The World That Was

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! This week, is the Elaphebolia - a Greek festival celebrated by Athens in the Iron age! So, I'm going to be making some Elaphoi cakes dedicated to Artemis Elaphebolos (Artemis the Deer-Slayer). They're recorded by Athenaeus as being honey-cakes shaped like stags - so that's what I' made here! Now let's take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Ingredients (makes about 6 Elaphoi) 2 cups flour 1/2 cup honey 1/2 cup butter (melted) 1 egg sesame seeds (for decoration) Method 1 - Prepare Dough First, we need to make our dough. Do this by pouring in a half a cup of honey, and a half a cup of melted butter into the bowl and mix it well. When the mixture has cooled, crack an egg into this and combine it well. Pour in two cup's worth of flour into the butter and honey mix, a bit at a time, mixing it through as you go. I used wholemeal flour, which has a similar bran level to archaic flour - but s...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! This week was St Patrick's Day, an Irish holiday - and so I decided to make some medieval Irish beef stew to celebrate. Ireland, being a huge producer of beef and dairy products, relied on these foodstuffs in antiquity to modernity. This recipe is an adaptation from a reconstruction made by Maeve L'Estrange - a culinary archaeologist from UCD! In any case, let's now take a look at the world that was! Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients 500g lean beef 1 onion parsley cloves salt pepper 2 tbsp butter wine vinegar (or just regular vinegar) 50g breadcrumbs thick slice of bread Method 1 - Chop Ingredients To begin with, we need to prepare our onions. Halve and mince a whole onion. Toss a few pads of butter into a large pot. Place this over a medium-high heat until it melts. Toss your chopped onions into this, and let them cook away for a few minutes. Also roughly chop some parsley by rolling it into a ball, and mincing i...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was This week, I'm making some archaic Greek tiganites - which were basically very rudimentary pancakes, fried in olive oil. They're still made today, but with ingredients that your average Athenian wouldn't have had access to. In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients (makes 4 large tiganites) 1 cup flour 1 cup water salt honey olive oil Method 1 - Prepare the Batter To begin with, we need to make the batter. It's recorded as being a very thin, liquid batter, so make this by pouring a cup of wholemeal wheat flour into a bowl, followed by a pinch of salt. Whisk this together, if you want. It doesn't really do much here. Then, pour in a cup of water on top of this, followed by a generous pour of olive oil. Ancient Greek cooks would have likely used seawater, instead of dry salt and fresh water. If you want to make these very sweet, you can add a generous sque...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! This week, I'm taking a look at another medieval Syrian recipe from the Kitab al-Wuslah - this time, a simple spiced lamb kofta (meatball) in a herbal garlic sauce. Lamb was a staple meat for the Near and Middle East in the Medieval period - but beef and chicken could also be used here! In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients (makes 12 koftas) 500g lamb (minced) parsley or coriander leaves (minced) ground coriander ground cumin ground cloves salt pepper head of garlic olive oil water Method 1 - Prepare the Ingredients To begin with, go chop a whole head of coriander - or parsley, if coriander. Do this by rolling it into a tight ball, and chopping it. Put this in a bowl for later. Place your lamb meat into a bowl. On top of this, put 1/3 of your chopped herbs on top of the lamb, keeping the rest in your bowl for later. Then pour in your ground coriander, for a bit of ...