Have you tried making some of the foods by the native people in places like the Caribbean? I college I learned that a marker of native civilization on these islands was the development of some sort of cassava bread. It would be interesting to learn about the differences in each island's use of the root.
And a happy saturnalia to you, too! My husband and I will be celebrating winter solstice soon. Maybe with globi of a sort (I'm thinking of adding eggs/baking powder for fluffyness, as well as maybe a dash of cinnamon)
Pliny the Younger August 24th 79 AD: So Uncle is Dead and most of my Neighbors in Pompeii are gone. Here's the details....HOLY FUCK!! But you have to Admit he's got a point... probably should take his advice this year.
I appreciate that Pliny the Younger took note of him isolating himself wasn't just for his sake but for the rest of the household too. Like he wasn't interested in the festival and he was happy to sequester himself rather than be a wet blanket and spoil it for everyone. Also, I just made these, and they ended up tasting not like much of anything at all. Though I do like the texture, so I'm going to experiment with adding a little bit of flavoring or spices of some kind to the dough before frying them.
I wondered if this might be the case! I'm still working through Duolingo's course, but Latin does seem to have its fair share of words that mean a whole genre of related concepts that are separated in English. Maybe a better English translation would be "in the same measure"?
"Mix the cheese and spelt in the same way" Gotta love old recipes. I once found an old bread recipe that basically said "mix water and flour until it forms a dough, put in the oven until it's cooked". Real helpful there...
I am guilty of writing out recipes for myself that look like this. Sometimes it's just the list of ingredients with no instructions because I already know them.
@@terryt9833 I think the old way is just to eyeball the amount of everything to be "enough" for a meal coz they didnt use weight measurment as much as we do today. Even now when I read recept wroten in english (not my forst language) and see something like 3 oz. and measuring in cups - Im like - wtf is this shit? How do I know my cups are the same size as theirs?! I assume that the past had simular problems.
@@alexforce9 I think when the whole “cup” measurement thing came along, everyone only had a couple of cups? A standard cup measurement is 8 ounces now, though.
Reminds me of people leaving in their wills that somebody should receive a nail and some rope (so that they should hang themselves) real posthumous burn lol
I grew up in an Italian neighborhood and everyone made these every Christmas. Instead of poppyseeds they used confectionary sprinkles to make them more festive. It was also easier to come by .
And Saturn is Proto “grim reaper” He carries a sickle He gets dead people He’s super old He’s kind of horrible but associated with a good time This channel is soo much fun
Pliny the Elder: "I prefer to be in my library during Saturnalia." Young me hiding at my relatives' house in their reading rooms during Christmas: "same"
I used to sneak out and hide in the nice, peaceful car with my comic books while my enormous batch of relatives were having fun at the tops of their lungs. It was GREAT.
3:17 the thing that I find most interesting about this recipe is that their coded in poppy seeds now for those who don’t know the poppy seeds that you buy in the store or washed, so they don’t have any, morphine con tent back in the day they would not have washed up so if you eat enough of these, just by themselves, you could get reasonably are inebriated
Using tongs, when Cato EXPLICITLY called for sticks... How can you sleep at night when such inaccuracy is in your videos, Max? Just kidding, these look very tasty. Going to give them a try, with the lockdown coming in Germany. Cheers, Max
@@TastingHistory I'm sure I could get them out with chopsticks. I don't know if that's what Cato meant with sticks, though, but chopsticks can be handy in the kitchen anyway (I use them to pick things from deep and narrow jars, like the ones olives sometimes come in).
@@TastingHistory I guess that's why he says to fry them 2 at a time. More of them, and while you (struggle to) fish out the first two, the others get burned :)
In Poland we make "pampuchy" :) They're too made of cheese mixed with flour - and some yeasts to get them deliciously puffy. Then, after deep frying them, we sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Delicious. Only problem with pampuchy is their tendency to disappear too freaking fast.
Oh! I know these! Or well, I know their culinary descendants. In Germany, they are called Quarkbällchen and are made with flour, quark cheese, baking powder, sugar, eggs and a bit of salt. then they are fried, covered in powdered sugar, and served hot. They are super commonly sold on winter/christmas markets and SO good.
We have a similar snack in The Netherlands too: oliebollen (oil balls). You make them with milk and flour and optional raisins. We eat them at New Year's Eve and during the month December you can find oliebollen stalls all over the country :D
"do poppy seeds ever have any flavor anyway?" ...you seem to have never tried ground poppy seeds mixed with either powdered sugar or a bit of plum jam... in Slovakia, we use the second one as filling for our... strudels? Štrúdla.... yes, dictionary says strudel.
I too think that might be the case, if a poor housewife were making these, since more oil would be expensive. It's also possible to flatten them some, to further use less oil.
That Saturnalia poem is gloriously petty. "Oh wow. Socks. Yet you got Aurelia a sable scarf and three salve girls. What happened to 'Fratres before Lupanar'?"
Poppy seeds do have opiates in them, at least if you get unwashed poppy seeds. It's in the outer coating. My friends and I used to make "poppy seed tea" with them in high school. We would get an empty 2-liter bottle, fill them up about quarter way with water, and pour in a bunch of the seeds. Then you close it and shake it like crazy, until the water looks all brown and dirty. Then put it in empty 16.oz soda bottle and drink it. There is morphine (Or some opiate, not exactly sure which one) in the coating and you get really high. So much so that my old friend actually overdosed on it once and had to be narcanned by emt's. Long time ago though, I stopped using stuff like this. And I don't recommend this to anyone, don't even try it. Drugs are bad mm'kay.
@@TastingHistory I'd try this recipe by then completely coat them in poppy seeds after dipping them in honey. Seems like it would be pretty interesting compared to just sprinkling a tiny bit on top.
I made this today and it was one of the best deserts I’ve ever prepared; it really was super easy too. This is my fifth recipe I’ve tried from this channel and none of them disappoint (past what Max is honest about, such as mussels needing a little butter). In a relatively short period of time, this channel has become absolute S tier. Thank you so much for making this for so many people to enjoy.
I just made these for christmas eve and had a great happy little accident: I bought pre-made sourdough bread-mix instead of just flour. The added bit of levening made the insides fluffy rather then dense, which worked out very well. Happy holidays everyone!
I always get so caught up in the history lesson that, when you go back to the cooking part, it surprises me! “Oh yeah, there’s food involved, too! Excellent!!”
@@debbylou5729 Every now and then I think of Graham Kerr while watching Max's videos. Max is roughly my son's age, and yep . . . he has no idea who 'The Galloping Gourmet' is, either! 😊
Well strictly speaking Rome was a State, and an imperial one at that. Though Putting Rome & state together makes me think of Frankie Howerd as the sarcastic slave "Lurcio" in "Up Pompeii!". He would have said "...rome was a state all right, a right state, look at the place!" 😆
@Half Knight Hope you enjoy it, don't knoow if the film is still available, but I know series 1&2 of the TV show is available here: ua-cam.com/video/_vtPTgPYn2k/v-deo.html Great series, Frankie Howerd is very funny.
Poppy seeds do have a flavor ground, cooked, & used in pastry filling (taste like prunes) or in poppyseed cake (faint almond taste). Thank you for all the delightful videos! Your ones with José, Jamie, & Cersi are wonderful, too.
Hi Max! Thank you for this awesome video. Fun fact, I am from Moldova ( former Roman province of Dacia) the Globi (Romanian _Gogosi)is still very popular here. The honey-coated option is cooked mainly around Christmas! Coincidence? I think not!
@@Pille1842 Exactly what I was about to comment. We have multiple period accounts from both ancient Rome and ancient Greece that denounced the practice of human sacrifice as unholsios and an ufront to the gods. Not to mention all the stories of the gods that get pissed over being offered human sacrifice. And no ancient Roman or Greek would risk the wrath of the gods Agos is a bitch
“Cheese and spelt the same way”: Latin ‘idem’ means literally ‘the same’ OR ‘this exact way’. So an alternative translation could be ‘make cheese and spelt both in the following way’ or even ‘make/mix both so they become the same in this fashion’.
I just want to say I made this and it was very tasty! I also made a gluten free version for one of my gluten intolerant pals, if anyone reads this and is gluten free, I made the replacement for spelt flour as half a cup almond meal, half a cup tapioca flour, lightly Mixing them in a bowl before adding the ricotta then Continued on with the recipe as in the video. It fried well and tasted delicious! Good luck and enjoy!
@@TastingHistory I think you’re probably not looking hard enough if you can’t find a solid human sacrifice. Just ask a friend! See if they really meant it when they said they’d “Die for you” 🙃😂
@@TastingHistory If you want, it seems there is an opening for a human sacrifice position at 7:00 am. The last guy didn't make it something to do with a lion and an accident, will that work?
@@Artix902 Are you sure it is ancient? "Sinigang is a Filipino soup or stew characterized by its sour and savoury taste. It is most often associated with tamarind, although it can use other sour fruits and leaves as the souring agent. It is one of the more popular dishes in Filipino cuisine."
@@TastingHistory Roman is nice, but I'm still waiting for ancient Babylonian content. They had some interesting recipes that were recorded on clay tablets. But I respect if that is out of your field of interest, Max. Love your channel.
@@davidc4983 I never said the Romans were opposed to killing people; They did, in brutal ways. The Romans, however, did not generally sacrifice humans to the gods. I.e. a priest executing someone in a temple.
See, the secret for slaves to openly criticize their masters without making things awkward afterwards probably meant getting them real wasted beforehand, they wont remember a thing
I can't tell you how much I love your channel. You bring history alive and allow us to tast history. I can indulge in some of history's greatest dishes because of your efforts. Thank you so much.
We still use a form of this word in Greece (pilekio, which basically means "small pileus" the ending io is used in Greek to make words sound small and cute). It is a specific type of hat worn by soldiers and I think policemen also use this word too for their own hats.
Love this channel (and seeing which Pokemon Jose puts out). Rome didn't really practice human sacrifice to that degree, though. The early mentions of sacrifice during Saturnalia written by Macrobius also said it was Hercules that put a stop to it and he wrote it in the 4th century CE. The idea of gladiator games being low key sacrifices is a bit more muddled but was a common accusation of early Christian writers as a way of disparaging the Romans (even though Ausonious was a later convert so...) The reference to 'victims' in Livy specifically, though is merely the translation of 'hostia', which means 'victim', but in this case is referring to animal sacrifice. 'Hostia' and 'Victima' were sometimes used interchangeably and as a result, the English word based on the latter 'victim' is often used in translations, but it almost always referred to animals. You can see this in his other uses of the word when describing the types of cattle offered to Juno and Jupiter. (Hostia is actually the root of Catholics referring to Eucharistic sacrament, and it bears that same linguistic connotation of sacrifice.) Interestingly, though, in that same book, Livy actually does mention one of the rare times Romans actually sacrificed someone. After their defeat at the Battle of Cannae, when it seemed certain the city would soon fall to Hannibal, the Romans buried four people alive. It was a desperate moment, but generally, the Romans considered human sacrifice abhorrent to their spirit, as Livy mentions regarding the same event.
This is somewhat familiar to papanasi, Romanian "cheese doughnut." It uses sweet and soft cow cheese, either flour or grits, and either boiled or fried. I have some in my fridge.
And longer. There are ancient Greek recipes in the same vein, and modern Greek pastries like loukoumades are similar, from earlier fried dough/cheesecake balls but more popular nowadays than those older recipes.
I grew up eating poppyseed bread along with apricot and nut breads my mother and aunts made for Christmas and Easter. They're probably versions of strudel. My family's first generation Irish but exposure to alot of eastern European baking is the reason. I love the flavor of poppyseed in that convection. I don't bake but I buy them every Christmas. They are very expensive.....(11 dollars). Love your channel.😊❤❤
The thing I love most about your channel is that it reminds me of the show ‘Good Eats’ but yours is history instead of science (obviously)! Thank you for bringing learning into food and for being so amazing at it!!! Love from Minnesota!
10:57 My reaction to getting a Ghost Busters Proton Pack at this very moment. Great Video Max, watching all the older posts and having a great time doing it. Thank you
I love you and this channel so much. I am so grateful that you came up with a channel that mixes two of my favorite passions cooking and history in one. The dish looks very presentable too.
I've watched majority of your content and I love that the quality is consistent across all the years you've been doing this. Youve improved with time of course, but I like coming to your 3 year old videos and feeling im watching a current video, for the most part.
I am so impressed by the things we still do in Greece around Christmas and New year holidays that stem from back then. Round/oval shaped dessert covered in honey? Check. (they are called melomakarona). Gambling on Christmas/new years? Check. (it is actually tradition to play gambling games and poker till dawn on new year's eve). And several others. Christians just took old traditions and turned them into "Christian customs". I guess the logic was hey, we are not changing you customs, you'll still get to do the same things, we'll just call it christmas rather than saturnalia.
I’m such a 90’s kid when Max said “When there’s a problem” my immediate response was “Yo, I’ll solve it. Check out my hook while the DJ revolves it.” The actual answer read a book.
@@TastingHistory Well... It's almost always weight, simply because weight was a bit easier to work with and beam scales were used for a lot of things anyways, so it made sense to use them. I mean, most countries to this day (specifically the ones using the metric system) have recipes mostly based on weight (with liquids being a possible exception) to this day, the US being the one really noticeable outlier.
@@darthplagueis13 The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book the first of it's kind to use the measuring cup for consistency, was very popular in the USA, and when improvements like a kitchen scale were added to modern cooking, it was too late to change our cups and teaspoons we all already had.
Ancient globi seem to have a great deal in common with modern-day sfinge (also called "zeppole" or "blenzi," depending on where you are). The sfinge I'm familiar with is a round doughnut with ricotta in the dough, rolled in either regular or powdered sugar while it's still hot.
I suggest adding lemon or orange zest to the cheese before mixing along with a big pinch of salt. These aren’t a precursor to cheesecake but to Zeppolis. 💞 Merry Christmas
Speaking of Saturn, on Dec 21 the planets of Saturn and Jupiter will appear so close in the western sky just after sundown that they will appear as almost a single star.
In southern Italy it’s common, during the Christmas period to make “struffoli” little flour balls (with butter and eggs) fried, dipped in honey and with coloured sprinkles. This recipe remind it a lot for me! Go check the “struffoli” out, they are delicious!
I have this recipe in a Roman Cook book. I made it a while back and it rolls them fully in poppy seeds, which along with the honey coating, gives it a delicious crunch.
Man you made my Christmas shopping so easy this year. I always struggled to find gifts for my dad who is a fan or Roman history but the recipes you make from this time are so great that I got him that Roman cookbook you usually use for things like this. It wasn’t this one but I just thought I’d let you know that you totally saved my butt this Christmas lol
@@TastingHistory Perhaps there will be a modern book on historical recipes by a up and coming UA-cam star for a future Christmas season.... Perhaps....
Made these as an opening night treat for a production of Julius Caesar and they were a big hit! Delightful and they make me want to experiment with different ingredients.
Io Saturnalia! Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already and keep an eye out for an extra episode later this week!
Io Saturnalia!
Oh how you spoil us
Have you tried making some of the foods by the native people in places like the Caribbean? I college I learned that a marker of native civilization on these islands was the development of some sort of cassava bread. It would be interesting to learn about the differences in each island's use of the root.
@@missalii4792 I haven’t but I’d like too. I love foods from the Caribbean
And a happy saturnalia to you, too!
My husband and I will be celebrating winter solstice soon. Maybe with globi of a sort (I'm thinking of adding eggs/baking powder for fluffyness, as well as maybe a dash of cinnamon)
Fried cheese balls covered in honey? I'm glad human tastes haven't changed in thousands of years.
We still make them today in Italy for winter holidays, in many versions! 😄
they knew stuff, the romans
If this channel has taught me anything, it's that we humans are amazingly predictable.
@@vsGoliath96 and very,very similar, throughout time and space.
@@paavobergmann4920 They remind me of gulab jamun from Indian cuisine.
Pliny the Younger on Saturnalia: "Go away and let me read in peace!"
Everyone else, drunk: "NNNEEEEEERRRRRDDDDD!"
🤣🤣🤣
Pliny the Younger August 24th 79 AD: So Uncle is Dead and most of my Neighbors in Pompeii are gone. Here's the details....HOLY FUCK!!
But you have to Admit he's got a point... probably should take his advice this year.
Lmaooooo
I heard this when I read that
ua-cam.com/video/y9yfnAI4UJo/v-deo.html
@@saber2802 I was thinking Homer Simpson, actually, but... pretty much, yeah
I appreciate that Pliny the Younger took note of him isolating himself wasn't just for his sake but for the rest of the household too. Like he wasn't interested in the festival and he was happy to sequester himself rather than be a wet blanket and spoil it for everyone.
Also, I just made these, and they ended up tasting not like much of anything at all. Though I do like the texture, so I'm going to experiment with adding a little bit of flavoring or spices of some kind to the dough before frying them.
@@a1fastyellowgto that does sound interesting
I wish my relatives were as tolerant of my introversion as Pliny the Younger's were haha
Ive made these with a fig puree mixed into the ricotta/flour. It was very good.
The recipe is similar to Indian gulab jamun, where the fried balls are soaked in sugar syrup flavored with cardamom and rose water. Very tasty.
Latin teacher here! Looked at the text..."in the same way" could also be translated "in the same weight/amount/proportion" :)
I wondered if this might be the case! I'm still working through Duolingo's course, but Latin does seem to have its fair share of words that mean a whole genre of related concepts that are separated in English. Maybe a better English translation would be "in the same measure"?
Yep, got that - not a latin speaker but the jd earned long ago suggested that, in legal latin, this might be a situation warranting an inferentem
This comment needs to be so much higher.
I mean I like memes but this is actually good info.
Oh! So like "in the same WEIGH"
Means in equal parts.
I dont teach Latin, I just learned in catholic school. Might as well get something out of that one, huh
"What'd you get for Saturnalia, Charlie Brown?"
"I got a rock."
🤣
Flashback to Latin class! No Miss Brye, I'm not digressing! Happy
today because its Tasting History day! Thanks for the video!😘😻
Exactly my thoughts lmao
'Sposed to get your rocks off.
“What did you get for Saturnalia Governor Charlinius Bruntus?”
“I got Iraq.”
That poem was hilarious. He’s all, “What happened to bros before h**s?!”
"Mix the cheese and spelt in the same way"
Gotta love old recipes. I once found an old bread recipe that basically said "mix water and flour until it forms a dough, put in the oven until it's cooked". Real helpful there...
I remember seeing someone following a Victorian or Colonial recipe on UA-cam that said "Prepare the lamb's head in the 'usual way'".
I am guilty of writing out recipes for myself that look like this. Sometimes it's just the list of ingredients with no instructions because I already know them.
found a very old meatloaf recipe that called for "one loaf of bread" and "enough ground beef" enough for WHAT??? how much beef mysterious ancestor???
@@terryt9833 I think the old way is just to eyeball the amount of everything to be "enough" for a meal coz they didnt use weight measurment as much as we do today. Even now when I read recept wroten in english (not my forst language) and see something like 3 oz. and measuring in cups - Im like - wtf is this shit? How do I know my cups are the same size as theirs?! I assume that the past had simular problems.
@@alexforce9 I think when the whole “cup” measurement thing came along, everyone only had a couple of cups? A standard cup measurement is 8 ounces now, though.
The fact that gag gifts were a thing in Ancient Rome makes me so happy
Reminds me of people leaving in their wills that somebody should receive a nail and some rope (so that they should hang themselves) real posthumous burn lol
I'd like to know about the double entendre gifts 😹
@@uberLejoe You mean roasted by Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus?
Hell, in Pompeii there are carvings of dicks EVERYWHERE and an engraving that says "Marus was here". Some things are just baked into being human lol.
@@rosemali3022 Emperor Nero's financial advisor carved "This food is poison" on the wall of a restaurant in Pompeii
I grew up in an Italian neighborhood and everyone made these every Christmas. Instead of poppyseeds they used confectionary sprinkles to make them more festive. It was also easier to come by .
yes they are called strufoli
Yeah, these are SORT OF like Struffoli, except the Struffoli that I know are the size of pearls or marbles.
"Does poppy seeds really ever have any flavor?"
*Heavy breathing of every poppy seed based hungarian dessert intensifies.
LOL! Vártam, hogy emlegesse vki a mákos bejglit.
It wasn't pleasant to hear for me as an austrian either :P.
I'd be careful with snorting poppy based products, I hear they can be addictive.
Or hamantasch
Australia agreeing with you, I love poppy seed covered bread rolls. Poppy Seeds are super yummy!
If Globi is proto cheesecake, then pileus is proto party hat
You're absolutely on to something 🤔
This is probably quite literally correct lol
Isn't globi just Latin for balls? 😅
And Saturn is Proto “grim reaper”
He carries a sickle
He gets dead people
He’s super old
He’s kind of horrible but associated with a good time
This channel is soo much fun
This is probably literally true
"And that was the only time the streets of Rome were lit"
*laughs in July 19, 64 A.D*
"Cato the Elder"
So, my mind instantly went to "A dessert so delicious that Carthage Must Be Destroyed".
I was a little surprised that the video didn't end that way, TBH...
“CARTAGO DELENDA EST!”
Cartago Delenda Est
Lol, glad I wasn't the only one whose mind jumped to that! Three semesters of Latin (medieval focus) almost killed me.
Perfection!
I remember as a young boy watching that holiday special " How Pliny The Younger Stole Saturnalia"
a christmas carol, starring pliny the younger
It took me too long a time to figure out that there wasn’t a really interesting holiday special I had missed. 😂
That footage of little Max is pure gold. Classic reaction to opening a present. 😹
"Toys in the 80's were just better" he says, with a plush Charmander in a reindeer costume behind him.
🤣 touché
I’m astonished Max was alive in the 80’s 😂 I wasn’t even alive in the 80’s and I thought he was younger than me.
@@katelillo1932 he just stopped aging with 25
I think thst's a Stantler hoodie
He's not wrong. We could put our eyes out with the toys we got back then. The toys now just ruin your eyesight.
Pliny the Elder: "I prefer to be in my library during Saturnalia."
Young me hiding at my relatives' house in their reading rooms during Christmas: "same"
I used to sneak out and hide in the nice, peaceful car with my comic books while my enormous batch of relatives were having fun at the tops of their lungs. It was GREAT.
It was Pliny the Younger in the library--
Your relatives have reading rooms? Like rooms dedicated solely to reading?
@@laura121684 Maybe it was a library? 🤷🏼♀️
@@shawna620 Maybe. That sounds more likely.
3:17 the thing that I find most interesting about this recipe is that their coded in poppy seeds now for those who don’t know the poppy seeds that you buy in the store or washed, so they don’t have any, morphine con tent back in the day they would not have washed up so if you eat enough of these, just by themselves, you could get reasonably are inebriated
Who else can see an ancient food cart serving these on a stick?
Ooh.
Not a bad idea for serving them at a party even. (Beware of dripping honey?)
that would look like dango!
@@beruman Huh, not familiar with dango. Looked them up. Yes! Thanks. Love learning new things. (Lots to learn here, at Tasting History!😊)
@@beruman that’s the exact image I had in my head!
No globi, only Khlav Kalash
Using tongs, when Cato EXPLICITLY called for sticks... How can you sleep at night when such inaccuracy is in your videos, Max?
Just kidding, these look very tasty. Going to give them a try, with the lockdown coming in Germany. Cheers, Max
🤣 good luck getting these out with sticks.
@@TastingHistory I'm sure I could get them out with chopsticks. I don't know if that's what Cato meant with sticks, though, but chopsticks can be handy in the kitchen anyway (I use them to pick things from deep and narrow jars, like the ones olives sometimes come in).
@@TastingHistory I guess that's why he says to fry them 2 at a time. More of them, and while you (struggle to) fish out the first two, the others get burned :)
@@daanwilmer That's true, east-asian chefs do everything with sticks. Takes some practice, tho.
Augustus only bought him a pair of tongs this year.
In Poland we make "pampuchy" :) They're too made of cheese mixed with flour - and some yeasts to get them deliciously puffy. Then, after deep frying them, we sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Delicious. Only problem with pampuchy is their tendency to disappear too freaking fast.
Oh! I know these! Or well, I know their culinary descendants. In Germany, they are called Quarkbällchen and are made with flour, quark cheese, baking powder, sugar, eggs and a bit of salt. then they are fried, covered in powdered sugar, and served hot. They are super commonly sold on winter/christmas markets and SO good.
I've tried Quarkbällchen this year, after visiting Neuschwanstein. They were fabulous.
We have a similar snack in The Netherlands too: oliebollen (oil balls). You make them with milk and flour and optional raisins. We eat them at New Year's Eve and during the month December you can find oliebollen stalls all over the country :D
I teach latin for young kids and today was our last class, we celebrated the holiday making roman cookies and watched your video. Thank u ;)
Did you sacrifice an animal to the Gods?
@@mercenarygundam1487 the kid who failed got sacrificed
Arw what a cool teacher! I remember having to watch Richard Hammond talk about electric pilons when I was in highschool 👁👄👁
I remember having orgies in the streets during Saturnalia. Good times, good times
@@RD-tu1td dude read the room
"do poppy seeds ever have any flavor anyway?"
...you seem to have never tried ground poppy seeds mixed with either powdered sugar or a bit of plum jam...
in Slovakia, we use the second one as filling for our... strudels? Štrúdla.... yes, dictionary says strudel.
* actually not sure if they're ground... weird.
but they're amazing in the strudel filling
Hot jam bois we got a hard working scholar here.
I stan mak
Mackevoik a polish bread also has rolled poppy seed paste :)
Hamentaschen/oznei haman often come with a similar sugared-poppyseed filling!
Saturnalia is like the ancient Roman version of an office pizza party instead of fixing the ACTUAL problem 😂😂
Hey, sometimes the problem is “not enough pizza”.
@@Ajehy Tis very true
@@Ajehy ame- wait, wrong century.
The actual ‘problem’ being what?
@@debbylou5729 slavery
"globi" does sound much more elegant than "Cato's balls", though the meaning is the same.
You can say spheres
What did you do during Saturnalia? Ate balls all week.
@Venn 413 - Sweddy Balls?
@@marmotarchivist Lindsey Graham & Mike Pence would have liked that, and the latter has the time for it now. I wish the former did also.
Cato's sweet 'n sticky orbs
They're more dense than you'd expect
"Turning them with two sticks" makes me think they were shallow fried.
I too think that might be the case, if a poor housewife were making these, since more oil would be expensive.
It's also possible to flatten them some, to further use less oil.
I immediately thought of chopsticks. So maybe making these in a wok would be effective too.
That Saturnalia poem is gloriously petty.
"Oh wow. Socks. Yet you got Aurelia a sable scarf and three salve girls. What happened to 'Fratres before Lupanar'?"
"I don't know what the poppy seeds do."
Make you fail a drug test?
🤣
Subtle nutty flavour. Yumm.
Poppy seeds do have opiates in them, at least if you get unwashed poppy seeds. It's in the outer coating. My friends and I used to make "poppy seed tea" with them in high school. We would get an empty 2-liter bottle, fill them up about quarter way with water, and pour in a bunch of the seeds. Then you close it and shake it like crazy, until the water looks all brown and dirty. Then put it in empty 16.oz soda bottle and drink it. There is morphine (Or some opiate, not exactly sure which one) in the coating and you get really high. So much so that my old friend actually overdosed on it once and had to be narcanned by emt's. Long time ago though, I stopped using stuff like this. And I don't recommend this to anyone, don't even try it. Drugs are bad mm'kay.
Why in the hell is there druggy tea in the world
@@TastingHistory I'd try this recipe by then completely coat them in poppy seeds after dipping them in honey. Seems like it would be pretty interesting compared to just sprinkling a tiny bit on top.
I made this today and it was one of the best deserts I’ve ever prepared; it really was super easy too. This is my fifth recipe I’ve tried from this channel and none of them disappoint (past what Max is honest about, such as mussels needing a little butter).
In a relatively short period of time, this channel has become absolute S tier. Thank you so much for making this for so many people to enjoy.
Yay! Love that you enjoyed them!
You're having proto cheese cake and wine. I'm having fried tacos and cheerwine
Ah yes! A true gourmet if I ever saw one.
Ain’t nothing wrong with that!
Cheerwine! Truly a step up from the real stuff.
Cheerwine?
@@kaelang12 It’s a North Carolina thing. :-) Wild cherry soda.
Man those Romans sure were good at rhyming in English
Amazing foresight on their part. Truly a deeper and more thoughtful age of art 😤
Not as good as the ancient Egyptian curse writers, always making curses that rhyme perfectly in a language from 4K years later.
You can thank Christopher Marlowe, Alexander Pope, etcfor that
Best comment
Lol. Actually Classical Latin poetry doesn’t rhyme at all, so the translations are particularly anachronistic. Ah Victorian England…
I just made these for christmas eve and had a great happy little accident: I bought pre-made sourdough bread-mix instead of just flour. The added bit of levening made the insides fluffy rather then dense, which worked out very well. Happy holidays everyone!
I always get so caught up in the history lesson that, when you go back to the cooking part, it surprises me! “Oh yeah, there’s food involved, too! Excellent!!”
Oh my god your Charmander reindeer is adorable.
Ain’t he though?
Charmandeer!
agreed
I'm beginning to think that Tasting History is Max's way to writeoff his wine consumption.
😆 well...
You’re too young to know about ‘The Galloping Gourmet’
@@debbylou5729 Every now and then I think of Graham Kerr while watching Max's videos. Max is roughly my son's age, and yep . . . he has no idea who 'The Galloping Gourmet' is, either! 😊
LMAOOO it didn't immediately click that Max was the brat in question so for a hot second I thought you were just calling out some excited kid 😂
Same!
When Rome creates what’s essentially a State fair food before there where even states to have fairs
🤣 right?
All it needs is to be put on a stick and it's fair Fair fare.
Well strictly speaking Rome was a State, and an imperial one at that. Though Putting Rome & state together makes me think of Frankie Howerd as the sarcastic slave "Lurcio" in "Up Pompeii!". He would have said "...rome was a state all right, a right state, look at the place!" 😆
@Half Knight Hope you enjoy it, don't knoow if the film is still available, but I know series 1&2 of the TV show is available here: ua-cam.com/video/_vtPTgPYn2k/v-deo.html
Great series, Frankie Howerd is very funny.
@@GiselleMF deep-fried cheese-dough on a stick? Pretty sure that's a staple at most county fairs. Frequently dipped in chocolate.
Friends, freshly grind your poppy seeds before adding them to desserts! All the essential oils come out and they smell and taste delicious.
They arent essential oils yet because they haven't been refined
whatever oils they are, this is the unspoken key step whenever adding poppy, cumin, or fennel seeds to any dish
“And this is what Martial says ...”
Me, a first semester student of Latin: this is going to be petty
Martial: *is petty*
Me: yep.
Why do his poems rhyme in English?
@@ozymandias3456 Translating poetry is generally done in such a manner to preserve the poetic value of the text, not a strictly literal translation.
Me, @ the poems of Martial (both here, and like, in general): "Man, Martial was a salty bitch"
@@dansanders9121 Not as salty as Cato (wanted Carthage to be)
I hope there is an afterlife just because I want Martial to know that everyone knows that he’s petty
Poppy seeds do have a flavor ground, cooked, & used in pastry filling (taste like prunes) or in poppyseed cake (faint almond taste).
Thank you for all the delightful videos! Your ones with José, Jamie, & Cersi are wonderful, too.
Also in mun hamantaschen.
"When you have a problem, the answer is probably in a book." -- Max Miller
There's another tagline for your merch. :D
Just be very judicious of WHICH book... No, definetly NOT that book. No, not that one either...
Like mein kompf!
@@magnusbergqvist2123 definitely not Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. 🎃🎃🎃
Librarians everywhere agree
Pliny the Younger: History’s first confirmed Grinch.
Pretty sure it was actually Cato the Elder.
The sourpuss to end all sourpusses.
Aww, he doesn't want other people to stop the celebrations. Let him have his alone time.
Eh. Definitly Cato. Plinny at least didn't try to ruin other people's fun.
Saturnalia isn’t Christmas though
@@johsiantorres8495 no, it just predates Christmas, and in roughly the same calendar slot. So it'll have to do, for Grinching.
This is hands down my favorite channel I discovered this year. Every video leaves me with a smile on my face and a little more educated. Cheers!
Thank you! Love to hear it
They look like large ceci(little fried dough balls, Italian Christmas treat).
A descendant perhaps!
We call them Struffoli but I think its the same thing.
Yes, they are kind of like Struffoli! I was thinking about Zeppoles, which are also Italian! They're like fried doughnuts.
@@sophiedellapenna8223 Che c'entrano i fiori di zucca in pastella con le ciambelle?!
you beat me to it @Anna Ferrara, My Nana and Nona refer to them as Sfinci
Hi Max! Thank you for this awesome video. Fun fact, I am from Moldova ( former Roman province of Dacia) the Globi (Romanian _Gogosi)is still very popular here. The honey-coated option is cooked mainly around Christmas! Coincidence? I think not!
I'd imagine there's some correlation between the "slaves get to say what they want" and "human sacrifice" parts of the chronicle.
😂
Or becoming the medusa or cyclops in a play where you get stabbed by the hero to death for realism
The thing is, the Romans didn’t regularly make human sacrifices. They abhorred the practice.
@@Pille1842 Exactly what I was about to comment. We have multiple period accounts from both ancient Rome and ancient Greece that denounced the practice of human sacrifice as unholsios and an ufront to the gods. Not to mention all the stories of the gods that get pissed over being offered human sacrifice.
And no ancient Roman or Greek would risk the wrath of the gods
Agos is a bitch
"Livy tells us.."
Me: *Whips head up from ipad* What? What did I do? Oh, that Livy...
Every. Roman. History Class.
Could've been worst. At least no one ever used a Xena reference.
@@raven3moon Thankfully no one in my age group watched Xena.
"Hardly father of the year." Not unless you remember old Cronus/Chronos/Saturn is Father Time. And Time eats his children.
Fried cheesy dough balls?
That’s just a great way to eat dinner.
Fried? Check. Cheesy? Check. Dough? Check.
@@TastingHistory and balls, let's not forget balls. Check!
“Cheese and spelt the same way”:
Latin ‘idem’ means literally ‘the same’ OR ‘this exact way’. So an alternative translation could be ‘make cheese and spelt both in the following way’ or even ‘make/mix both so they become the same in this fashion’.
I think it would be better to take "modum" as "measure" rather than "way".
I was wondering if it might mean take the same quantity of both.
@@bang7764 I thought the same. But same quantity in volume or weight? The mysteries of deciphering Latin recipes.
@@mebrowneyedgirl Max used one cup by volume and it seemed to work.
It's *usually* volume in archaic recipes. It's much easier and faster to eyeball equal sized piles of things than it is to measure by weight.
I just want to say I made this and it was very tasty! I also made a gluten free version for one of my gluten intolerant pals, if anyone reads this and is gluten free, I made the replacement for spelt flour as half a cup almond meal, half a cup tapioca flour, lightly Mixing them in a bowl before adding the ricotta then Continued on with the recipe as in the video. It fried well and tasted delicious! Good luck and enjoy!
Old comment but just wanted to say thanks, my celiac ass was looking for this
Togas, human sacrifice, and fried cheesecake? Sounds like a party
Right? Sign me up.
@@TastingHistory I think you’re probably not looking hard enough if you can’t find a solid human sacrifice. Just ask a friend! See if they really meant it when they said they’d “Die for you” 🙃😂
@@TastingHistory If you want, it seems there is an opening for a human sacrifice position at 7:00 am. The last guy didn't make it something to do with a lion and an accident, will that work?
I’m a simple man, if I see Roman content i give it a like.
And I appreciate that
I like roman recipes too. BTW, are there any ancient Vietnamese or Malayan recipes known?
@@PaulaBean Indonesia has sinigang lol
@@Artix902 Are you sure it is ancient? "Sinigang is a Filipino soup or stew characterized by its sour and savoury taste. It is most often associated with tamarind, although it can use other sour fruits and leaves as the souring agent. It is one of the more popular dishes in Filipino cuisine."
@@TastingHistory Roman is nice, but I'm still waiting for ancient Babylonian content. They had some interesting recipes that were recorded on clay tablets. But I respect if that is out of your field of interest, Max. Love your channel.
Pliny the Younger: the ultimate introvert
"Where are you gonna find a human sacrifice at this late date?"
I uh, know a guy.
Your guy definitely needs some help mate
I have a nomination. The fire might sputter like a deep fryer. He’s looking for a new gig.
The Romans were generally extremely opposed to human sacrifice.
@@blakemorris2328 *laughs in gladiatorial games*
@@davidc4983 I never said the Romans were opposed to killing people; They did, in brutal ways. The Romans, however, did not generally sacrifice humans to the gods. I.e. a priest executing someone in a temple.
See, the secret for slaves to openly criticize their masters without making things awkward afterwards probably meant getting them real wasted beforehand, they wont remember a thing
I can't tell you how much I love your channel. You bring history alive and allow us to tast history. I can indulge in some of history's greatest dishes because of your efforts. Thank you so much.
Fun fact about the word "pileus": nowadays it is mostly (to my knowledge) used by mycologists! It's the scientific term for a mushroom's cap.
Really?! That’s cool.
We still use a form of this word in Greece (pilekio, which basically means "small pileus" the ending io is used in Greek to make words sound small and cute). It is a specific type of hat worn by soldiers and I think policemen also use this word too for their own hats.
The last time I was this early, Louie XVI still had his head on
Too soon 🤣
@@TastingHistory it’s been around 200 years lmao
@@jazzjj7665 It doesn't make it any less soon
Now please, let me continue to mourn the death of Gilgamesh, I still can't believe it
Come on people, let's not lose our heads over this......yeah, I know it was a bad dad joke. I'll see myself out.
@@sephikong8323 Dude, spoilers!
"Where are you going to get a human sacrifice?!"
disapproving Roman noises*
That reaction to a Ghostbusters toy singlehandedly makes thousands of years of Christmas worth it.
I don't much comment on youtube videos, but I wanna help this channel get the attention it deserves. I love these history lessons! Thanks Max!
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Every comment counts, even this one!
Love this channel (and seeing which Pokemon Jose puts out).
Rome didn't really practice human sacrifice to that degree, though. The early mentions of sacrifice during Saturnalia written by Macrobius also said it was Hercules that put a stop to it and he wrote it in the 4th century CE.
The idea of gladiator games being low key sacrifices is a bit more muddled but was a common accusation of early Christian writers as a way of disparaging the Romans (even though Ausonious was a later convert so...)
The reference to 'victims' in Livy specifically, though is merely the translation of 'hostia', which means 'victim', but in this case is referring to animal sacrifice.
'Hostia' and 'Victima' were sometimes used interchangeably and as a result, the English word based on the latter 'victim' is often used in translations, but it almost always referred to animals. You can see this in his other uses of the word when describing the types of cattle offered to Juno and Jupiter. (Hostia is actually the root of Catholics referring to Eucharistic sacrament, and it bears that same linguistic connotation of sacrifice.)
Interestingly, though, in that same book, Livy actually does mention one of the rare times Romans actually sacrificed someone. After their defeat at the Battle of Cannae, when it seemed certain the city would soon fall to Hannibal, the Romans buried four people alive. It was a desperate moment, but generally, the Romans considered human sacrifice abhorrent to their spirit, as Livy mentions regarding the same event.
This is somewhat familiar to papanasi, Romanian "cheese doughnut." It uses sweet and soft cow cheese, either flour or grits, and either boiled or fried. I have some in my fridge.
Bruh, this is literally Gulab Jamun... Apparently this dish has been around since Rome, lolol
Yess!!!
Totally what I was thinking!
Excellent, another reason to eat gulab jamun!
And longer. There are ancient Greek recipes in the same vein, and modern Greek pastries like loukoumades are similar, from earlier fried dough/cheesecake balls but more popular nowadays than those older recipes.
They're a lot like German Quarckballchen too
I grew up eating poppyseed bread along with apricot and nut breads my mother and aunts made for Christmas and Easter. They're probably versions of strudel. My family's first generation Irish but exposure to alot of eastern European baking is the reason. I love the flavor of poppyseed in that convection. I don't bake but I buy them every Christmas. They are very expensive.....(11 dollars). Love your channel.😊❤❤
"Kid's toys were just better in the '80s than they are now. That's a fact."
P R E A C H.
The presentation on that plate is divine. They are so inviting.
I made these using your recipe. My first attempts fell apart in the oil. Second batch I cranked the stove up to high and they turned out great.
Glad the second round went well.
As a person who celebrates Yule and Winter Solstice
This episode makes me happy
Me too !
I’d avoid those things, there is only one God, Jesus, and he hates witch craft and false gods
I also follow the old ways, the new modern religions of theft, deserve not this wonderful time!
@@lepain0278 Don't bother reasoning with pseudopagans. Cringey bunch that they are.
I celebrate Christmas but that’s also intresting
Martial at Saturnalia: Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away.
That would have been Catullus.
@@esmeraldagreen1992 crap. I thought it was Martial. That's my bad memory for you! Thanks for correcting me!
Don’t mix Christmas with saturnalia
@@johsiantorres8495 no need to be sanctimonious. It was a joke.
Lol "what a square" 😂 hilarious. Also, Poppy seeds absolutely do have a flavour. 😋
The thing I love most about your channel is that it reminds me of the show ‘Good Eats’ but yours is history instead of science (obviously)! Thank you for bringing learning into food and for being so amazing at it!!! Love from Minnesota!
Thank you! That’s an unbelievable compliment.
@@TastingHistory YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT
"In the same way" ... sounds like "in equal proportions."
I also received a Ghostbuster proton pack as a child, and I can identify 100% with your excitement.
"Last year you gave me plates but now you give them to your lady friend..."
Last Christmas anyone??
It kinda fits the tune too lol
Last Christmas
I gave you my globi
@@LuckySketches but the very best day you threw them away
Normally this is my treat to look forward to after class, but it's nice to be able to watch it immediately now that the semester is over!
10:57 My reaction to getting a Ghost Busters Proton Pack at this very moment. Great Video Max, watching all the older posts and having a great time doing it. Thank you
I love you and this channel so much. I am so grateful that you came up with a channel that mixes two of my favorite passions cooking and history in one.
The dish looks very presentable too.
Thank you so much! Yes, this one photographed better than most.
As someone who’s in school to teach history/archeology, I love shit like this. It really connects you to the past
I've watched majority of your content and I love that the quality is consistent across all the years you've been doing this. Youve improved with time of course, but I like coming to your 3 year old videos and feeling im watching a current video, for the most part.
Your channel genuinely makes me so happy. One of the few good things from this year for sure
Thank you so much 😊
Deep-fried cheese that is then coated in honey tastes good? Imagine that lol
Nobody I know thinks it sounds good, except for me
if you've never tried gulab jamun you definitely should - super sweet though so keep that in mind
I am so impressed by the things we still do in Greece around Christmas and New year holidays that stem from back then. Round/oval shaped dessert covered in honey? Check. (they are called melomakarona). Gambling on Christmas/new years? Check. (it is actually tradition to play gambling games and poker till dawn on new year's eve). And several others. Christians just took old traditions and turned them into "Christian customs". I guess the logic was hey, we are not changing you customs, you'll still get to do the same things, we'll just call it christmas rather than saturnalia.
Yes that describes pretty much every Christian holiday in all of the world. Varies by region, too.
I’m such a 90’s kid when Max said “When there’s a problem” my immediate response was “Yo, I’ll solve it. Check out my hook while the DJ revolves it.” The actual answer read a book.
Maybe I can get Thursday off work for Saturnalia.
edit: I feel like "in the same way" possibly means in equal amounts.
It’s essentially equal amounts by weight. The question is always equal by weight or volume? Spoiler, volume didn’t work 🤣
@@TastingHistory Well, these look like a fun thing to fix for my family for next week, so maybe I can add a new dessert to the holiday menu!
Truly the holiday season.... Thanksgiving, Haunukkah, Saturnalia, Festivus, and some others in there... ;-)
@@TastingHistory Well... It's almost always weight, simply because weight was a bit easier to work with and beam scales were used for a lot of things anyways, so it made sense to use them.
I mean, most countries to this day (specifically the ones using the metric system) have recipes mostly based on weight (with liquids being a possible exception) to this day, the US being the one really noticeable outlier.
@@darthplagueis13 The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book the first of it's kind to use the measuring cup for consistency, was very popular in the USA, and when improvements like a kitchen scale were added to modern cooking, it was too late to change our cups and teaspoons we all already had.
Ancient globi seem to have a great deal in common with modern-day sfinge (also called "zeppole" or "blenzi," depending on where you are). The sfinge I'm familiar with is a round doughnut with ricotta in the dough, rolled in either regular or powdered sugar while it's still hot.
And Ash called on his sliegh crew "On Charmander, on Charmeleon, on Charizard!"
True story: my son gave me kitchen tongs for Christmas last year. Honestly, a great gift and a heck of lot better than another bath robe.
I suggest adding lemon or orange zest to the cheese before mixing along with a big pinch of salt. These aren’t a precursor to cheesecake but to Zeppolis. 💞 Merry Christmas
Speaking of Saturn, on Dec 21 the planets of Saturn and Jupiter will appear so close in the western sky just after sundown that they will appear as almost a single star.
Good timing 🤣
I read the last time this happened was in 1623.
@@MsJPA79 Yes even they wanna see wtf is going on here on earth in 2020.
In southern Italy it’s common, during the Christmas period to make “struffoli” little flour balls (with butter and eggs) fried, dipped in honey and with coloured sprinkles. This recipe remind it a lot for me! Go check the “struffoli” out, they are delicious!
I have this recipe in a Roman Cook book. I made it a while back and it rolls them fully in poppy seeds, which along with the honey coating, gives it a delicious crunch.
12:40 Yo screw the night before Christmas this is gonna be my dramatic poem reading this year
Man you made my Christmas shopping so easy this year. I always struggled to find gifts for my dad who is a fan or Roman history but the recipes you make from this time are so great that I got him that Roman cookbook you usually use for things like this. It wasn’t this one but I just thought I’d let you know that you totally saved my butt this Christmas lol
That’s great! I assume you mean the Apicius? Definitely worth having.
@@TastingHistory Perhaps there will be a modern book on historical recipes by a up and coming UA-cam star for a future Christmas season.... Perhaps....
@@TastingHistory yes that one! I can’t wait for him to see it Christmas Day ahaha. You rock!
Made these as an opening night treat for a production of Julius Caesar and they were a big hit! Delightful and they make me want to experiment with different ingredients.
the idea that you were editing this during a solar eclipse just tickles me, no idea why
🤣
Love the Seinfeld references! Really gets you in the Saturnalia/Festivus mood