The year is 122 and the Roman
Empire is absolutely killing it, and you a Roman legionary have just been posted to Emperor Hadrian's brand new
73 mile long wall in Britain Hadrian's Wall, clever name. Now you know that you should be watching
out protecting the Empire from marauding Wildlings or Caledonians but all you can think is what's for dinner? Well how about this dish of minutal
matianum, ancient Roman pork with apples. So thank you to Wondrium for sponsoring
this video as we dine on Hadrian's Wall this time on Tasting History. So last summer I actually got to
visit Hadrian's Wall along with a large fort just south of the wall
called Vindolanda which was actually built before the wall in the year 85. And besides getting to see the ruins of the
fort itself they also have this fantastic museum filled with all these artifacts found at the
site that give you an idea of what daily life at the fort was like. Everything from swords
and coins to the things that really interest me like cooking pots, amphorae for
holding wine and garum, and even oyster shells with a
little tool for eating them. They've also found hundreds
of fragments of writing at the site from as early as the late first century, and a lot of them mentioned food
giving us an idea of what those people stationed at the very frontier
of the Roman Empire would have eaten. Now since they are just fragments of
writing we rarely get the full picture of what they were eating or what they were doing but in just two fragments we do get
a good idea that they were eating a lot more than just bread and pulse or porridge. They had a really wide variety of food
available to to them one even mentions pork. Specifically "Pork crackling... trotters...
Flavius Cerealis to his Brocchus, greetings. If you love me brother I ask that
you send me some hunting nets..." Emotionally manipulative but relatable. Now in another fragment they talk about a lot of ingredients that would have
excited any ancient Roman gourmand. "Bruised beans, two modii, chickens, twenty.
A hundred apples, if you can find nice ones, A hundred or two hundred eggs, if they
are for sale there at a fair price... mulsum (honey flavored wine)... 8 sextarri
of garum... a modius of olives." So with some of these ingredients along
with others that we know were available at Vindolanda at the time we can recreate
this dish from Apicius for minutal matianum, a recipe likely named after
Gaius Matius who was a friend of Julius Caesar and was known for his
facility in the art of topiary as well as his love of cooking. He's thought to have actually written three cookbooks
at least or collections of recipes. Unfortunately they don't survive but this
recipe my might be based on one of those. Though he also had an apple named after him so it's possible that it's
simply named after the apple. Now we don't know for sure that they ate
this dish at Vindolando or Hadrian's Wall, it's merely conjecture. iIt's
possible but it's conjecture, and a lot of ancient Roman history is
based on some conjecture because there are a lot of pieces of history
missing which is why I am loving this series from today's sponsor Wondrium called
"A Historian Goes to the Movies: Ancient Rome' It's really interesting to have
somebody kind of lay out what's real, what's not, and what might be somewhere in between like the famous IX Legion, the
Lost legion of Rome. Several books and several movies
have been made about this Lost Legion who was thought to have traveled
beyond Hadrian's Wall and was probably wiped out by the Britons because
they were never heard of again. The only problem is there
really isn't any historical evidence to suggest that that actually happened. Now they did disappear from the historical record but that doesn't mean that they actually
disappeared or that we know what caused it. It's a really wonderful series to accompany
the many wonderful series on Wondrium. Their offerings are presented by
experts in their field and cover every subject from history, to travel, to art, and business and even how to
learn musical instruments. So to give Wondrium a try you can get a free trial by clicking the link in the description
or visiting wondrium.com/tastinghistory. Now let's get back to this recipe. "Put oil, garum, stock, chopped leek
and cilantro and small ground meatballs in a pot. Chop previously cooked shoulder of
pork with skin into cubes. Cook all together. Half-way through cooking add
cored and diced Matian apples. While it cooks, grind pepper, cumin, cilantro
and coriander seed, mint, and silphium root, pour in vinegar, honey, garum, defrutum
and some of the cooking liquid. Adjust the flavors with vinegar. Bring
to a boil. Add broken tracta to thicken. Sprinkle pepper and serve." So it is a lot of ingredients
and you can save yourself some time by buying some ham or some pre-cooked pork, but you can also make your own pork shoulder
using an ancient Roman baste of olive oil, salt, pepper, and some honey. Slather
that on the pork and then put it in the oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit
230 Celsius for about 15 minutes, and then lower the temperature
to 275 degrees Fahrenheit 135 Celsius and cook for about an hour per pound, or until the center hits a
temperature of at least 165 degrees. Now all you need for this recipe is one pound or
450 grams of the pork shoulder cut into cubes, but most pork shoulders are quite a bit larger
so you'll have some for for lunch tomorrow. Then take one tablespoon of olive
oil and heat it in a pot. Then add 3/4 of a pound or 340 grams of pork or
ground beef formed into little balls, and you may want to add some egg to help
bind them. Also add a cup of chopped leeks. Then let them cook for 8-10 min
minutes or until they start to brown. Then deglaze the pot with a cup
or 235 milliliters of chicken stock, and two teaspoons of garum. So if this is your first time watching one of
the ancient Roman recipes here on the channel garum is THE ancient Roman fish sauce that
is in absolutely everything that they made. Though usually it's actually just the
liquid part which was called liquamen. And modern versions of it do still exist so I'll put a link in the description to
where you can get some of those but the very first episode that really
made this channel take off a few months after I started it was when I made garum though I made garum using a Byzantine recipe
for quick garum because I was living in a tiny apartment and I didn't want you know fish guts
on my on my table for for months at a time x_x because that's what it takes to make real garum
but now I have a backyard so I'm doing it. In a couple weeks, or as soon
as it warms up a little bit, I am going to start true garum
which does take several months, and I'm going to do a whole video
on it once it's all done but if you want to follow along with the
process just follow me on Instagram @tastinghistorywithmaxmiller. I'm
going to document the whole thing. Now after you've added the garum to the pot, toss in a small handful of chopped cilantro
as well as the pound or so of pork, and this will let off some juice but you're also
going to need to add some more stock as it goes. You want to make sure that there's enough that it
kind of covers the bottom that it's simmering in, but it's not a soup so you don't need to like
fill it up with stock. Then let it simmer for 15 minutes and then add in a pound of sweet
apples which have been cored and cut into cubes. Then let this cook for another 20 minutes
or until the ground meat is fully cooked. Now the last thing we need
to create is the sauce but before we do that I want to let
you know some of the other foods that would be available to you should you ever
find yourself shipped off to Hadrian's Wall. So two years ago I did a video on what
the average Roman soldier would have eaten focusing mainly on what they would
have eaten while on the march, and that was 'Laridum ac
buccellatum at que acetum' lard or fatty bacon, hardtack, and sour wine
that could have been used to make posca, but most of the soldiers living along Rome's
northern frontier were actually living in forts, and so it had a much more varied and
frankly appetizing diet available to them. Now they would have had two main meals a day
one in the morning and one around sunset, and just like in today's military you
were TOLD when you were going to eat. "The hour for supper and breakfast
is not left to individual discretion: all take their meals together. This
was done at the command of a trumpet, as were the hours of sleep,
sentinel duty, and rising." Though like me the average Roman soldier did like
a snack and so they would have been able to eat throughout the day on foods
that they carried with them like nuts and wild berries
like sloe berries, raspberries, and wild strawberries all
of which grew in the area. Now at many of the forts there was no large mess hall where all of the men got
together in one spot to eat but rather each century or more often a pair
of sentries would find a spot to eat together. A century being 80 soldiers
with a centurion to lead them, and that centurion was usually the one
making the decision on who made the meals because there was rarely if ever like a
designated cook who that's his only job. Instead the men had to cook for themselves or more often for their small group of
eight soldiers called contubernium. This was the smallest organized
group of soldiers in the Roman army and each day one of them would usually be tasked with grinding all of the grain for
the other seven men and according to records that took four hours of grinding
grain by hand. And as someone who has ground some grain by hand for like 20 minutes I
would not last one hour in the Roman army. Some of the querns used to grind
this grain had actually been found, and had the names of their owners engraved
on them like the soldier Africanus or another marked as the property of Victorinus, but exactly what grain Victoria news would
have been grinding depended on several factors. Now ideally it would have been
wheat mostly spelt or bread wheat, or common wheat which were grown throughout
the area and so would have been easily had though rye and oats seem to have
been used frequently as well they were likely the grains that were
grown by the local Britons who get several mentions in those
writings from Vindolanda. "You will receive out of the Britain's carts...
three hundred and eighty-one modii of... grain. Furthermore, they have loaded 53
modii into each individual cart." But there was another grain that was
quite common and far less desirable. "Curtius super to his Cassium, greetings... So that you may explain and so that they may
get from you barley as commercial goods." Again these writings are fragments
so things are missing and sometimes it doesn't quite make sense but you get the gist, he's talking about barley. Barley was one of
the most plentiful grains used in the area but no fighting man would want it for his dinner.
Usually it was used for either making beer or sometimes to thicken a pulse
or porridge. It was eaten as fodder for the animals or those lowest
people in society the slaves, but there were occasions where
a legionary would find himself with a dense loaf of barley bread for his dinner. And that was considered a punishment. In his military manual Vegetius talks about a certain drill, basically
weapons training, and then says "The old Romans were so conscious of its
usefulness that they rewarded the Masters at Arms with double allowance of provision. The soldiers who were lacking in this drill were
punished by having their allowance in barley. Nor did they receive it as usual in wheat, until they... showed sufficient proof of
their knowledge of every part of their study." No wheat for you. But whether you earned your wheat
or were saddled with barley, once ground it would be baked into bread using
a communal oven or several communal ovens. Fort's had ovens similar to huge pizza ovens built
into the stone ramparts that encircled the camp. This helped to prevent fires breaking out. Though there were times when the loaves were baked on hot coals especially if
you were outside of camp. Even the Emperor Caracalla who
was with the legions in Britain just north of Hadrian's Wall in the year
211 was known to bake his bread this way. "With his own hand he would grind his
personal ration of grain, make it into a loaf, bake it in the ashes and eat it." Just one of the guys, though I'm sure as soon as he got back to the fort he was glad that he
had more options available than just bread, because the Roman forts in
this area may have started out just to house the troops but very quickly became like small city centers. Soldiers
housed their wives and children and those families expected more to
eat than the typical ration. And with the excellent road
system that the Romans built records from only a few years
after Rome conquered the area show that nearly every luxury item in
the empire was available at those forts. Anforia of garum, olives, olive oil and
wine were available to nearly everyone. In fact evidence shows that wine was being imported to Britain even before
the Romans set out to conquer it, and the Romans didn't just import
foods but began growing new foods locally introducing several types of onion, leek, parsnip, beet,
radish, lettuce, cucumber, garlic, broad beans, and a more edible carrot, and by the year 90 or so the texts from
Vindolanda showed that soldiers were ordering food that was coming all the way from Syria and Northern Africa from which
many of the soldiers also came. There were even some foods coming from the
very far east. "Spices... roe-deer... of salt... young pig... ham... of wheat...
venison... for pickling... of emmer..." And the pigs and ham would have
probably been pretty local in fact we we know some of the names of the people who were tending to those pigs
like in one account of a man who was doling out grain to people around the fort. "Account of wheat measured out from which
I myself have put into the barrel... to the oxhereds at the wood, 8 modii, to the legionary soldiers on
the Order of Firmus, 11 modii... to Lucco, in charge of the pigs... to
father, in charge of the oxen." I just think it's so cool that we know that nearly 2,000 years ago at a fort called Vindolanda on
the very Northern frontier of the Roman Empire a man named Lucco was tending to some pigs. We also know the name of someone who
was very fond of eating those pigs. "Felicio the centurion, bacon, 45 pounds.
Likewise, lard, 15 and a half pounds... Felicio the centurion as a loan... 21 May...
received spices, 1/2 sextarius, 1/2 denarius. Received gruel received eggs. Eggs, bacon, and
spices. Felicio was definitely eating well. There are also orders for goat
meat as well as hunting records for wild deer and birds like ducks and swans, as well as salmon, trout, and pike
caught from the south Tyne River. Sheep and cattle were also found
grazing nearby and could provide both milk and meat for the men and their families. Though for Flavius Cerealis the
prefect of the ninth cohort of Batavians he impressed his guests with chicken. He entertained the elite of Britain on
several occasions and in the year 104 he entertained the governor of Britain himself, and chicken was on the menu. "1st of May, for the singulares... on the visit of the governor consumed at
lunch chickens, number 4." And they would have been well
flavored as they "Ordered and brought through adiutor from London... a set of cooking bowls, 10 denarii... mustard seed... anise... caraway...
thyme, 1 sextarius, 1/8 denarius." And as one mustn't neglect their
veggies there is a record of one Julius Verecundus sending his slave to pick up some greens and then gently
admonishing him for mixing up the keys. "Julius Verecundus to Audax, greetings
as soon as it will have been possible, send in the morning part of the load which I have
today dispatched to you with two loose horses... lest it be damaged by the conveyance
in which the greens will be brought, that is the shoots both of
cabbage and of turnip and send them. Also you sent another key with
the box than you should have, for this is said to be the
key of the little storeroom." Now as I mentioned wine was
widely available to the men, whether it was the fine wine
that came from Greece or the sweet wine passum that came from usually Italy, or the wine aketum or a sour wine
and that was used to make posca. And surely the men that were stationed there who had grown up around the Mediterranean
would have preferred wine to drink but most of the first garrisons in the area
were actually Tungrians and Batavians. And while Roman citizens they did
not come from Italy but from the lands that are now northern
France and the Netherlands, and according to Tacitus "Their drink is
a liquor prepared from barley or wheat brought by fermentation to a
certain resemblance of wine." That is beer or a form of it and most Romans had
a contempt for it and the people who drank it. And no one had more contempt
for it than Pliny the Elder. "They take these drinks unmixed, and do not dilute
them with water, the way that wine is modified; and yet, by Hercules! One really might
have supposed that there the Earth produced nothing but grain for the people's use. Alas! What wondrous skill, and yet how misplaced! Means have absolutely been discovered
for getting drunk upon water even." But those Tungrians and Batavians guarding
Britain absolutely loved it. There are many, many orders for this Celtic beer.
"Masclus to Cerealis his King, greeting. Please, my lord, give instructions as to
what you want us to have done tomorrow... Farewell. My fellow soldiers have no
beer. Please order some to be sent." What's interesting is that the word for this
beer usually appears as 'cervesa' or 'cervesae' which likely came from a Celtic word for beer
but today in Spanish the word is still 'cerveza' a bottle of which would
actually probably go pretty well with this ancient Roman pork and apples. Which still needs a sauce so
for that what you'll need is: one teaspoon of cumin, two teaspoons chopped
cilantro, one tablespoon of coriander seeds, two teaspoons chopped mint, and one teaspoon
of peppercorns or about four long pepper. Both were available in ancient
Rome though long pepper did tend to be more expensive which is
actually still the case today but probably because it's a
little bit better. It doesn't have quite as much heat but it has more flavor
to it so I do prefer it and I'll put a link in the description
to where you can get that as well as asafetida. You'll need a half teaspoon, and this was the pungent replacement for
Rome's favorite spice silphium which was thought to have gone extinct during the time
of Nero and so they use this as a replacement. Though recently they think they've actually
maybe found silphium growing again in Turkey. They don't know but they think probably, but either way you're not going to get your
hands on it so stick with the asafetida. So grind all of these together then put them in a
saucepan with a quarter cup of white wine vinegar, two tablespoons of honey, one teaspoon
of garum, and a quarter cup of defrutum, and that is grape must that has been
reduced to a thick sweet syrup and today you can buy it under the name Saba or
Sapa and it's my new favorite condiment I put that on everything finally add
a quarter cup of the liquid from the simmering meat and stir everything
together bringing it to a gentle boil. Then mix two teaspoons of starch or
corn flour in with a little water, and add that to the sauce and let it
simmer for a couple minutes as it thickens. Then dish up the pork and apples pour
the sauce over it and here we are ancient Roman pork with apples. We'll put a little
cracked pepper on that puppy and give it a try. So we will go with just some
of the pork but I'm going to dip it into the sauce because
that's what you really want. Here we are. [Mouthful] I'm gonna try some of the apple. That's fantastic! There's definitely something
very ancient Roman about the flavor with the- with the defrutum and the garum, and asafetida
but there's something also very familiar with it. It hits you- the vinegar really hits
you so it's kind of sour at first, but then that quickly fades away and it just
becomes sweet and yet aromatic and complex. This I think is the best ancient
Roman dish that I have made. Not- it is DEFINITELY the best ancient
Roman dish that I've made. I'm going to try one of the- one of the meatballs That's awesome! That's me patting my own back because that is
fantastic. You know with ancient Roman cooking they don't give you the the
exact quantities of everything so you kind of have to make it
up yourself to your tastes and this is definitely to my tastes.
This one is absolutely worth making, and I don't always say that
but this one absolutely is. It's a lot of ingredients but it's fun and
complex and and not that hard so make this one, and I will see you next time on Tasting History.
I loved the slow realisation that it tasted awesome at the end there, always good to see.
Anyone know why he had Poliwhirled for this one? My roommate and I are confused.
That giant pepper mill came out of nowhere
That’s on my list after I get back from Italy. Where, BTW, colatura di alici is a third of the price I can get it in Australia.
It looks sooo good.
How does one say FEED ME in Latin?
Because that seems the most appropos.
Ok, is this not an early version of pork and sauerkraut and applesauce (which my family always used to make)? I'm fascinated by that idea.