Drinking History suggestion: Burhani, a kind of spiced buttermilk that kinda has some mughal heritage. The origins are kinda debatable tho. Might wanna look into it. Edit: oh I forgot to mention, one of the modern ingredients in Burhani is *ketchup*
Regarding the salt: the traditional salt preparation methods they used at the time (I saw a Business Insider episode on this traditional Indian salt making) may have left the salt slightly wet (not fully dehydrated) and/or full of lots of minerals, and therefore less "salty" per pound than what you currently use in your kitchen today.
Also, depending on what type of salt (ie table salt, sea salt, rock salt, etc.) The volume to weight ratio is different. For example one tablespoon of table salt is way more salt by weight than a table spoon of sea salt
Indian salt in the 15th century would have been cut, usually with rice husk powder or other moisture absorbers, for storage. Actually, any "salt" in the 15th century would have contained lots of still edible but foreign packing materials. Additionally people in the Mughal homeland would have gotten their salt from the rock salt mines in Pakistan and the Himalayas (yes, the famous "Himalayan salt") so it's nothing like the pure salt we have now that's usually obtained from evaporation. Now I wonder how this dish would taste with Himalayan salt. Heh. Gonna be some really expensive samosas there.
Yeah I was thinking that too, we have all that nice pure salt , brightly white these days but even then I have noticed some seassalts not having the same effects it must have been way worse back then.
Southern India mostly used evaporated salts. Salt evaporation ponds were a common occurrence along the southern coast of India. Even places close to the Mughal empire(Gujarat) had salt evaporation ponds, given the abundance of sea salt and add to that the fact that moved salt is baked and make into black salt and used alongside regular salt and not as a substitute, it is feasible that sea salt was most likely the salt of choice. I don't know so much about the salt being cut with rice husk. While the practice of using dried rice husk as a desiccant is still followed to this day to store palm sugar and other hygroscopic materials, it is never 'mixed' with the product. Rather the warehouse is bedded with a thick layer of rice husk to keep the room dry instead of mixing it with the salt/ sugar. It is however possible those were volumetric measures and not weight measures (as volumetric measures were more common at the time). The very fact that salt crystals would have been larger back then ( compared to the fine crystals of table salt we get today) would have meant less of the salt fits into the same volume ( say a tablespoon) which could explain the extra salt. I would also point out that Indian cuisine is more generous with salt than European or even American cuisine.
I knew someone would have an explanation! Lol. I was thinking something similar that it must have been diluted or a weaker version of salt somehow. Cool!
In Nigeria, we have finger foods that are popularly referred to as “Small Chops”, and for some time now, Samosas, Puff-puffs & spring rolls have been star players.
That is very interesting! I don't usually think of samosas and other influences from India as playing a big role in the cuisine or culture of the opposite end of the African continent. Spring rolls I can actually see maybe more, only because they're from Southeast Asia and I know there is at least some influence on West Africa due to colonial trade. For instance batik is of course extremely popular in traditional clothing; it may even be the single thing conjured up most immediately in the global imagination when you hear the word "Africa"! But samosa definitely I would think Kenya and so forth, not Nigeria.
I am from West Bengal, an eastern state in India.. we have a culture of having small fried fingerfoods as evening snacks. We call these kind of food "Chop"..
In modern-Day Iran Qutab is a bite-sized sweet. Filled with pistachios/walnuts but mostly almonds. It is Frist fried in a pan. Then glazed with a rosewater syrup.
As an Indian person, I LOVE seeing people trying samosas. Reminds me of my mom and how she used to make them. Pro-tip from mom and me: instead of slicing and dicing your garlic and ginger, grate them on either a microplane or the finest setting of a box grater. This will turn the garlic and ginger into a fine paste that will provide you with more flavor and disperse more evenly into the cooked food.
@@beth12svist for ginger that's a maybe, cause it's got those little fibers, not sure how that would interact with the press. If you have a cheese grater that's great, but they also make a little board with spikes for shredding ginger to a paste. Works good for carrots too.
A most engaging history lesson from a culinary perspective. By the way, in the south of India where I lived, beef, mutton and chicken samosas were commonly available everywhere, particularly in Muslim-majority neighbourhoods (in big cities like Bombay, Bangalore, Madras.)
@@RaghunandanReddyC samosa were always of meat in india till last century. In south india, all traditonal samosa shops r in muslim areas and they r all meat ones.
While meat samosas are less common in India today, they're far from gone! lamb kheema is a common filling, although often using a pastry that resembles phyllo, as opposed to the kind of doughy pastry used here and in potato-pea samosas.
Just tried an indian rice pudding at a restaurant 3 days ago. It was divine! Love indian cuisine.
2 роки тому
𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 ❶❽ 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐥𝐝 *NUDE-DATTING.ONLINE* tricks I do not know Megan: "Hotter" Hopi: "Sweeter" Joonie: "Cooler" Yoongi: "Butter So with toy and his tricks, do not read it to him that he writes well mamon there are only to laugh for a while and not be sad and stressed because of the hard life that is lived today. Köz karaş: '' Taŋ kaldım '' Erinder: '' Sezimdüü '' Jılmayuu: '' Tattuuraak '' Dene: '' Muzdak '' Jizn, kak krasivaya melodiya, tolko pesni pereputalis. Aç köz arstan Bul ukmuştuuday ısık kün bolçu, jana arstan abdan açka bolgon. Uyunan çıgıp, tigi jer-jerdi izdedi. Al kiçinekey koyondu wins taba algan. Al bir az oylonboy koyondu karmadı. '' Bul koyon menin kursagımdı toyguza albayt '' dep oylodu arstan. Arstan koyondu öltüröyün dep jatkanda, bir kiyik tigi tarapka çurkadı. Arstan aç köz bolup kaldı. Kiçine koyondu emes, çoŋ kiyikti jegen jakşı dep oylodu. # 垃圾 They are one of the best concerts, you can not go but just seeing them from the screen, I know it was surprising 💗❤️💌💘
@@lavona8204 you got your spelling a bit wrong, but I agree! South Indian dishes are extremely underappreciated when talking about Indian cuisine. Definitely give Medu Vadas a try, the best way I can describe them is Savory doughnut. It's quite dense yet fluffy. And has such subtle flavours, that you can use anything as your dipping sauce. Traditionally it'd be coconut chutney and sambhar. But the chutneys can be customised.
In ancient times, salt was often adulterated with ground up rice, or other white powders. The quantities called for in the original recipe probably reflect those adulturations.
@@cesaravegah3787 Perhaps "adulterated" was the wrong word. If you tried to ship/transport pure salt, it would tend to crystallize into what essentially amounted to rocks. By adding rice (or other similar) starch the salt would remain granular - kind of like the way powdered sugar has a starch added to it today, to prevent clumping and crystallization. I'm sure (however) that merchants and traders didn't worry too much about adding relatively excessive amounts of (considerably cheaper) rice flour to the (much more expensive) salt. In that case, adulterated just might be the right word.
Another thing, is that they used salt as a preservative. It's said ik the video that this were often made to last long, so they probably used way too much salt because of that
Finally caught up with you on this video after watching through your whole playlist, Max. What a lucky find it was for me, when Shadiversity mentioned your channel. Not a single minute I spend here was wasted! Food AND history? What more could you ask for? I hope you keep on doing this for a long, long time! I will be here for all of it!
What you just made is called shingara in the Bengal region. The distinction between shingara and samosa here is that shingara tends to have softer and more crumbly dough, while samosas have a more crunchy dough.
@@sabao4792 That’s also because ruthless people would be hated by others, showing only the negative image when history is viewed by outsiders (especially the ones who got conquered). What modern people need to know today is that everyone was still human, no matter how cruel they were.
I'm gonna apologize for being pedantic beforehand, but the Mughals never actually referred to themselves as Mughals/Mongols. Instead they called themselves the Gurkaniyan, which is the dynasty of Timur. Timur played a much bigger role in Mughal identity, in fact, the Ain-i Akbar that this recipe comes from also has a lengthy section on the lineage of Mughal emperors and there Genghis Khan is only named fairly briefly while a lot of attention is paid to Timur. Babur also refers to "Moghuls" as a different group of people from himself in the Baburnama. Timur did in turn use the Mongol lineage as a way to legitimize himself but by the time the Mughals were seated in India the Mongols were no longer a main source of identity
Contemporaries referred to the empire founded by Babur as the Timurid empire,[39] which reflected the heritage of his dynasty, and this was the term preferred by the Mughals themselves.[40] The Mughal designation for their own dynasty was Gurkani (Persian: گورکانیان, Gūrkāniyān, meaning "sons-in-law").[41] The use of "Mughal" and "Moghul" derived from the Arabic and Persian corruption of "Mongol", and it emphasised the Mongol origins of the Timurid dynasty.[42] The term gained currency during the 19th century, but remains disputed by Indologists.[43] Similar terms had been used to refer to the empire, including "Mogul" and "Moghul".[44][45] Nevertheless, Babur's ancestors were sharply distinguished from the classical Mongols insofar as they were oriented towards Persian rather than Turco-Mongol culture.[46] Another name for the empire was Hindustan, which was documented in the Ain-i-Akbari, and which has been described as the closest to an official name for the empire.[47] In the west, the term "Mughal" was used for the emperor, and by extension, the empire as a whole.[48]
I watched this documentary where they tell that Timur kinda put a curse on whoever opened his tomb, and some Russian archaeologists opened it...the day the Germans invaded them on WWII.
@@Nikki-tx6kh Interesting if true. What's amusing is goobers that actually believe in curses. I wonder how they explain the weeks/months of planning the Germans did beforehand.
Babur also didn't like weather of Hindustan because of enormous heat and humidity and long rainy months. He liked Kabul because it resembled him his homeland, especially Samarkand. Being surrounded by mountains, Kabul had pleasant and balanced climate. He even planted Samarkand grapes in his Kabul garden. And after he passed away, Babur's surrounding wanted to bury him in Delhi but his Pashto wife insisted in fulfilling Babur's last will and took his remains to Kabul.
if you need to find sumac, or want to forage it, 1) make sure the sumac is bright red and stands upright on the stalk, and 2) it is literally everywhere in southern Ontario and should be harvested in spring or summer. Furthermore, do check this with at least 3 sources, at least one of which is a book on local flora because poison sumac is a thing. Have a good day!
@@barnett25 It's all over the UK too. They are known as vinegar trees, as the big seed cones when dried mimic vinegar in flavour. Beware if you plant one though, within a year you will have another 10. They spread via suckers, and boy do they grow...
There's like a dozen different species of sumac in North America. For those of us in California, our local Rhus species look a little different from the East Coast/Canadian ones but the fruits can be put to the same use, though I'd recommend growing your own if you want to make a regular habit of it.
the berries of poison sumac are generally white and different from the usually red fruits of the edible sumac species, and don't have the same style of spiky clusters common in the good stuff. once you know what they look like, it's easy to tell the difference!
In Southern California where Max is located, there are multiple species of wild sumac, and I wouldn’t recommend eating any of them without serious research and preparation. So probably a good idea for him to just order some.
Max, I live on a ranch in Southern Saskatchewan. It is -30c here today. For fun I thought I would make a batch. My cowboys loved them! Thank you for your channel. So fun.
Really great to make old Indian recipes, one of the reasons being is that people think New world ingredients are traditional, hard to imagine the cuisine without chillies, tomatoes, and potatoes but there you have it.
If the salt was measured in volume their salt may have been cragly crystals of salt which would yield a lot less salt per tablespoon compared to our small uniform kosher or table salt.
@@jasoncronin9145 Yes. The recipe specified 1/2 seer of salt. That's nearly a pound. The dam is 20 grams. Both are weight measures. Old Indo-Persian recipes were designed around market measures, not household ones like in Victorian England, and markets in Central Asia always worked by weight.
@Dale Hammers You should ask your *boss's* (note the correct spelling) wife for a class that you all could take so as to learn from her how to make them. I am sure she would appreciate the compliment to her cooking!
I remember samosas from my childhood growing up in Uganda, Africa. My mom got recipes from a local cookbook. I will have to ask if she still has her recipe because I want to try it. But until then I'll be trying this.
@@toddellner5283 I remember a truck stop (I think it was a truck stop? Or maybe it was a little restaurant near a truck stop. I don’t really remember) in Kenya that sold really good samosas pretty near the Tanzanian border. I was surprised cause I’d had a lot of indian samosas before but I didn’t know they were popular in East Africa. They were a little on the small side and crispier if I remember correctly. Although I’ve only ever had samosas in Indian restaurants that weren’t in India… so my perception of what an Indian samosa is like is probably totally wrong/they’re probably all different sizes and breadiness/crispiness levels…
I'm from Uganda and we call them sumbusas out here too. Try making those with a thinner crust. Fun fact: sumbusa is also innuendo for vajina out here too.😅😅😅
There are a LOT of different fillings you can use in samosas. Potatoes (like you said) and other vegetables (usually peas), onion masala, paneer, basically every combination of vegetables and/or meat there is. Some are more popular than others, but samosas are very customizable.
You made the dough almost exactly like how my family makes it but to achieve that flakyness you need to make samosa “chapati” very thin. You can even make two small dough balls and put them over each other and role them so thin that you can see light through it and that should give you a crispy samosa.
That was a very interesting video. Thanks again for this. Something you said at the end did catch my attention. As an Indian, I have always wondered what Indian cuisine was like, before the discovery of America. Potatoes, tomatoes and chillies especially, are integral to modern Indian cuisine. Wonder if you have any insights on that? A historical video on early Indian cuisine would be lovely!
Sweet potatoes and yams native to the India were used in place of potatoes and they are tastier. Souring agents like tamarind and kokum fruit (Shorea Robusta, essential ingredient of the Konkan cuisine) were used in place of tomato usually in southern India. Black pepper was used in place of chillies. Stalks of a native plant called choy(or chui) were chopped up and used to spice food with. It is native to Bengal, Odisha, Bangladesh and the North eastern states.
Four (Indian) + Potato (Indian) = Samosa (Mughal), Thank you Babar for teaching Indians how to cook flour or Potato, else we have been eating raw flesh of animals. Make more such vids, rice (Indian) + Spices (Indian) = Biryani (Babar) , thank you Babar for teaching us how to cook rice. Thank you for such informative history, it should be in books. Many Indians have commented they are licking something after seeing this video.. Thank you.
@@royrohit84 See there is no source for this. All this is due to a practical experience of life and maintaining a touch with the soil of the countryside occasionally.
Maybe he just loved his food salty? In an age with salt used as a preservative developing a tolerance for salt is probably common. Especially if the alternative is to go hungry.
I'm tempted to think they used very moist salt in that time and space, maybe taken from the sea and not dried very much. Depending on how much -not- dried it was it might have had only a fourth of the saltiness of the absolutely dry salt we buy today.
@@Olfan Salt in a liquid form? That is essentially how the Romans did it with their Garum sauce that they had to almost anything since, apart from the fish it was mostly salt.
@@michaelpettersson4919 I was thinking in the direction of flakey sea salt (we once had some that was so wet you could form "snow balls" out of it), but entirely liquid salt is also an interesting thought.
So hard to find an Oman restaurant. They don’t have a big diaspora in the State or Europe, so their foods are just not well-known in the western world. Quiet different from the Lebanese variation that is popular.
I love to hear the stories of the beautiful medieval world of the Middle East and South and Central Asia. I'm deeply sad to see what became of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and the other ancient lands that were once places of high culture, scholarship, civilization, and enterprise.
Babur's fascination with Uzbek melons is totally justified if you've ever eaten melons from the Fergana Valley. I'm from Uzbekistan and I miss those melons everyday living in the United States. You also said he called himself a mongol but when looking at the linguistics of the area he would be speaking Chigatai language putting him more into a Turkic language group which is very different from Mongolian. I think using language to determine culture is usually the most accurate and best representative of the culture rather than what modern western writers say about historical figures of the east.
Mug’al deb 18-19 asrda inglizlar qo’ygan nom bilan dunyoga tanilgan. Ammo Bobur o’zini Turk yoki Temuriy larmiz deya tanishtirgan. Buni sal tarixni tushungan odam biladi.
The Chagatai khaganate ruled Uzbekistan from the second son of Genghis Khan and his descendants. The ruling class was Mongol, although the people they ruled over were Turkic people (the Mongols ruled over people from other ethnicities throughout their empire such as Persians, Europeans, Chinese, Indian, etc). As said in the video, Babur came from Timur and Genghis Khan's family, and was part of the ruling class thereby making him a Mongol.
@@sabyasachibandyopadhyay8558 dude how many turks were there among mongol army? Do you really think it was only mongols who fought? It was mostly Turks. That’s only reason within 40-50 years they Turkified and islamized. They did not speak mongolian they spoke Turkic. They did not pray like tegrism they prayed like muslims. Nothing Mongolian left. Golden horde official language Turkic kipchak Chigatay khanate language Turkic (karluk) Ilkhanate ruling class Turkic but arabic and persian were also in use. Your name could be anything what did you claim and how you lived will tell who really they were. Babur or Timur none spoke mongolian or claimed to be Tengri followers. They all said they are Turk and Muslim.
@@1212-m6b you are absolutely right. I didn't say Uzbeks are of Mongol descent (although I am pretty sure there's some intermixing). I spoke solely about Babur. Babur claimed descent from Genghis and Timur in Babur-nama. Akbar (Babur's grandson) produced a book called Zafar-nama which is a collection of battle stories of Timur. These people clearly wanted to be associated with Timur and Genghis Khan. Culturally speaking, Babur styled himself as a Persian. Check out the Mughal flag, you will find the same Lion and Sun (Sher-o-Khurshid) as that of the Shah of Iran. When Humayun was driven out of India by Sher Shah Suri, he sought asylum in the Safavid Persian court. The Mughals brought Persian music and food to India. The Mughal armies on the other hand were an amalgamation of Indians, Afghans, Persians and a few Turks.
Late to the party (as usual). A lot of ancient flours would have had a variety of yeasts from atmospheric contamination. Given the various resting periods in this recipe, there would have been some rising even without adding sugar to the dough. We forget how sterilised our production of staples has become.
Because chilis came from the Americas, and were therefore dependent on thousands of years of indigenous cultivation, followed by European traders who spread them to Asia and the rest of the world.
Ouch... I'm so sorry! Chili's are the one thing I would have a helluva time giving up! I damn near DRINK Frank's Red hot! Especially on my scrambled eggs.
It is recorded that what we refer to as Indian food today was heavily peppered prior to the arrival of chillies. Different type of heat, but apparently, that's what it was.
In my late teens through to mid 20s I pretty much lived off of Samosas, and beer. In fact I used to sing a song that went "samosas and beer, samosas and beer, all I really need is samosas and beer". When being a totally broke young punk, something that cost less than a dollar (at the time) was fresh, tasted good, and would fill you up it was a no brainer.
Max, I sure do appreciate the hard work you put into these videos! I admire that you have turned this channel into something great, pretty much from day one!
Samoosas are common in South Africa as we have a large Indian population. The fillings vary from chicken, beef, lamb, potato and corn & cheese. They are shaped into triangles and fried. One of my favourite snacks.
It's fascinating to me on how many cultures from the past had their own versions of hot pockets. I make empanadas all the time, the Mexican version. Granted the fillings and shapes might be different, but these sort of recipes have been around for centuries... thank you for sharing this one.
My Colleagues and I were just talking about this other day the we all have version of the hot pocket (boiled, steamed, fried, etc.). Where I am from Polish pierogis and Cornish Pastys common recipes passed down.
Im pretty sure literally every culture in history had some form of spiced meat wrapped in dough, it just makes so much sense to do that it is inevitable.
We still have this in Iran as well, we call it Samboose, and it has the same filling. We also have Qotab, but now Qotab is the name of a similarly shaped pastry with a sweet filling.
I think this is the original recipe of a Sicilian meat pie called "impanate", yes, identical to the Spanish and Latin American "empanadas", after all the Spanish were in charge in Sicily for quite a long time. And perhaps the Spanish took it from the Arabs living Spain? That would be interesting to trace!
It's very difficult to trace, because things stuffed inside baked or fried dough is common in almost all national cuisines. Because of the name, it seems the Sicilian one comes from the Spanish and in Spain, the empanada is believed to come from the north west region of Galicia (there is representation of a Galician empanada in one of the sculptures the famous Santiago de Compostela Cathedral Port of Glory, which was done in the 12th century). By the 15th we know they were common enough to appear in cook books, for example we have sea food empanada recipe in Catalán (the Crown of Aragon was the one who inherited Sicily and Catalán was more prevalent there). As for possible Arab influence, maybe, but again, the method is almost universal, not so different from English meat pies and Spanish empenhadas at least do not use a lot of spices more associated with Middle eastern or North African cuisine (most use at most garlic and onion, and cumin, and sometimes sweet paprika)
Before the Spanish held Sicily, both Sicily and Iberia were Muslim states. Sicily fell to Catholic rule in 1091 while Andalus slowly fell to Catholic rule by 1492.
@@astranix0198 Probably not, though they have common ancestors in Persian and Arab ways to prepare rice. Paella developed from rices prepared by the Morisco population in Valencia and after their house expulsion, by the poor farmers in the Albufera region using the meats, vegetables and spices available in the region, which meant that sometimes it contained water rat.
Max I don't know if you'll ever see this, but I would really love to see more African recipes, particularly ones from southern Africa; countries like Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Angola. We typically get left out of these sorts of conversations - even if African countries are included, it tends to be Either South Africa or north African countries like Nigeria and Ghana or Egypt. I'm from Malawi and I'd love to see something from closer to home.❤
Making Soan Papdi is a very thought work, you need to pull the Molten sugar , it will burn your hand when hot, and will crush your muscles as it will cool down.
@@basantprasadsgarden8365 Yeah, the process of making it is very laborious, so buying it might be a justified reason. As long as he eats it. Afterall, it is called Tasting History 😉
This is another one of your recipes that actually meets my dietary restrictions. I'm so excited when I find new recipes like this. Geeking out just a little bit. thank you for all your hard work. As a content creator myself I know that there's a lot of behind the scenes work.
Samosa/Sambusa are also really popular in East Africa. There's a great channel called Acholi Pride where Eunice did a video called 'African village girl's life//making tasty meat samosa from scratch,' where she makes samosa in her village, the way they're sold all over EA. It's interesting that she's in northern Uganda and calls them samosa and I'm south in Rwanda where we call them sambusa. They are always fried here.
So happy to see you cover Mughlai food & this meaty samosa is even today in India commonly referred to as the Delhi Samosa after the City which was the Seat of Power of the Mughal Empire. Would love to see an episode on the evolution of the Biryani as there are so many styles & countries it graces & like the Samosa the original is Persian.
The Delhi Sultanate was another Turko-Iranic empire predating the Mughal Empire, which the Mughals conquered. Most of these dishes came to India under them and other Muslim states before the Mughals, though more dishes continued to be developed under their rule as well.
Flour (Indian) + Potato (Indian) = Samosa (Mughal), Thank you Babar for teaching Indians how to cook flour or Potato, else we have been eating raw flesh of animals. Make more such vids, Rice (Indian) + Spices (Indian) = Biryani (Babar) , thank you Babar for teaching us how to cook rice. Thank you for such informative history, it should be in books. Many Indians have commented they are licking something after seeing this video.. Thank you.
@@commentplease8074 Fyi Potato was brought to India from the Americas by the Portuguese much later. The original stuffing of Samosa was always minced meat.
@@anniemody Babur Died in 1530; however, according to Dr. Google, potatoes came to India in the 17th century. So, Babur brought Potatoes (Samosas) to India before Potatoes came to India. Therefore, According to Dr. Google Indians started eating Potatoes before European shed their inhibitions about potatoes (see the Wikipedia), although it is only they who brought potatoes to India ( according to Dr. Google ????????). India has 100s of potato based cuisines, Europe has only one: French Fries (although France banned potatoes from 1748 to 1772), even then Potatoes came from West. I remember, many years back a special session was held in Indian Parliament to celebrate 50th anniversary of Indian Independence, in which a famous leader told unopposed that potatoes went from India to Europe (he pushed for prevention of India loosing biodiversity rights of turmeric: (lacks source)). West keeps cornering biodiversity rights of Turmeric, Basmati, Neem Cases. But this samosa story seems to from "Iftaar Party" menu makers, to seek vengeance eating.
I’m literally watching this while eating Samosas with tamarind sauce. When I lived in India the samosas in Northern India & the Punjab were crazy spicy. Not even close to the spiciest I have found in Indian restaurants here in the USA. My husband, who is my Indian souvenir 😉, can make them super spicy.
We make meat, fish, egg, saag, paneer, sweet (kheer, coconut, fruits etc) & savoury samosas still. The most common one is of course made with the filling of potato, cauliflower, peas with spices. There is even a movie song about it 🤣. The hero says to his heroine that as long as there will be potatoes in samosas you my beloved will be mine. This is the cheapest samosa and most available. We serve it with green or red chutneys.
Sumac species also exist in North American, North African and across Asian cuisines and so it has quite a diverse history across the world. In the Northeastern and Midwestern US and in Eastern Canada sumac is used to make tea (it tastes like pink lemonade) and for flavouring foods.
@@majestic6303 it's not, if you smear the filling really thin, and only fill the half of it. Also, you don't deep-fry it, obviously, but cook it in a dry pan or in a thin film of oil.
I spent many years of my youth participating in the SCA, but even then, I didn't really care about history - I did the minimal research necessary to create a persona, and that was it. However, I could listen to you wax on about history all day long. You are a great storyteller! I'm so glad you decided to devote yourself to your UA-cam channel - I hope it's a choice you never regret
Pathia and Dhansak are also Persian curries that you would find on most Indian menus :) I would recommend both of these dishes if anyone would like to be more adventurous with their pallet. If you don’t like spice, but can handle medium heat id advise you’d go for the Dhansak as it is light and is made with lentils. However, if you like hotter dishes but still want something tasty then a pathia has the perfect sweet and spicy balance. They are both some of my favourite dishes. I was lucky to travel around India when I was a teenager and have been eating at Indian restaurants in the UK ever since I was a baby :)
It's funny - I know full well the channel name is "Tasting *History* with Max Miller", Max discusses the history behind the food in *every* episode ... and yet I still get so engrossed in the video that it's always a (delightful!) surprise when the history portion starts.
That's interesting about the salt. My first reaction was, he was a heavy smoker, since dokha tobacco already existed in Iran. Then I realized that some brands of salt here in Turkey have very little saltiness, and we sometimes have had to double the amounts in order to match Himalayan or sea salt.
At 0:31 the painted image on the left depicts Maharaja Ranjit Singh and on the right is Maharaja Sher Singh. That entire catalog from the Museum is mistitled as the Ain-i-Akbari, I'm reaching out to them to correct this error.
I can’t explain how excited I was to see you’d done another South Asian recipe! It’s always nice to see histories a little closer to home (although I love all your videos that I’ve seen!) Thank you for all the hard work that you put into these videos. I really appreciate how much research goes into making the videos perfect and you are so respectful of every piece of history you cover. I look forward to seeing what you do next!
I've been on a kick of cooking Indian dishes lately, I made a Potato and lentil Dahl the other day, and I'm making a Chana Masala today, I'm definitely using this recipe and making some samosas soon, looks delicious! Great Job Max Love the video :)
I had Sambusas growing up near Dhahran. The ones we got were made at a Lebaese restraurant in Al-Khobar, andthey had pine nuts added to the filling. I still miss those. That place was a favorite, and we did take out, as well as dining in as often as we could.They also had the best tabbouleh.
What you're describing sounds similar to kibbeh , because it usually filled with pine nuts. They both are similar but kibbeh is made with bulgur instead of dough
11:00 Love watching your videos! wish you would mention that the Indian subcontinent split not only into modern day India and Pakistan but also modern day Bangladesh. Mughals were present here as well, when India was divided West Bengal stayed with India and East Bengal became East Pakistan for a few decades but then we fought for independence and became an independent country known as Bangladesh. The Mughal capital here was in Dacca (now Dhaka, our capital city), it was known as the Bengal Subah. We eat samosas too although they are a bit different than what modern day Indians eat, our samosas look a bit different and we call the Indian samosas "Shingara".
The way they make Qutab in Azerbaijan is different. The filling is the same except for the onions, and we smear it over Lavash and fold it, fry it. Beef, Lamb and Camel is used but there are also multiple plant based variants with various greens and even squash with pomegranate.
I have only had potato samosas. And the dipping sauces were phenomenal! I worked at a VA hospital. We had people of all nationalities. The pot lucks at work were so fun. The INDIA/ PAKISTAN worked in respiratory therapy. And that is where i had them. I was in my 20's when i became a foodie! But more that the foods were the occasions they were cooked for. I learned so much about other people and places and found a new love of culture before it was a thing. I am now in my early sixties. I still love cultures and the foods and occasions where certain foods are served. Your channel has been the best thing since those days. I can now cook a lot of different dishes from many lands. Your channel helps me learn.
In school history was taught as a string of names and dates to memorize. No wonder students were turned off of history. Some lucky people had a teacher or two that knew how to bring history to life. You are one of those teachers. Thanks Max
Now this is an episode I am EXCITED to see! As a huge world history nerd (I think we all are) but I’m especially fascinated by the Mughals, and I LOVE Samosas… I’ve never clicked on a video so fast Max! I’ll definitely be making this Max, and thank you for making my day with this video! :) ❤️
The food descriptions Babur gives had me drooling for the whole video. No wonder that missed his homeland. Food is also the main reason I miss my parents.
@@karengerber8390 It's not much of a recipe. You just need to steep the berries in water, strain through a paper towel or something and sweeten to taste. It's really good. Just make sure you get the RED berries that protrude upward from the plant (staghorn sumac). There are sumacs that are poisonous, but those have droopy white berries. I think it's pretty easy to tell the difference.
They did not consider themselves as successors of Gengiz Khan, but Timur the Lame. Timurid Gurkhans was the designation they used. Babur's father himself was from Timurs family.
For the salt bit, it might very well be based on the fact that a type of rock salt kinda common for the more fancy meals at the time included lots of "impurities"/essentially was 30%+ bad baking soda, along with sulfur mixtures and lake sediments, that was then stored with any combination of water/hydrogen absorbing plant based products (from rice to bamboo to coriander to any weird mix of ground nuts), so a tablespoon would be closer to maybe one and a bit of a teaspoon.
The descriptions of Babur are great, and his memoirs seem very interesting. I would love to get more videos about him, his foodie diary and his love of fruit.
I'm in my third year of university and during my first two, I used all of my electives on Islamic Studies courses; In one of the courses, I was tasked to write an essay on the final three generations of the Mughal Empire. I spent months in the library late into the night, my nose buried in books that hadn't been touched in decades, looking for sources. It's nice to hear someone talking about The Mughal Empire, you don't hear about it enough these days.
I love it- I once went to a self-described "Middle Eastern market" only to find it was essentially a (muslim) Indian grocery to get stuff including sumac. I got a puzzled look and was told that was an "Arabic" spice and that they carry Pakistani and Indian goods. Maybe they were being purists, IDK. But I love sumac and add it to most dishes that contain rice. GREAT STUFF!
Depends on the region, tbh. My family never uses sumac, for example. I don't think we even have any in the house, despite my mom hoarding spices like a dragon hoards gold.
Thanks for bringing together my love for food culture and history through this platform. Kudos to you for deatiled research and bringing to life ancient recipes. This was a wonderful episode
Samosas, fresh fruits, and wine… mouth is watering. Great episode. My brother ate camel on more than one occasion while in Afghanistan and said it’s surprisingly delicious when cooked properly.
This channel is so great. Food and history is such a great mix. And since eating is such a big part of the human experience, there are countless recipes to look at, and all the associated history. So many things like the mention that Indian cuisine was influenced by middle eastern cooking. And it makes sense! I don't know why I didn't see it before. Great stuff!
Is the type of salt he uses ever specified? My first thought is the salt used may not have been the pure salt of today, but maybe something less saline, like Korean bamboo salt or something.
Very interesting to learn about the background of such a common dish in South Asia. Thanks to Babur’s longing for home, a delicious cuisine was born. This was so interesting. Thank you!
Yay! Finally a mughal recipe! Could u do a recipe from the state of Goa. It has really cool food history and is the only indian region that was not under British rule but Portuguese rule. It also happens to be my home state!
I love Goan food! And it has such an interesting history. I visited there a while back and heard about but couldn't find the local version of Chorizo that sounded incredible! My absolute favourite thing to eat there was fish thali. So good!
What other Indian dishes would you like to see an episode on?
Well there are so many historical ones like the rice pudding I can't choose 🤤
Soan Papdi
Drinking History suggestion: Burhani, a kind of spiced buttermilk that kinda has some mughal heritage. The origins are kinda debatable tho. Might wanna look into it.
Edit: oh I forgot to mention, one of the modern ingredients in Burhani is *ketchup*
After the hot poop I had after an Indian meal in London, I’m scared 😳
Aloo Gobi please. I love this dish so much I could cry,
Regarding the salt: the traditional salt preparation methods they used at the time (I saw a Business Insider episode on this traditional Indian salt making) may have left the salt slightly wet (not fully dehydrated) and/or full of lots of minerals, and therefore less "salty" per pound than what you currently use in your kitchen today.
And probably to compansate for the heat
That's so interesting! And would make a lot of sense.
Also, depending on what type of salt (ie table salt, sea salt, rock salt, etc.) The volume to weight ratio is different. For example one tablespoon of table salt is way more salt by weight than a table spoon of sea salt
Kind of like Celtic gray salt today
On top of that, I'm betting the salt was part preservative, as well!
Indian salt in the 15th century would have been cut, usually with rice husk powder or other moisture absorbers, for storage. Actually, any "salt" in the 15th century would have contained lots of still edible but foreign packing materials. Additionally people in the Mughal homeland would have gotten their salt from the rock salt mines in Pakistan and the Himalayas (yes, the famous "Himalayan salt") so it's nothing like the pure salt we have now that's usually obtained from evaporation.
Now I wonder how this dish would taste with Himalayan salt. Heh. Gonna be some really expensive samosas there.
Fascinating factoid, thanks for the knowledge drop 🙏
Yeah I was thinking that too, we have all that nice pure salt , brightly white these days but even then I have noticed some seassalts not having the same effects it must have been way worse back then.
Southern India mostly used evaporated salts. Salt evaporation ponds were a common occurrence along the southern coast of India. Even places close to the Mughal empire(Gujarat) had salt evaporation ponds, given the abundance of sea salt and add to that the fact that moved salt is baked and make into black salt and used alongside regular salt and not as a substitute, it is feasible that sea salt was most likely the salt of choice.
I don't know so much about the salt being cut with rice husk. While the practice of using dried rice husk as a desiccant is still followed to this day to store palm sugar and other hygroscopic materials, it is never 'mixed' with the product. Rather the warehouse is bedded with a thick layer of rice husk to keep the room dry instead of mixing it with the salt/ sugar. It is however possible those were volumetric measures and not weight measures (as volumetric measures were more common at the time). The very fact that salt crystals would have been larger back then ( compared to the fine crystals of table salt we get today) would have meant less of the salt fits into the same volume ( say a tablespoon) which could explain the extra salt. I would also point out that Indian cuisine is more generous with salt than European or even American cuisine.
Higher salt would also help preserve meat in days before refrigeration.
I knew someone would have an explanation! Lol. I was thinking something similar that it must have been diluted or a weaker version of salt somehow. Cool!
In Nigeria, we have finger foods that are popularly referred to as “Small Chops”, and for some time now, Samosas, Puff-puffs & spring rolls have been star players.
Oh yeah. Honestly, while not exactly Nigerian 'cuisine', it goes hard.
That is very interesting! I don't usually think of samosas and other influences from India as playing a big role in the cuisine or culture of the opposite end of the African continent. Spring rolls I can actually see maybe more, only because they're from Southeast Asia and I know there is at least some influence on West Africa due to colonial trade. For instance batik is of course extremely popular in traditional clothing; it may even be the single thing conjured up most immediately in the global imagination when you hear the word "Africa"! But samosa definitely I would think Kenya and so forth, not Nigeria.
I am from West Bengal, an eastern state in India.. we have a culture of having small fried fingerfoods as evening snacks. We call these kind of food "Chop"..
In modern-Day Iran Qutab is a bite-sized sweet. Filled with pistachios/walnuts but mostly almonds. It is Frist fried in a pan. Then glazed with a rosewater syrup.
Sounds absolutely delicious.
@@JudgeNicodemus and relatively simple.
I’m drooling for that.
It sounds amazing
What is the equivalent of samosa in Iran?
As an Indian person, I LOVE seeing people trying samosas. Reminds me of my mom and how she used to make them. Pro-tip from mom and me: instead of slicing and dicing your garlic and ginger, grate them on either a microplane or the finest setting of a box grater. This will turn the garlic and ginger into a fine paste that will provide you with more flavor and disperse more evenly into the cooked food.
Would a garlic press work? (At least on garlic. I'm not sure what it would do with ginger.)
@@beth12svist for ginger that's a maybe, cause it's got those little fibers, not sure how that would interact with the press. If you have a cheese grater that's great, but they also make a little board with spikes for shredding ginger to a paste. Works good for carrots too.
@@samwinter9749 Graters with all kinds of surfaces are common where I live, actually. Cleaning that spiky side is always a mess, though...
Gonna try that next time I make Samosas! Thank you! 👍
What's the best vegetarian filling? I'm getting ideas for my aunt.
A most engaging history lesson from a culinary perspective. By the way, in the south of India where I lived, beef, mutton and chicken samosas were commonly available everywhere, particularly in Muslim-majority neighbourhoods (in big cities like Bombay, Bangalore, Madras.)
Beef samosa? Maybe in your city. I have never seen anyone selling those in my life.
@@RaghunandanReddyC Beef samosas are very common in Kerala, and damn tasty as well.
@@RaghunandanReddyC samosa were always of meat in india till last century.
In south india, all traditonal samosa shops r in muslim areas and they r all meat ones.
While meat samosas are less common in India today, they're far from gone! lamb kheema is a common filling, although often using a pastry that resembles phyllo, as opposed to the kind of doughy pastry used here and in potato-pea samosas.
And of course in Kerala beef is still eaten despite national politics. Samosas are also eaten all over coastal Africa
Interestingly, kheema has it’s roots from the Greek keema, a carryover from Alexander the Great having annexed the region way back in the day.
My Punjabi neighbor makes potato samosas, with cashews for some protein. They are amazing!
Potato pea samosas are all I need. I could eat them all day
@@GirdsHerStrength That sounds delicious!
Oh boy! An Indian cuisine! Ever since the rice pudding I’ve wanted more! God I’m always so thankful for finding this channel!
Just tried an indian rice pudding at a restaurant 3 days ago. It was divine! Love indian cuisine.
𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 ❶❽ 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐥𝐝
*NUDE-DATTING.ONLINE*
tricks I do not know
Megan: "Hotter"
Hopi: "Sweeter"
Joonie: "Cooler"
Yoongi: "Butter
So with toy and his tricks, do not read it to him that he writes well mamon there are only to laugh for a while and not be sad and stressed because of the hard life that is lived today.
Köz karaş: '' Taŋ kaldım ''
Erinder: '' Sezimdüü ''
Jılmayuu: '' Tattuuraak ''
Dene: '' Muzdak ''
Jizn, kak krasivaya melodiya, tolko pesni pereputalis.
Aç köz arstan
Bul ukmuştuuday ısık kün bolçu, jana arstan abdan açka bolgon.
Uyunan çıgıp, tigi jer-jerdi izdedi. Al kiçinekey koyondu wins taba algan. Al bir az oylonboy koyondu karmadı. '' Bul koyon menin kursagımdı toyguza albayt '' dep oylodu arstan.
Arstan koyondu öltüröyün dep jatkanda, bir kiyik tigi tarapka çurkadı. Arstan aç köz bolup kaldı. Kiçine koyondu emes, çoŋ kiyikti jegen jakşı dep oylodu. # 垃圾
They are one of the best concerts, you can not go but just seeing them from the screen, I know it was surprising
💗❤️💌💘
I thought samosas were from central asia?
Check out madu veda
@@lavona8204 you got your spelling a bit wrong, but I agree! South Indian dishes are extremely underappreciated when talking about Indian cuisine. Definitely give Medu Vadas a try, the best way I can describe them is Savory doughnut. It's quite dense yet fluffy. And has such subtle flavours, that you can use anything as your dipping sauce. Traditionally it'd be coconut chutney and sambhar. But the chutneys can be customised.
This show is better than anything I've seen on the history channel or food network. Keep going good sir you are entertaining.
Thank you 🙏
In ancient times, salt was often adulterated with ground up rice, or other white powders. The quantities called for in the original recipe probably reflect those adulturations.
@@cesaravegah3787
Perhaps "adulterated" was the wrong word. If you tried to ship/transport pure salt, it would tend to crystallize into what essentially amounted to rocks. By adding rice (or other similar) starch the salt would remain granular - kind of like the way powdered sugar has a starch added to it today, to prevent clumping and crystallization. I'm sure (however) that merchants and traders didn't worry too much about adding relatively excessive amounts of (considerably cheaper) rice flour to the (much more expensive) salt. In that case, adulterated just might be the right word.
See I kind of figured that the answer to why so much salt was that the salt they were using wasn't that salty.
Another thing, is that they used salt as a preservative. It's said ik the video that this were often made to last long, so they probably used way too much salt because of that
Dang, salt was "stepped on" back in the day....lololol
Salt is cheaper than rice no point adulterating with it
Finally caught up with you on this video after watching through your whole playlist, Max. What a lucky find it was for me, when Shadiversity mentioned your channel. Not a single minute I spend here was wasted! Food AND history? What more could you ask for?
I hope you keep on doing this for a long, long time! I will be here for all of it!
Thank you for crossing over :D
Welcome to the "Tasting History Family". 😁
Gather your party before venturing forth
What you just made is called shingara in the Bengal region. The distinction between shingara and samosa here is that shingara tends to have softer and more crumbly dough, while samosas have a more crunchy dough.
I never thought a ruthless conqueror's diary entries on fruit would be so... pleasant to read.
seriously ruthless, but there's always a different side to every person that's just so surprising
Except the haggis tree. Which is the stuff of nightmares
I know, right? I wonder if there is a diary of sorts out there somewhere in a bookstore with his poetic entries? 🤔
@@sabao4792 That’s also because ruthless people would be hated by others, showing only the negative image when history is viewed by outsiders (especially the ones who got conquered). What modern people need to know today is that everyone was still human, no matter how cruel they were.
It's impossible not to be pleasant when talking about mangoes.
I'm gonna apologize for being pedantic beforehand, but the Mughals never actually referred to themselves as Mughals/Mongols. Instead they called themselves the Gurkaniyan, which is the dynasty of Timur. Timur played a much bigger role in Mughal identity, in fact, the Ain-i Akbar that this recipe comes from also has a lengthy section on the lineage of Mughal emperors and there Genghis Khan is only named fairly briefly while a lot of attention is paid to Timur. Babur also refers to "Moghuls" as a different group of people from himself in the Baburnama. Timur did in turn use the Mongol lineage as a way to legitimize himself but by the time the Mughals were seated in India the Mongols were no longer a main source of identity
Yes Gurkani empire
Contemporaries referred to the empire founded by Babur as the Timurid empire,[39] which reflected the heritage of his dynasty, and this was the term preferred by the Mughals themselves.[40]
The Mughal designation for their own dynasty was Gurkani (Persian: گورکانیان, Gūrkāniyān, meaning "sons-in-law").[41] The use of "Mughal" and "Moghul" derived from the Arabic and Persian corruption of "Mongol", and it emphasised the Mongol origins of the Timurid dynasty.[42] The term gained currency during the 19th century, but remains disputed by Indologists.[43] Similar terms had been used to refer to the empire, including "Mogul" and "Moghul".[44][45] Nevertheless, Babur's ancestors were sharply distinguished from the classical Mongols insofar as they were oriented towards Persian rather than Turco-Mongol culture.[46]
Another name for the empire was Hindustan, which was documented in the Ain-i-Akbari, and which has been described as the closest to an official name for the empire.[47] In the west, the term "Mughal" was used for the emperor, and by extension, the empire as a whole.[48]
Yes they saw themselves as Turks
I watched this documentary where they tell that Timur kinda put a curse on whoever opened his tomb, and some Russian archaeologists opened it...the day the Germans invaded them on WWII.
@@Nikki-tx6kh Interesting if true. What's amusing is goobers that actually believe in curses. I wonder how they explain the weeks/months of planning the Germans did beforehand.
Babur also didn't like weather of Hindustan because of enormous heat and humidity and long rainy months. He liked Kabul because it resembled him his homeland, especially Samarkand. Being surrounded by mountains, Kabul had pleasant and balanced climate. He even planted Samarkand grapes in his Kabul garden. And after he passed away, Babur's surrounding wanted to bury him in Delhi but his Pashto wife insisted in fulfilling Babur's last will and took his remains to Kabul.
Soooo....
What's the point of invading, settling and butchering millions of people in mediaeval India?
Babur was a genocidal maniac like most islamic rulers
if you need to find sumac, or want to forage it, 1) make sure the sumac is bright red and stands upright on the stalk, and 2) it is literally everywhere in southern Ontario and should be harvested in spring or summer. Furthermore, do check this with at least 3 sources, at least one of which is a book on local flora because poison sumac is a thing. Have a good day!
It's all over Michigan as well. I remember raiding sumac near my childhood home in Dexter, MI.
@@barnett25 It's all over the UK too. They are known as vinegar trees, as the big seed cones when dried mimic vinegar in flavour. Beware if you plant one though, within a year you will have another 10. They spread via suckers, and boy do they grow...
There's like a dozen different species of sumac in North America. For those of us in California, our local Rhus species look a little different from the East Coast/Canadian ones but the fruits can be put to the same use, though I'd recommend growing your own if you want to make a regular habit of it.
the berries of poison sumac are generally white and different from the usually red fruits of the edible sumac species, and don't have the same style of spiky clusters common in the good stuff. once you know what they look like, it's easy to tell the difference!
In Southern California where Max is located, there are multiple species of wild sumac, and I wouldn’t recommend eating any of them without serious research and preparation. So probably a good idea for him to just order some.
Max, I live on a ranch in Southern Saskatchewan. It is -30c here today. For fun I thought I would make a batch. My cowboys loved them! Thank you for your channel. So fun.
A bunch of powder sniffing neanderthals
Really great to make old Indian recipes, one of the reasons being is that people think New world ingredients are traditional, hard to imagine the cuisine without chillies, tomatoes, and potatoes but there you have it.
Alot of other options are available to replace them. Instead of Tomato my mom (Indian ofc) still uses tamarind.
If the salt was measured in volume their salt may have been cragly crystals of salt which would yield a lot less salt per tablespoon compared to our small uniform kosher or table salt.
He said it was measured by weight ^^
@@krankarvolund7771 I might have misremembered but I thought he said that the seer was weight but the dam was volume. Idk
@@jasoncronin9145 Yes. The recipe specified 1/2 seer of salt. That's nearly a pound. The dam is 20 grams. Both are weight measures. Old Indo-Persian recipes were designed around market measures, not household ones like in Victorian England, and markets in Central Asia always worked by weight.
That's what I figured too
So would Himalayan salt crystals work/ be more historically accurate?
An old recipe with actual measurements is as surprising as it is delightful
Now if only there were instructions 😂
Suppose you can't have it all
@@Crazypixiness The brits could.
@@naamadossantossilva4736 haha having it is easy, holding it is the hard part
@@naamadossantossilva4736 in what way
You can have measurements or you can have directions. You can't have both.
I spent a chunk of my childhood in the same places (Ferghana valley) and I can attest that the food and fruits there (melons, yes!) are still awesome.
True fergana valley food is good
Верно. Вы из Андижана?
@@erturtemirbaev5207 Худжанд, тогда ещё Ленинабад. Семья отца там жила.
I worked for a Punjabi family for almost 20 years, my bosses wife used to bring Samasos in for lunch all the time, they are sooooooo good.
@Dale Hammers You should ask your *boss's* (note the correct spelling) wife for a class that you all could take so as to learn from her how to make them. I am sure she would appreciate the compliment to her cooking!
Wait, your bosses all shared one wife?! Oh, poor woman!
@@taitano12i think they mean boss's wife
@@Pandabreadie I was poking fun at the grammar, silly. 😜
@@Pandabreadie I was poking fun at the grammar, silly. 😜
I remember samosas from my childhood growing up in Uganda, Africa. My mom got recipes from a local cookbook. I will have to ask if she still has her recipe because I want to try it. But until then I'll be trying this.
My wife had them growing up in Tanzania. They called them sambusa
@@toddellner5283 I remember a truck stop (I think it was a truck stop? Or maybe it was a little restaurant near a truck stop. I don’t really remember) in Kenya that sold really good samosas pretty near the Tanzanian border. I was surprised cause I’d had a lot of indian samosas before but I didn’t know they were popular in East Africa. They were a little on the small side and crispier if I remember correctly.
Although I’ve only ever had samosas in Indian restaurants that weren’t in India… so my perception of what an Indian samosa is like is probably totally wrong/they’re probably all different sizes and breadiness/crispiness levels…
@@MotorcycleWrites The culinary contributions of overseas Indians are huge and underappreciated.
I'm from Uganda and we call them sumbusas out here too.
Try making those with a thinner crust.
Fun fact: sumbusa is also innuendo for vajina out here too.😅😅😅
@@markbyarugaba9037 Huh. Where she grew up another term for that was "kahshata" - the coconut candy
There are a LOT of different fillings you can use in samosas.
Potatoes (like you said) and other vegetables (usually peas), onion masala, paneer, basically every combination of vegetables and/or meat there is.
Some are more popular than others, but samosas are very customizable.
Without forgetting chowmin samose and the other atrocities... 😂
You made the dough almost exactly like how my family makes it but to achieve that flakyness you need to make samosa “chapati” very thin. You can even make two small dough balls and put them over each other and role them so thin that you can see light through it and that should give you a crispy samosa.
Exactly how my grandma does it too!
Love from Pakistan
That was a very interesting video. Thanks again for this. Something you said at the end did catch my attention. As an Indian, I have always wondered what Indian cuisine was like, before the discovery of America. Potatoes, tomatoes and chillies especially, are integral to modern Indian cuisine. Wonder if you have any insights on that? A historical video on early Indian cuisine would be lovely!
Sweet potatoes and yams native to the India were used in place of potatoes and they are tastier.
Souring agents like tamarind and kokum fruit (Shorea Robusta, essential ingredient of the Konkan cuisine) were used in place of tomato usually in southern India.
Black pepper was used in place of chillies. Stalks of a native plant called choy(or chui) were chopped up and used to spice food with. It is native to Bengal, Odisha, Bangladesh and the North eastern states.
Four (Indian) + Potato (Indian) = Samosa (Mughal), Thank you Babar for teaching Indians how to cook flour or Potato, else we have been eating raw flesh of animals. Make more such vids, rice (Indian) + Spices (Indian) = Biryani (Babar) , thank you Babar for teaching us how to cook rice. Thank you for such informative history, it should be in books. Many Indians have commented they are licking something after seeing this video.. Thank you.
@@soumiksaha8484 Wow. Thanks for the insight. Would you have a source for this? I would love to read further
@@royrohit84 See there is no source for this.
All this is due to a practical experience of life and maintaining a touch with the soil of the countryside occasionally.
I have seen people do this.
Babur sounding like a teenage girl writing a blog in a teen series.😅
Maybe he just loved his food salty? In an age with salt used as a preservative developing a tolerance for salt is probably common. Especially if the alternative is to go hungry.
Makes sense
I'm tempted to think they used very moist salt in that time and space, maybe taken from the sea and not dried very much. Depending on how much -not- dried it was it might have had only a fourth of the saltiness of the absolutely dry salt we buy today.
@@Olfan Salt in a liquid form? That is essentially how the Romans did it with their Garum sauce that they had to almost anything since, apart from the fish it was mostly salt.
@@michaelpettersson4919 I was thinking in the direction of flakey sea salt (we once had some that was so wet you could form "snow balls" out of it), but entirely liquid salt is also an interesting thought.
I think the salt is for preservation
I'm imagining Babur now on TripAdvisor giving everything in India a one star rating 😄
LOL
😂
Imagine him conquering so many lands just because he was sick and tired of the poor food offerings lol
😂😂
Most of Indians really hate babur for his religious intolerance and iconolocast poliices
I'm an Indian and I find the historical information in this video very fascinating.
I first had sambusas at this Omani restaurant along with "faasa" a hearty lamb stew. I miss that restaurant, those guys could cook so well.
I miss the Riesh. There was a grill on the beach by the fish suq.
So hard to find an Oman restaurant. They don’t have a big diaspora in the State or Europe, so their foods are just not well-known in the western world. Quiet different from the Lebanese variation that is popular.
@@ongkhuongduy3498 Yea they didn't have that restaurant very long but I went as much as I could.
Wow. I wish there were an Omani restaurant where I live...i'd totally be there regularly
Jose does your closed captioning, right? Bonus points today for "crunch, crunch" when you tried your samosa. 😁
I love to hear the stories of the beautiful medieval world of the Middle East and South and Central Asia. I'm deeply sad to see what became of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and the other ancient lands that were once places of high culture, scholarship, civilization, and enterprise.
I Totally agree 💯👍 Its so sad to see what is happening in Afghanistan:(
Iran is still okay - as in the Persians are quite educated and woke. It's just the government that is disgusting.
Please learn something about ancient Indian empires and civilization, buddhism, vedic culture, jaining and Indian influence of South East Asia.
@@munmunsarkar1726 Yes, as an Indian there's a lot to be proud of!
@@Ziggywhateverthe Iranians have the highest rate of homosexuality and feminism, it's just the government that is rigid
''he was descendant of genghis khan'' wow, that narrows it down alot!
Geneticists studying the old Mongol Empire found about 8 percent of the men descend from Genghis Khan.
Yeah every person in around those parts claims to be that.
@@joedumas3362 Truly the Father of his Country. And every other country the Mongols went through
Having trace amounts of genetic descent, and having royal descent that can actually be traced through lineage are two different things.
@@realtalk6195 Mmm, wouldn't "genetic descent" and "lineage" be the same thing even if they didn't involve titles?
Babur's fascination with Uzbek melons is totally justified if you've ever eaten melons from the Fergana Valley. I'm from Uzbekistan and I miss those melons everyday living in the United States. You also said he called himself a mongol but when looking at the linguistics of the area he would be speaking Chigatai language putting him more into a Turkic language group which is very different from Mongolian. I think using language to determine culture is usually the most accurate and best representative of the culture rather than what modern western writers say about historical figures of the east.
Mug’al deb 18-19 asrda inglizlar qo’ygan nom bilan dunyoga tanilgan. Ammo Bobur o’zini Turk yoki Temuriy larmiz deya tanishtirgan. Buni sal tarixni tushungan odam biladi.
The Chagatai khaganate ruled Uzbekistan from the second son of Genghis Khan and his descendants. The ruling class was Mongol, although the people they ruled over were Turkic people (the Mongols ruled over people from other ethnicities throughout their empire such as Persians, Europeans, Chinese, Indian, etc). As said in the video, Babur came from Timur and Genghis Khan's family, and was part of the ruling class thereby making him a Mongol.
@@sabyasachibandyopadhyay8558 dude how many turks were there among mongol army? Do you really think it was only mongols who fought? It was mostly Turks. That’s only reason within 40-50 years they Turkified and islamized. They did not speak mongolian they spoke Turkic. They did not pray like tegrism they prayed like muslims. Nothing Mongolian left. Golden horde official language Turkic kipchak
Chigatay khanate language Turkic (karluk)
Ilkhanate ruling class Turkic but arabic and persian were also in use.
Your name could be anything what did you claim and how you lived will tell who really they were. Babur or Timur none spoke mongolian or claimed to be Tengri followers.
They all said they are Turk and Muslim.
@@1212-m6b you are absolutely right. I didn't say Uzbeks are of Mongol descent (although I am pretty sure there's some intermixing). I spoke solely about Babur. Babur claimed descent from Genghis and Timur in Babur-nama. Akbar (Babur's grandson) produced a book called Zafar-nama which is a collection of battle stories of Timur. These people clearly wanted to be associated with Timur and Genghis Khan. Culturally speaking, Babur styled himself as a Persian. Check out the Mughal flag, you will find the same Lion and Sun (Sher-o-Khurshid) as that of the Shah of Iran. When Humayun was driven out of India by Sher Shah Suri, he sought asylum in the Safavid Persian court. The Mughals brought Persian music and food to India. The Mughal armies on the other hand were an amalgamation of Indians, Afghans, Persians and a few Turks.
If you want to use language as ethnicity then they spoke Persian more. That's why we have more Persian influence in hindi sand arabic in second
Late to the party (as usual). A lot of ancient flours would have had a variety of yeasts from atmospheric contamination. Given the various resting periods in this recipe, there would have been some rising even without adding sugar to the dough.
We forget how sterilised our production of staples has become.
The recipe that I followed when I first made samosas years ago specified chickpea flour, which I suspect is a more traditional ingredient.
It has no chili peppers in it. I'm in love. I'm allergic to chilies, but I love all the other flavors of Indian food.
The recipe is (fortunately for you) a bit too early for chillis to have mad their way into the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent.
Because chilis came from the Americas, and were therefore dependent on thousands of years of indigenous cultivation, followed by European traders who spread them to Asia and the rest of the world.
Ouch... I'm so sorry! Chili's are the one thing I would have a helluva time giving up! I damn near DRINK Frank's Red hot! Especially on my scrambled eggs.
It is recorded that what we refer to as Indian food today was heavily peppered prior to the arrival of chillies.
Different type of heat, but apparently, that's what it was.
could you replace chili in recipes?
In my late teens through to mid 20s I pretty much lived off of Samosas, and beer. In fact I used to sing a song that went "samosas and beer, samosas and beer, all I really need is samosas and beer". When being a totally broke young punk, something that cost less than a dollar (at the time) was fresh, tasted good, and would fill you up it was a no brainer.
Bro, you seem to live a pretty fun life
Max, I sure do appreciate the hard work you put into these videos! I admire that you have turned this channel into something great, pretty much from day one!
I got to try some Uzbek samsas with lamb filling just last week. They were phenomenal! It seems like they used puff pastry, which worked really well.
Samoosas are common in South Africa as we have a large Indian population. The fillings vary from chicken, beef, lamb, potato and corn & cheese. They are shaped into triangles and fried. One of my favourite snacks.
It's fascinating to me on how many cultures from the past had their own versions of hot pockets. I make empanadas all the time, the Mexican version. Granted the fillings and shapes might be different, but these sort of recipes have been around for centuries... thank you for sharing this one.
the pre-industrial rule of food: If it was portable, preservable, AND palatable, it was a guaranteed hit with working classes.
One nearly universal human experience is some variety of dumpling
My Colleagues and I were just talking about this other day the we all have version of the hot pocket (boiled, steamed, fried, etc.). Where I am from Polish pierogis and Cornish Pastys common recipes passed down.
@@mzdrizzle Or a fried dough recipe since basically every culture has one as well.
Im pretty sure literally every culture in history had some form of spiced meat wrapped in dough, it just makes so much sense to do that it is inevitable.
We still have this in Iran as well, we call it Samboose, and it has the same filling. We also have Qotab, but now Qotab is the name of a similarly shaped pastry with a sweet filling.
Samosa/samboosa/sanbusa are still quite popular all around the Indian Ocean.
True cos it's like the most traditional snack and available everywhere in East Africa
Very popular in USA
I think this is the original recipe of a Sicilian meat pie called "impanate", yes, identical to the Spanish and Latin American "empanadas", after all the Spanish were in charge in Sicily for quite a long time. And perhaps the Spanish took it from the Arabs living Spain? That would be interesting to trace!
It's very difficult to trace, because things stuffed inside baked or fried dough is common in almost all national cuisines. Because of the name, it seems the Sicilian one comes from the Spanish and in Spain, the empanada is believed to come from the north west region of Galicia (there is representation of a Galician empanada in one of the sculptures the famous Santiago de Compostela Cathedral Port of Glory, which was done in the 12th century). By the 15th we know they were common enough to appear in cook books, for example we have sea food empanada recipe in Catalán (the Crown of Aragon was the one who inherited Sicily and Catalán was more prevalent there). As for possible Arab influence, maybe, but again, the method is almost universal, not so different from English meat pies and Spanish empenhadas at least do not use a lot of spices more associated with Middle eastern or North African cuisine (most use at most garlic and onion, and cumin, and sometimes sweet paprika)
Before the Spanish held Sicily, both Sicily and Iberia were Muslim states. Sicily fell to Catholic rule in 1091 while Andalus slowly fell to Catholic rule by 1492.
Paella is inspired by Biryani
@@astranix0198 Probably not, though they have common ancestors in Persian and Arab ways to prepare rice. Paella developed from rices prepared by the Morisco population in Valencia and after their house expulsion, by the poor farmers in the Albufera region using the meats, vegetables and spices available in the region, which meant that sometimes it contained water rat.
@@astranix0198 Definitely not. You may be talking about pulav.
Biryani is relatively modern.
Max I don't know if you'll ever see this, but I would really love to see more African recipes, particularly ones from southern Africa; countries like Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Angola. We typically get left out of these sorts of conversations - even if African countries are included, it tends to be Either South Africa or north African countries like Nigeria and Ghana or Egypt. I'm from Malawi and I'd love to see something from closer to home.❤
YES!
You said samosas and I'm in love. How's an episode on soan papdi sound? Might be a bit complicated though, haha.
Making Soan Papdi is a very thought work, you need to pull the Molten sugar , it will burn your hand when hot, and will crush your muscles as it will cool down.
@@basantprasadsgarden8365 Yeah, the process of making it is very laborious, so buying it might be a justified reason. As long as he eats it. Afterall, it is called Tasting History 😉
@@TheVeryAngryShrimp yeah!
What a name.
This is another one of your recipes that actually meets my dietary restrictions. I'm so excited when I find new recipes like this. Geeking out just a little bit. thank you for all your hard work. As a content creator myself I know that there's a lot of behind the scenes work.
Samosa/Sambusa are also really popular in East Africa. There's a great channel called Acholi Pride where Eunice did a video called 'African village girl's life//making tasty meat samosa from scratch,' where she makes samosa in her village, the way they're sold all over EA. It's interesting that she's in northern Uganda and calls them samosa and I'm south in Rwanda where we call them sambusa. They are always fried here.
So happy to see you cover Mughlai food & this meaty samosa is even today in India commonly referred to as the Delhi Samosa after the City which was the Seat of Power of the Mughal Empire. Would love to see an episode on the evolution of the Biryani as there are so many styles & countries it graces & like the Samosa the original is Persian.
The Delhi Sultanate was another Turko-Iranic empire predating the Mughal Empire, which the Mughals conquered. Most of these dishes came to India under them and other Muslim states before the Mughals, though more dishes continued to be developed under their rule as well.
I thought biryani was invented in India by a mughal cook putting everything in a pot cooking quickly to feed the mughal army on a march.
Flour (Indian) + Potato (Indian) = Samosa (Mughal), Thank you Babar for teaching Indians how to cook flour or Potato, else we have been eating raw flesh of animals. Make more such vids, Rice (Indian) + Spices (Indian) = Biryani (Babar) , thank you Babar for teaching us how to cook rice. Thank you for such informative history, it should be in books. Many Indians have commented they are licking something after seeing this video.. Thank you.
@@commentplease8074 Fyi Potato was brought to India from the Americas by the Portuguese much later. The original stuffing of Samosa was always minced meat.
@@anniemody Babur Died in 1530; however, according to Dr. Google, potatoes came to India in the 17th century. So, Babur brought Potatoes (Samosas) to India before Potatoes came to India. Therefore, According to Dr. Google Indians started eating Potatoes before European shed their inhibitions about potatoes (see the Wikipedia), although it is only they who brought potatoes to India ( according to Dr. Google ????????). India has 100s of potato based cuisines, Europe has only one: French Fries (although France banned potatoes from 1748 to 1772), even then Potatoes came from West. I remember, many years back a special session was held in Indian Parliament to celebrate 50th anniversary of Indian Independence, in which a famous leader told unopposed that potatoes went from India to Europe (he pushed for prevention of India loosing biodiversity rights of turmeric: (lacks source)). West keeps cornering biodiversity rights of Turmeric, Basmati, Neem Cases. But this samosa story seems to from "Iftaar Party" menu makers, to seek vengeance eating.
I’m literally watching this while eating Samosas with tamarind sauce. When I lived in India the samosas in Northern India & the Punjab were crazy spicy. Not even close to the spiciest I have found in Indian restaurants here in the USA. My husband, who is my Indian souvenir 😉, can make them super spicy.
Oh just noticed the Sharma 😂🙏
As a Punjabi, spicy is the correct way 😜
@@suryakantsingh1863 HanJi, mai America se hun, lekin meri dil bharati hai. ♥️♥️♥️
Mera pati Hindustani hai, na ? Mera parivar Delhi Me Hai. 🥰
@@melissasharma3662 welcome to the family 😃🙏
@@suryakantsingh1863 Awe, that’s sweet. ♥️
I am just grateful to you. How interesting and informative your description is!
We make meat, fish, egg, saag, paneer, sweet (kheer, coconut, fruits etc) & savoury samosas still. The most common one is of course made with the filling of potato, cauliflower, peas with spices. There is even a movie song about it 🤣. The hero says to his heroine that as long as there will be potatoes in samosas you my beloved will be mine. This is the cheapest samosa and most available. We serve it with green or red chutneys.
That sounds like such a cute movie. 😂 I had the potato samosas recently and they were amazing 🤤
It's a movie song? I always thought it was "jabtak rahega samose mai aaloo, tabtak bihar mai rahega lalu" lmao.
I’d stock up on homemade samosas at the Indian food stalls at our farmers market. And tzatziki sauce
Would love to see you do a vid centered on Sumac. By the way, where did you find your mushroom print towels? Love them!
They were a housewarming gift, but I think they were from a French import store in LA called M. Marcel.
Sumac species also exist in North American, North African and across Asian cuisines and so it has quite a diverse history across the world. In the Northeastern and Midwestern US and in Eastern Canada sumac is used to make tea (it tastes like pink lemonade) and for flavouring foods.
@@TastingHistory Thanks for the info. :)
@@hoathanatos6179 there is also an abundance of sumac grown in the sabina (an area of roman countryside) bought there by monks!
I’m sick today and watching all of your videos is really helping to pass the time as I lie here. Thanks for that!
I’m sick too. Feel better soon.
@@TastingHistory Aw, I hope you feel better soon too!
i completely forgot you were cooking. Max is a good history teacher.
Right? I knew little of the history of this area. Now I want to travel there
I love that you show us the attempted tries before you get it right. Thanks
This is one of my favourite episodes from Max. It's so well crafted and the history is so interesting.
My grandma just smears a thin layer of filling on the lavash, folds it and fries it. I didn't think it was so complicated originally, lol.
Isn’t lavash too thin to fry. It tears easily.
@@majestic6303 it's not, if you smear the filling really thin, and only fill the half of it.
Also, you don't deep-fry it, obviously, but cook it in a dry pan or in a thin film of oil.
@@SangwiSigil …thank you for explaining the technique. I will try it.
@@majestic6303 Also, it's not really a samosa. It's a dish known as qutab, and it's its own separate thing.
@@SangwiSigil …good to know. I like trying other cultural food. Lavash is healthier and lighter.
I spent many years of my youth participating in the SCA, but even then, I didn't really care about history - I did the minimal research necessary to create a persona, and that was it. However, I could listen to you wax on about history all day long. You are a great storyteller! I'm so glad you decided to devote yourself to your UA-cam channel - I hope it's a choice you never regret
SCA is still going strong. There are a lot of people who love researching and cooking historical foods.
Pathia and Dhansak are also Persian curries that you would find on most Indian menus :) I would recommend both of these dishes if anyone would like to be more adventurous with their pallet. If you don’t like spice, but can handle medium heat id advise you’d go for the Dhansak as it is light and is made with lentils. However, if you like hotter dishes but still want something tasty then a pathia has the perfect sweet and spicy balance. They are both some of my favourite dishes. I was lucky to travel around India when I was a teenager and have been eating at Indian restaurants in the UK ever since I was a baby :)
Dhansak and Pathia came to India with the Parsi(Zoroastrian) immigrant who fled the invasion of Iran by the Arabs. These dish developed in India only.
It's funny - I know full well the channel name is "Tasting *History* with Max Miller", Max discusses the history behind the food in *every* episode ... and yet I still get so engrossed in the video that it's always a (delightful!) surprise when the history portion starts.
I always forget about the food during the history part 😆 then have a pleasant surprise at the plating end.
That's interesting about the salt. My first reaction was, he was a heavy smoker, since dokha tobacco already existed in Iran. Then I realized that some brands of salt here in Turkey have very little saltiness, and we sometimes have had to double the amounts in order to match Himalayan or sea salt.
You guys have sweet salts?
At 0:31 the painted image on the left depicts Maharaja Ranjit Singh and on the right is Maharaja Sher Singh. That entire catalog from the Museum is mistitled as the Ain-i-Akbari, I'm reaching out to them to correct this error.
This is probably my favorite "history" tasting history episode! Very cool topic max!
I can’t explain how excited I was to see you’d done another South Asian recipe! It’s always nice to see histories a little closer to home (although I love all your videos that I’ve seen!)
Thank you for all the hard work that you put into these videos. I really appreciate how much research goes into making the videos perfect and you are so respectful of every piece of history you cover. I look forward to seeing what you do next!
This is by far the most historically correct background of samosa I've heard.
I've been on a kick of cooking Indian dishes lately, I made a Potato and lentil Dahl the other day, and I'm making a Chana Masala today, I'm definitely using this recipe and making some samosas soon, looks delicious! Great Job Max Love the video :)
I had Sambusas growing up near Dhahran. The ones we got were made at a Lebaese restraurant in Al-Khobar, andthey had pine nuts added to the filling. I still miss those. That place was a favorite, and we did take out, as well as dining in as often as we could.They also had the best tabbouleh.
pine nuts are an expensive addition, wow. how much did it cost to get one of those sambusas?
What you're describing sounds similar to kibbeh , because it usually filled with pine nuts. They both are similar but kibbeh is made with bulgur instead of dough
11:00 Love watching your videos! wish you would mention that the Indian subcontinent split not only into modern day India and Pakistan but also modern day Bangladesh. Mughals were present here as well, when India was divided West Bengal stayed with India and East Bengal became East Pakistan for a few decades but then we fought for independence and became an independent country known as Bangladesh. The Mughal capital here was in Dacca (now Dhaka, our capital city), it was known as the Bengal Subah.
We eat samosas too although they are a bit different than what modern day Indians eat, our samosas look a bit different and we call the Indian samosas "Shingara".
I think it’s the cutest thing ever that your husband puts out different Pokémon plushies for every episode 😭❤️
I didn't know that's who is doing that, that's so sweet 🥺
He's gay???? Just when I didn't think this channel could get any better❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
That is a Whole Love Language.
@@potatonope9774 bruh how does that make this channel better or worse?
@@arghachowdhury some people just like to be represented somewhat
The way they make Qutab in Azerbaijan is different. The filling is the same except for the onions, and we smear it over Lavash and fold it, fry it. Beef, Lamb and Camel is used but there are also multiple plant based variants with various greens and even squash with pomegranate.
What does camel taste like compared to lamb?
@@mzdrizzle it is like much more fatty
Two other things Babur brought to India from Uzbekistan- pomegranate and roses. Cheers to shared culture!
Indian Samosa is mostly made out of peas and potatoes.
@@sabyasachibandyopadhyay8558you forgot the anarkali type dresses. Dances similar to kathak.
I have only had potato samosas. And the dipping sauces were phenomenal! I worked at a VA hospital. We had people of all nationalities. The pot lucks at work were so fun. The INDIA/ PAKISTAN worked in respiratory therapy. And that is where i had them. I was in my 20's when i became a foodie! But more that the foods were the occasions they were cooked for. I learned so much about other people and places and found a new love of culture before it was a thing. I am now in my early sixties. I still love cultures and the foods and occasions where certain foods are served. Your channel has been the best thing since those days. I can now cook a lot of different dishes from many lands. Your channel helps me learn.
In school history was taught as a string of names and dates to memorize. No wonder students were turned off of history. Some lucky people had a teacher or two that knew how to bring history to life. You are one of those teachers. Thanks Max
Now this is an episode I am EXCITED to see! As a huge world history nerd (I think we all are) but I’m especially fascinated by the Mughals, and I LOVE Samosas… I’ve never clicked on a video so fast Max!
I’ll definitely be making this Max, and thank you for making my day with this video! :) ❤️
Indian food is one of my favorite cuisines! Definitely going to try this recipe.
The food descriptions Babur gives had me drooling for the whole video. No wonder that missed his homeland. Food is also the main reason I miss my parents.
I don't know about the west coast, but here in the east, Staghorn Sumac grows wild everywhere. I've collected it to make Sumac "lemonade".
Are you willing to share your recipe for Sumac "lemonade"? Sounds interesting!!
@@karengerber8390 It's not much of a recipe. You just need to steep the berries in water, strain through a paper towel or something and sweeten to taste. It's really good. Just make sure you get the RED berries that protrude upward from the plant (staghorn sumac). There are sumacs that are poisonous, but those have droopy white berries. I think it's pretty easy to tell the difference.
at least where I am.
Thank you for teaching.
Do you know, is it safe to dry the red berries for later use?
I find this fascinating.
if you want it as a spice, I suppose you could crush the berries and pass it through a sieve to separate the chaff.
They did not consider themselves as successors of Gengiz Khan, but Timur the Lame. Timurid Gurkhans was the designation they used. Babur's father himself was from Timurs family.
For the salt bit, it might very well be based on the fact that a type of rock salt kinda common for the more fancy meals at the time included lots of "impurities"/essentially was 30%+ bad baking soda, along with sulfur mixtures and lake sediments, that was then stored with any combination of water/hydrogen absorbing plant based products (from rice to bamboo to coriander to any weird mix of ground nuts), so a tablespoon would be closer to maybe one and a bit of a teaspoon.
You’re still my favorite. Waiting impatiently for that cookbook.
Just finished the last recipe yesterday!
I love Samosas. I’ve only had potato filled but they are so tasty. I really love the various dipping sauces served with them.
Same. My mom used to get some from the local walmart everyday after a big soccer game lol
Potatos are the best. Meat fillings usually don't have the same feeling for me.
Could the additional salt be included as a way to preserve them?
If it had only been that dish, maybe, but it’s every dish he writes about, most of which would be served right away.
I think it's the type of salt. Our salt was not this fine before.
@@asamvav good catch. They used rock salt
@@asamvav Since the measurement was in weight, rather than volume, the fineness doesn't factor in.
@@Vykk_Draygo yes I get what you are saying but I meant something else. It wasn't as salty, my Indian friend got what I wanted to say 😘
The descriptions of Babur are great, and his memoirs seem very interesting. I would love to get more videos about him, his foodie diary and his love of fruit.
You can find his autobiography translated online (babur nama)
4:54 I love the way the art is drawn with their ships and the people riding in it, just looks so cute and beautiful.
Love your charisma and all the history you give us, its very well done and researched. Great job
I'm in my third year of university and during my first two, I used all of my electives on Islamic Studies courses; In one of the courses, I was tasked to write an essay on the final three generations of the Mughal Empire. I spent months in the library late into the night, my nose buried in books that hadn't been touched in decades, looking for sources. It's nice to hear someone talking about The Mughal Empire, you don't hear about it enough these days.
Don't hear about it enough??
Maybe outside India, but in India there are a lot of people who literally worship Mughals these days lol
@@amoghavarshanripatunga for indians
Mughal are like nazi
For indians
@@amoghavarshanripatunga What? Seriously?? I thought they would so hate him
@@novanoir8309 Most people hate him and the Mughals, but muslim population in India likes them.
I love it- I once went to a self-described "Middle Eastern market" only to find it was essentially a (muslim) Indian grocery to get stuff including sumac. I got a puzzled look and was told that was an "Arabic" spice and that they carry Pakistani and Indian goods. Maybe they were being purists, IDK. But I love sumac and add it to most dishes that contain rice. GREAT STUFF!
70% world spices come from india
Depends on the region, tbh. My family never uses sumac, for example. I don't think we even have any in the house, despite my mom hoarding spices like a dragon hoards gold.
And yes, we do see it as an "Arabic" spice
Sumac is a middle eastern spice and doesn’t exist in India - likely another reason Babur didn’t like the place
Thanks for bringing together my love for food culture and history through this platform. Kudos to you for deatiled research and bringing to life ancient recipes. This was a wonderful episode
Samosas, fresh fruits, and wine… mouth is watering. Great episode. My brother ate camel on more than one occasion while in Afghanistan and said it’s surprisingly delicious when cooked properly.
I heard it tastes like fine beef.
Babur roasting HIndustan, oh my gosh!! "No good dogs." 🤣🤣Absolutely brutal!!
Your knowledge, pronunciation and presentation of history is so good!!
This channel is so great. Food and history is such a great mix. And since eating is such a big part of the human experience, there are countless recipes to look at, and all the associated history. So many things like the mention that Indian cuisine was influenced by middle eastern cooking. And it makes sense! I don't know why I didn't see it before. Great stuff!
Is the type of salt he uses ever specified? My first thought is the salt used may not have been the pure salt of today, but maybe something less saline, like Korean bamboo salt or something.
Yep, other commenters have mentioned it was cut with rice husk to help dry it.
Himalayan salt might work
Himalayan salt/rock salt was most likely what was being used there
Very interesting to learn about the background of such a common dish in South Asia. Thanks to Babur’s longing for home, a delicious cuisine was born. This was so interesting. Thank you!
Yay! Finally a mughal recipe! Could u do a recipe from the state of Goa. It has really cool food history and is the only indian region that was not under British rule but Portuguese rule. It also happens to be my home state!
I love Goan food! And it has such an interesting history. I visited there a while back and heard about but couldn't find the local version of Chorizo that sounded incredible! My absolute favourite thing to eat there was fish thali. So good!
Which are the best dish of Goa vegetarian and non vegetarian?
If you get a chance, try the Ethiopian version of this dish, especially with onion and lentils.
There are also lentil samosas in Indian cuisine but lentil sambusas from Ethiopia are awesome too.
12:11 can you imagine a guy comes in and conquers your land and then just complains about it
An episode on Argentina and Eva Perón would be really cool if you are looking for future video ideas 🇦🇷
Is it true that in Argentina they flavor their salt with Beef .. 😃
@@jonjohns8145 and swords