The World That Was

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was This week is Halloween, a pre-Christian Irish festival, so decided to make a bread which is fragmentarily recorded on Old Irish ogham stones - a simple sweet fruit bread which can be baked on a pan! In any case, let's take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients 500g / 3 cups flour (wholemeal) 300g / 2 cups blackberries (or raspberries) 300g honey water to mix Method 1 - Mix the Flour and Berries Pour your flour and berries of choice into a bowl, and gently toss everything together. Flour would likely have been stone-ground by hand in Bronze-Age Ireland, so modern wholemeal flour acts as a good substitute today. You can also use plain flour here. I'm using blackberries in this recipe, because they're in season, but raspberries (or other soft fruits) would also work well. 2 - Add Honey and Water When your berries are well-distributed through your flour, pour in your honey. Gently fold all thi...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was!  Today, we're going to look at a recipe from the Etruscans - a pre-Roman civilisation found in Italy in the Bronze Age! This is a simple mushroom and barley soup, which is based on a similar dish from the early Roman republic, recorded by Cato the Elder in his De Agri Cultura  from around 160 BC! In any case, let's take a look at The World That Was. Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients 1 onion 1 carrot 1 parsnip 1 stick celery 2 garlic cloves 250g Portobello mushrooms (or mushrooms of your choice) 750ml / 3 cups water (or stock) 1 cup barley olive oil butter Method 1 - Cook Mushrooms Depending on what mushrooms you used, you may have to remove the gills of them, like you can see me doing in the video. Some mushrooms can be eaten with next to no preparation, so check which ones you're using. Then, toss some butter into a pot, and put it over medium-high heat until it melts. Toss your mushrooms into the pot and sprink...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was Today, we'll be taking a look at a recipe from the kingdom of Colchis! A sweet apple-based treat, that’s much like a cake or cookie! Colchis roughly covers the same area as modern-day western Georgia, but it's origins date back to the middle 13th century BC - around the same time as the Middle Assyrian Empire! In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients 2 cups plain flour 1 tsp salt 1 tsp cinnamon 3 apples (either cooking or eating apples) 1/4 cup cream 1 cup cream cheese 1 cup greek yoghurt 1/2 cup walnuts Method 1 - Prepare Applesauce To begin with, we need to make a basic applesauce! Start by peeling a few small apples, before chopping and coring them. Then, dice each of these chunks into small pieces. Toss the remaining apples into a small pot with some water - enough to just about cover them. Pour a few tablespoons of honey into the pot too. Then place this over ...

Hello and welcome to The World That Was!  Today, I’m making a recipe from the Caucasus! A date filled-pastry from the Bronze Age Urartu kingdom, a population from the area of modern-day Armenia! This recipe is very similar to the Mersu from Mesopotamian culinary tradition, and could have been a transmission of recipes through the various empires that arose in this region. In any case, let's take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients 2 cups plain flour 1/4 cup water 1 cup cream cheese 1/4 cup butter 2 cups dates 1/4 cup walnuts/hazelnuts Method 1 - Make the Dough Into a large bowl, add two cups of flour. Into this, pour your water and cream cheese. Beat this together into a dough. I'm using cream cheese here, but it's unlikely to have been used in ancient Urartu society, but any soft cheese would work. Cream cheese produces the best results! When your dough is smooth, and no longer really sticking to the sides of your bowl, turn ...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I'll be making another Hittite dish called "fried bread with apples". One of the universal staples of humanity is fried dough, and this is how I'll be interpreting the dish here - as lumps of fried batter with chunks of apple! Since we don't know how fried bread with apple actually was, this is taking a lot of notes from later Greek “tageientes”, and modern apple fritters. In any case, let's take a look at the world that was! Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients 3 small apples 1 1/2 cups flour 1 tsp salt 1/2 cup apple cider (or apple juice) honey butter (for frying) oil (for frying) Method: 1 - Chop the Apples To begin with, peel your apples and cut out their cores. When this is done, chop your apples into chunks, and transfer them into a small bowl. Apples in antiquity were probably not as sweet as apples today, but any apple would work for this. I'm using some sweet eating apples - instead ...