The Delicious Legacy

History's first ever gourmand, foodie, hipster of the Ancient Greco-Roman world!The question of Archestratus life story had me puzzled for ages! I wanted to write an episode for a while now, but the more I looked for information about his life and works the more unanswered questions I have had! Admittedly, countless classicists, historians and food writers have been puzzled through the ages too, with the same burning questions.Imagine the worst foodie hipster (I zest here, I am one!) friend you have; The one that visits the local farmers market every weekend, goes to Borough Market as if on a religious pilgrimage at least once a month and also on top of that knows every single Vietnamese store in Hackney or the South-American food stall in Seven Sisters Indoor market. He also seem to know the food trends, the new ingredients and read the reviews on Eater for the cheapest eats at the outskirts of South-East London for some reason! (as if he or she will ever visit south east!)Well your friend doesn't compare to Archestratus little finger! If you thought your friend was bad for visiting the mercado de san martin in San Sebastian, mercado San Miguel in Madrid and La Boqueria market in Barcelona, mercato delle embre in Bologna, Grand Bazaar in Istanbul or Varvakios Market in Athens spending hours looking at fish that cannot buy...you know the friend who watched all the episodes of Anthony Bourdain's "Parts Unknown" and can quote all his lines...Well, our dude Archestratus, was a lot worst!New tastes, the freshest ingredients, so local and seasonal and simple, that even the inhabitants of the nearest town wouldn't have heard them, well he would have been there first, straight to the local fishermen begging them for a fish. Well this is Archestratus! The tourist who went to every food market on every city he visited; only he accomplished your feat 2500 years ago and all by sail!In the interconnected world of the ancient Mediteranean we then find Archestratus, a Sicilian who circumnavigated the world to satisfy his hunger - and even lower appetites, as a Roman scholar said once quite disparagingly. He was though an inveterate traveller. How else could he have found out about the specialities of all these places, small seaside cities over 50 of them from Sicily to the Black Sea? Remarkably what he writes rings true, as sometimes their specialities are exactly the same now as they were 2400 years ago. Archestratus loved the taste of Lesbian wine but also praised the aroma of the Phoenician wine that came from Byblos. (Although he though it to go off quickly)"When a libation to the gods you make, Let your wine worthy be, and ripe and old; Whose hoary locks droop o'er his purple lake, Such as in Lesbos' sea-girt isle is sold. Phœnicia doth a generous liquor bear, But still the Lesbian I would rather quaff; For though through age the former rich appear, You'll find its fragrance will with use go off." We know almost nothing about him, apart that he was a Sicilian Greek from Gela (or Syracuse) and that he wrote a now lost, remarkable and unique poem "The Life of Luxury" (Hydipatheia). The poem is dated variously around 350BCE.What we know of the poem, is mostly from Athenaus from his work "Deipnosophistai" -Philosophers at Dinner- which was composed in about AD200. This, is our only source for Archestratus work, which is telling. Lost works of ancient literature - poetry, drama etc- are usually reference by multiple ancient authors; however this lack of interest demonstrates the status of food and recipe books. Not high literature and therefore not carefully preserved for posterity.What would I give for the chance to glance upon the book on bread-making by Chrysippus of Tyana or the book on salt fish by Euthydemus of Athens! Sadly both are lost completely and only know of their existence through second -hand passing accounts from other authors! Lost masterpieces!Archestratus cooks the fish simply, boiling roasting or grilling with light seasoning and oil added if its quality fish. Freshness and quality are his watchwords and these features mustn't be damaged by strong sauces based on cheese and pungent herbs. His favourite fish tend to have firm-textured and strongly flavoured meat; rather than mild tasting flesh like the white fish we are now used in French cooking as the vehicle for sauces. He also shows much interest in eels; common, conger, mooray. He emphasizes flavour and the oil/fat of the fish, where the taste and interest is to be found. There is much interest in texture of the fish, the different cuts and parts, from head meat, fin, tail, belly as well as in the varieties of fish.OK I will stop now and let the audio do the talking! Happy listening!Links, sources, further reading:Andrew Dalby, "Siren Feasts": https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Siren_Feasts.html?id=wtLgAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=ySally Grainger, Andew Dalby : "The Classical Cookbook" : https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Classical_Cookbook.html?id=T7S5iC3pZp0C&redir_esc=yDeipnosophistae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeipnosophistaeAncient History Encyclopedia: https://member.ancient.eu/article/911/carthaginian-trade/Athenaeus of Naucratis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AthenaeusSupport 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.

Hope everyone is well in these strange times and keeping safe and healthy!Let's talk a bit about Roman Britain and how the Romans viewed these mysterious lands...But, before that let's get some anecdotal accounts from our Mediterranean cousins about UK:Cold. Wet. Foggy. Miserable. These are probably the main descriptions -unfair of course- that one gets from modern Italian (and Greek!) students after they've spent their first semester in UK universities, particularly in the Northern cities. Well nothing has changed since Caesar's time! Take the following lines: 'It is "the home of men who are complete savages and lead a miserable existence because of the cold; and therefore, in my opinion, the northern limit of our inhabited world is to be placed there" (II.5.8). By Diodorus Siculus an ancient Greek historian, known for writing the monumental universal history Bibliotheca historica, much of which survives, between 60 and 30 BC. Or the following: The nights are short (Caesar, Gallic Wars, V.13; Agricola, XII) and the weather miserable, with frequent rain and mists. "I don't want to be Caesar, stroll about among the Britons" Florus writes to Hadrian, "and endure the Scythian winters" (Historia Augusta: Hadrian, XVI.3). It is a savage place (ferox; Agricola, VIII) as are the fierce, inhospitable Britons who live there (Horace, Odes, III.4.33). Those near the coast in Kent may be more civilized, but in the interior they do not cultivate the land but share their wives with family members, live on milk and meat, and wear the skins of animals—behaviours so foreign to the Romans.Until the Roman invasion, the most common dish would've been some short of pottage, a thick vegetable stew or soup flavoured perhaps with bog-myrtle, and served in bowls made from unleavened bread with the occasional salted pork, bacon or seafood and of course wild game. Everything changed after 43AD!Cherry, plum, fig, cucumber, pea, chive, cabbage, lettuce, garlic, onion, marjoram, parsnip, possibly hare, (or could have been earlier) rosemary, turnip, pheasant... All introduced by the Romans...Who Incidentally they've made the first burgers! Not the Americans! hahaahahaa! :-pAnyway find out more about all of the above when you listen to the podcast! Oh check this website with aerial photos of Roman forts and settlements in Britain:https://www.cambridgeairphotos.com/themes/roman+fort/page5.htmlAncient Music Themes by Pavlos KapralosMusic Theme for the ad provided by Aris Lanaridishttps://www.arislanaridis.co.uk/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.

Apparently the first recorded fish sauce was produced by the ancient Greeks of the Black Sea colonies. Clearly the abundant fish resources of the Black Sea played a role in the production of this extremely popular condiment! The sauce we know from Martial's verse - "here is lordly garum, a costly gift made from the first blood of a still-gasping mackerel!" was almost certainly a table condiment and made from blood and viscera of very fresh fish. Sometimes handled by the diner and used in relatively small amounts over already cooked food. (Sally Grainger 'A New Approach to Roman Fish Sauce' -2007) The other more commonplace kind of sauce was called liquamen and was used in the kitchen by the cook to add salt and other more complex flavours to most dishes, just as we add salt during cooking. This was made using various kinds of whole small fish which were then mixed with salt and left to dissolve and ferment for up to three months. The resulting liquefied fish was removed from its bone and shipped all over Mediterranean in special amphorae. This whole -fish sauce is very similar to the Thai fish sauces so popular today! Roman fish sauce was NOTHING like modern anchovy paste; using the latter has been the downfall of many an attempt to recreate ancient recipes! ( Sally Grainger -The Classical Cookbook)Fish sauce was manufactured at factory sites along the coast; these were typically beside a beach or a harbour. The fish was only a few hours from the net when the process began. These sauces cannot and shall not be seen as a rotten decaying substance! What took place was not bacterial putrefaction (which, given the high proportion of salt would be impossible) but enzymic proteolysis, a process in which the enzymes in the viscera of the fish convert the solid protein into a liquid form. The viscera is therefore essential to the process; without them the protein does not dissolve. What the modern gourmet has to understand, and probably some only know too well from modern experience, is that there was not a single Garum sauce. As always there was the elite one, one for commoners and many other versions in between. For example, when Martial describes this sauce being "made from the blood of a still breath­ing mackerel " it therefore implies this was a black and bloody sauce. Or, the surviving Greek recipes for fish sauce also affirm the importance of the distinc­tion between blood/viscera sauce and one made from whole fish. As we see things can get a little bit complicated when we muddle through the murky waters of ancient gastronomy!One could buy aged elite black mackerel garum, ordi­nary black tuna garum, elite liquamen cooking sauces made from mackerel or cheaper cooking sauces made with a mixture of clupeidae and sparidae, or a tuna or mackerel muria, both of which could also be aged or new. All of these products could also come in second or even third grade versions.The expensive and intensely- flavoured blood sauce would be lost in the cooking process and wasted, needed to be seen by the gourmet to be experienced, val­ued and discussed. Therefore we can conclude it would have been the table sauces handled by the guests or the host himself. From modern South East Asian cuisine we learn of a fermented squid blood viscera (and ink) sauce that is used today in Japanese cuisine. It is known as ishiri and is used as a finishing sauce for sushi as well as cooked food. Its taste neither fishy nor salty, and smells of the iron compounds from the blood. Japanese cuisine also has a whole-fish sauce called ishiru and many dishes are prepared with both i.e the whole fish sauce is used for cooking and the blood/viscera sauce finishes the dish. This sauce is truly fermented with bac­teria and low salt. It is quite remarkable that the Japanese word for viscera is gari!  In Roman cuisine, the use of garum was enriched with different combinations of the sauce - with honey (meligarum), vinegar (oxygarum), wine (oenogarum), water (hydrogarum), or dry spices (such as dill, oregano, coriander, celery, or even mint). These sauces were used as condiments for literally everything: from meat and fish to vegetables, salads, desserts, bread, and wine dipping.The best way to use it in all recipes is thus; Take a litre of grape juice and reduce it by half, cool it and blend a bottle of Thai nam pla fish sauce with it. My favourite recipe that includes garum is "Honey-Glazed Prawns with Oregano and Black Peppers" a relatively simple dish, which I've made countless times as a starter in one of my ancient Greek themed dinners! For a decent starter for two, take 8 large prawns 15ml of olive oil, 30ml of fish sauce 30gr of clear honey, a handful of chopped fresh oregano and black pepper. Place oil, fish sauce and honey in a saucepan, then add the prawns. Sauté gently in the cooking liquor for 2 or 3 minutes. remove prawns from sauce and keep them warm, cook the liquor a little longer so in reduces by half. Add oregano, pour over the prawns and sprinkle liberally with freshly ground black pepper. Serve with crusty bread. Similarly homemade smoked sausages with fish sauce are indeed a treat for every gourmet! mince belly of pork, pine kernels, rue, peppercorns, savory, cumin bay berries fresh parsley and simply grill them! Yum!Music by Aris Lanaridishttps://www.arislanaridis.co.uk/The Noma Guide to Fermentation:Authors: René Redzepi, David ZilberISBN: 9781579657185Review here: https://www.wired.com/story/noma-guide-to-fermentation-book-review/The Classical Cookbook Authors: Sally Greinger, Andrew Dalbyhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1579230.The_Classical_CookbookAndrew Dalby:Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greecehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/308027.Siren_FeastsSupport 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.

Today's episode is all about cheese!I had the pleasure - and it was such a fun interview- to talk about cheese with Cheesemonger and Author Ned Palmer!A history of cheese. From the first discovery in Neolithic times in Mesopotamia through Europe and Britain, to ancient Greece and Rome and the Dark Ages, Medieval Europe and the monastic cheeses...All very intriguing! We are talking about cheese origin stories, and myths about cheese. All so fascinating!So we tried some cheeses...We had to. It would be rude otherwise! Plus I made a couple of recipes based on ingredients from Roman times, inspired by the cookery book of Apicius!The cheeses we've tasted yes, ok they are modern of course, but the style and the techniques and the taste would differ very little since the time they were first created. Essentially if an neolithic or ancient human was transported here and saw them would recognize them as cheeses they've made.Some of the cheeses we've tasted:Perroche, Tor, Berkswell, Durrus, Isle of Avalon, Barrel Aged Feta, Lord of the Hundreds, CantalI've also made a cheese log with feta, pecorino olives, spring onions artichokes and crushed smoked almonds, essentially an ancient farmers lunch all in one!Of course if you go to my Patreon page, you can find more info about each cheese there if you're a subscriber and make a pledge or become patron of my Ancient Gastronomic Writing!https://www.patreon.com/join/thedeliciouslegacy?As ever you can follow me on Twitter for more news and updates: @deliciouslegacyHappy listening I hope you enjoy as much as I did while I was doing it!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.

Hello!This is a bonus episode; I had interviewed -a few months back- a chef that I known for a long time and I rate him highly. Relatively "new" in the scene, I find his creations and food fascinating. An amalgamation of the essential Greek and Middle Eastern cuisine;A fresh perspective that gives a really really mouthwatering result!We talk about the influence of Ottoman and Arabian cuisines in Greek foods; the cross-pollination and constant exchange of ideas between the different Mediterranean cuisines and how brunch become the must have part of every cafe and restaurant in London.We touch lightly on my favourite thing, the absolutely divine kokoretsi; lamb's offal wrapped in intestine and slowly roasted over a charcoal fire. Just delicious! OK, below I have some links on Vasilis's creations and Catalyst Roasters coffee shop where he works!https://www.instagram.com/vasilis_chamam/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/catalyst_roasters/https://catalyst.cafe/https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g186338-d12425777-r654378681-Catalyst-London_England.htmlhttps://london.eater.com/maps/best-breakfast-sandwiches-london/catalystThe amazing "The Cornwall Project" was mentioned briefly also about their superb fresh Cornish producehttps://www.instagram.com/thecornwallproject/The music for this episode was provided by the very talented composer Aris Lanaridis which I thank kindly for giving me permission to use his piece "Indu"https://www.arislanaridis.co.uk/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.

Hello!This is 'The Delicious Legacy' Podcast and I'm Thom NtinasThanks for tuning in! This is Episode zero, of sorts! An introduction to how I came about -by accident- cooking these amazing recipes!This is a brand new podcast where we discuss everything about...ancient food and gastronomy!Tantalising recipes and luxurious ingredients from Classical Greece and ancient Rome. Where do lore, myths and history start, finish and how to untangle them? Was there really stuffed vine leaves back then, and..... feta cheese??? Relishes, sauces, the earliest form of pizza, the first mention of bread used as trenchers...Can we definitely taste authentic recipes from two thousand years ago?! Will we find out how the food tasted!? Is it to our palette today? We must talk about Garum too! I'll dedicate a whole episode to it! We'll see the lineage from Carthage, Greeks from the Black Sea, Romans, Byzantines, to Thai and Vietnamese people today!Follow me on twitter here: @deliciouslegacyMy Patreon page to become subscribers: https://www.patreon.com/thedeliciouslegacyForever indebted to Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger and their inspirational book 'The Classical Cookbook'https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1579230.The_Classical_CookbookSong "Micro Jump Jump" by Cloudcubhttps://cloudcub.bandcamp.com/track/04-micro-jump-jump 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.

Hello! I'm Thom Ntinas and I delve into archaeogastronomy for reasons of greed (mainly!) but also curiosity about the foods of our ancestors, and how little or much our taste buds, ingredients and methods have changed, since the dawn of the civilisation!Feasting was an important activity of the ancient Greeks and in general of all the Aegean societies and I believe in our modern day and age these activities are equally important especially when we spend so much of our time on our own without physical interaction with other human beings in any meaningful way.I am not a trained cook/chef but I have worked for many years in kitchens -from my mums canteen at the Greek Telecommunications company in my hometown as a teenager- to the infamous Greek taverna of Bangor in north Wales while I was in university, studying Electronic Engineering!In this second episode I am exploring the beginnings of the amazing and almost mythical in status, Sylphium! A herb that was extremely popular in the cuisine of ancient Greece and Rome, and made the Greek colony of Cyrene rich and powerful democracy with an important philosophy school too!what did it taste like? How was it used? Can I use it in my recipes now ? All will be answered here!I am talking briefly about a myriad other herbs and spices used in the ancient kitchen and also give you a couple of ancient recipes to play with. Enjoy!With music by the marvellous Freddy Macha@freddymachaMore music here: https://globalfusionmusicarts.bandcamp.com/album/freddy-macha-constipationFurther reading: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170907-the-mystery-of-the-lost-roman-herbhttps://fia.umd.edu/answer-an-important-plant-thats-now-extinct/https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/6gg0rr/what_exactly_was_the_ancient_plant_silphium/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.

This is 'The Delicious Legacy' Podcast and I'm Thom Ntinas!The first episode here is a personal journey and an introduction to the world of ancient cooking. Specifically what caught my eye from the foods and ingredients of Ancient Greece and Rome from 2500 years ago, and why I started cooking it! What foods did our ancestors eat? How did it all begin? Why am I so hooked on ancient recipes and ingredients? Is the food delicious? Wholesome? Do you need to know? I think so! With guest and co-host here Stephen Cerone!Stephen he is a great friend and great baker and pasta maker, and of course a curious soul to all gastronomic endeavours from across the globe! We've eaten together great sushi, amazing Turkish food and exceptional cheeses and cured meats from Italy and Spain and argued for hours who makes the best cured pork; Italy or Spain!? But Stephen's passion for great sourdough is what makes him special! The passion and detail that goes into creating his home baked sourdough is something out of this world! We have also experimented together making ancient breads and also ancient Roman 'loukanika' (aka sausages) with great success!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.