One of my favorite facts about Tut's burial. He and his wife had two children, both girls who were likely stillborn due to genetic issues. We know this because they were mummified and buried with him. People have always been people, and we can tell from burial practices that people loved their children, even during times with high infant mortality. They grieves them, and Tut wanted to make sure that his baby daughters were with him in the afterlife.
@FlyingMonkies325 the cracked skull is only a misinterpretation of an old x-ray. And the babies were likely mummified and buried somewhere and later reburied, this was common practice. for the Egyptians dead people were much more 'alive' than they are for us, so having them buried somewhere else (like with a relative who was already dead) to be looked after until their parents died was perfectly normal. But yes, his tomb was probably put together in a hurry, he did die very young after all. but it is also assembled with a lot of care, many of the objects are things he would have used in his life and others were made with him specifically in mind (like a lot of walking sticks to help with his limb).
I'm glad you chose to make duck, because it seems ducks were King Tut's favorite animal as a child. Inside King Tut's tomb, they found childhood keepsakes with his baby clothes and toys. Among them were a pair of sandals and a shirt with ducks embroidered, duck earrings, as well as a duck toy.
What really blows your mind about King Tut is, that comparatively he was a pretty insignificant Pharao. One can only imagine what would have been in the tomb of one of the really important ones, when this is the stuff they put into his tomb.
That's one way to look at this. But some historians think it might have been the other way around. Tut ended his father's shenanigans and returned traditional priests to they former glory and power. Therfore when he died they all pitch in with extraordinarly rich funeral gifts as a thank you.
Tut was extremely important, his father tried to change the entire Egyptian leadership and society which was "fixed" by Tut in his relatively short reign.
@@krzysztofkolodziejczyk4335 I support the theory that as he died young his tomb was rushed and not nearly as opulent as others. While he might have been liked by the priest class, their power was greatly reduced by his father. It would have been unlikely that the priests would have had any power to significantly add to the tomb.
@@amarketing8749 Yeah, and most importantly he died young and unexepected. The two thousand items found and the digging of a tomb in rock is not something you improvise, as you have only 70 days between Pharaoh's death and his burial. So he got Ay's tomb (the man was old, he had already prepared his tomb, although it was a Vizier's tomb not a king's one ^^'), and probably stole the treasure of his predecessor, one egyptologist think that 80% of the treasure were meant for a queen, probably Ankh-Kheperure, who was a queen-pharaoh who reigned two or three years before Tutankhamun's reign.
@@johannesmattsson9900 Not at all. Tutankhamun got to the throne when he was very young (roughly 8 years old) which makes it more likely that he was manipulated by others (presumably those who took over after him like Ai or Horemheb). We also know from the studies done on his pathology that he was very sickly. Apart from the genetic disease that he had, he had been through very severe forms of malaria many times in his life, so it seems highly unlikely that he played magnificent role throughout most of his reign. I suspect people like his priests or consultants or even his wife Ankhsenamun played much greater role than the poor child. His tomb was also carelessly made, objects were hastily brought in and various of the objects found in his tomb have been suggested that they were quickly modified from other people's burials to fit the young king (though this of course needs plenty of study). His mummification was not exactly perfect either for his body did decay a bit compared to other burials like queen Tiye for example. Many of his bones broke post mortem too. Tutankhamun reigned during a crucial time that's for sure but it seems more likely that he was a pawn king at least for his youth than a strong ruler that played important parts personally. Maybe later on to the years before his death like when he was around 16-18 when he died, he would be more active but I somehow doubt it because of his genetic conditions only worsened with years so by the time of his death he could have been frailer of health than before.
A water boy Hussein Abdel Rasoul actually discovered the tomb. Twice a day he would bring large pottery jars filled with water to the excavation site for the workers. The jars were tied with rope and placed on the back of donkey to make the journey. At the site, the boy would take the jars off the donkey and set them in the sands. However, because the jars were pointed on the bottom, he would have to dig out some of the sand to set the jars in so they would remain upright. While swishing the sand away that miraculous day, he uncovered a flat stone which looked as if it was sculpted. He rushed to tell the workers of his find, and basically the rest is history.
Imagine you're in the afterlife, enjoying all the stuff you got to bring with you when suddenly your tomb is raided and all your cool stuff disappears as you're using it.
You're riding your war chariot and suddenly the wheels pop off one by one and you eat dirt, crushing your beloved chariot to bits Back in the material world the archaeologists are sadly remarking that the main body of the chariot disintegrated from age when they tried to move it
I know it was a joke but it seemed like as good an opportunity as any to mention that going by what I know of ancient Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife (which is probably less than perfect) they'd probably have mixed feelings about archaeologists. On one hand they're digging them up and making off with their stuff. On the other however the Egyptians apparently believed that being remembered by the living was vitally important for their continued existence in the afterlife and an awful lot of them, including King Tut, were long forgotten before someone dug them up, so the archaeologists are kinda doing them a favour on that front. I like to think that Egyptians have been popping back into existence in the afterlife for the last hundred and something years.
@@hueandcrylancer They have a saying, that archeologists often came running with a pickaxe in one hand and a Bible in another. It's not really about research, but more about what goodies you can find to take home with you. That said, it did help grant people a chance to understand how Egyptian burial processes work and why they were (obviously) a target for grave robberies.
I'm just impressed that Max got access to King Tut's tomb for the ingredients! No really, I'm now picturing Max dressed in that cliche Egyptologist/Archaeologist outfit, opening up King Tut's tomb, and leaving with a few bags of ingredients for a nice dinner.
I think a lot of people assume ancient civilizations had simple foods, but they did not. Egypt had many foods like lettuce, parsley, beans, lentils, fava beans, radishes, peas, leeks, celery, cucumbers, turnips, gourds, melons, figs, dates, onions, fish, birds (including chickens and ducks), beef, pork, eggs, milk, cheese, butter, bread, beer, honey, olives, olive oil, wine, vinegar, salt, wheat, barley, garlic, chickpeas, cumin, fenugreek, coriander, sorghum, grapes, dom palm, Christ thorn, pomegranates, juniper berries, carob, apples, caraway, fennel, mint, poppy, and almonds. They likely made pickled vegetables for storage and salted and dried meats. They dried fruits too. Just the fact they had bread really expands what they could cook. Vegetables were usually raw, but sometimes also cooked. They did not have sugar so fruits and honey were used to sweeten things. Some foods would be seasonal and others would be more reserved for the wealthy, but that does not mean they ate bland food. With olive and vinegar and spices and the use of fresh vegetables I can see them eating salads similar to what we have today. Food had to be preserved for the winter. All of these created even more variety. The ovens shown were likely used for leaven bread but also likely for flat bread like a naan bread.
@@ronmka8931 True and there is a big difference between what is available in the cities and to the wealthy and what the average city dweller or farmer might have had access to or afforded. Most people do not understand that before the 1700s about 80-90% of the population were farmers and this slowly improved from the 1700s to about 2000. It was improving something like .3% a year until in hit 2% until 2000. It is right now about 1.5%. The focus now is reducing chemicals and making it more and more sustainable. But the main this is that if a city back then had a population of 200,000 it needed between 1,000,000 farmers in the surrounding area. And with the lower population density of the country this makes the cities look like a tiny dot in the middle of farms. This was one reason the Egyptians fared so well. The soil was so rich because of the annual flooding that they likely only needed closer to 60-70% of the population for farming. This generates more wealth and lets a higher percentage of the population be craftsmen and artists.
@@ronmka8931 You're just uneducated. That short list of produce that you consider long is actually factual and recorded in history. Dates, almonds, sesame, hops, chickpeas, pigeons, quail, pears, veal, oxen, eggs, fish, shellfish, figs, 😂
@@dos3622 I have. I type very fast. I was writing 10 pages an hour every night while working full time and raising 3 kids as a single dad. I am basically retired too so I now have time to burn... :P
Since I was a little kid, this is what always amazed me and made me interested in ancient history. At the peak of their empire the Egyptians were so wealthy that they were able to bury their royalty with more gold and valuables than a single person could ever see or imagine in a lifetime
When I was 9, I saw "The Ten Commandments" in the West End theater in Long Beach, NY. . As I got older, I realized how many blatant mistakes the movie had, especially during the tenth plague as well as other such during the movie.
Tut wasn't even the peak of Egyptian history! Africa is an incredibly interesting continent to study, so many variations of class and wealth over the thousands of years of record and archeology we have. I wish it was given more thought in western history books + classes beyond a thin band of Egyptian history and a nod to the triangle trade. I wanna learn more about interior Africa personally, my western learning suuuuper restricted me to north Africa/Mediterranean Africa. (this is no value judgement on you, original commenter, I'm just expressing awe at history for myself!)
There's a good chance that all of the gold in Tutankhamun's tomb is something of an anomaly. In 1881, several pharaonic mummies were recovered from a secret cache at Deir el-Bahri where they had been reburied to protect them from tomb robbers. Along with the mummies, there were several original inner coffins, all of which were made of wood that had originally been overlain with gold leaf. Tutankhamun's solid gold inner coffin is like nothing else ever found, and there have been some suggestions that his entire burial was a way of getting rid of a large amount of spiritually and politically suspect treasure associated with the heretical Aten religion of his father. This is supported by the large numbers of items in his tomb made for other members of the royal family - possibly including his father, and his brother(?) Smenkhare - particularly the second coffin which is clearly not modelled on the same person as the other two. That gold coffin was also probably a disaster for Tutankhamun. Unlike the permeable wooden coffins, it did not allow the moisture in the various oils and perfumes used to anoint the mummy to evaporate. Instead, they gradually reacted with the body tissues to produce a thick black tarry substance that destroyed most of his body apart from the skeleton. Which is why Tutankhamun's mummy, despite never been attacked by tomb robbers, is in a very much worse state than those bodies found at Deir El-Bahri. I guess we'll never know for sure unless another intact pharaonic burial is uncovered; but there aren't that many to account for. Perhaps the only one in the Valley of the Kings would be Ramesses VIII whose tomb has never been positively identified. But he only ruled for 2 years at most and even then during a period of general decline. Further afield, a good number of the Old Kingdom pharaohs have still not got definite burials, s o keep your fingers crossed.
Ridiculous. There was one monarch in the entire empire. Today, any billionaire can afford to bury themselves with more treasures than Tutankhamun if they were stupid enough and there's 1000s of them.
@@CCoburn3 It's very hard to pin the slow collapse of Egypt on any one factor. There was a huge dislocation of society right around the Eastern Mediterranean from about 1200BCE during the reign of Ramesses III who spent much of his life fighting off a series of invasions by so-called 'Sea Peoples'. His reign appears to have been followed by a series of prolonged failures of the Nile flood as well as various epidemics that hollowed out the Egyptian economy. There also appears to have been a slow withdrawal from Egypt's empire in the Middle East and Sinai as new powers like the Persians began to rise. This meant that Egypt lost access to many raw materials including iron, copper and good quality timber. A lot of the gold in the royal tombs was recycled into the economy quite quickly after it was buried. Mud seals uncovered by Howard Carter show that Tutankhamun's tomb was broken into at least twice within a few years of his death - and we even know the name, Maya, of the man who sealed the tomb again. There are good records showing periods of high inflation, unemployment and the failures of the state to provide basic supplies which line up with bursts of tomb robbing. Whilst the early tombs in the Valley were hidden, the later tombs had huge entrances with wooden doors that were only protected by guards. And they weren't always reliable. The Amherst Payrus from the time of Ramesses IX records court trials (and gruesome torture) of tomb robbers who were systematically looting the Valley of the Kings. Things got so bad, that the priesthood opened all the known tombs and removed the royal mummies, stripped them of any valuables, rewrapped them and placed them in a number of caches around the Valley of the Kings where they remained until the end of the 19th Century. It's also worth mentioning that the much older pyramids were actually good for the economy and the Egyptian state. They used labour that would have otherwise been unemployed during the three months of the year when agricultural land was under water in the annual flood. The state provided food in exchange for work and made sure there wasn't civil unrest. The pharaoh got a nice new burial place - or in at least one case, three of them.
Tutenkhamuns and Heteperes' (a queen from the old Kingdom pyramid age whose tomb is the second most undisturbed) tomb furniture were a great inspiration to Art Deco design in the 20s and 30s
I think some of the most fascinating and tragic things found in Tut’s tomb were the mummified remains of his two infant daughters. They’re not well known and it’s only recently that they’ve started being mentioned and discussed in documentaries about him
I remember my family taking turns standing on line for a day and a half to get tickets to the King Tut exhibit when it was here in New York City in 1979 and it was well worth it. Currently in NYC there is a massive immersive experience honoring the 100 anniversary of the discovery of the tomb being done by National Geographics.
I desperately wanted to see that King Tut exhibit! My now ex husband talked me out of it at the time, promising that we would eventually see it in Egypt...which obviously never happened.
Oh my. I saw it at the museum of natural history in Chicago... fantastic.... could not believe how brand new most things looked, especially a carved wood chair
One of the restaurants near me used to have the most incredible duck in fig sauce. Every bite was like a religious experience! Unfortunately, between all the things that have happened these past couple of years, they had to cut their menu back, and it's no longer available. Maybe if I can find somewhere to buy the duck, I will try this recipe!
@@telebubba5527 We're at the time of year now when ducks and geese start appearing in the supermarket, instead of just chicken all the time. And turkey, of course.
I wonder if the people asked themselves how long they reckoned they'd be dead for when deciding how much stuff they should have buried with them. Like, do you only plan on bringing enough until you get yourself through afterlife security and baggage claim or is what you're buried with supposed to last for billions of years?
I don't know about the Egyptian beliefs. But I do know that Chinese people burn goods for their loved ones' stay in the first phase of the afterlife. Once you're done with phase one, you get judged and you usually reincarnate.
How it works is this: when the body dies it separates into the body, the Ka, and the Ba. The Ka (aka the Soul) only needs to absorb the food, thus explaining why when a tomb is opened the food still appears untouched
@@Genevieve1023 there were funerary temples used by the Pharaonic religion, and we have depictions of sons and daughters giving offerings to their dead parents. So it's possible there was something of thar belief; additionally we have stories of ghosts coming to haunt the living because their tombs were disturbed or destroyed from contemporary records in an attempt to get others to fix the matter. So I think the tomb goods were meant to be indefinite, and the temple offerings might have been a supplement. All this being said I'm not an academic, and I focus more on other periods of Egyptian history.
I imagine they had a similar common sense as we did. They prbly knew very well what that tomb would look like Millennia later with all the food just being inedible. But it's a huge sign of prestige and it's a long going tradition that Pharaohs just held up for ages. Maybe it was more to force the lower class to give their respects. Building the Ancient Egyptian monuments is a really bizarre way to worship god if you compare it to medieval Europe. In Europe they sometimes spent centuries to build huge churches, cathedrals which at the end of the day could be used by the everyman to pray. So you can argue that building the cathedrals was not only a form of prestige but also a public service and a way for people to work their penance. But what was the everyman in Ancient Egypt allowed to do around the tombs, pyramids and the like? Those were off limits to the living. Every last slave working on them prbly hated their regime. I don't think many people really believed the Pharaohs would need any of these riches and foods in their tomb for the after life. They were just forced to comply with a cruel system.
The sauce didn't have a lot of added sugar in terms of the white crystalline stuff we think of when we say sugar, but it has a lot of dates and figs preserved in honey, which all add up to a lot of sugar! I'm glad you mentioned that it wasn't very sweet because it sounds like it would be if the wine and vinegar weren't there to balance it out. I personally love duck, so this really sounds like something I'd eat happily!
well garlic is from china and japan , I don't think the Egyptians had access to it , carrots are from Iran and eggplants and mangos are from India and potato's and squash are from Mexico and Cuba , So I don't think they had access to garlic , maybe they had access to dates and figs but the only thing they used was probably salt , salt water and oil and some herbs , it would be hard to tell unless there is a recipe book found
@@sinabagherisarvestani8924 Egyptians had access to garlic because it doesn't have a single origin. One proposed location, based on tests, is the Near East. Egyptians used garlic so we can infer it originated close to Egypt.
Once again upon watching one of your videos I've become so enraptured by the story I forgot it was a cooking channel. I just love the way you present history and interpret it through cuisine.
Well garlic is from China and Japan , I don't think the Egyptians had access to it , carrots are from Iran and eggplants and mangos are from India and potato's and squash are from Mexico and Cuba , So I don't think they had access to garlic , maybe they had access to dates and figs but the only thing they used was probably salt , salt water and oil and some herbs , it would be hard to tell unless there is a recipe book found
@@sinabagherisarvestani8924 the garlic we know actually originated in Central Asia and Iran, and there is plenty of archeological evidence showing that the ancient Egyptians used garlic for culinary and medicinal purposes; this is not to mention local relatives of onion and garlic that grew within Egypt's realm of influence. China is currently the world's largest producer of garlic, which is perhaps why you got confused.
@@sinabagherisarvestani8924 You also realize that things like trade existed, yes? And traders/merchants traveled all over the world? Especially through the middle east?
My uncle and I just did a week long tour of Egypt. I just sent this to him and he was impressed. Who isn’t? Your historical accounts are unmatched. Now I’ll have to make that wine sauce. Thanks
Hi, egyptian here. Carter didnt find the tomb it was hussein abdelrasol that did :) 1:07 one of the boys that were working for him and he was awarded for it
Fun fact: Carter, might not in fact have said "Wonderful things": several onlookers reported he, exited and caught up in the moment, said "Wonderful [expletive] things", but this being the 20's everyone just chose to pretend that it didn't happen and it wasn't until much later that reporters came forward with the story that he’d accidentally dropped the f-bomb in his excitement. Although just how much later the reporters chose to motion it after the fact casts some doubts on this story. EDIT: that Lord Carnarvon costume is perfect, 20/10, love it.
As an Egyptian (and of course "Butt" (Egyptian for duck) is a huge deal in Egypt. We absolutely love duck 😀) I approve. Good job, thanks. Even though few written recipes were found, the Egyptian cuisine still follows the same methods of cooking and has also evolved of course over the years and was spread across the world. This can be clearly seen in Upper Egypt cities as well as villages across Egypt. Was a bit hard for me though hearing the incorrect pronunciation of my ancestors' names, but I understand that Egyptian isn't your native tongue. However, this is how we pronounce them: King Tut = Toot as in boot King Akhnatone, akh-nA-tone (not Akhenaten) King Hor-Moheb (one of Egypt's most beloved kings with whom the golden age of Egypt started after the chaotic reign of King Akhnatone). Hope that helps. Good day 😊
Hey, thanks for the pronunciations! In the U.S. it's so common to hear them pronounced like Max says them, and we're often taught things wrong in school - almost everything I learned about Tut was wrong! Knowing these little things and being able to better respect another culture's history is pretty awesome, in my opinion.
@@christabelle__ it’s not that you were taught wrong it’s only that some sounds in ancient Egyptian names are easier to pronounce if your native language is Arabic or i will even guess Hebrew and Amharic. USA is a highly educated populace. Fuck the stereotype.
I love the Amarna period, thanks for covering it (and giving Tutankhaten's given name, which is incredibly rare). I'd argue that rather than an act of rebellion, the boy king may have been pressured to change it by the priesthood who were busy erasing the Aten cult following the death of Akhnaten.
Actually, since Tut was only eight years old at his accession to the throne, It may not have been as much pressure as suggestion. Aye may simply have taken his father's place in Tut's mind and assumed complete control over his education. Tut might have willingly concurred with all of Aye's decisions.
Unfortunately, "the meat was cooked and mummified" was a good description of my mother's cooking! Since what was found in Tut's tomb was from a very minor and unimportant pharaoh, can you imagine what must have originally been in the tombs of pharaohs like Ramesses II or Thutmose III? I love duck, bur I never knew about scoring the skin - will do this on my next one. Excellent video.
Yes, and be sure to skim and save the fat for cooking other things - it's ideal for pommes de terre sarladaises, or potatoes sautéed with garlic in duck fat. (There are lots of recipes on line, from savory dishes to pastries, wherever you'd use butter. Just pour it off before you baste with the sauce, and strain it to keep the flavor neutral.)
Max, *_THANK YOU_* for sharing the picture of your younger self! I really, really enjoyed this video especially. What a wonderful idea for something different to make to bring to Thanksgiving or Christmas with the family. Thank you for all the work you put into these videos as well, everything about your videos makes me want to cook again. Which is huge for me, as I am bipolar and have been struggling immensely with depression for the past few years. I thank you so very much. I hope that you and your husband are both well and happy; and I wish you both a happy holiday season!
I've always loved ancient Egypt and I've read a lot about King Tut so this is right up my alley. I don't recall knowing that the meat in the tomb was cooked and mummified so, yay! New info! I'll definitely have to try making this sauce; it sounds delicious!
I once saw the famous headdress of Tut in the Cairo museum. Pictures don’t do it justice. It’s huge! And it looks expensive…I mean it is priceless…but seriously
The honey they found in Tut's tomb was still edible, all they had to do was heat it up to un-crystallise it and they would have been able to eat it. And that honey is an antiseptic and I think slightly antibiotic as well, someone even developed dressings where honey is used for its antiseptic properties.
It's great for small abrasions on the skin! Or, if your lips are very dry - when my lips crack in the winter, I smear a thin layer of (it cannot be pasteurized!!) raw honey over my lips before bed, since it is a humectant, and will actually attract moisture instead of letting it escape. Honey is so *neat*!
That somebody would in fact be Imhotep, the ancient Egyptian god of Architects and Physicians, and the architect of Djoser, who was deified after his death. Had we known about him before Hippocrates, doctors today would be taking an Imhotepic Oath.
Indeed, nurses who go to see patients swear by Manuka honey. My mother had bed sores down to her bone--but the Manuka (medical-grade) honey was able to nealy cure it.
I spent this whole episode a little bit teary-eyed because I'm thinking about that Tumblr post all about how much this kid loved ducks, I'm just like "aw, Max, you made duck for him!! That's so sweet!" Anyway, I'm definitely considering making this, maybe with a Cornish hen instead of a duck, because my toaster oven is definitely not duck-sized.
well garlic is from china and japan , I don't think the Egyptians had access to it , carrots are from Iran and eggplants and mangos are from India and potato's and squash are from Mexico and Cuba , So I don't think they had access to garlic , maybe they had access to dates and figs but the only thing they used was probably salt , salt water and oil and some herbs , it would be hard to tell unless there is a recipe book found
I've always been fascinated by Ancient Egypt - I've often thought; with the wonderous treasures that were found in Tut's tomb- being that of a minor & short-lived Pharaoh - I can't even begin to imagine what the tomb contents of even greater ones would have been like; Khufu - Senusret I - Thutmose I & III - Amenhotep III - Ramesses II- the biggest, longest-lived, & most powerful
Finally subbed after a couple of months of lurking. What a delightful channel, Max. -Just the right mix of food, hilarity and (impressively researched) history lessons. Thank you!
I absolutely love this dude. Learn some history, learn some recipes, enjoy the gentle comedy and calming voice and manner. Wonderful! One of my favourite places to come and relax on UA-cam now. Thanks Max and Tasting History :)
An odd thing to say, but I've had pretty severe food issues and aversion for nearly a week, and this has been one of the first food/cooking videos I've been able to watch since then. I always love your videos, but it makes me really happy to get to enjoy ancient cultures, cooking, and your commentary as one of the first things to feel appealing again. Thank you Max 😊
Thank you Max for the video! As much as I enjoy a good laugh when the food you cook is very hard *clack clack* or very "special" as some foods just are. But nothing makes me more happy then to see you treating yourself with a meal you really like. One could see how much you loved this duck and that is great.
I visited Highclere Castle before the pandemic and they talked about Lord Carnarvon and his archaeological digs in Egypt. It was beautiful! Cool Note: Highclere Castle is the same place where Downton Abbey was filmed! You can tour the house, which is just a train ride outside of London.
Yes I have visited Highclere too, some years ago. In the basement is a replica of Tut's tomb. I nearly fainted though due to the lack of oxygen! Same in the upstairs rooms! This has been a problem before in old castles. Why does no one ever open a window in these old places?
Lord Carnovan took some of Tuts antiquities back with him to Highclere where they still remain despite Egypt asking for their return. Ironically on his last visit to Egypt, he was bitten by a mosquito while sailing on the river and developed a sickness which killed him. They claim it was the mummy's curse that punished him for taking the items from the tomb.
@maydaygarden there's a british comedian who does a funny bit about the British museum hanging out to antiquities of Egypt and other countries. It's a 'laugh to keep from crying' bit because it really isn't cool that this is still a thing...
I just made this recipe for Thanksgiving dinner tonight, albeit with some slight modifications ( I smoked it according to your oven roasting directions) and it was out of this world awesome! From now on, we will always have duck for Thanksgiving.
Thanks for commemorating the centennial of the discovery of King Tut's tomb, Max, as well as for sharing your connection via the stage to the teenage pharaoh. Your duck recipe sounds fantastic and I am going to cook it this fall. Another wonderful chapter of Tasting History, bravo!
Fun fact: “Tutankhamen” is the modern pronunciation that was the best guess for a while since Egyptian didn’t record vowels before the Coptic period. We now think his name was pronounced something like Tawāt-ʿānakh-ʾamān (the apostrophes are pronounced like ʿayn and ʾalif in Arabic)
@@K-a-n-d-i-s I don't think there is a simpler explanation. This made it clear, but yes it involves understanding Arabic, which makes sense given Egypt nowadays. Just imagine how Arabs say their a's starting at the back of their throat and it'll help.
Ancient Egypt also had access to many of the spices still used in Arabic cooking so this could add an extra layer of flavour to your duck. It's known they were trading with India and even Afganistan (the only source of lapis lazuli in the ancient world, which was used for all the blue used in their painting and jewellery).
I've been watching the channel since 2020 but the stories always thrill me. Max has a real penchant for storytelling, the intro about the discovery of the tomb and the contents inside was amazing. That age of discovery and exploration in the 19th and early 20th century was so interesting
The Earl of Canarvon, (Both this one AND the current one) find their home to be Hyclere Castle - the very same one in "Downton Abbey" They still house a lot of the artifacts that were brought back from that expedition.
Saw all his treasures in Paris a few years ago. Now they're all back in Egypt at the new museum. You think you'd have seen them all in history books & on the net & in National Geographic... but nooooooo. Utterly stunning. RICH. The amount of material wealth because all these belongings were made to be BURIED with him. What then did the next Pharaoh have... & then Pharaoh after him.... mind-boggling.
I was lucky enough to see the Tutankhamun Exhibition in London in 1972. Yes, the gold was impressive, but the extraordinary craftmanship of the ancient Egyptians impressed me most. My favourite item was a wooden image of a sarcophagus, given by Maya, so simple and so elegant. Thanks for another fascinating video, I will try this recipe for Christmas! X
Thank you so much for making these. My mother was a Classics instructor and anything Egyptology brings back very, very special memories of her. Nobody does Ancient Egyptian food on UA-cam! You're a prince; thank you, Max ❤️
The worst part about Egyptian Pharaohs was wiping history to make themselves look good. The biggest tragedy was Hatshepsut, who had a great reign. P.S. I wish the concept of ‘Cartouche’ was mentioned.
That's not what they did. Their intention was not to change the past, but to protect the future, from their point of view. For them, names had a very strong magical power when combined with jeroglyphs.
Erasing King Tuts name from the record of Pharaohs is probably what saved his tomb. The tomb robbers can't rob a tomb if they don't the pharaoh ever existed. They wouldn't have gone looking for it.
It was believed by the Ancient Egyptians that the paintings on the tomb wall and statues in the tomb would literally come to life and make food and tend to the pharos every need and desire in the afterlife.
This takes me back to when I stood in line for three hours to get into the Tut Exhibition when it came to DC. It was totally worth it. I read about something that was revealed later. Carter's official story about not knowing what would be in the tomb was probably a fabrication. He and Carnarvon had already been in the tomb and had a good look around before the press arrived, and knew very well that it would be newsworthy. If you look at 2:39 in the video, you'll see in front of the door to the burial chamber a pile of baskets and straw. That wasn't a mess left in the tomb originally, that was Carter and Carnarvon covering the hole they made to sneak into the burial chamber and have an advance look.
Additionally, there's been some strong suspicions raised recently that they took a few choice pieces from the tomb to sell prior to the "opening" of the tomb.
They discovered the tomb in 1913! They spent nine years taking everything they wanted for themselves out of the tomb before making the official "discovery" in 1922.
Egyptians always stuff ducks with red onion, cut finely and mixed with salt and pepper. This trick tastes heavenly and gives the duck a nice flavour inside out. Also, we would boil the duck first, make a rich broth to cook "Molokhia," and then roast the duck in the oven. This way, the meat becomes very juicy and rich.
I love these types of videos that include a sauce. I've made 2 other sauces from various time periods and they've become normal parts of my everyday cooking
Is this the same duck that Jaime finally had a chance to share (which, I think you referenced in a recent Instagram post)? If so, he truly is a pampered (and very lucky) cat ... and clearly a descendant of the beloved cats of ancient Egypt!
With how large and expansive some of the tombs are compared to KV62 (Tut's Tomb) it can only be assumed that while Tut's Tomb was filled with immense treasures they would have paled in comparison to the wealth placed in others...
When I was a young lad, I fell in love with the story of Lord Carnavon a H. Carter. So much I might become an archeologist. That is the power of books and child imagination. And this duck looks amazing, I may preprare it this style for st.Martins day on this weekend. Nice tip with that sauce!
King Tut’s tomb is exceptionally small, especially after seeing other tombs in the Valley. And he was still resting in his tomb back when I visited in the late ‘90’s.
First of all, this was fascinating! I love learning about the old food stuff, especially this ancient. Second, I usually fast forward through the ad portions of videos, but I love listening to his voice so much that I don't do that with these videos! :D
Wow! I remember Dming you about this back in April and you followed through! This is why you're my favourite channel of all time. You interact with your audience so well! I won't take credit for the vid, but I am really appreciative of you following through and commemorating King Tut!
Thank you for this one!! Akhenaten, his family and his history have been of intense interest to me for many years: I took a three-week trip to Egypt purely to get to Amarna; I have a library of fiction and nonfiction accounts of the period, and have gone back and forth like a pendulum over my feelings about Akhenaten. It all started with the two novels by Allen Drury, "A God Against the Gods" and "Return to Thebes", and kind of exploded from there. Thanks again for this terrific overview of Tut and his family, and for the recipe (I don't like duck but yes the sauce sounds lovely!)
When I was a kid, I used to be so fascinated by Ancient Egypt history, especially by King Tut's history. I even wanted to be an archeologist when I grew up. This episode brought back so many memories. I even remember Howard Carter's words by heart. I love you. This channel is the best.
i love the pokemon of choice for the background. knew of tut's love of ducks beforehand and knew within seconds of starting the video exactly why you chose that one. he would have fuckin loved pokemon if he'd been around today
This is definitely another ancient recipe I'm going to make! We are crazy about the Parthian Chicken (I've made it three times thus far), not to mention the very addictive Bierocks! OMG!! Thanks Max for another great history lesson, another great recipe AND some VERY amusing story-telling additions! Geraldo is still looking for that vault.....LMAO! I'm thinking I'll use only the duck breast portions instead of a whole duck to avoid the potential risk of over-done duck. Thanks again!
Tut is the classic example of someone who’s more famous in death than in life. He just happened to have the one tomb that wasn’t robbed; imagine the tombs of the richer Pharaohs
I guess you could say that this afterlife dish in Tutankhamun's tomb was a fowl discovery! I love duck so at some point I may try this recipe. Thank you, Max!
From the moment I heard the sauce described, I said to myself "Goose!" Goose itself is a holiday dish, and the sweetness of the figs! Oh My! It sets me to purring like a well fed kitten on Christmas Day!
I just pulled it out of the oven, made a nice setting, took happy snaps, , and ate. What a mix of lovely flavors that appear in your mouth at different times. Well done my friend, well done!!!
One of my favorite facts about Tut's burial. He and his wife had two children, both girls who were likely stillborn due to genetic issues. We know this because they were mummified and buried with him. People have always been people, and we can tell from burial practices that people loved their children, even during times with high infant mortality. They grieves them, and Tut wanted to make sure that his baby daughters were with him in the afterlife.
Twins?
@FlyingMonkies325 they would have just moved their bodies and put them in his tomb if they where already dead.
This is because of gross incest in pharaohnic marriages. Sibling marriage can’t survive enough generations to be a viable cultural trait.
@FlyingMonkies325 the cracked skull is only a misinterpretation of an old x-ray. And the babies were likely mummified and buried somewhere and later reburied, this was common practice. for the Egyptians dead people were much more 'alive' than they are for us, so having them buried somewhere else (like with a relative who was already dead) to be looked after until their parents died was perfectly normal.
But yes, his tomb was probably put together in a hurry, he did die very young after all. but it is also assembled with a lot of care, many of the objects are things he would have used in his life and others were made with him specifically in mind (like a lot of walking sticks to help with his limb).
Ancient Egyptians loved their children so much!
I'm glad you chose to make duck, because it seems ducks were King Tut's favorite animal as a child. Inside King Tut's tomb, they found childhood keepsakes with his baby clothes and toys. Among them were a pair of sandals and a shirt with ducks embroidered, duck earrings, as well as a duck toy.
Maybe he loved ducks because they waddle when they walk like he must have
@@melissabarrett9750 The ugly duckling. Lol
@@melissabarrett9750 That thought is both endearing, and a little sad.
Oh my god, I'm going to cry. Humans have really always been humans, and King Tut had a toy duck.
Alongside these artifacts, archaeologists unearthed an inscription with hieroglyphs that translate as "Rubber ducky, you're the one!"
What really blows your mind about King Tut is, that comparatively he was a pretty insignificant Pharao. One can only imagine what would have been in the tomb of one of the really important ones, when this is the stuff they put into his tomb.
That's one way to look at this. But some historians think it might have been the other way around. Tut ended his father's shenanigans and returned traditional priests to they former glory and power. Therfore when he died they all pitch in with extraordinarly rich funeral gifts as a thank you.
Tut was extremely important, his father tried to change the entire Egyptian leadership and society which was "fixed" by Tut in his relatively short reign.
@@krzysztofkolodziejczyk4335 I support the theory that as he died young his tomb was rushed and not nearly as opulent as others.
While he might have been liked by the priest class, their power was greatly reduced by his father. It would have been unlikely that the priests would have had any power to significantly add to the tomb.
@@amarketing8749 Yeah, and most importantly he died young and unexepected. The two thousand items found and the digging of a tomb in rock is not something you improvise, as you have only 70 days between Pharaoh's death and his burial. So he got Ay's tomb (the man was old, he had already prepared his tomb, although it was a Vizier's tomb not a king's one ^^'), and probably stole the treasure of his predecessor, one egyptologist think that 80% of the treasure were meant for a queen, probably Ankh-Kheperure, who was a queen-pharaoh who reigned two or three years before Tutankhamun's reign.
@@johannesmattsson9900 Not at all. Tutankhamun got to the throne when he was very young (roughly 8 years old) which makes it more likely that he was manipulated by others (presumably those who took over after him like Ai or Horemheb). We also know from the studies done on his pathology that he was very sickly. Apart from the genetic disease that he had, he had been through very severe forms of malaria many times in his life, so it seems highly unlikely that he played magnificent role throughout most of his reign. I suspect people like his priests or consultants or even his wife Ankhsenamun played much greater role than the poor child.
His tomb was also carelessly made, objects were hastily brought in and various of the objects found in his tomb have been suggested that they were quickly modified from other people's burials to fit the young king (though this of course needs plenty of study). His mummification was not exactly perfect either for his body did decay a bit compared to other burials like queen Tiye for example. Many of his bones broke post mortem too. Tutankhamun reigned during a crucial time that's for sure but it seems more likely that he was a pawn king at least for his youth than a strong ruler that played important parts personally.
Maybe later on to the years before his death like when he was around 16-18 when he died, he would be more active but I somehow doubt it because of his genetic conditions only worsened with years so by the time of his death he could have been frailer of health than before.
A water boy Hussein Abdel Rasoul actually discovered the tomb. Twice a day he would bring large pottery jars filled with water to the excavation site for the workers. The jars were tied with rope and placed on the back of donkey to make the journey.
At the site, the boy would take the jars off the donkey and set them in the sands. However, because the jars were pointed on the bottom, he would have to dig out some of the sand to set the jars in so they would remain upright. While swishing the sand away that miraculous day, he uncovered a flat stone which looked as if it was sculpted. He rushed to tell the workers of his find, and basically the rest is history.
Imagine you're in the afterlife, enjoying all the stuff you got to bring with you when suddenly your tomb is raided and all your cool stuff disappears as you're using it.
You're riding your war chariot and suddenly the wheels pop off one by one and you eat dirt, crushing your beloved chariot to bits
Back in the material world the archaeologists are sadly remarking that the main body of the chariot disintegrated from age when they tried to move it
😂😂😂
@@bluegum6438 This would make for a rather entertaining comedy movie to be fair.
@Unknownety I can see it 😂 and then they go on an epic adventure to find their missing stuff 😂
It would take at least decades before that would happen.
So poor Tut is sitting around in the afterlife, hungry, thirsty, footsore, and lacking any underwear. Imagine how pissed off he must be!
I know it was a joke but it seemed like as good an opportunity as any to mention that going by what I know of ancient Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife (which is probably less than perfect) they'd probably have mixed feelings about archaeologists. On one hand they're digging them up and making off with their stuff. On the other however the Egyptians apparently believed that being remembered by the living was vitally important for their continued existence in the afterlife and an awful lot of them, including King Tut, were long forgotten before someone dug them up, so the archaeologists are kinda doing them a favour on that front. I like to think that Egyptians have been popping back into existence in the afterlife for the last hundred and something years.
Every now and then, someone should place a bucket of KFC next to King Tut's mummy. He'll never go hungry again.
No underwear, and with all that sand blowing around...
That's what sucks about eternal afterlife.
@@hueandcrylancer They have a saying, that archeologists often came running with a pickaxe in one hand and a Bible in another. It's not really about research, but more about what goodies you can find to take home with you. That said, it did help grant people a chance to understand how Egyptian burial processes work and why they were (obviously) a target for grave robberies.
‘Educated Guesswork’ is the USP of this channel and we love it. The more unknown the recipe, the sweeter the triumph.
Hear, hear!
For anyone wondering, I googled it and USP is short for "unique selling proposition" or "unique selling point".
I'm just impressed that Max got access to King Tut's tomb for the ingredients! No really, I'm now picturing Max dressed in that cliche Egyptologist/Archaeologist outfit, opening up King Tut's tomb, and leaving with a few bags of ingredients for a nice dinner.
Now that's an episode idea!
Indiana Miller!
😂 don’t mind me. Just picking up a few things for dinner.
@@TastingHistory Only the freshest 3000 year old ingredients for you!
as far as i remember, some of the honey conserved in the graves still was edible, or well, not dangerous to eat, 3000 years later.
I think a lot of people assume ancient civilizations had simple foods, but they did not. Egypt had many foods like lettuce, parsley, beans, lentils, fava beans, radishes, peas, leeks, celery, cucumbers, turnips, gourds, melons, figs, dates, onions, fish, birds (including chickens and ducks), beef, pork, eggs, milk, cheese, butter, bread, beer, honey, olives, olive oil, wine, vinegar, salt, wheat, barley, garlic, chickpeas, cumin, fenugreek, coriander, sorghum, grapes, dom palm, Christ thorn, pomegranates, juniper berries, carob, apples, caraway, fennel, mint, poppy, and almonds. They likely made pickled vegetables for storage and salted and dried meats. They dried fruits too. Just the fact they had bread really expands what they could cook. Vegetables were usually raw, but sometimes also cooked. They did not have sugar so fruits and honey were used to sweeten things. Some foods would be seasonal and others would be more reserved for the wealthy, but that does not mean they ate bland food. With olive and vinegar and spices and the use of fresh vegetables I can see them eating salads similar to what we have today. Food had to be preserved for the winter. All of these created even more variety. The ovens shown were likely used for leaven bread but also likely for flat bread like a naan bread.
@@ronmka8931 True and there is a big difference between what is available in the cities and to the wealthy and what the average city dweller or farmer might have had access to or afforded. Most people do not understand that before the 1700s about 80-90% of the population were farmers and this slowly improved from the 1700s to about 2000. It was improving something like .3% a year until in hit 2% until 2000. It is right now about 1.5%. The focus now is reducing chemicals and making it more and more sustainable.
But the main this is that if a city back then had a population of 200,000 it needed between 1,000,000 farmers in the surrounding area. And with the lower population density of the country this makes the cities look like a tiny dot in the middle of farms.
This was one reason the Egyptians fared so well. The soil was so rich because of the annual flooding that they likely only needed closer to 60-70% of the population for farming. This generates more wealth and lets a higher percentage of the population be craftsmen and artists.
@@ronmka8931
You're just uneducated.
That short list of produce that you consider long is actually factual and recorded in history.
Dates, almonds, sesame, hops, chickpeas, pigeons, quail, pears, veal, oxen, eggs, fish, shellfish, figs, 😂
Why don't you write a book.
@@dos3622 I have. I type very fast. I was writing 10 pages an hour every night while working full time and raising 3 kids as a single dad. I am basically retired too so I now have time to burn... :P
I’m an ancient Egyptian, and I’m so glad to see you honoring the food of my king
@ngwillard r/Woosh
Stop lying are you African? Cause if you're not you not a real Egyptian
Real Egyptian or invaders ?
@@kf9926Good question LOL!!
@@Kimmy_95 what’s funny
Since I was a little kid, this is what always amazed me and made me interested in ancient history. At the peak of their empire the Egyptians were so wealthy that they were able to bury their royalty with more gold and valuables than a single person could ever see or imagine in a lifetime
When I was 9, I saw "The Ten Commandments" in the West End theater in Long Beach, NY. . As I got older, I realized how many blatant mistakes the movie had, especially during the tenth plague as well as other such during the movie.
Tut wasn't even the peak of Egyptian history! Africa is an incredibly interesting continent to study, so many variations of class and wealth over the thousands of years of record and archeology we have. I wish it was given more thought in western history books + classes beyond a thin band of Egyptian history and a nod to the triangle trade. I wanna learn more about interior Africa personally, my western learning suuuuper restricted me to north Africa/Mediterranean Africa. (this is no value judgement on you, original commenter, I'm just expressing awe at history for myself!)
There's a good chance that all of the gold in Tutankhamun's tomb is something of an anomaly. In 1881, several pharaonic mummies were recovered from a secret cache at Deir el-Bahri where they had been reburied to protect them from tomb robbers. Along with the mummies, there were several original inner coffins, all of which were made of wood that had originally been overlain with gold leaf.
Tutankhamun's solid gold inner coffin is like nothing else ever found, and there have been some suggestions that his entire burial was a way of getting rid of a large amount of spiritually and politically suspect treasure associated with the heretical Aten religion of his father. This is supported by the large numbers of items in his tomb made for other members of the royal family - possibly including his father, and his brother(?) Smenkhare - particularly the second coffin which is clearly not modelled on the same person as the other two.
That gold coffin was also probably a disaster for Tutankhamun. Unlike the permeable wooden coffins, it did not allow the moisture in the various oils and perfumes used to anoint the mummy to evaporate. Instead, they gradually reacted with the body tissues to produce a thick black tarry substance that destroyed most of his body apart from the skeleton. Which is why Tutankhamun's mummy, despite never been attacked by tomb robbers, is in a very much worse state than those bodies found at Deir El-Bahri.
I guess we'll never know for sure unless another intact pharaonic burial is uncovered; but there aren't that many to account for. Perhaps the only one in the Valley of the Kings would be Ramesses VIII whose tomb has never been positively identified. But he only ruled for 2 years at most and even then during a period of general decline. Further afield, a good number of the Old Kingdom pharaohs have still not got definite burials, s o keep your fingers crossed.
Ridiculous. There was one monarch in the entire empire. Today, any billionaire can afford to bury themselves with more treasures than Tutankhamun if they were stupid enough and there's 1000s of them.
@@CCoburn3 It's very hard to pin the slow collapse of Egypt on any one factor. There was a huge dislocation of society right around the Eastern Mediterranean from about 1200BCE during the reign of Ramesses III who spent much of his life fighting off a series of invasions by so-called 'Sea Peoples'. His reign appears to have been followed by a series of prolonged failures of the Nile flood as well as various epidemics that hollowed out the Egyptian economy. There also appears to have been a slow withdrawal from Egypt's empire in the Middle East and Sinai as new powers like the Persians began to rise. This meant that Egypt lost access to many raw materials including iron, copper and good quality timber.
A lot of the gold in the royal tombs was recycled into the economy quite quickly after it was buried. Mud seals uncovered by Howard Carter show that Tutankhamun's tomb was broken into at least twice within a few years of his death - and we even know the name, Maya, of the man who sealed the tomb again.
There are good records showing periods of high inflation, unemployment and the failures of the state to provide basic supplies which line up with bursts of tomb robbing. Whilst the early tombs in the Valley were hidden, the later tombs had huge entrances with wooden doors that were only protected by guards. And they weren't always reliable. The Amherst Payrus from the time of Ramesses IX records court trials (and gruesome torture) of tomb robbers who were systematically looting the Valley of the Kings. Things got so bad, that the priesthood opened all the known tombs and removed the royal mummies, stripped them of any valuables, rewrapped them and placed them in a number of caches around the Valley of the Kings where they remained until the end of the 19th Century.
It's also worth mentioning that the much older pyramids were actually good for the economy and the Egyptian state. They used labour that would have otherwise been unemployed during the three months of the year when agricultural land was under water in the annual flood. The state provided food in exchange for work and made sure there wasn't civil unrest. The pharaoh got a nice new burial place - or in at least one case, three of them.
"Always Fresh, Never Mummified" has to be the best marketing slogan ever.
That killed me lmao.
That was amazing, together with the dry duck joke. 😄
Visit british history museums, you'll see many familiar things
@@marap41071
I found it very clever too 😂 ❤
You have to give credit to Ancient Egyptians for having the most stylish collection of foldable chairs and riverside furniture. IKEA could never --
Seriously. I’d love that cow sofa.
Seriously. I’d love that cow sofa.
Agreed. They got nothing on the Egyptians 😂
Tutenkhamuns and Heteperes' (a queen from the old Kingdom pyramid age whose tomb is the second most undisturbed) tomb furniture were a great inspiration to Art Deco design in the 20s and 30s
@@TastingHistory Seriously. I’d love that cow sofa.
This is the most binge worthy channel I think I’ve ever come across. Every time I watch one of your videos I end up watching at least 5 more!
Same! Very interesting!
That duck behind you looking concerned he might be next
I think some of the most fascinating and tragic things found in Tut’s tomb were the mummified remains of his two infant daughters. They’re not well known and it’s only recently that they’ve started being mentioned and discussed in documentaries about him
Twins?
@@queerdor they’re most likely from separate pregnancies
@@queerdor they were very premature. 1 at 5 months, the other 6 months
I knew about them in like 1969.
@@paddyodriscoll8648 i mean, i never said they were and unknown thing, just that they’re kind of obscure
I remember my family taking turns standing on line for a day and a half to get tickets to the King Tut exhibit when it was here in New York City in 1979 and it was well worth it. Currently in NYC there is a massive immersive experience honoring the 100 anniversary of the discovery of the tomb being done by National Geographics.
I wish I’d seen it. My mom still tells me about seeing it when it was in LA in the 70s.
I desperately wanted to see that King Tut exhibit! My now ex husband talked me out of it at the time, promising that we would eventually see it in Egypt...which obviously never happened.
@@TastingHistory Yeah I recall that. We had a school field trip for that to the LA Museum in La Brea.
I'm oldish so I remember hearing about that. I was so mad I couldn't go.
Oh my. I saw it at the museum of natural history in Chicago... fantastic.... could not believe how brand new most things looked, especially a carved wood chair
One of the restaurants near me used to have the most incredible duck in fig sauce. Every bite was like a religious experience! Unfortunately, between all the things that have happened these past couple of years, they had to cut their menu back, and it's no longer available.
Maybe if I can find somewhere to buy the duck, I will try this recipe!
Now you can make it at home! If you can get a duck 🦆
Duck features in Chinese cuisine, so a Chinese supplier would be worth trying, if there's one in your area.
@@oaktreeman4369 Or just buy it at the supermarket.
@@telebubba5527 We're at the time of year now when ducks and geese start appearing in the supermarket, instead of just chicken all the time. And turkey, of course.
Check the freezer section of your supermarket. Not uncommon all year round out here. It is expensive though, and goose even more so.
I wonder if the people asked themselves how long they reckoned they'd be dead for when deciding how much stuff they should have buried with them. Like, do you only plan on bringing enough until you get yourself through afterlife security and baggage claim or is what you're buried with supposed to last for billions of years?
I don't know about the Egyptian beliefs. But I do know that Chinese people burn goods for their loved ones' stay in the first phase of the afterlife. Once you're done with phase one, you get judged and you usually reincarnate.
How it works is this: when the body dies it separates into the body, the Ka, and the Ba. The Ka (aka the Soul) only needs to absorb the food, thus explaining why when a tomb is opened the food still appears untouched
Maybe just having one duck is like an infinite food glitch.
@@Genevieve1023 there were funerary temples used by the Pharaonic religion, and we have depictions of sons and daughters giving offerings to their dead parents. So it's possible there was something of thar belief; additionally we have stories of ghosts coming to haunt the living because their tombs were disturbed or destroyed from contemporary records in an attempt to get others to fix the matter. So I think the tomb goods were meant to be indefinite, and the temple offerings might have been a supplement. All this being said I'm not an academic, and I focus more on other periods of Egyptian history.
I imagine they had a similar common sense as we did. They prbly knew very well what that tomb would look like Millennia later with all the food just being inedible.
But it's a huge sign of prestige and it's a long going tradition that Pharaohs just held up for ages. Maybe it was more to force the lower class to give their respects.
Building the Ancient Egyptian monuments is a really bizarre way to worship god if you compare it to medieval Europe.
In Europe they sometimes spent centuries to build huge churches, cathedrals which at the end of the day could be used by the everyman to pray. So you can argue that building the cathedrals was not only a form of prestige but also a public service and a way for people to work their penance.
But what was the everyman in Ancient Egypt allowed to do around the tombs, pyramids and the like? Those were off limits to the living. Every last slave working on them prbly hated their regime. I don't think many people really believed the Pharaohs would need any of these riches and foods in their tomb for the after life. They were just forced to comply with a cruel system.
I’m Egyptian… this touched my heart like nothing else… thank you so much!
Is this dish still popular or prevalent in Egypt? Do people still make it?
@@genautelevishn5999yes modern Egyptians are mostly Arab/Semitic. While ancient Egypt was most likely Phoenician descendant
No they are fully Egyptians
@@STSGuitar16نعم البط من الاطعمه المفضله للمصريين من كل الطبقات ويوجد بكثره في الريف المصري وهو أغلى ثمنا من الدواجن والاسماك
@@STSGuitar16yes especially in rural Egypt and luxor
The sauce didn't have a lot of added sugar in terms of the white crystalline stuff we think of when we say sugar, but it has a lot of dates and figs preserved in honey, which all add up to a lot of sugar! I'm glad you mentioned that it wasn't very sweet because it sounds like it would be if the wine and vinegar weren't there to balance it out. I personally love duck, so this really sounds like something I'd eat happily!
I love how Quaxly is just staring with horror as his duck friend is prepped and roasted.
how did I just realize this 😭
Same 😭
well garlic is from china and japan , I don't think the Egyptians had access to it , carrots are from Iran and eggplants and mangos are from India and potato's and squash are from Mexico and Cuba , So I don't think they had access to garlic , maybe they had access to dates and figs but the only thing they used was probably salt , salt water and oil and some herbs , it would be hard to tell unless there is a recipe book found
@@sinabagherisarvestani8924 Egyptians had access to garlic because it doesn't have a single origin. One proposed location, based on tests, is the Near East. Egyptians used garlic so we can infer it originated close to Egypt.
I know it must be a lot easier to re-create recipes that have been written down, but this challenge was MUCH appreciated and very interesting
Once again upon watching one of your videos I've become so enraptured by the story I forgot it was a cooking channel. I just love the way you present history and interpret it through cuisine.
Wow, we always hear about the burial mask and other artifacts like the chariot, but finally some focus on the food.
I'm so proud to have been one of your first thousand subs. From covid project to almost a mil and a half. Way to go Max.
Well garlic is from China and Japan , I don't think the Egyptians had access to it , carrots are from Iran and eggplants and mangos are from India and potato's and squash are from Mexico and Cuba , So I don't think they had access to garlic , maybe they had access to dates and figs but the only thing they used was probably salt , salt water and oil and some herbs , it would be hard to tell unless there is a recipe book found
@@sinabagherisarvestani8924 the garlic we know actually originated in Central Asia and Iran, and there is plenty of archeological evidence showing that the ancient Egyptians used garlic for culinary and medicinal purposes; this is not to mention local relatives of onion and garlic that grew within Egypt's realm of influence. China is currently the world's largest producer of garlic, which is perhaps why you got confused.
@@danzafrir2900 lol ya maybe
@@sinabagherisarvestani8924 You also realize that things like trade existed, yes? And traders/merchants traveled all over the world? Especially through the middle east?
Me too! Those early days were awesome too. He was so impressive even then
My uncle and I just did a week long tour of Egypt. I just sent this to him and he was impressed. Who isn’t? Your historical accounts are unmatched. Now I’ll have to make that wine sauce. Thanks
I always say this, but as a linguist I really appreciate how much care you give to linguistic details.
Highclere Castle is also the set of Downton Abbey, for anyone interested
Hi, egyptian here. Carter didnt find the tomb it was hussein abdelrasol that did :) 1:07 one of the boys that were working for him and he was awarded for it
Max making food fit for a King every week and I live for it 👑
Fun fact: Carter, might not in fact have said "Wonderful things": several onlookers reported he, exited and caught up in the moment, said "Wonderful [expletive] things", but this being the 20's everyone just chose to pretend that it didn't happen and it wasn't until much later that reporters came forward with the story that he’d accidentally dropped the f-bomb in his excitement. Although just how much later the reporters chose to motion it after the fact casts some doubts on this story.
EDIT: that Lord Carnarvon costume is perfect, 20/10, love it.
A LOT more history than THAT was made up purely for public relations and propaganda purposes. Seriously!
as an egyptology student im so happy you made another episode about egypt, especially since there are two egyptological anniversaries this year!!
Any thoughts on "Business Secrets of the Pharaohs"?
As an Egyptian (and of course "Butt" (Egyptian for duck) is a huge deal in Egypt. We absolutely love duck 😀) I approve. Good job, thanks.
Even though few written recipes were found, the Egyptian cuisine still follows the same methods of cooking and has also evolved of course over the years and was spread across the world. This can be clearly seen in Upper Egypt cities as well as villages across Egypt.
Was a bit hard for me though hearing the incorrect pronunciation of my ancestors' names, but I understand that Egyptian isn't your native tongue. However, this is how we pronounce them:
King Tut = Toot as in boot
King Akhnatone, akh-nA-tone (not Akhenaten)
King Hor-Moheb (one of Egypt's most beloved kings with whom the golden age of Egypt started after the chaotic reign of King Akhnatone). Hope that helps.
Good day 😊
Butt is appreciated around the globe. But I can understand if you a special appreciation for Egyptian Butt.
Hey, thanks for the pronunciations! In the U.S. it's so common to hear them pronounced like Max says them, and we're often taught things wrong in school - almost everything I learned about Tut was wrong! Knowing these little things and being able to better respect another culture's history is pretty awesome, in my opinion.
@@christabelle__ it’s not that you were taught wrong it’s only that some sounds in ancient Egyptian names are easier to pronounce if your native language is Arabic or i will even guess Hebrew and Amharic.
USA is a highly educated populace. Fuck the stereotype.
Tut and toot
Butt is Arabic lol not Egyptian. Real Egyptian is Coptic.
2:28 looks like the pharaoh's garage
I'm dying here 😂😂
An episode about the Hapsburg would be super interesting! Although the food they got served probably had to be really soft to get through that jaw...
😂😂😂
I'm pretty sure I heard somewhere that Charles II of Spain had to be fed liquid food because his teeth didn't meet to chew.
I love the Amarna period, thanks for covering it (and giving Tutankhaten's given name, which is incredibly rare). I'd argue that rather than an act of rebellion, the boy king may have been pressured to change it by the priesthood who were busy erasing the Aten cult following the death of Akhnaten.
Actually, since Tut was only eight years old at his accession to the throne, It may not have been as much pressure as suggestion. Aye may simply have taken his father's place in Tut's mind and assumed complete control over his education. Tut might have willingly concurred with all of Aye's decisions.
Unfortunately, "the meat was cooked and mummified" was a good description of my mother's cooking! Since what was found in Tut's tomb was from a very minor and unimportant pharaoh, can you imagine what must have originally been in the tombs of pharaohs like Ramesses II or Thutmose III? I love duck, bur I never knew about scoring the skin - will do this on my next one. Excellent video.
Yes, and be sure to skim and save the fat for cooking other things - it's ideal for pommes de terre sarladaises, or potatoes sautéed with garlic in duck fat. (There are lots of recipes on line, from savory dishes to pastries, wherever you'd use butter. Just pour it off before you baste with the sauce, and strain it to keep the flavor neutral.)
I love this guy. The cooking is great, the history is great, and he is a great orator.
Thank you for sharing.
Max, *_THANK YOU_* for sharing the picture of your younger self! I really, really enjoyed this video especially. What a wonderful idea for something different to make to bring to Thanksgiving or Christmas with the family. Thank you for all the work you put into these videos as well, everything about your videos makes me want to cook again. Which is huge for me, as I am bipolar and have been struggling immensely with depression for the past few years. I thank you so very much. I hope that you and your husband are both well and happy; and I wish you both a happy holiday season!
I've always loved ancient Egypt and I've read a lot about King Tut so this is right up my alley. I don't recall knowing that the meat in the tomb was cooked and mummified so, yay! New info! I'll definitely have to try making this sauce; it sounds delicious!
I once saw the famous headdress of Tut in the Cairo museum. Pictures don’t do it justice. It’s huge! And it looks expensive…I mean it is priceless…but seriously
The honey they found in Tut's tomb was still edible, all they had to do was heat it up to un-crystallise it and they would have been able to eat it. And that honey is an antiseptic and I think slightly antibiotic as well, someone even developed dressings where honey is used for its antiseptic properties.
It's great for small abrasions on the skin! Or, if your lips are very dry - when my lips crack in the winter, I smear a thin layer of (it cannot be pasteurized!!) raw honey over my lips before bed, since it is a humectant, and will actually attract moisture instead of letting it escape. Honey is so *neat*!
That somebody would in fact be Imhotep, the ancient Egyptian god of Architects and Physicians, and the architect of Djoser, who was deified after his death. Had we known about him before Hippocrates, doctors today would be taking an Imhotepic Oath.
Someone did a taste test on the Internet a long time ago, said it tasted just like normal raw honey and that it was great.
@@reisshephow ... did they get access to that honey ?
Indeed, nurses who go to see patients swear by Manuka honey. My mother had bed sores down to her bone--but the Manuka (medical-grade) honey was able to nealy cure it.
Duck is amazing. Oily, but amazing. Everyone should try it at least once, along with pheasant-just without Lead Surprise, preferably.
I remember getting to see the king Tut treasure way back in the 70s on a school field trip when they came to Seattle. They were amazing.
I spent this whole episode a little bit teary-eyed because I'm thinking about that Tumblr post all about how much this kid loved ducks, I'm just like "aw, Max, you made duck for him!! That's so sweet!"
Anyway, I'm definitely considering making this, maybe with a Cornish hen instead of a duck, because my toaster oven is definitely not duck-sized.
I've had that Tumblr post in the back of my mind ever since I first saw it.
That same Tumblr user recently posted a few facts debunking a lot of the misinfo in this very video. @ rudjedet
well garlic is from china and japan , I don't think the Egyptians had access to it , carrots are from Iran and eggplants and mangos are from India and potato's and squash are from Mexico and Cuba , So I don't think they had access to garlic , maybe they had access to dates and figs but the only thing they used was probably salt , salt water and oil and some herbs , it would be hard to tell unless there is a recipe book found
Lies again? Best Kindergarten Teacher
@@sinabagherisarvestani8924 didnt the countries trade spices and foods
I've always been fascinated by Ancient Egypt - I've often thought; with the wonderous treasures that were found in Tut's tomb- being that of a minor & short-lived Pharaoh - I can't even begin to imagine what the tomb contents of even greater ones would have been like; Khufu - Senusret I - Thutmose I & III - Amenhotep III - Ramesses II- the biggest, longest-lived, & most powerful
Finally subbed after a couple of months of lurking. What a delightful channel, Max. -Just the right mix of food, hilarity and (impressively researched) history lessons. Thank you!
Thank you, Roy! Nothing wrong with lurking, but I'm glad to have you stay : )
I recently did the same thing
I absolutely love this dude. Learn some history, learn some recipes, enjoy the gentle comedy and calming voice and manner. Wonderful! One of my favourite places to come and relax on UA-cam now. Thanks Max and Tasting History :)
An odd thing to say, but I've had pretty severe food issues and aversion for nearly a week, and this has been one of the first food/cooking videos I've been able to watch since then.
I always love your videos, but it makes me really happy to get to enjoy ancient cultures, cooking, and your commentary as one of the first things to feel appealing again.
Thank you Max 😊
Thank you Max for the video! As much as I enjoy a good laugh when the food you cook is very hard *clack clack* or very "special" as some foods just are. But nothing makes me more happy then to see you treating yourself with a meal you really like. One could see how much you loved this duck and that is great.
I visited Highclere Castle before the pandemic and they talked about Lord Carnarvon and his archaeological digs in Egypt. It was beautiful! Cool Note: Highclere Castle is the same place where Downton Abbey was filmed! You can tour the house, which is just a train ride outside of London.
Yes I have visited Highclere too, some years ago. In the basement is a replica of Tut's tomb. I nearly fainted though due to the lack of oxygen! Same in the upstairs rooms! This has been a problem before in old castles. Why does no one ever open a window in these old places?
Lord Carnovan took some of Tuts antiquities back with him to Highclere where they still remain despite Egypt asking for their return. Ironically on his last visit to Egypt, he was bitten by a mosquito while sailing on the river and developed a sickness which killed him. They claim it was the mummy's curse that punished him for taking the items from the tomb.
@maydaygarden there's a british comedian who does a funny bit about the British museum hanging out to antiquities of Egypt and other countries. It's a 'laugh to keep from crying' bit because it really isn't cool that this is still a thing...
@@maydaygardenua-cam.com/video/x73PkUvArJY/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
As a history lover, this channel is a genuine gift. Max, ur videos really brighten my day thank you for that❤️
I love History!
*Devil fooled them.*
I just made this recipe for Thanksgiving dinner tonight, albeit with some slight modifications ( I smoked it according to your oven roasting directions) and it was out of this world awesome! From now on, we will always have duck for Thanksgiving.
Ooh how'd it go?
I am so fascinated by the food shaped containers!! It's kind of really cool. The only thing we have like that today are the plastic avocado covers 😆🥑
I feel like it was pretty popular in the 50s-80s to have salad bowls in the shape of lettuces and other things. It’s a shame it’s not so popular now!
true! there’s also actually banana-shaped containers for banana…containment…purposes…? for when you want a banana on the go?
@@obscure_munnerz6917 that's to make sure it can't escape
The banana holders are awesome! Really helps with getting a healthy snack to work or wherever without it getting bruised all to heck.
@@Fitzroyfallz I have a fish shaped seafood salad tray, very pretty indeed
Thanks for commemorating the centennial of the discovery of King Tut's tomb, Max, as well as for sharing your connection via the stage to the teenage pharaoh. Your duck recipe sounds fantastic and I am going to cook it this fall. Another wonderful chapter of Tasting History, bravo!
The respect I need
I love your Egypt episodes! They're always so interesting to me
Thank you! I need to do more.
@@TastingHistory YES PLEASE!
I agree! I recently showed my mom the Egyptian episode where he makes the tiger nut cakes since she's a huge fan of Egyptian history!
Fun fact: “Tutankhamen” is the modern pronunciation that was the best guess for a while since Egyptian didn’t record vowels before the Coptic period. We now think his name was pronounced something like Tawāt-ʿānakh-ʾamān (the apostrophes are pronounced like ʿayn and ʾalif in Arabic)
"Tah-wa-at-ana-khh-ah-mayn"?
Please provide a more simple explanation lol
Wow!
I read that first part as "Twat" instead of "Tawāt" 😂
@@K-a-n-d-i-s I don't think there is a simpler explanation. This made it clear, but yes it involves understanding Arabic, which makes sense given Egypt nowadays. Just imagine how Arabs say their a's starting at the back of their throat and it'll help.
2:37 the literal jackpot of archeology, so well preserved! Amazing! Almost….too amazing….but that’s a lesson for a different time.
If I get any mummified food from hello fresh I'm holding tasting history responsible.
I guess the fruitcake they found inside the abomination boy kings tomb was still considered fresh
That banjo bit made me actually laugh out loud. That's why I watch this channel!
Ancient Egypt also had access to many of the spices still used in Arabic cooking so this could add an extra layer of flavour to your duck. It's known they were trading with India and even Afganistan (the only source of lapis lazuli in the ancient world, which was used for all the blue used in their painting and jewellery).
I've been watching the channel since 2020 but the stories always thrill me. Max has a real penchant for storytelling, the intro about the discovery of the tomb and the contents inside was amazing. That age of discovery and exploration in the 19th and early 20th century was so interesting
Thank you so much!
Same reason I'm still here!
The Earl of Canarvon, (Both this one AND the current one) find their home to be Hyclere Castle - the very same one in "Downton Abbey" They still house a lot of the artifacts that were brought back from that expedition.
Saw all his treasures in Paris a few years ago. Now they're all back in Egypt at the new museum. You think you'd have seen them all in history books & on the net & in National Geographic... but nooooooo. Utterly stunning. RICH. The amount of material wealth because all these belongings were made to be BURIED with him. What then did the next Pharaoh have... & then Pharaoh after him.... mind-boggling.
I was lucky enough to see the Tutankhamun Exhibition in London in 1972. Yes, the gold was impressive, but the extraordinary craftmanship of the ancient Egyptians impressed me most. My favourite item was a wooden image of a sarcophagus, given by Maya, so simple and so elegant. Thanks for another fascinating video, I will try this recipe for Christmas! X
Thank you so much for making these. My mother was a Classics instructor and anything Egyptology brings back very, very special memories of her. Nobody does Ancient Egyptian food on UA-cam! You're a prince; thank you, Max ❤️
The worst part about Egyptian Pharaohs was wiping history to make themselves look good. The biggest tragedy was Hatshepsut, who had a great reign.
P.S. I wish the concept of ‘Cartouche’ was mentioned.
Hatshepsut was amazing
That's not what they did. Their intention was not to change the past, but to protect the future, from their point of view. For them, names had a very strong magical power when combined with jeroglyphs.
"Suing". Have you never see anything about any aristocrat or nibble ever? People write to make themselves look good the world over.
Erasing King Tuts name from the record of Pharaohs is probably what saved his tomb. The tomb robbers can't rob a tomb if they don't the pharaoh ever existed. They wouldn't have gone looking for it.
I agree totally. Hatshepsut was one of my favourite pharaohs. She was amazing.
It was believed by the Ancient Egyptians that the paintings on the tomb wall and statues in the tomb would literally come to life and make food and tend to the pharos every need and desire in the afterlife.
We made this for Thanksgiving and it was amazing.
Me too! Not a beginner dish but awesome nonetheless. A kind of MAGICAL MAZE to MAJESTIC MEAL making!
aw yess, the ancient recipes are always my favorites
This takes me back to when I stood in line for three hours to get into the Tut Exhibition when it came to DC. It was totally worth it.
I read about something that was revealed later. Carter's official story about not knowing what would be in the tomb was probably a fabrication. He and Carnarvon had already been in the tomb and had a good look around before the press arrived, and knew very well that it would be newsworthy. If you look at 2:39 in the video, you'll see in front of the door to the burial chamber a pile of baskets and straw. That wasn't a mess left in the tomb originally, that was Carter and Carnarvon covering the hole they made to sneak into the burial chamber and have an advance look.
Additionally, there's been some strong suspicions raised recently that they took a few choice pieces from the tomb to sell prior to the "opening" of the tomb.
They discovered the tomb in 1913! They spent nine years taking everything they wanted for themselves out of the tomb before making the official "discovery" in 1922.
I really love new episodes. I hope there will also be a new episode of drinking history this week as well.
Egyptians always stuff ducks with red onion, cut finely and mixed with salt and pepper. This trick tastes heavenly and gives the duck a nice flavour inside out.
Also, we would boil the duck first, make a rich broth to cook "Molokhia," and then roast the duck in the oven. This way, the meat becomes very juicy and rich.
I love these types of videos that include a sauce. I've made 2 other sauces from various time periods and they've become normal parts of my everyday cooking
Is this the same duck that Jaime finally had a chance to share (which, I think you referenced in a recent Instagram post)? If so, he truly is a pampered (and very lucky) cat ... and clearly a descendant of the beloved cats of ancient Egypt!
One of these days, Max should make Ancient Egyptian cat food.
With how large and expansive some of the tombs are compared to KV62 (Tut's Tomb) it can only be assumed that while Tut's Tomb was filled with immense treasures they would have paled in comparison to the wealth placed in others...
When I was a young lad, I fell in love with the story of Lord Carnavon a H. Carter. So much I might become an archeologist. That is the power of books and child imagination.
And this duck looks amazing, I may preprare it this style for st.Martins day on this weekend. Nice tip with that sauce!
vivon
As a person who loves food and trying different cuisines, I find this show fascinating. Thanks for the videos.
My husband and I love the show....actually gonna make this recipe today! Can't wait to try the sauce!
YESSS!!! ANOTHER ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RECIPE!!! THANK YOU!!!!!
It's fascinating to watch you 'create' an ancient recipe from just ingredients. Chopped with history!
King Tut’s tomb is exceptionally small, especially after seeing other tombs in the Valley. And he was still resting in his tomb back when I visited in the late ‘90’s.
First of all, this was fascinating! I love learning about the old food stuff, especially this ancient.
Second, I usually fast forward through the ad portions of videos, but I love listening to his voice so much that I don't do that with these videos! :D
I might try it with cornish hens. Excellent bird- we had them for christmas dinner as a tradition growing up. Wonderful little things.
Wow! I remember Dming you about this back in April and you followed through! This is why you're my favourite channel of all time. You interact with your audience so well! I won't take credit for the vid, but I am really appreciative of you following through and commemorating King Tut!
What does Dming mean? I've never seen that word before.
@@jayschwartz3203
In this context, "DM" means "direct message".
Thank you for this one!! Akhenaten, his family and his history have been of intense interest to me for many years: I took a three-week trip to Egypt purely to get to Amarna; I have a library of fiction and nonfiction accounts of the period, and have gone back and forth like a pendulum over my feelings about Akhenaten. It all started with the two novels by Allen Drury, "A God Against the Gods" and "Return to Thebes", and kind of exploded from there. Thanks again for this terrific overview of Tut and his family, and for the recipe (I don't like duck but yes the sauce sounds lovely!)
When I was a kid, I used to be so fascinated by Ancient Egypt history, especially by King Tut's history. I even wanted to be an archeologist when I grew up. This episode brought back so many memories. I even remember Howard Carter's words by heart. I love you. This channel is the best.
I wanted to be an archeologist too. Ended up being a nurse.
@@joyful_tanya I ended up being an Eng-Spa translator and later on a web developer. XD
Max’s ad read transitions are smooth like butter- I hope his advertisers pay him ever bit he’s earned for the quality of his promotions!
i love the pokemon of choice for the background. knew of tut's love of ducks beforehand and knew within seconds of starting the video exactly why you chose that one. he would have fuckin loved pokemon if he'd been around today
I laughed so hard at your air banjo 😂
Thanks for another great video! I always look forward to your uploads.
All that royal in-breeding... So Southern. Applies equally in Australia's little southern island state of Tasmania
11:04
Classical southern bashing 😂
This is definitely another ancient recipe I'm going to make! We are crazy about the Parthian Chicken (I've made it three times thus far), not to mention the very addictive Bierocks! OMG!! Thanks Max for another great history lesson, another great recipe AND some VERY amusing story-telling additions! Geraldo is still looking for that vault.....LMAO! I'm thinking I'll use only the duck breast portions instead of a whole duck to avoid the potential risk of over-done duck. Thanks again!
Thank goodness the King didn't have pecans! Or we'd be cooking Tut's Nuts!
I ugly laughed at this and then realized I’m really just an 11-year-old trapped in the body of a 32-year-old. 😂
Tut is the classic example of someone who’s more famous in death than in life. He just happened to have the one tomb that wasn’t robbed; imagine the tombs of the richer Pharaohs
I guess you could say that this afterlife dish in Tutankhamun's tomb was a fowl discovery! I love duck so at some point I may try this recipe. Thank you, Max!
Did you plan that pun in advance, or just wing it?
From the moment I heard the sauce described, I said to myself "Goose!" Goose itself is a holiday dish, and the sweetness of the figs! Oh My! It sets me to purring like a well fed kitten on Christmas Day!
“Born in Arizona, Moved to Babylonia King Tut" - Steve Martin
He's got a condo made of stone-a, Funky Tut!
😂 that’s going to be stuck in my head all day, which is cool, because it’s still funny after all these years!
@@lesterstone8595 "He gave his life... for tourism!"
When he did the banjo chord from Deliverance I nearly fell out of my chair. Precisely the laugh I needed after a rough day.
I just pulled it out of the oven, made a nice setting, took happy snaps, , and ate. What a mix of lovely flavors that appear in your mouth at different times. Well done my friend, well done!!!