather simple recipe, but to begin with, we need to prepare our mushrooms. I used chestnut mushrooms, sliced into thin segments, but button or Portobello mushrooms may also be similar to what was available in antiquity, along with edible morels. If you have smaller mushrooms, you can skip slicing these, and proceed with cooking them as is!

2 - Sauté   Mushrooms
Into a hot pot, pour a generous amount of olive oil - enough to coat the base. On top of this, toss your mushrooms. Sprinkle this with a bit of salt to help draw the moisture out of the mushrooms, before placing the pot over a medium heat. Stir everything around gently, so the mushrooms sweat out their moisture. Depending on what mushrooms you use, this may result in them being crushed slightly. Sauté these for about 3 -5 minutes.

3 - Sauté other ingredients
When your fungal friends have taken on a bit of colour, toss in some fresh coriander, and some freshly-ground black pepper, and a couple of tablespoons of red wine vinegar, before stirring everything together and returning to the heat for another 3-5 minutes. Be careful not to burn your mushrooms!

4 - Serve!
When your mushrooms are cooked, take these out of the cooking liquid, and place them in a bowl. Put the liquid over a high heat and let it boil down and reduce into a sauce.

Pour the sauce over your mushrooms, and dig in with some bread!

The finished mushrooms are super tender and flavourful - the vinegar really amplifies their meaty texture. The chestnut mushrooms I used retained a little bite to them, which was a welcome sensation!

Although the original recipe states that you should remove the coriander when serving the mushrooms, I chose to leave a few of them in so the dish retains a little bit of colour. The vinegar doesn’t have a very sharp taste once the sauce has thickened and reduced, and gives the mushrooms a lovely dark glaze.

Today, I’ll be taking a look at a Roman recipe, recorded by Apicius, which was likely eaten at contemporary roadside eateries in the Roman Empire - the simple isicia omentata - or what is basically a Roman burger patty! The end result is like a spiced and fragrant meatloaf!

In any case, lets 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 (for 5-6 burgers)
500g minced meat (beef, pork, lamb would be most fitting here)
100g breadcrumbs
2 cups wine (white or rose would work best)
100g pine nuts
50g black pepper

Method

1 - Soak the Breadcrumbs

To begin with, we need to soak 100g of breadcrumbs in a cup or two of wine. This is to add some moisture to the finished isicia, and to help pad out the meat. In antiquity, stale bread would have been used here, as it was a simple way to make the most out of every loaf of bread.

If your breadcrumbs look a little dry, add a bit more wine until it’s all damp.

2 - Mix the Ingredients

Now we need to place 500g of minced meat into a bowl, along with our soaked breadcrumbs. Keep in mind that the texture of minced meat today is more cohesive than what would have been made in antiquity! A mortar and pestle would have done the work on finely-chopped pieces of meat, becoming what’s known as “forcemeat”. But modern ground meat works well!

I used beef here, but ground pork or lamb (or even goat) would have been used in antiquity. The original recipe simply calls for “meat”, so to the readers of the time, the kind of meat would have been obvious! (such as hamburgers today being made from beef)

In any case, mix everything together in a bowl. Toss in about 100g of pine nuts, and 50g of whole black peppercorns, mixing to combine.

3 - Form the Isicia and cook

When your mixture is combined, take a small handful of it in your hands and form it into a patty. Each one should be about 1/5th of the mix (based on how I made them anyway, you can make them larger or smaller than mine). Place each one onto a frying pan with a little olive oil, and let it cook away over high heat for about 5-10 minutes, before flipping them over and letting the other side cook for the same amount of time. (The time it takes to cook them depends on how thick you make them)

When they’re done, serve up on a bed of arugula or rocket, or another edible green of your choice, and eat alongside a bit of bread!

The finished isicia are super light and flavourful! Each mouthful has a bite of heat from the peppercorns, along with a sweet, nutty flavour from the pine nuts! The breadcrumbs soaked in wine gives us a bit of sharpness, depending on the kind of wine you used.

While it’s unknown exactly how these were served in antiquity, it’s not unlikely that they were paired with bread and edible greens, as both of these would be readily available and filling sides for a meat dish like this! Based on earlier Italian cuisines (i.e. Etruscan), stale bread may have been used as a plate of sorts, which would then have been eaten after the main dish (the stale bread turning soft when soaked with the oils from the meat).

Today, I’ll be making a simple cherry pudding recorded in the 14th century AD - from the region of the Holy Roman Empire! Cherries were (and still are) a very popular fruit to eat, given the extensive range at which they can be grown. The original recipe is recorded in The Forme of Cury - a 14th century English manuscript - but the origin of this recipe likely comes from a central European source, given the variety of recipes recorded here.

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

500g fresh ripe red cherries
200ml red wine
100g white sugar
1 tbsp unsalted butter
100g soft white breadcrumbs
salt
Edible flowers (e.g. clover, lavender, etc)

Method
1 - Prepare the Cherries

To begin with, we need to wash, de-stem, and stone the cherries. Do this by cutting into them carefully with a knife, before using your thumb to dig out the stone. Do this to about half a kilogram of cherries.

When your cherries have been stoned for their sins, place them into a bowl, along with 100ml (or a cup) of red wine - I used a merlot here, but a sweet dessert wine would work nicely. On top of this, also add about 50 grams of white sugar. Mix and mash everything together until it forms a very thick, lumpy soup.

2 - Cook the Pudding

At this stage, place a tablespoon of butter into a large saucepan or pot. Place this over a high heat until it starts to melt. At this point, place your breadcrumbs and cherry-wine mix into the pot, along with another 50g of sugar. Mix everything together. If it’s looking a little dry, add in another cup of wine. Put this onto a medium-high heat and let it cook away for about 10-15 minutes. Keep the whole thing stirring as you cook it, so nothing sticks and burns onto the pot.

3 - Cool and Serve

The pudding should thicken up considerably, and act like a porridge when it’s done. Let everything cool a little, before spooning into a bowl of your choice. The original recipe claims that you should decorate it with edible flowers.

The finished pudding is super sweet and flavourful. The breadcrumbs soaked up the cherry juice and wine mixture and became fantastically smooth, with a sharp undertone (thanks to the wine). If you wanted to make an alcohol-free alternative, you could use some grape juice instead!

The pudding itself can also be used as a pie or tart filling, and firms up quite nicely if baked.

It’s been a whole year since I started this project, and seeing it grow to the size it is today is amazing - I never imagined that it would ever get this popular! So to celebrate, I decided to take a look at some roast duck - based on some Sumerian cuneiform fragments.

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

Ingredients

2kg duck
ground cumin
ground coriander
salt
pepper
1 leek, chopped
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic
750ml water (or stock)
butter

Method

1 - Prepare the Duck
To begin making this roast duck, we need to prepare our duck. I’m using a whole bird here, but you could just as easily cook this in pieces - it’s up to you! Start by scoring the breast with a knife a few times, to increase the seasoning surface area. The original fragment claims to be dealing with an unnamed bird, so I opted for duck - as wildfowl would have been a staple for Mesopotamia. But chicken or squab would have also been eaten around this time.

In any case, season your bird of choice using some salt, some freshly ground black pepper, some ground cumin, and some ground coriander. Rub this into the meat with your hands if you can handle it. Though I’m going to be dry-roasting this, it’s likely that the meat would have been boiled in a stew or soup broth for a while before being roasted in an oven.

2 - Roast the Duck
Place your seasoned bird breast-side down on a roasting rack. And then place this into the centre of an oven preheated to 200C / 400F for about two hours (based on a 2kg bird of course), flipping this over about 30 minutes before serving so the breast meat roasts perfectly. When you’ve flipped the bird, go and prepare your soup.

3 - Prepare the Soup
To pair with this, I made a quick and easy leek and herb soup. Start by chopping a leek into segments as thick as your thumb or so. Also chop an onion in half, and mince each half.

Toss some butter into a pot and put it onto a high heat. When the butter melts, toss in your leeks and onions. Return the pot to the heat, and let everything sauté away for a few minutes until the onion turns soft and translucent. At this point, toss in a few shakes of cumin and coriander, along with 750ml of water (or a soup stock of your choice). Into this, add some thyme and mint sprigs.

Let everything cook away for about 20 minutes, or until the leeks are practically falling apart.

Fish out your herb sprigs, and serve up alongside your duck!

The finished roast is super succulent, and very flavourful. The seasoning on the duck gave it a sharp zesty flavour, which paired very nicely with the herby, minty flavour of the soup. The meat itself has a lovely crisp skin, and tender flesh. This is a reconstruction of a fragmentary recipe from the Yale Cuneiform collection - others have postulated that it is separate to the pigeon stew recipe fragment, while others have claimed it to be a continuation of it. I chose to do a simple roast here, as ovens for cooking and baking would have been able to do this with little modification in antiquity (such as the use of a spit or shaft of metal or wood to cook the meat over a naked flame.

Today, I’ll be making a sweet dessert recorded by Apicius - the simple pear patina, which is kind of like a baked sponge in terms of texture. The original recipe requires some ingredients that are difficult to get a hold of today, so I’ve substituted some close modern approximations - which work just as well!

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

Ingredients
5 pears
white wine (to cook the pears)
2 tbsp honey
pepper
cumin
½ cup sweet wine
4 eggs
1 tbsp olive oil

Method

1 - Poach pears

To begin with, we need to prepare our pears. Do this by pouring most of a bottle of wine into a pot large enough to accommodate your pears. You can also use water, if you’re not keen on using alcohol! Place this over a high heat, and bring it to a simmer.

When it’s simmering steadily, carefully place your pears into the liquid, before pouring a couple tablespoons of honey over this. Make sure the liquid covers the pears when they’re touching the bottom of the pot. Return to the heat, and let the pears poach partially for about 5 minutes, or until a knife, when inserted into the centre of one, comes out easily.

Drain your pears, and let them cool to room temperature, before you deal with them. Technically the leftover liquid doesn’t get used later on, but it’s perfectly drinkable as is! It’s a super sweet, mildly pear-tasting wine!

2 - Prepare Pear Mix

When your pears have cooled, divide each one into pairs of pears using a sharp knife. Then carefully cut the tough, fibre-filled core of the fruit. The skin of these should be practically falling off, but remove them anyway.

Place the softened fruit into a large bowl, and toss a tablespoon of ground cumin on top of this, along with a few twists of freshly ground black pepper! On top of this, add another squeeze of honey, and a little splash of olive oil. Also pour in a half a cup of a sweet wine into this - I used a bit of the poaching liquid, but passum (a raisin wine) is used in the original recipe, but any sweet wine is suitable. Mix all this with a mortar and pestle - or a fork, if you’re not from antiquity - until it’s just combined. When it’s mixed, crack four eggs into the bowl, and mix everything until there’s no more streaks of egg visible.

3 - Bake the Patina

When your mixture is done, go lightly oil a baking dish. It’s likely that a terracotta pot would have been used in antiquity, but an ovenproof baking dish works well today. Don’t over-oil the inside too much!

Gently pour in your pear mixture, and place the whole thing into the centre of an oven preheated to 180° C / 350° F for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of your patina comes out clean.

Let this cool to room temperature before digging in! Don’t worry if it deflates a little, this is to be expected and is completely fine!

The finished dish is very sweet, with only a very slight hint of pear. Although it seems a little plain, this pairs fantastically well with hard, salty cheeses, and sharp-tasting dishes (such as olives in vinegar) - as such, it’s unlikely that this was eaten alone as a dessert, more likely it was a companion dish that was intended to be a complimentary dish to others.

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!

Today, I’ll be making a simple bread-based soup - referred to as juscellum by Apicius! It’s a lot like Tuscan “aquacotta” soup, which is prepared in a similar way - though today it often includes tomatoes, which would not have been available in antiquity.

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

Ingredients

1 onion
1 carrot
1 stick celery
3 cloves garlic
thyme
2 slices bread (torn or grated)
2 eggs
750ml chicken stock
olive oil
salt
pepper

Method

1 - Chop Ingredients
To begin with, we need to chop and dice an onion. You don’t need to worry about being too careful here, as they’ll soften up considerably while its cooking. Peel and dice a carrot or two - carrots and parsnips were considered to be the same vegetable to the Greeks and Romans, so either one works well here! Finally, deal with some celery by slicing it thinly.

2 - Sautee and Cook
Toss a bit of olive oil into a pot, and place this over a medium heat. When it’s shimmering, toss in your onions, carrots, and crush a few crushed cloves of garlic. Let this sauté away for about 10 minutes.

When it’s finished sautéing, pour in 500ml worth of water or chicken stock. On top of this, toss some chopped thyme Place your soup over a high heat, and bring it to a rolling boil. When it hits a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer away for 30 minutes.

3 - Prepare Soup and Eggs
While your soup is cooking, go rip up some slices into large chunks. Alternatively, you could grate up dried bread into a powder. Toss your bread into the soup about 10 minutes before you’re serving it, along with your parsley.

About 5 minutes before you serve up your soup, place some eggs into the pot and let them hard-boil.

4 - Assemble Soup
In a serving bowl, ladle in some of your soup, and place your poached egg on top of this. Garnish with a little fresh herb. And serve up warm!

The finished soup is very filling and flavourful - along with looking very colourful when finished! It’s quick and simple to make, which would have made it popular with the lower, poorer classes in ancient Roman and Etruscan societies - as this dish can be made using ingredients that are going off (such as stale or mouldy bread). It can be adjusted using seasonal vegetables and herbs, along with different kinds of eggs that would provided different taste profiles.

Today, I’ll be making an Etruscan dish - which is preserved through Roman cuisine through to modernity! The simple testaroli - a rudimentary ancestor to the pasta that we know and love today!

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

Ingredients (for two servings)
½ cup plain flour
½ cup wholemeal flour
1 cup water
pesto

Method

1 - Prepare the Batter
To begin with, we need to make the batter. To do this, toss a half a cup of plain white flour into a bowl, along with some wholemeal flour. Mix in an equal amount of water, to form a thin slurry.

2 - Oil the Pan and Make the testaroli
When the batter is ready, pour a ladleful into a pan that’s been oiled with olive oil. Spread this into a very thin layer, by tilting the pan around. Cook the thin layer of batter for a minute or two over a high heat, or until the edges start to firm up. Don’t cook it all the way through! Flip it over and let the other side cook for another minute or two.

When it’s done, you can eat it as is! Serve up warm with a dollop of pesto - that you ideally would have made following my recipe for it. This serving - technically speaking - isn’t testaroli, but actually placenta(pronouncedplakenta) which is a Roman dish prepared in the same way. It’s likely that this evolved from Etruscan assimilation by the Romans in the Bronze Age.

3 - Cut Testaroli
For a more modern testaroli, place your dough disks and dissect them with a knife. Score them a few times with a sharp knife, before cutting them at an angle, so you make a bunch of thin dough-diamonds.

4 - Cook Testaroli

Toss your dough diamonds into a pot of boiling water, and let them cook away for a few minutes. Since this is fresh pasta, it won’t take too long to cook. Drain them using a colander or a slotted spoon, place them into a bowl, and serve up warm with a large dollop of pesto!

The finished dish is delicious and tender, and is a really quick and simple thing to make! It’s also very filling! Given that it seems to have been originally an “accidental” recipe - based on modern scholarship anyway - it definitely proved to be a staple of Etruscan cuisine. Something that can be made using only a few ingredients which is also very filling would have been a staple in the diets of the Etruscans.

This week, I’m recreating some Akkadian bread, as seen in some cuneiform inscriptions, as well as visual representations in carved panels in Akkadian palaces.

The original bread has a striking similarity to modern Iraqi samoon - from it’s shape to it’s description in Akkadian!

In any case, let’s now take a look at the world that was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above!

Ingredients
1 cup wholemeal flour
2 cups plain flour
salt
water
active dry yeast (or 1/3 cup sourdough starter)
milk
sesame seeds

Method

1 - Preparing the Dough and letting it Rest
To begin with, we need to make a starter. The easiest way to do this today is to use some dry active yeast, opening a sachet, and placing it in a bowl with a bit of warm water. But if you have some sourdough starter, you can use 1/3rd of a cup of that instead! But keep in mind that the sourdough starter will affect how hydrated your dough is later on.

Pour in 1 cup of wholemeal flour, along with two cups of plain white flour into the yeasty mix, and mix everything together until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl cleanly. If it’s too dry and crumbly, add some water - little by little - until it comes together into a smooth ball.

When it’s ready, place a damp cloth or a bit of clingfilm over the top of your bowl, and let the whole thing prove in a warm area for a few hours - or until it’s doubled in size.

2 - Forming your Bread
When your dough has expanded hugely, tip this out onto a lightly floured worksurface, and get to kneading. Fold and twist this around for about 10 minutes, just to help develop a better texture of the loaf down the line. When you’re finished kneading it, roll the whole thing into a long snake of dough. Cut this in half, and these halves in half again, so you wind up with four roughly evenly-sized balls of dough.

Carvings of Akkadian banquets show off lemon-shaped loaves of bread, and modern samoon are formed in a similar way. So roll a ball of dough in your hand, leaving two nubs at either end of it. Flatten the centre of the loaf down, by stretching and pulling at the dough until it smooths down.

3 - Baking
When they’re formed, place them onto some baking paper, and cover them with a damp towel for about 20 minutes. After this, brush them with a bit of milk, before sprinkling some sesame seeds over the top of them if you want. Bake these in an oven preheated to 230C / 450F for 15-20 minutes, or until they turn golden brown.

Serve up warm, and dig in!

The bread is delicious and fluffy, with a nice crisp crust. The sesame seeds - if added to the top - become toasted and flavourful when baked.

The original name for this bread would have been “ninda ensu” - which literally translates to “the bread of the king/ruler”. “ninda”being a catch-all word for a variety of breads and cakes in the Akkadian language, so while it’s likely that “ninda ensu” referred to a savoury bread, it’s also likely that this may have been sweetened too!

Today, I’ll be making a medieval drink from 13th century Egypt - and is still drunk today! A simple, refreshing drink called subiyah/ It was originally made to drink during Ramadan - a holy month of fasting in the Islamic calendar - but this is able to be enjoyed around the year! It’s simple to make, and has a very nice crispness to it!

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

Ingredients

3-4 slices of sourdough bread (crusts removed)

3-4 cups water

1 tsp cardamom pods

fresh mint

fresh parsley

Method

1 - Soak and Strain Bread

To begin with, de-crust three slices of sourdough bread and tear the bread into small chunks, before placing them in a bowl. The original recipe requires “bread” and gives no elaboration - so I went for sourdough because it has a more distinct taste than a regular slice of white bread.

In any case, pour in three cups of water into your bowl to soak the bread. Leave all this to get soggy for about thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, your bread chunks should be saturated with water, and practically falling apart. At this point, strain the bread water into a container that can be easily sealed. Make sure you remove as many solids from the mixture as you can.

2 - Combine Aromatics and Spices before fermenting

Next, toss some parsley leaves into your container with the water, along with some fresh mint, and a handful of cardamom pods that you’ve crushed slightly. Mix everything together, and seal up. I used a mason jar for this, because it’s convenient - but in antiquity, people would have used a damp cloth placed over the opening of the container.

Leave the container aside for a day or two at room temperature. This will let the whole thing steep, letting the flavours mingle.

When it’s done steeping, pour your subiyah through a strainer, removing the herbs, pods, and any remaining large chunks of bread. Serve up chilled, with a sprig of mint and take a sip!

The finished drink is quite mild tasting, but has a very soothing background sensation. It’s very light, and looks a lot like lemonade. A wonderful drink to have on a warm day!

Today, I’ll be taking a look at a staple of Irish medieval cuisine: the humble nettle soup. Late spring and early Summer is the ideal time to make this dish, as the nettle leaves used here won’t have matured fully, and retain a soft, lighter texture than older woodier leaves. Plus they won’t sting your hands as badly as mature nettles. Plenty of Irish families have their own takes on this recipe, and this is influenced by my family’s take on the tradition!

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

Ingredients
2-3 cups nettle leaves
1 onion, minced
2-3 cloves garlic (or two bulbs of wild garlic, minced)
chives (for decoration)
butter
½ cup milk/double cream
500ml water or stock
salt
pepper

Method

1 - Chop and cook the Garlic and Onion

To begin with, we need to peel and chop a whole onion, before tossing this into a pot with some melted butter. You can of course use oil, but dairy products was (and still is) a major part of Irish culinary traditions - so try and use Irish butter here if you can.

In any case, let your onion sauté away for a couple of minutes until it turns translucent and fragrant. When it hits this point, toss in a couple of cloves of crushed garlic - or some wild garlic if you have any!

2 - Deal with the Nettles
Next, ball up some nettles and chop it roughly with a knife. Be careful, as the leaves and stems of this plant has stinging fibres (which will get denatured and broken down when it’s cooking).

Nettles act like spinach when you’re cooking them, so have about 2-3 times more than what you think you’ll need on hand. Add your chopped nettles into the pot, and let them cook down before adding the rest!

3 - Cook Soup
When all of your nettle leaves have cooked down, pour in 500ml of soup stock (or water) into the pot. Then, toss in about a half a cup of whole milk, or double cream if you have it. Mix this together gently, before putting this onto a high heat. Bring it to a rolling boil, before turning it down to low until it simmers. Let the whole thing simmer away for about an hour.

Serve up hot in a small bowl, garnish with some chives or seasonal herbs, and dig in!

The finished soup is very light and flavourful, but quite filling for what it is! It’s another variation on a medieval pottage, with ingredients that could have been easily foraged in the spring and summer. As it can be made with only a few ingredients, it could have formed the basis of more complex dishes - such as the addition of more vegetables, or meat products.

Given how little the dish has changed from antiquity to modernity, it’s likely that the basics of this soup go back to pre-historic Irish culinary traditions.

Today, I’ll be making an Egyptian dish that dates to the pre-Dynastic period (the bronze age) - a simple herb and egg omelette that’s still eaten today: “eggah” (in modern Egyptian Arabic). The first records of this dish come from early Arab writers, discussing a much older dish!

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

Ingredients

6 eggs
1 onion
fresh parsley or cilantro
ground cumin
ground coriander
salt
pepper
olive oil

Method

1 - Chop and cook onion
To begin with, chop a single onion in half, and peel off it’s outer skin. Then slice and dice the onion into small pieces, making sure they’re all the same size.

Then, pour some olive oil into a pot, and place it over a medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering, toss your onion into it and let it sauté away while you mince your parsley. Or coriander, if it doesn’t taste like soap to you.

When your onion is soft and translucent and fragrant, toss in your parsley. Let everything sauté away over medium-high heat until the parsley wilts slightly. Leave it aside to cool a bit while you deal with your eggs.

2 - Mix Ingredients
Crack six eggs into a bowl while your onions are cooling. In antiquity, Egyptians would have had access to wildfowl and dove eggs - but chicken eggs work just as well. Next, toss in a tablespoon or two of ground cumin and ground coriander. On top of this, add a tablespoon of flour to help thicken things up. When the onion and parsley mix is cool, toss them into your egg mixture, and whisk them to combine.

3 - Prepare Baking Dish and Bake
Pour some olive oil into a baking tin, and spread it around. Next, pour in your egg mixture. It should settle evenly. Place this tin into the centre of an oven preheated to about 180C/356F and let it cook for about 25-30 minutes, depending on your oven.

It should be done when the top has puffed up and turned a lovely golden brown.

Take the dish out of the oven and let it cool for a few minutes. The top of this will collapse and deflate, but don’t worry, this is what’s meant to happen! Cut it into slices, and serve up warm!

The finished dish is very light and fluffy, with a slight sweetness thanks to the onions. Modern eggah has tomatoes and peppers included in the recipe - but neither of these were available to the region until the Columbian Exchange of the 15th century onwards.

However, early Arabic records about the dining habits of pre-Islamic Egyptian populations references a dish of baked eggs and herbs - which effectively suggests a pre-existing dish like this that was eventually adapted into the eggah we know today!