The Delicious Legacy

"If you deconstruct Greece, you will in the end see an olive tree, a grape vine and a boat remain. That is with as much you reconstruct her." -Odyseas Elytis Greece's Nobel Prize winning poet.Olive Oil tasting:Since extra virgin olive oil is simply pressed fruit juice without additives, the factors influencing its quality and taste include the varieties of olives used, the terroir and the countless decisions, production practices and the dedication of the producer. Olive oil tasters describe the positive attributes using the following terms: • Fruity: Having pleasant spicy fruit flavours characteristic of fresh ripe or green olives. Ripe fruit yields oils that are milder, aromatic, buttery, and floral. Green fruit yields oils that are grassy, herbaceous, bitter, and pungent. Fruitiness also varies by the variety of olive.               • Bitter: Creating a mostly pleasant acrid flavour sensation on the tongue.               • Pungent: Creating a peppery sensation in the mouth and throat.  The traditional palate cleanser between olive oils, is water, plain or sparkling, and slices of Granny Smith apple.You may notice the smell of fresh-cut grass, cinnamon, tropical fruits or other aromas of ripe or green olive fruit. This is a good time to point out that the word “fruity” in olive oil can refer to vegetable notes, i.e. green olive fruit, as well as to ripe fruit notes. So think of artichokes, grass and herbs as “fruit” when you taste olive oils!Music by Pavlos KapralosVoiceover recorded at Richard Bignell's studio, Area18 in North Acton.Enjoy!Thom & The Delicious LegacySupport the podcast on Ko-Fi and Patreon for ad-free episodes! https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcasthttps://www.patreon.com/c/thedeliciouslegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"In that acropolis is a shrine of Erechtheus, called the “Earthborn,” and in the shrine are an olive tree and a pool of salt water. The story among the Athenians is that they were set there by Poseidon and Athena as tokens when they contended for the land. It happened that the olive tree was burnt by the barbarians with the rest of the sacred precinct, but on the day after its burning, when the Athenians ordered by the king to sacrifice went up to the sacred precinct, they saw a shoot of about a cubit's length sprung from the stump, and they reported this."What is the common thread running through the following; - The sack of Athens from the Persians at 480BCE- Rome's 8th "hill"-The end of the biblical flood- the remains of an 1600BCE workshop in Cyprus???Well, it's the olive tree, the olive, and the olive oil!The Liquid Gold of the ancient world, that run empires, civilizations and the commercial activity of the ancient Mediterranean for the bigger part of 4000 years! Listen and find out more about the fascinating story and myths of this amazing food!Many thanks to my actors:Jonathan KyddTony HirstMark Knightand to Pavlos Kapralos and Miltos Boumis for their music contributions.You can hear Pavlos music endeavours here:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgAonk4-uVhXXjKSF-Nz1A Miltos is playing and composing music with a traditional Cretan folk band:https://cretanbrioche.com/ Links and info about ancient olive oil:https://ancient-world-project.nes.lsa.umich.edu/tltc/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FOOD_OLIVES_Tyree_Roman-Oil-Making.pdf Herodotus on the Greco-Persian wars:http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D8 Monte Testaccio:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Testaccio Support the podcast on Ko-Fi and Patreon for ad-free episodes! https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcasthttps://www.patreon.com/c/thedeliciouslegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Season Two of The Delicious Legacy Podcast!Garos, Garum, Fish Sauce.All interconnected, similar, possible same, but in a essence a single idea, a concept that has connected the far corners of the Mediterranean and of course today the massive sub-continent of South East Asia!The first episode of the new season is all a little bonus taster of what is going to follow in the next weeks...!Garum is an ingredient, a recipe, a history and a mystery, that I find myself coming back to investigate, experiment and re-use again and again.It really doesn't get boring at all!Here we are updating the episode 5 from season 1, over a year and a half ago, with more interesting information:A vegetarian Garum from ancient Rome (!!!)Galen's dietary advice with Garum.Details about Garum from GeponicaUpdates and details from modern Garums in Andalusia and in Amalfi...And much more of course!Many thanks to Pavlos Kapralos for writing the theme music!more of his work here:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgAonk4-uVhXXjKSF-Nz1AColatura Di Alici info (in Italian)https://www.costieraamalfitana.com/colatura-di-alici-di-cetara/ Modern Flor De Garum from Cadiz:https://fuegoysal.com/gb/vinegars-and-sauces/392-flor-de-garum-of-cadiz-andalusia.html Fish Salting Factories of Ancient Southern Spain:https://www.costatropical.net/almunecar/almunecar-monuments-fish-factory.php"A sauce with a lot of history in southern Spain"https://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/luislopezcortijo/19372/a-sauce-with-a-lot-of-history-in-southern-spain.aspxAnd of course I'm delighted to say that the listeners get a 15% discount from Maltby and Greek deli in London,when you shop online using the code "delicious" here: maltbyandgreek.com/deliciousI hope you enjoy the start of our season two!Happy Listening!Thom & The Delicious LegacySupport the podcast on Ko-Fi and Patreon for ad-free episodes! https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcasthttps://www.patreon.com/c/thedeliciouslegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I've been eternally fascinated with ancient medicine and all the different remedies and potions that medicinal writes were advising to cure all sorts of maladies! But one "cure" -literally- salted, cured, ham and bacon it was really above all others! Tarikhos -aka salted meat- and any other pork cut was considered light and and nutritious meat.I wanted to find out how it was used and why!The theory of maintaining or regaining one’s health through a lifestyle of moderation and balance was called “dietetics.” More than in our days, diet played a role in preventing and curing diseases, and in fact it was one of the main areas of study at medieval medical schools. Not surprisingly, foodstuffs and dishes were seen in much the same way as simple and compound drugs, and like them were classified in accordance with the theory of the four humors, by which was meant a theory of the four bodily fluids. To find out the history of this early scientific theory we must go back to the sixth century B.C., to such Greek philosophers as Anaximenes, Heraclitus, and Thales.It was Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician, and his followers who around 400 B.C. added to the four qualities of Zeno the four bodily fluids blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile, and formulated a prototype of what came to be known as “humoral theory.”One of the few remnants of humoral theory that has survived into the twenty-first century; when we describe a person’s temperament today as sanguine, choleric, melancholic, or phlegmatic, we are, in effect, referring to their dominant bodily fluid or humor: blood (sanguis), yellow bile (cholé), black bile (melaina cholé), and phlegm. The Greek physician who was the most prolific medical writer and who influenced medieval medicine more than any other was Galen of Pergamon of the second century A.D. In selecting and harmonizing elements of the humoral theory he found in Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, and others, he created a system that was capable of describing the world as a whole, and all inanimate and animate objects in it. By Byzantine times, the theory of humours was accepted without question by doctors and court alike and even amongst more common people. Foods had to be judged and balanced for their effects on the bodily humours, month by month, hour by hour, and according to individual constitution.Ancient medicals writers, physicians and philosophers mentioned on this podcast:Oribasius: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oribasius Aetius of Amida: https://peoplepill.com/people/aetius-of-amida Alexander of Tralles: https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-life-and-times-of-alexander-of-tralles/ Paul Of Aegina: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_of_Aegina Anthimus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthimus_(physician)Many thanks to Pavlos Kapralos for the music! You can find more of Pavlos's work on his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgAonk4-uVhXXjKSF-Nz1AThanks for listening!The Delicious LegacySupport the podcast on Ko-Fi and Patreon for ad-free episodes! https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcasthttps://www.patreon.com/c/thedeliciouslegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a seemingly abandoned desert spot, near a small and insignificant Egyptian village, for a period of one thousand years, a city flourished; an important Hellenistic-Egyptian city, perhaps the 3rd largest in Egypt at the turn of the world from the Greek to Roman influence. This city, was called Oxyrhynchus: which translates as the city of the sharp-nosed fish .This, is where our adventure today begins! Two thousand years ago Oxyrhynchus, was on canals leading directly to the river Nile, which as today, it was the lifeline of all of Egypt's inhabitants.On January 11, 1897, a low mound was being dug, when a piece of papyrus with unknown Logia, or ‘Sayings of Jesus’ was brought to the surface (it would later be determined that this was the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas ). Next was a leaf from the Gospel of Matthew , and then even more pieces of papyri. In three months, the men found enough papyri to fill 280 boxes.These papyri, tell us the story of the inhabitants, open a window to the everyday past, and to the private lives of the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine citizens of Egypt!Find out how, by listening to the episode!As ever, many thanks to Pavlos Kapralos for creating the music for this episode.Love,The Delicious LegacySupport the podcast on Ko-Fi and Patreon for ad-free episodes! https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcasthttps://www.patreon.com/c/thedeliciouslegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did you know that you could use cinnamon buds as spice in food? Well I didn't either before my interview with Dr Christopher Monk!Is Forme of Cury the oldest complete collection of recipes from England?This book was originally commissioned by Richard II and compiled by his master cooks, with the assent of his physicians and philosophers at court, and it was designed to have 194 recipes. The book dates from late 14th century originally, and is a fascinating document of the medieval period and the cooking habits not only of the King and his palace, but generally of the medieval period.As with everything so old, that has been saved by the ravages of time, we luckily have several versions of it, some dating from the reign of Richard II, some are later, some are incomplete, we have folios, rolls, manuscripts etc...! And then, on top, modern scholars tend to muddle things with compiling all these versions into one without much context for us mere mortals to understand what's happening!Anyway enjoy the lovely Dr Monk taking us to a journey through Medieval England, with his food adventures, including mince meats, and mince mint! (say that loudly quickly!)Find out more medieval recipes on Dr Monks YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClOt8UgoRHFIFcCD7ibGibwAs always many thanks for Pavlos Kapralos for his composition, "Marmaras" which I kindly use for my theme this time!More about this talented man: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgAonk4-uVhXXjKSF-Nz1AMaltby & Greek link, for your 15% off of your next purchase, please go here: maltbyandgreek.com/deliciousMany thanks and Happy listening!The Delicious LegacySupport the podcast on Ko-Fi and Patreon for ad-free episodes! https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcasthttps://www.patreon.com/c/thedeliciouslegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The pudding is a dish very difficult to be described, because of the several sorts there are of it: flour, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, suet, marrow, raising, etc are the most common ingredients...They make them fifty several ways: BLESSED BE HE THAT INVENTED PUDDING for it is a manna that hits the palates of all sorts of people... Ah what an excellent thing is an English pudding!' - Henry Misson "Misson's Memoirs and Observations in His Travels Over England"All puddings started their lives as meat puddings. Mostly sausage-like concoctions similar black pudding. Even when we started wrapping food stuffs in cloth, and boiling them, they were heavy on meat, and some fruit and spices and even some sugar. How, from this we went to the Yorkshire pudding? A good question!A kind of early boiled pudding called thryon is described by the ancient Greek grammarian and gastronome Pollux: lard, brains, eggs and cream cheese were beaten together, the mixture was wrapped in fig leaves (in the same way as puddings were tied in a cloth later) and boiled in chicken or kid broth, then untied and given a final cooking in boiling honey. (Julius Pollux was a Greek scholar and rhetorician from Naucratis*, Ancient Egypt. Emperor Commodus appointed him a professor-chair of rhetoric in Athens at the Academy — on account of his melodious voice, or at least that's what we know according to Philostratus' Lives of the Sophists. Pollux Died in 238 AD in Athens.) Praise of course for cooking over fire! Any cooking; meat, vegetables, stews soups for that matter! Amazing skills from people who (still) do it! Plus my recipe for Yorkshire puddings! Tasty fluffy morsels of deliciousness! Heh...! Hope you're going to make them!It's been a while as I was very busy ...I had it all written down, but never had the chance to go to the studio and record it. So I decided to record this in my bedroom and in a hurry so apologies for the drop in audio quality of my recorded voice!Thanks to Sebastien Froment for lending me his French voice and accent to record as the French 17th century traveller Henri Misson. (From "Misson's Memoirs and Observations in His Travels Over England")Charles Lamb essay is from this little gem of a book : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dissertation-Upon-Roast-Other-Essays-ebook/dp/B004V2WR22 (Finally a credible explanation on how humankind started cooking over fire! Only kidding, I love the Chinese myth though!)I've tried my best to read the Yorkshire saying “Them ‘at eats t’most pudding gets t’most meat” without trying to pretend I'm from Yorkshire!I appreciate it might sound wrong when i say "batter" it might sound like "butter" but for the purpose of this episode, mostly when I say "batter" I mean "batter" ie flour and liquid mix that needs cooking and not the dairy product! Ha!Another point I thought might bring confusion is "Medieval Tansie" so what's that? Tansy is an edible flower/herb/plant whom the name can be traced back to the Latin athanasia, or immortality, from the Greek athanatos, meaning deathless, perhaps because the herb has been used to preserve bodies.Tansy was used to flavour puddings, cakes, and eggs, and gave its name to a pancake flavoured with bitter herbs known as a “tansie,” which was traditionally eaten in spring and associated with Easter. (One sixteenth-century authority noted that tansy was beneficial in purging the body of the excessive phlegm engendered by a Lenten diet of fish.)Tansy was more often added to sweet than savoury dishes, although it is the flavouring agent in a traditional Irish blood pudding known as drisheen. Alan Davidson, in The Oxford Companion to Food, speculates that the amount of tansy used was relatively small, given its strong taste.Some hopefully illuminating photos can be found here:http://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/Flowers/T/Tansy/Tansy.htm As always music is kindly composed & provided by Pavlos Kapralos:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgAonk4-uVhXXjKSF-Nz1A Expect the opening and closing theme tune, which is "Waltz Detunee" performed, recorded and mixed by Cloudcub: https://cloudcub.bandcamp.com/album/down-memory-lane-ep Maltby & Greek link, for your 15% off of your next purchase please go here: maltbyandgreek.com/deliciousMany thanks and Happy listening!Thom & The Delicious LegacySupport the podcast on Ko-Fi and Patreon for ad-free episodes! https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcasthttps://www.patreon.com/c/thedeliciouslegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A fascinating chat with archaeologist, culinary historian and historical cookbook author Ursula Janssen!An all around brilliant talented human being then, that her passion is history and transmitting this through her ancient cooking!Garum made of Barley. From middle east. In the Arab times.Food of of Mesopotamia and Biblical Times.The Arabic influence in European medieval cuisine.And much more...!Find some of her ancient recipes interpretation here:https://www.youtube.com/user/ursulajanssen and all about the Trullo Cicerone experience here:https://trullocicerone.com/ Happy listening!The Delicious LegacySupport the podcast on Ko-Fi and Patreon for ad-free episodes! https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcasthttps://www.patreon.com/c/thedeliciouslegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Burmese food writer turned activist MiMi Aye has been raising awareness about the crisis in Myanmar since the coup in February. MiMi’s award-winning book ‘MANDALAY: Recipes & Tales from a Burmese Kitchen’ is loved by Nigella Lawson and was chosen by The Observer, The FT, and The Mail on Sunday as one of their Best Books of 2019. MiMi also co-hosts the food and culture podcast The MSG Pod and is on social media as @meemalee***The vast tropical and sub-tropical south east Asia always was a place of tantalising and fascinating stories, myths and legends! Ruins and monuments hidden deep in the jungles, long and unexplored rivers, mysterious tribes living in the jungles, and long lost civilizations! Even more the myriads of different foods, the ingredients the thousands of local plants were alien to me! We do know a lot of Thai and Vietnamese food, and we have a sense of place for them. We know of Indian and Bangladeshi cuisines too well. But what about that "little" corner of the earth sandwiched between China in the north, India to the west and Thailand in the East? What about Myanmar? Or as it is also known (perhaps more correctly) Burma. I knew practically nothing about the country. Same with many of us. I could point it on the map, but aside from that, the long military dictatorship and the many years of isolation, shrouded her in mystery!I could not pass the opportunity then, to invite Mimi Aye on the podcast, since she is the go to person for all things that have to do with Burmese food in UK!Obviously rice was been cultivated in this region of the world for almost 6000 years...And what is Lahpet? A unique delicacy of the Burmese people...And do they eat fish sauce? Tea, rice, fritters, soups and salads, fermented bean pastes, fish sauce...!Why is that extremely bitter foods are consider a must-have?I need to know -and most importantly eat- everything!Well now I have a sense of direction on where to start thanks to Mimi!And so do you:https://www.meemalee.net/buy-my-book Enjoy!ThomSupport the podcast on Ko-Fi and Patreon for ad-free episodes! https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcasthttps://www.patreon.com/c/thedeliciouslegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kokoretsi!The first love that lasts forever. It's delicious, its bloody and it requires patience and knowledge. Real heroes don't wear capes. They make kokoretsi. Thank you father!Kokoretsi is a traditional Easter delicacy, that Greeks usually make and eat on Easter Sunday, together with the other traditional dish: Spit roast lamb over charcoal fire!So how is it made? What's the tradition behind and what's the connection with Ancient Greece?Which other nation makes it? Let's find out more about Sardinian, Italian, Turkish versions of Kokoretsi on the podcast!Happy listening! My voiceover was recorded at Area18 studio, North Acton, West London. Many thanks to Richard Bignell for letting me use his studio for my episode!Here's a link to the studio's website to find out more about the services Richard offers, as he is a very talented Sound Engineer! www.area18.net/NewWebsiteTheme tune on this episode is the oldest surviving song from Ancient Greece "Seikilos Epitaph" which is performed by Pavlos Kapralos.Enjoy!ThomThe Delicious LegacySupport the podcast on Ko-Fi and Patreon for ad-free episodes! https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcasthttps://www.patreon.com/c/thedeliciouslegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.