The, "use your soggy, leftover wine spices to make soap" tip was incredible. You get exfoliation, good smells, a pretty pink color, and you recycle all at the same time.
Glühwein! In portuguese is just called hot wine, Vinho Quente. We still drink it in Brasil during the june festivities. Normally these parties are in honor to Saint John and Saint Anthony. We have another hot drink made with spirits, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and lemon ir orange called Quentão (something like big warmer)
@@mariapaulagl Unless you're Gaucho (from the very south of Brazil) then Quentão = Glühwein, because we like to be contradictory. Although unlike the German Glühwein there's no fruits in it. Just spices, wine and sugar.
My husband does historical wargaming. I made this hippocras for when they did a Wars of the Roses battle. It was really good. I think I may make the buttered ale next time.
I don't know about his personality, but to end up spending your lockdown this way is truly astounding, especially since I also love history and cooking
When I was a little kid, my mom worked in a factory that bottled and shipped spikenard essential oils. She would bring me there after kindergarten was out, and I would carry the packages to people. They used to call me baby spikenard. To this day, spikenard is one of my favorite scents. It always brings back wonderful memories. Sorry for the rambling story. I got a bit caught up in the memory.
@@Imjustthatgracegurll It is very earthy, with hints of floral, citrus, and smokey - almost spicy notes. It is deffinently an acquired taste. My husband thinks it smells mile fancy dirt lol but I've always liked strange things. I encourage you to buy some and experience it yourself. (I don't think even a renowned sommelier could accurately describe the uniqueness of this plant). If you don't like it, I'm sure your local Catholic priest would be happy to have it. After all, it is the oil that Mary Magdalene washed Jesus's feet in.
Note: The recipe specifically did NOT mention cinnamon twice. During the period, Cannelle was used to denote the BARK, while Cassia was used to signify the BUD of the same tree, dried. They look like cloves and have a somewhat different flavor. Modern cinnamon from the supermarket is a combination of the two.
I just procured the more exotic ingredients on Amazon and it came to $35. So maybe after you choose to afford the spices, you need to buy cheap wine... It'll be a fun project.
@@TastingHistory Which would explain the later recipe that had three pounds of sugar in and there could be some medieval drinks, that actually had gold and precious stones added, because of the commonly held logic of the time that such things had Health Giving Properties, but mostly I suspect it was just showing off one's wealth that one could literally be swallowing gold as a party trick
"I didn't find it in 1660" I'm pretty sure he is an immortal, not just because he knows all these very old recipes and history behind them, but speaks Latin, Middle English and bastardized French and always knows what to substitute in a recipe and where to find all the weird ingredients. Also he says ''if you want to be transported to a castle in Middle Ages, this is the taste...'', he said it very convincingly as if he recreated a recipe he knew and got it right.
@@VoidplayLP I don't think he's a vampire. He's more like the good looking friendly new neighbour from a psycho triller, who politely asks to borrow a cup of sugar, and you realy like him immediately, but then you notice more and more of your neighbours disapearing. I think it's the eyes...
Hey, I just started *growing* ginger! You can plant it in a pot, water it religiously, and it will sprout and make new ginger for you! Apparently, you can use the stalks and greens in the same way - they have the same flavor. My first sprout is only about 2" tall, so I can't be sampling it yet. I was lucky enough to find a fresh ginger at the store - you'll see the more translucent, sometimes colored "buds" in various places on the root - so you cut off a segment with one of these and plant it, and hope for the best! What ELSE we gonna do in lockdown? HUH???
Regarding the inclusion of sugar: In the fourteenth century, almost all "good" wine was sweet, so sugar or honey would be unnecessary. In later centuries, non-sweet wines became standard, so sugar or honey became essential to the flavour of hippocras. (The nearest modern equivalent to a fourteenth-century wine would be something like Commandaria, or a sweet red from the Republic of Georgia.)
@@DT-ce1fb Not to my knowledge. Lead drinking vessels can have a sweetening effect on acid liquids, but lead was not a common material for dishes in the middle ages. (The Romans had lead-pewter plates, but they were rare in medieval Europe.)
Saw you on Townson’s Nutmeg Tavern. Looked up your channel. I so appreciate how you describe the taste of the drinks and food since due to dietary restrictions I wouldn’t ever experience the flavors. You make that experience so clear where I can imagine tasting them myself. Thank you! I have a new favorite channel.
My Dear Sir, your humor and wit is the most precious spice to your content. Please, do not stop uploading. This chanel is a keeper: cooking, history and charismatic, witty prince-charming-looking host.
When I researched my Master thesis for History of Medicine, more than a decade ago, I remember stumbling over an article about theriac, the 'wonder drug' of the Ancient and Medieval periods. I've forgotten the particulars, but what stuck with me was that there were recipes of more than a hundred ingredients, and the more and the more expensive and exotic the ingredient the better. I loved that; it was such a human thing! As a Dutch saying goes, 'wat van ver komt is lekker' ('what comes from afar is delicious'), which means that anything that is exotic and strange MUST be better than ordinary, everyday stuff, right? It's also fun because you just KNOW that some doctor (or quack, which might be the same thing) would be summoned by a rich dude to make some theriac, because rich dude is afraid that he might get poisoned (very GoT) and theriac 'rejects the poisonous', and the doctor says, 'weeeellll... I've got a recipe which asks for a hundred ingredients, among which a dozen things that are impossible to get, so we'll leave them out', and when rich dude gets poisoned anyway the doctor can then claim that the theriac WOULD have worked if only they had included the rare, expensive, exotic ingredients. Anyone who thinks medieval Man wasn't clever has another thing coming! Lol! The reason I mention this is that I have the feeling that 'it's expensive and exclusive' might also be a factor as to why different spices were added. I'm sure 'tasting good' was of supreme importance, but 'what comes from afar is (even more) delicious' (and has the added benefit of impressing your guests) :)
I was watching the whole video thinking that this would be a completely exotic, medieval beaverage, but it spread trough the world indeed! Here in Brazil, in June we parties to St. John, Anthony and Peter, and in these parties we drink hot red wine with suggar, ciannamon and ginger. Love your videos man!
If you ever need weird spices, check with home brewing stores. They often stock things like grains of paradise And for cheap since they’re usually the stuff that’s not pretty enough for regular stores
Just have to say - when I stumbled upon this channel about a month ago I thought "Well, he must have been doing this channel for at least a couple of years in order to refine his concept to this level!" Imagine my surprise when I found out that you had just started it recently as a lockdown project. Tasting History is probably my favourite channel find in ages - funny, knowledgeable, well produced... Looking forward to many more episodes!
You can imagine my "disappointment" when I first stumbled upon this channel and thought I had found something I could binge-watch, only to realise there were only a couple of videos :P I thought this was an old channel because it lacks the amateurish feel of other young channels or the first videos of some older ones.
@@MLakeside I have to believe max does something in presentation or camera work for a living. No one is this polished, funny, concise without being very practiced and at ease with both camera and editing content.
Yeah glögg is still pretty close to its super old original spiced wine drink. Swedish ginger bread and glögg both have spicemixes that still are close and carry the legacy of the food of medieval kings and wealthy. So at Yule you are more or less drinking and eating things that taste pretty medieval. Yule have been the time that we indulge and use the most expensive spices and ingredients we can afford in Sweden And that meant spices for medieval people. Lots of spices. Hence glögg and ginger bread. And it’s a lot more complex spice mixes than we normally use today. We like much of the rest of Europe a few hundred years later got influenced by French ideas of spices and herbs only to be used to enhance the flavour of the main ingredient, and not change the flavour of the dish. So salmon should be spiced to taste as much as nice salmon as possible, and not taste of any spice. To show that you could afford to buy high quality fresh ingredients. Instead of previously using loads of spices to show of how you could afford lots of different nice spices and use them to achieve tastes that are impossible to get otherwise. That is why Europe is such a outliner when it comes to spices, we use way less than most cuisines. Most food cultures around the world have complex spice mixes used for rubs, curries, sauces, etc. We used to have that too, and we can find remains of that culture in a few old dishes and drinks we have like glögg, but then France.
Here in Brazil we have a recipe named "Vinho Quente" or Hot Wine, made with cinnamon, cloves, apples em strawberries, pretty popular on mid-year hollidays (our winter). Btw, i'm a history and geography teacher and love your videos, i even subtitle the ones about black plague for my classes. Congrats buddy, amazing channel
in germany they've got hot spiced wine too called Glühwein (glow wine) which is really popular around Christmas, you'll find it at every Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market).
@@DarkValorWolf Considering the origins of our Quentão/Vinho Quente (literally "hot wine"), I must say it arrived here through the German colonies. A shoutout to the Germans. You, along the Portuguese and Italians, are INSANELY influential to our cuisine, at least in the Southern and Southeastern states.
A friend of mine, who loves the smell of the air after a hard rain named her daughter Petrichor. She said the scent of her brand new little girl, bathed and bundled, brought it so clearly to mind.
8:02 Chemically, it's the *water* and *alcohol* which do the work of pulling the spice & herbal chemicals into solution (just as distilled whiskey soaking in oak barrels pulls the oak chemicals into the whiskey). 16:50 Odors come from vapors, and the amount of vapor is a function of temperature. That's why the warm spiced wine clears your sinuses.
I also grew up in Arizona and was thinking of that smell too when you were describing the spikenard. I think that smell is called petricor or something close.
Petrichor, the oils from dry grass. Plants create it to help it maintain itself when there's not much water around, and release it when they get water.
@@BLS31 as someone who lives in the desert, that smell is one of the most soothing and pleasant smells ever. everyone I know opens the window when the clouds sweat on us. wouldn't really call it rain, way to weak. but its just enough to get that smell going and its so fresh and calming everyone opens up to it.
It is, however, different depending on where you are. While petrichor is a thing everywhere (everywhere I know at least), there's a big difference in the petrichor you get in different places. So I guess it still makes sense in this case to clarify it's the petrichor of the Arizona desert.
I've heard Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions describe middle English as being something you can "kinda read but it's spelled weird and everything is pronounced like you've got a golf ball in each cheek."
its pretty much the same With traditional Chinese Medicine. which is funny because everyone mocks western traditional Medicine but traditional chinese Medicine is regarded as trendy and functional.
@@timk8869 That's fair. I regard both as having pros and cons to them. 🤷♂️ not extremely effective with some exceptions but in a pinch its better than nothing at all.
I love how the Middle Ages approached their recipes just as they did their language. “How do you spell this word?” “Idk but it should at least sound like this when you say it. What happens with the letters is up to you” “How do you prepare this dish?” “Idk but it should at least have these things in it. How you put them all together is up to you”
I found you by accident, and to u wind from my day I now watch you. I find you informative, funny, and you actually try to recreate the recipies. I love it!!!. BRAVO!!!
I’m such a fanboy in the comment section of all of your videos, but I have to always say: you are so good at this. It’s such an uplifting experience to see an artist and/or professional flourish in their natural habitat. It’s clear you’ve found your vocation and the people are noticing.
Surprisingly, I have all the ingredients for this recipe at hand except spikenard! Tips for anyone looking for two of the hard-to-find spices mentioned in the video even during the pandemic, long pepper and grains of paradise, if you live in or near a sizeable town or city, check your local South Asian and West African grocers! I live in a medium-sized city on the Canadian prairies, but these ingredients are relatively easy to find here if you know where to look. All the South Asian markets in my city seem to have an abundance of long pepper and the West African markets will carry grains of paradise, sometimes under the name "alligator pepper" (there is actually some debate over whether the two spices are the same or if they are different species in the same genus with alligator pepper being a little hotter but otherwise tasting the almost identical). You can even call ahead to arrange curb-side pick up at many stores if you like, to avoid having to go in during the pandemic! Now, while I don't generally drink much alcohol, perhaps hippocras is a good use for that bottle of wine someone gifted me for my birthday...
I like that you tasted these at different temperatures and analyzed so carefully each one: without being analytical and clearly still enjoying! Makes me miss the days when alcohol and I were still friends.
“It’s all a little weird.” That made me laugh. Perfect description. In England, mulled wine remains popular, spiced and delicious. Perfect for a cold Autumn or Winter night.
The "hot vs. cold, wet vs. dry" approach is the same as in ayurvedic medicine and as in Traditional Chinese Medicine and both try to influence these qualities with foods, herbs and spices. I just realized that. Interesting. I wonder if these cultures somehow adopted these views from one another or if humans in different parts of the world came up with the same ideas sort of simultaneously.
I suspect they're somewhat independently since Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese medicines have like extra elements or have some of them swapped out for others from the European humour system. Kinda crazy how that happens regardless!
the east and west were connected via the silk road, so it's not entirely impossible that some ideas on health might have been connected, though idk if the greeks are older than the silk road or not
There is a concept in history with a funny latin name that translates to "simultaneous invention" Basically, mankind is the same wherever you go. We always try the same solutions to problems no matter what our origins, and the solutions that work often work everywhere.
I'm actually pretty surprised that more cultures haven't realised the profound overlap between medicines & foods. So many spices, common beverages like coffee & tea, and even some common vegetables (which had been grown for millennia, even despite the unpleasant taste of earlier, wilder varietals) have neuroactive or psychoactive compounds. Here, there's both Pepper & Cinammon (apart from the Alcohol), as well as the Ginger & Galengal, each of which have some intriguing compounds. [ Note that none of this is to give any of the ideas behind flawed hypotheses like The Humors, or Ayurvedic Medicine credence, or any modern scientific support - with them being quite comprehensively debunked. ]
TastingHistory to be fair that’s what I’d like to tell myself as well, but I know that probably isn’t in the cards. I’ll most likely store it with facts people think are useless but are actually cool
That bit in there about "spiced honey wine for travelers" has me wondering how this recipe would work with mead....*adds to list of things to try in later homebrew batches*
Kindly report back if you try it. Having tried Poltorak (mead which is 2/3 honey and 1/3 water, and super sweet) I think something like that would probably work great with spices.
Spiced mead is quite common in several parts of the world. The Spiced Honey wine mentioned was indeed mead. Chaucer's Mead company sells there mead with a little bag of mulling spice for if you decide to serve it spiced hot or however. I've tried it hot, it's pretty good with the spices. Room temp with the spices its interesting, but never tried it cold with spices personally. Granted, Chaucer's is often regarded as entry level mead but it's pretty readily available at most liquor stores and places that sell wine too.
I might have said it before on one of his previous videos, but man, WHY IS THIS NOT A MAINSTREAM SHOW? This is so much better than what i see these days on the "History" channel or even the food network. Not only is the content fun and interesting (the sign of a great teacher btw), but the way he educates us about the time and place and events going on at the time each recipe was created means that we get our history lessons without even knowing we are learning things. Mr. Miller is obviously passionate about the food and the history and everything is well researched and as well documented as it is possible to be given the subject. I can't imagine how awesome this would be with a budget and maybe an additional research aid and maybe special guest historians and chefs... etc. GIVE THIS MAN A TV SHOW AND $$$$$$$$
I believe that he is sponsored. This is an extraordinarily professional show that shot to popularity very quickly, so a lot of times that indicates someone who has backing. That doesn't detract anything from him at all, though. I'd love to see him get even better known. The show truly is far better than any cooking shows on television, or even most of the history shows, for that matter. 😋
I actually got here through several videos. Shadiversity video of medieval food, then Modern history TV and then finally here. Sort of went down a youtube rabbit hole.
It's probably because the essential oils in each of the spices vaporizes at different temperatures, but it's still really cool that the flavor and aroma profile varies so much at each temp.
Yes, the alcohol evaporation will also carry the more volatile flavor components. I love that he sampled the hippocras at three different temperatures, but if it was me doing the tasting, I probably would have started with the cold, and worked up to the hot. Then back down to the cold. Then back up...😉🍷
@@patriciamorgan6545 temperature surely changes the aromatic profile, but i doubt it's anything from the spices that's unpleasant to the nose. It would be interesting to prove it by infusing hot water with the same spices.
A wonderful Yuletide beverage, my wife and I make this every year, probably too much of it. It's a great thing to add to your holiday traditions; hot, warm, or cold.
Definition of "petrichor" : a distinctive, earthy, usually pleasant odor that is associated with rainfall especially when following a warm, dry period and that arises from a combination of volatile plant oils and geosmin released from the soil into the air and by ozone carried by downdrafts
Also one of my favorite hip-hop lyrics: " No Mulligans, crow bars bird cage Cold, colonize Mars on Earth day And surface from the cellar door like worms into the petrichor Messenger, better get a vessel for a Tetris score Zilch, cowabunga homies call me "press ignore" Devastating energy exploding off his Tesla coil Farm baited breath and tempermental tremors That taught a man to wave with 10 percent of his fingers " (Aesop Rock - Tetra)
My parents always have spiced wine during the holidays. They usually pour a bottle or two of wine into a slow cooker and set it to "warm" with a blend of spices in a bag or mesh ball or something. Always a great and warm holiday drink to sit down with. They used to make this even back when I was a kid. I sometimes make it myself at home.
That would be mulled wine! IIRC, you're meant to heat it with a fire poker that's been sat in the fire long enough to get red hot, but that might just be my grandmother telling tall tales.
If you ever start selling merch, a t-shirt that says "Apologies to marjoram" should be your first item. Also, I'd watch you do wine tastings for an hour.
There's a very similar recipe that's usually made during winter in Brazil. Heated red wine combine with sugar and some of those same spices and, I think to balance the sugar and give it an extra punch, cachaça (like rum, but not aged and less sweet) is added. Great to drink during cold nights. We call it "quentão" which would translate to something like "super hot" or "big heat".
As a swede and knowing that the pronunciation of many words and letters in the Swedish language is pretty challenging for most people, I have to commend you for saying "Glögg" and especially getting the sound of the letter "ö" as close to perfect a foreigner, who doesn't fluently speak the Swedish language, can! :) Btw, just found you through recommendations and as a history nerd that I am I subscribed almost immediately when I was met with humour almost right at the start of the video! Keep it up! ~ Cheers!
@@TastingHistory Your welcome and thank you for the reply! :D And, if/or whenever, you will cover the history of mead, which is called 'mjöd' in Swedish, shouldn't be a problem for you to pronounce after managing "Glögg" like a pro! :) I wish you a great weekend! ~ Cheers!
Depends. The stuff sold at christmas markets very often is, to mask the abhorrend quality of wine they use, but if made properly, not so much. Don´t buy it if it´s less than 3,50€/cup, and you might just get a really good experience.! The sugar-bomb Brain-destroyer is a hot wine punch called "Feuerzangenbowle", which is basically very similar, only with the addition of oranges, and you have a sugar cone suspended over it that gets soaked in Rum or Arrak, and set on fire, so burning booze and molten sugar drip into the hot spiced wine. Spectacular display, equally spectacular effect. Also sometimes is sold at christmas markets. Can be very tasty, although sickly sweet, but also absolutely devastating. If you drink it indoors, and then go out into a frosty night, you should have picked a nice ditch to pass out in beforehand.
This is so interesting! In Brazil we also have our own version of Hippocras: Quentão. It is hot wine with spices. It is normally served in folcloric festivals that occur all over Brazil during the month of June. Cheers, Max!
Which is not a surprise, because brazil was colonized by portuguese people, which also has saint john parties in the north, in the city of Porto, and a drink like quentão, named vinho quente (spicy wine) that it's drunk in the winter. The only difference is that in Portugal the pine is different from the one find in brazil.
I now consider myself lucky to live in an area of Germany that was once Swedish, so we get drunk on both Glögg and Glühwein every Weihnachtsmarkt. Your pronounciation was very good! Also loving the return of the beard
A teacher at my high school would make some for us every Christmas (in class) and hardly anyone ever drank it. I got a few cups every time. Is very good.
Max: "other spiced wines" [...] "mostly in the winter months." Me, a Norwegian: hey wait that sounds familiar Max: "Wassail in England, glühwein in Germany..." Me: ok that's just gløgg Max: "And in Nordic countries they have glögg!" Me: eyyyyyy \o/ And I can confirm, gløgg a staple even today, though now people get like, spiced sirup in a bottle which is heated up in a pan and then you add either wine or a little bit of water or whatever, depending on your company. And it should be served with some chopped almonds and raisins that you can spoon into your cup as you like it. No julebord is complete without it.
A *syrup*? How curious; I've seen both ready-made glühwein and gløgg being sold and in essence, that's just a lazy way to make it yourself when it takes less than half an hour and you get to pick the wine. Wasn't aware of spooning raisins right into the cup though!
@@SirWussiePants The etymologi for gløgg/glögg is the act of warming the wine. It was called to "glödga" wich come from the word for ember wich is "glöd".
I really appreciate the description of the taste of the unusual spices because, many times, during your videos, you mention things I've never heard of or didn't even know you could eat.
Glühwein is the most important part about the festive season! I loved it as a child (Kinderpunsch) and now as an adult it makes your head feel funny too! Never tried it cold though.
Max you are a gem and so very glad you stuck with your channel!! When I make this wine I might just call it hippogriff for fun when I serve it. Having a blast bing watching from the beginning.
My wife and I make glogg twice a year. Because we love the taste. And the alcohol content is high. It's an old swedish recipe from her grampa. Will never stop making it.
During quarantine I decided to make Limoncello for the first time. But I also had a ton of kumquats, so I decided to make a second batch with kumquat peel instead. It was absolutely delicious, I prefer it to lemoncello or orangecello. Very easy to make and something I think that you would enjoy doing in your free time!
recently i learned that historians debate if gilles de rais was actually framed. i read up on it and it was pretty compelling and interesting. it's a shame we'll never know for certain, probably, but now i tend to lean towards his innocence. it's a fun rabbit hole to fall down sometime if you look into it!
Its indeed a amazing case of extremely likely historical citogenesis keeping on in literature and encyclopedias on his guilt despite the most damning evidence being a confession he made under watch of the very church executives, happening to be close family friends of the Duke of the Breton peninsula that put him to trial and got almost half his wealth AND being "unofficially"/for crown and title exonerated by the king in accord to a few of his other fellow nobles that were serving with Joan in the very next year (before official government exoneration 551 years later) as they testified that multiple cases of women (and some kids) disappearing couldnt align with him as he wasnt even at those estates (and instead with other fellow pals from the war).
I tend to lean towards his innocence too. Or at the very least, if he did commit crimes, it was nowhere near the proportion history says it was. I'd say there's some compelling arguments out there on why his contemporaries would rather see him slandered and dead! Very interesting. Also any 'confessions' are automatically suspect since it's fair to say a lot of them tended to involve torture... xD
And sometimes you would purchase expensive wine but it wasn't as tasty as expected or the transport made it "meh". You can still shine your rich friends with expensive wine from far countries but you'd add expensive spices to make it even more special.:-)
I expect that the spices added to the wine was to show wealth.Just like how sugar was used in to show wealth (the birth of "sugar disease", diabetes) and they would heavily spice rich foods to show wealth. It's conspicuous consumption--literally!
I live in France on one of the main medieval trade routes between France and England (there's a castle nearby that was besieged three times during the 100 year war). We have a lot of "debris" that was found: barrels, carts etc. We know that wine, at the time, was BAD. Even the best wines were of poor quality compared to our modern wines (the cheapest vinegary thick wine you find today for a copper at the store is a good approximation for the best they had). They weren't bottled, which made them age badly, turned them sour, sometimes even moldy if the barrel was of bad quality. The techniques and grape selections weren't as pushed as they are today either. That's why adding spice and sugar, or just fruit and honey for the poor, was so popular. There were businesses that made Hypocras for export and didn't even bother with selling wine, because they made far more money that way. There's still a couple of those workshops in existence, with a very small production, in Arriège (if you ever visit that region in France).
Thanks for the video, as we're approaching the holidays this will become useful. It also reminds me of the origin of a phrase - to "hob-nob" (usually with "the gentry" or some such). The phrase comes from holiday/winter parties, where when you got there the host would ask you if you wanted drinks off the "hob" (a sort of shelf either on a stove or a fireplace) or the "nob", apparently a shelf next to an open window (like how I used to keep beer on the fire escape for winter parties). Basically the host was asking if you wanted your drink warm or cold, and eventually it came to mean parties where this sort of thing was common (to "hob and nob", then hob-nob, came to mean going to a party of people of means, people who could afford to just keep a window open in winter for cold drinks).
The serving temperature will affect the rate at which the volatile oils are released from the different spices. So, different flavour profiles: chemistry 🧪
11:34 in Brazil we still drink "Vinho Quente" (hot wine) in winter, when there'e a religious festival called "São João" aroud June and July. It's usually a cheap and sweet wine boiled with apple, cinnamon, cloves and fresh ginger and served hot. There's also a version with cachaça instead of wine and it's stronger and called "quentão" (big hot, I guess?). So, the tradition is still alive. Please talk more about Brazilian and South American food! Love your channel!
I already had some hippocras made up in my fridge! My obsession with spiced wine is now totally justified by a youtube video. Hippocras is better without sugar and with more cardamom and galangal than you think. More than too much is just enough.
Hands down, the best part of these videos is when you taste what you've made and we get to see your passion for historical food shine through as you marvel at the flavors
You: whole we wait here's the perfect excuse to take take a look at why Europe fell in love with.... -cuts to ad- Ad: HUMAN PLASMA!! me: -spits out my earl grey-
Mine said "THE LIBERAL MOB", because thanks politicians, I definitely want you to interrupt me with your biases while trying to learn how to make a medieval spiced wine
From wine education classes I've taken, here's a tip: when comparing wines in a group or flight, always sniff all the wines before sipping. Once you start sipping you won't be able to smell much because of the wine fumes in the back of your throat. Prost! 😄
We also have a drink in Germany that's even got a movie named after it: Feuerzangenbowle. It's made by putting spices and fruit into a bowl filled with red wine, putting a cone-shaped sugar loaf on top of it, held up by metal (originally a pair of tongs), dousing the sugar with rum, and setting it on fire.
Bellossom is perfect for this episode as it learns Sweet Scent. I definitely need to try a variant of this with honey wine. Nutmeg and Cinnamon would seem right at home with it.
12:20 - You can still go Wassailing in several counties in England, although it's slightly different from the medieval practice. You basically go to an apple orchard in winter, and drink Wassail Cider around a bonfire and, depending on who's organised it, sing songs and chants wishing good health to the trees in the orchard.
I just found your channel a few days ago and I’ve already watched most of the videos. Not only is it informative, you’re absolutely excellent in front of a camera. I’ve rarely seen channels this polished, especially this quickly. I could totally see you with your own network tv show someday. Keep up the great work!
Love the channel. All the weird questions about food I ever thought of! On the meaning of spikenard, it seems that the name has been used to refer to at least 3 different plants: Aralea racema, which is native to northeast America and would not have been accessible in Europe in 1390, Nardostachys Jatamansi, which is an endangered Himalayan medicinal herb, and I guess if were a king you might have the resources to get it. The third is Lavandula latifolia, or Spike Lavender, which is similar to Lavender except much more aromatic and camphor-like. According to some sources, the ancient Greeks called lavender Nardus or Spikenard, named after the Syrian city of Naarda. Spike Lavender grows in southern France, Portugal, and Spain. Since the recipes says "Spikenard of Spain", I am thinking that they were most likely referring to this third one?
Coming soon: washing history, where Max takes us through the soaps, lotions and exfoliants of the past! No but I would watch that. No word of a lye. Soap pun, I am a nerd.
HISTORICAL NOTE: While Kool-Aid was saddled with the stigma of the Jonestown massacre, the cult actually used an off brand product called Flavor Aid.
there's a Corona joke in here somewhere
Spice Pilgrim in Oregon can get a lot of the spices and is a globe importer of spices it might have been green cardamom not the black.
What kind of wine did you use? I'm looking to try and get my fiance in to wine. (I drink craft beer and wine etc and she hates beer)
I learned that from Ultimate Hellsing Abridged.
The spices and herbs added to alcoholic drinks also provided medicinal benefits. And often it was used in response to a breakout of some ailment.
"I didn't find it in 1660"
Nice try, immortal chef.
🤣 I feel seen
He does say that the room temperature one transports him back to the 14th century. 🤔
He *is* about the last person you'd ever suspect of being a vampire.
@@defectiveshark7602 I rather would accuse him of being a wizard
He's not an immortal, he just has a time machine out the back
The, "use your soggy, leftover wine spices to make soap" tip was incredible. You get exfoliation, good smells, a pretty pink color, and you recycle all at the same time.
That’s perfect advice 😊
Britain and Germany: “We shall name these beverages after the family from which they originate, that being wine.”
Norway: “Ha ha, liquid goes glögg”
Gløgg
Glœgg
Glühwein! In portuguese is just called hot wine, Vinho Quente.
We still drink it in Brasil during the june festivities. Normally these parties are in honor to Saint John and Saint Anthony.
We have another hot drink made with spirits, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and lemon ir orange called Quentão (something like big warmer)
@@mariapaulagl Unless you're Gaucho (from the very south of Brazil) then Quentão = Glühwein, because we like to be contradictory. Although unlike the German Glühwein there's no fruits in it. Just spices, wine and sugar.
@@julesdrey7415 hahaha regionalities crazyness! There are those all over our country.
When your friend says he is against alcohol and claims to never drink but mkes an exception for medieval spice wine:
_"what a Hippocras!"_
ha, good one!
Ba dum tss
Or remind him he took a Hippocratic Oath ba room tish
Heywood Jablome r/wooooosh
I feel called out
My husband does historical wargaming. I made this hippocras for when they did a Wars of the Roses battle. It was really good. I think I may make the buttered ale next time.
You deserve some kind of wife award, that's so thoughtful!
I hope your marriage is happy and healthy.
don't forget to make him a salmon tarte
At this point I can't tell if I'm watch for the history, the food, or his charming personality!
All three.
he is also rather handsome
@@lightningkitten I think he looks like young John Cleese and that is obviously awesome
I don't know about his personality, but to end up spending your lockdown this way is truly astounding, especially since I also love history and cooking
Yes. Thats the answer 😊
When I was a little kid, my mom worked in a factory that bottled and shipped spikenard essential oils. She would bring me there after kindergarten was out, and I would carry the packages to people. They used to call me baby spikenard. To this day, spikenard is one of my favorite scents. It always brings back wonderful memories.
Sorry for the rambling story. I got a bit caught up in the memory.
Scents are by far the most powerful means to revive memories. It's a fascinating phenomenon.
What does Spikenard smell like? I just discovered what it is while watching this.
@@Imjustthatgracegurll It is very earthy, with hints of floral, citrus, and smokey - almost spicy notes. It is deffinently an acquired taste. My husband thinks it smells mile fancy dirt lol but I've always liked strange things.
I encourage you to buy some and experience it yourself. (I don't think even a renowned sommelier could accurately describe the uniqueness of this plant). If you don't like it, I'm sure your local Catholic priest would be happy to have it. After all, it is the oil that Mary Magdalene washed Jesus's feet in.
Such a beautiful story!
That's a very nice memory to have
Note: The recipe specifically did NOT mention cinnamon twice. During the period, Cannelle was used to denote the BARK, while Cassia was used to signify the BUD of the same tree, dried. They look like cloves and have a somewhat different flavor. Modern cinnamon from the supermarket is a combination of the two.
A shame this doesn't have more likes.
Bump
@@user-bo3mp8un6c Gee, can you tell I'm an old-school SCAdian?
Interesting! Thanks! 😊
Very interesting. Ty :)
It sounds like the recipe should say: Take whatever is the most expensive things you can get your hands on that's edible, and put it in wine.
Yup. Pretty much.
I just procured the more exotic ingredients on Amazon and it came to $35. So maybe after you choose to afford the spices, you need to buy cheap wine... It'll be a fun project.
@@TastingHistory Which would explain the later recipe that had three pounds of sugar in and there could be some medieval drinks, that actually had gold and precious stones added, because of the commonly held logic of the time that such things had Health Giving Properties, but mostly I suspect it was just showing off one's wealth that one could literally be swallowing gold as a party trick
I'm half surprised we don't see nutmeg and saffron in there, to be honest. If this is a pricey thing now, imagine what it would have cost back then.
Soooo, cocaine?
"I didn't find it in 1660"
I'm pretty sure he is an immortal, not just because he knows all these very old recipes and history behind them, but speaks Latin, Middle English and bastardized French and always knows what to substitute in a recipe and where to find all the weird ingredients. Also he says ''if you want to be transported to a castle in Middle Ages, this is the taste...'', he said it very convincingly as if he recreated a recipe he knew and got it right.
Hes definitely a vampire.
We may never know.
It’s Norman.
@@VoidplayLP I don't think he's a vampire.
He's more like the good looking friendly new neighbour from a psycho triller, who politely asks to borrow a cup of sugar, and you realy like him immediately, but then you notice more and more of your neighbours disapearing.
I think it's the eyes...
There can be only one. I hope it's him.
Hey, I just started *growing* ginger! You can plant it in a pot, water it religiously, and it will sprout and make new ginger for you! Apparently, you can use the stalks and greens in the same way - they have the same flavor. My first sprout is only about 2" tall, so I can't be sampling it yet. I was lucky enough to find a fresh ginger at the store - you'll see the more translucent, sometimes colored "buds" in various places on the root - so you cut off a segment with one of these and plant it, and hope for the best! What ELSE we gonna do in lockdown? HUH???
How it`s going?
>”I didn’t find it in 1660”
Uh huh, yeah, okay Consul Maximus. We all already know you are an immortal Roman legionnaire.
Roflmao
time traveler confirmed
Honestly, he'd be even more likeable.
Aodhan Raith for real tho
Yeah, nice save, he's not fooling anyone.
Regarding the inclusion of sugar: In the fourteenth century, almost all "good" wine was sweet, so sugar or honey would be unnecessary. In later centuries, non-sweet wines became standard, so sugar or honey became essential to the flavour of hippocras. (The nearest modern equivalent to a fourteenth-century wine would be something like Commandaria, or a sweet red from the Republic of Georgia.)
Well that would explain a lot.
Didn't they use lead to sweeten the wine back then too?
@@DT-ce1fb Not to my knowledge. Lead drinking vessels can have a sweetening effect on acid liquids, but lead was not a common material for dishes in the middle ages. (The Romans had lead-pewter plates, but they were rare in medieval Europe.)
Back in Beethoven's time, they used lead pots to sweeten the wine
@@DT-ce1fb in ancient greece, grape juice was boiled in lead pots to create a sweetener that they would use in wine and other dishes!
Saw you on Townson’s Nutmeg Tavern. Looked up your channel. I so appreciate how you describe the taste of the drinks and food since due to dietary restrictions I wouldn’t ever experience the flavors. You make that experience so clear where I can imagine tasting them myself. Thank you! I have a new favorite channel.
That’s how I got here too.
Nutmeg tavern, I burst out laughing. Take a like, my friend.
My Dear Sir, your humor and wit is the most precious spice to your content. Please, do not stop uploading. This chanel is a keeper: cooking, history and charismatic, witty prince-charming-looking host.
Thank you! The encouragement keeps me going so I appreciate it.
When I researched my Master thesis for History of Medicine, more than a decade ago, I remember stumbling over an article about theriac, the 'wonder drug' of the Ancient and Medieval periods. I've forgotten the particulars, but what stuck with me was that there were recipes of more than a hundred ingredients, and the more and the more expensive and exotic the ingredient the better. I loved that; it was such a human thing! As a Dutch saying goes, 'wat van ver komt is lekker' ('what comes from afar is delicious'), which means that anything that is exotic and strange MUST be better than ordinary, everyday stuff, right? It's also fun because you just KNOW that some doctor (or quack, which might be the same thing) would be summoned by a rich dude to make some theriac, because rich dude is afraid that he might get poisoned (very GoT) and theriac 'rejects the poisonous', and the doctor says, 'weeeellll... I've got a recipe which asks for a hundred ingredients, among which a dozen things that are impossible to get, so we'll leave them out', and when rich dude gets poisoned anyway the doctor can then claim that the theriac WOULD have worked if only they had included the rare, expensive, exotic ingredients. Anyone who thinks medieval Man wasn't clever has another thing coming! Lol!
The reason I mention this is that I have the feeling that 'it's expensive and exclusive' might also be a factor as to why different spices were added. I'm sure 'tasting good' was of supreme importance, but 'what comes from afar is (even more) delicious' (and has the added benefit of impressing your guests) :)
I was watching the whole video thinking that this would be a completely exotic, medieval beaverage, but it spread trough the world indeed! Here in Brazil, in June we parties to St. John, Anthony and Peter, and in these parties we drink hot red wine with suggar, ciannamon and ginger. Love your videos man!
If you ever need weird spices, check with home brewing stores. They often stock things like grains of paradise
And for cheap since they’re usually the stuff that’s not pretty enough for regular stores
Just have to say - when I stumbled upon this channel about a month ago I thought "Well, he must have been doing this channel for at least a couple of years in order to refine his concept to this level!" Imagine my surprise when I found out that you had just started it recently as a lockdown project. Tasting History is probably my favourite channel find in ages - funny, knowledgeable, well produced... Looking forward to many more episodes!
Thank you so much!
This is a lockdown project? Holy crap I thought this channel had been going for ages, the writing, research and production quality are all excellent.
You can imagine my "disappointment" when I first stumbled upon this channel and thought I had found something I could binge-watch, only to realise there were only a couple of videos :P I thought this was an old channel because it lacks the amateurish feel of other young channels or the first videos of some older ones.
@@MLakeside I have to believe max does something in presentation or camera work for a living. No one is this polished, funny, concise without being very practiced and at ease with both camera and editing content.
"...getting spices, not simple, especially in quarantine."
But still probably easier than finding hippocras, so, onward.
Mighty quest awaits
Found some for sale in Vannes last week, as well as a small store that had most of the spices mentioned in the video.
I'm swedish, I had no idea Glögg had such an interesting history behind it.
I'm Estonian and I had no idea either. We call it glögi or hõõgvein
Norwegian here. Same.
Danish person here! Gløg is great, the French version is my favorite, it's without almonds and raisins! 👌
Yeah glögg is still pretty close to its super old original spiced wine drink.
Swedish ginger bread and glögg both have spicemixes that still are close and carry the legacy of the food of medieval kings and wealthy.
So at Yule you are more or less drinking and eating things that taste pretty medieval.
Yule have been the time that we indulge and use the most expensive spices and ingredients we can afford in Sweden
And that meant spices for medieval people. Lots of spices.
Hence glögg and ginger bread.
And it’s a lot more complex spice mixes than we normally use today. We like much of the rest of Europe a few hundred years later got influenced by French ideas of spices and herbs only to be used to enhance the flavour of the main ingredient, and not change the flavour of the dish.
So salmon should be spiced to taste as much as nice salmon as possible, and not taste of any spice. To show that you could afford to buy high quality fresh ingredients.
Instead of previously using loads of spices to show of how you could afford lots of different nice spices and use them to achieve tastes that are impossible to get otherwise.
That is why Europe is such a outliner when it comes to spices, we use way less than most cuisines. Most food cultures around the world have complex spice mixes used for rubs, curries, sauces, etc.
We used to have that too, and we can find remains of that culture in a few old dishes and drinks we have like glögg, but then France.
Idk man, the name Glögg just made me laugh. Sounds like the sound you make when you drink it lol.
Here in Brazil we have a recipe named "Vinho Quente" or Hot Wine, made with cinnamon, cloves, apples em strawberries, pretty popular on mid-year hollidays (our winter). Btw, i'm a history and geography teacher and love your videos, i even subtitle the ones about black plague for my classes. Congrats buddy, amazing channel
As soon as he said "spiced wine" i came to the comments looking for some quentão. Was not disappointed
in germany they've got hot spiced wine too called Glühwein (glow wine) which is really popular around Christmas, you'll find it at every Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market).
yes, this sounds a LOT like mulled wine
@@DarkValorWolf
Considering the origins of our Quentão/Vinho Quente (literally "hot wine"), I must say it arrived here through the German colonies.
A shoutout to the Germans. You, along the Portuguese and Italians, are INSANELY influential to our cuisine, at least in the Southern and Southeastern states.
If you've already made the subtitles you might consider offering them to the channel so they can add them as an option for those episodes.
This dude needs a show on tv where he travels the world lookin for these crazy ingredients I love history n I live food I'd watch
A collab with weird explorer would be cool now quarantine is over
Just FYI, the smell of dirt after it rains is called "petrichor".
Learned something new! So yeah, it’s that and the smell of the desert bush creosote mixed together.
I thought that was generally any smell of rain? But yes, that would have been the most accurate term.
Someone’s a Doctor Who fan.
A friend of mine, who loves the smell of the air after a hard rain named her daughter Petrichor. She said the scent of her brand new little girl, bathed and bundled, brought it so clearly to mind.
I think when Calvin asked Hobbes he called it "snippid'
Nothing says "trying self-quarantine projects" than drinking historical spiced wine!
8:02 Chemically, it's the *water* and *alcohol* which do the work of pulling the spice & herbal chemicals into solution (just as distilled whiskey soaking in oak barrels pulls the oak chemicals into the whiskey).
16:50 Odors come from vapors, and the amount of vapor is a function of temperature. That's why the warm spiced wine clears your sinuses.
Physics is fun!
Tasting History is the perfect mix of comedy, history and cooking
New video from Tasting History? Day has been made.
Glad to help 😄
Tuesday. Best day of the week!
I also grew up in Arizona and was thinking of that smell too when you were describing the spikenard. I think that smell is called petricor or something close.
Petrichor, the oils from dry grass. Plants create it to help it maintain itself when there's not much water around, and release it when they get water.
@@BLS31 as someone who lives in the desert, that smell is one of the most soothing and pleasant smells ever. everyone I know opens the window when the clouds sweat on us. wouldn't really call it rain, way to weak. but its just enough to get that smell going and its so fresh and calming everyone opens up to it.
It is, however, different depending on where you are. While petrichor is a thing everywhere (everywhere I know at least), there's a big difference in the petrichor you get in different places. So I guess it still makes sense in this case to clarify it's the petrichor of the Arizona desert.
Creosote! Nothing like it. It smells so fresh and clean. I miss it.
Petrichor: the smell of rain on dry earth.
I've heard Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions describe middle English as being something you can "kinda read but it's spelled weird and everything is pronounced like you've got a golf ball in each cheek."
That is exactly how it should be described!
OSP reference in Tasting history?? Sweeeeeeeet.
OSP sucks
@@kuroshthegreat8073 no u
You can do it Bill Bailey style by rolling the Rs and adding a lotte of vowelle soundes: ruclips.net/video/m4wzJZdmelA/видео.html
"Hey why does this soap stain my skin red?"
"Oh that's good for your humors."
At least it is humorous to everyone else!
as far as i know u shouldnt use cinnamon in soap since it burns
its pretty much the same With traditional Chinese Medicine. which is funny because everyone mocks western traditional Medicine but traditional chinese Medicine is regarded as trendy and functional.
@@MegaMackproductions i mock both of them
@@timk8869 That's fair. I regard both as having pros and cons to them. 🤷♂️ not extremely effective with some exceptions but in a pinch its better than nothing at all.
My guy imports spices from a farm in Ghana for this! So much respect!
I love how the Middle Ages approached their recipes just as they did their language.
“How do you spell this word?” “Idk but it should at least sound like this when you say it. What happens with the letters is up to you”
“How do you prepare this dish?” “Idk but it should at least have these things in it. How you put them all together is up to you”
"BUT, just as people kept drinking Kool-Aid after Jonestown..." That seriously made me laugh! 🤣🤣🤣
I feel bad for laughing that hard at that bit
Yes, mass murder/suicide is HILARIOUS...
wow, he made a pleb laugh, no small feat. o wait.
Hate to be that guy but they actually drank Flavor-ade in Jonestown.
@@inksuckeye1 Powdered sugary drink mix
I found you by accident, and to u wind from my day I now watch you. I find you informative, funny, and you actually try to recreate the recipies. I love it!!!. BRAVO!!!
I love how he changes the Pokémon on the back table every episode
My autistic daughter loves that part. It's actually how I got her to watch it and she likes it, especially the quirky history.
Same here
I’m such a fanboy in the comment section of all of your videos, but I have to always say: you are so good at this.
It’s such an uplifting experience to see an artist and/or professional flourish in their natural habitat. It’s clear you’ve found your vocation and the people are noticing.
Thank you! I love that I have fanboys 😁
Surprisingly, I have all the ingredients for this recipe at hand except spikenard! Tips for anyone looking for two of the hard-to-find spices mentioned in the video even during the pandemic, long pepper and grains of paradise, if you live in or near a sizeable town or city, check your local South Asian and West African grocers! I live in a medium-sized city on the Canadian prairies, but these ingredients are relatively easy to find here if you know where to look. All the South Asian markets in my city seem to have an abundance of long pepper and the West African markets will carry grains of paradise, sometimes under the name "alligator pepper" (there is actually some debate over whether the two spices are the same or if they are different species in the same genus with alligator pepper being a little hotter but otherwise tasting the almost identical). You can even call ahead to arrange curb-side pick up at many stores if you like, to avoid having to go in during the pandemic! Now, while I don't generally drink much alcohol, perhaps hippocras is a good use for that bottle of wine someone gifted me for my birthday...
Grains of paradise are also sometimes stocked at brewing supply stores, so that's worth checking as well
'and a spoon of nutmeg'
Ahh yes, the wine that doesn't only transport you back to the middle ages, but the shadow realm as well!
*Townsends laughing evilly*
I met Raptor Jesus in the shadow realm he made fun of my shoes and hairdo.
Nutmeg. The nightmare fuel that unleashes unimaginable hell upon your small feeble mind.
@@darklegion3693 nutmeg has nothing on datura
@@horacegentleman3296 thats a lot worse than nutmeg. Its more like drugs mate XD.
Everyone of drinking age, say “thank you, Max!”. To delicious accurate alcoholic history.
Also, a new generation is going to now google “Jonestown”.
🤣
I like that you tasted these at different temperatures and analyzed so carefully each one: without being analytical and clearly still enjoying! Makes me miss the days when alcohol and I were still friends.
What's this? An excuse to drink more wine, don't mind if I do.
Doesn’t take much for me to make such an excuse
TastingHistory We noticed...Just tell yourself that you’re not an alcoholic if you’re aware of it, and then you can have another glass.
For Science!
Edit. Some people are more fond of science than others I see...3 glasses... Hick :)
"I'm not having a glass of wine! I'm having six. It's called a tasting, and it's classy."
Excuses are temporary, enjoyment is eternal.
“It’s all a little weird.” That made me laugh. Perfect description. In England, mulled wine remains popular, spiced and delicious. Perfect for a cold Autumn or Winter night.
Mulled remains popular, period.
Morgan Seppy, no no, just in England 😜
The "hot vs. cold, wet vs. dry" approach is the same as in ayurvedic medicine and as in Traditional Chinese Medicine and both try to influence these qualities with foods, herbs and spices. I just realized that. Interesting. I wonder if these cultures somehow adopted these views from one another or if humans in different parts of the world came up with the same ideas sort of simultaneously.
I suspect they're somewhat independently since Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese medicines have like extra elements or have some of them swapped out for others from the European humour system. Kinda crazy how that happens regardless!
the east and west were connected via the silk road, so it's not entirely impossible that some ideas on health might have been connected, though idk if the greeks are older than the silk road or not
There is a concept in history with a funny latin name that translates to "simultaneous invention"
Basically, mankind is the same wherever you go. We always try the same solutions to problems no matter what our origins, and the solutions that work often work everywhere.
I would guess both got influences from Mesopotamia during the height of the Bronze Age.
I'm actually pretty surprised that more cultures haven't realised the profound overlap between medicines & foods.
So many spices, common beverages like coffee & tea, and even some common vegetables (which had been grown for millennia, even despite the unpleasant taste of earlier, wilder varietals) have neuroactive or psychoactive compounds.
Here, there's both Pepper & Cinammon (apart from the Alcohol), as well as the Ginger & Galengal, each of which have some intriguing compounds.
[ Note that none of this is to give any of the ideas behind flawed hypotheses like The Humors, or Ayurvedic Medicine credence, or any modern scientific support - with them being quite comprehensively debunked. ]
I don’t know where I’m gonna use all this tasting history knowledge but hot damn I’m glad I have it.
At some dinner party someday, you’ll break it out and people will be impressed. At least that’s what I tell myself.
Or at a random.pub quiz
TastingHistory to be fair that’s what I’d like to tell myself as well, but I know that probably isn’t in the cards. I’ll most likely store it with facts people think are useless but are actually cool
@@TastingHistory LOL I totally do that type of thing at dinner parties.🤣
"The Spice[s] must flow!"
Couldn't resist a Dune reference.
Don't let your navigator get too drunk on the hippocras. You might miss your galaxy by a long shot. :-D
@@mortisCZ Then he might pass out. Then: "The sleeper must awaken!"
That bit in there about "spiced honey wine for travelers" has me wondering how this recipe would work with mead....*adds to list of things to try in later homebrew batches*
Kindly report back if you try it.
Having tried Poltorak (mead which is 2/3 honey and 1/3 water, and super sweet) I think something like that would probably work great with spices.
@@DGneoseeker1 I was thinking a pyment (part honey, part grape must) and throwing the spices in at the end.
Spiced mead is quite common in several parts of the world. The Spiced Honey wine mentioned was indeed mead. Chaucer's Mead company sells there mead with a little bag of mulling spice for if you decide to serve it spiced hot or however.
I've tried it hot, it's pretty good with the spices. Room temp with the spices its interesting, but never tried it cold with spices personally. Granted, Chaucer's is often regarded as entry level mead but it's pretty readily available at most liquor stores and places that sell wine too.
@@Predalien195 Have you tried Jadwiga? It's not exactly spiced. More fruit flavoured.
@@DGneoseeker1 I have. I rather enjoy it myself
I might have said it before on one of his previous videos, but man, WHY IS THIS NOT A MAINSTREAM SHOW? This is so much better than what i see these days on the "History" channel or even the food network. Not only is the content fun and interesting (the sign of a great teacher btw), but the way he educates us about the time and place and events going on at the time each recipe was created means that we get our history lessons without even knowing we are learning things. Mr. Miller is obviously passionate about the food and the history and everything is well researched and as well documented as it is possible to be given the subject. I can't imagine how awesome this would be with a budget and maybe an additional research aid and maybe special guest historians and chefs... etc. GIVE THIS MAN A TV SHOW AND $$$$$$$$
I believe that he is sponsored. This is an extraordinarily professional show that shot to popularity very quickly, so a lot of times that indicates someone who has backing. That doesn't detract anything from him at all, though. I'd love to see him get even better known. The show truly is far better than any cooking shows on television, or even most of the history shows, for that matter. 😋
@@lilyw.719 Sponsored by who? A stuffed Pokemon toy seller?
DM Cannon I totally agree with you!
I actually got here through several videos. Shadiversity video of medieval food, then Modern history TV and then finally here. Sort of went down a youtube rabbit hole.
I hope he gets super popular on RUclips but not a tv show. I live in England and I don't want to wait a year or more to see a new episode.
It's probably because the essential oils in each of the spices vaporizes at different temperatures, but it's still really cool that the flavor and aroma profile varies so much at each temp.
The stinginess of the hot one is probably due to alcohol vapours
@@RealHogweed hot wine is really common here and I swear you feel how alchohol vapors get throught the nasal cavity directly to the brain.
Yes, the alcohol evaporation will also carry the more volatile flavor components. I love that he sampled the hippocras at three different temperatures, but if it was me doing the tasting, I probably would have started with the cold, and worked up to the hot. Then back down to the cold. Then back up...😉🍷
@@patriciamorgan6545 temperature surely changes the aromatic profile, but i doubt it's anything from the spices that's unpleasant to the nose. It would be interesting to prove it by infusing hot water with the same spices.
A wonderful Yuletide beverage, my wife and I make this every year, probably too much of it. It's a great thing to add to your holiday traditions; hot, warm, or cold.
Definition of "petrichor"
: a distinctive, earthy, usually pleasant odor that is associated with rainfall especially when following a warm, dry period and that arises from a combination of volatile plant oils and geosmin released from the soil into the air and by ozone carried by downdrafts
it's my favorite smell AND my favorite word
I can smell this.
Also one of my favorite hip-hop lyrics:
"
No Mulligans, crow bars bird cage
Cold, colonize Mars on Earth day
And surface from the cellar door like worms into the petrichor
Messenger, better get a vessel for a Tetris score
Zilch, cowabunga homies call me "press ignore"
Devastating energy exploding off his Tesla coil
Farm baited breath and tempermental tremors
That taught a man to wave with 10 percent of his fingers
"
(Aesop Rock - Tetra)
Neat
Fun fact, that's also what beetroot tastes like. Beets actually contain some geosmin, giving them that earthy and slightly sweet taste.
I love that you actually put effort into the pronunciation of non-English words. Great content, keep it up!
My parents always have spiced wine during the holidays. They usually pour a bottle or two of wine into a slow cooker and set it to "warm" with a blend of spices in a bag or mesh ball or something. Always a great and warm holiday drink to sit down with. They used to make this even back when I was a kid. I sometimes make it myself at home.
That would be mulled wine!
IIRC, you're meant to heat it with a fire poker that's been sat in the fire long enough to get red hot, but that might just be my grandmother telling tall tales.
@Skorpychan I think that was actually a practice or tradition at one point but definitely not something people usually do today.
@@DeckDogs4Life Nowadays, you just buy it in a bottle, or dump 'mulled wine spice mix' into a pitcher of cheap red, then microwave it.
@@Skorpychan my parents always use a crockpot to keep it warmed longer. Makes it stay warm all evening.
Tasting History is definitely my favorite anime.
🤣
If you ever start selling merch, a t-shirt that says "Apologies to marjoram" should be your first item.
Also, I'd watch you do wine tastings for an hour.
I'd like a "I eat history for breakfast" shirt.
love the experiment with tasting it at 3 different temperatures. fascinating how much of a difference it makes.
Very cool how dramatically temperature changes the flavor!
I was shocked
@@TastingHistory You looked like you got punched in the nose, har. 😋
Immediate looks behind Max to see what Pokémon he uses.
I wonder when he'll run out of pokemon to use.
Does he have like every Pokémon or something?
@@boulevard14 Gotta catch em all
We have a majority of Kanto, and a random number of other gens. Want to start on Johto next but slowly running out of room
@@boulevard14 I think he may have repeated a few pokemon, as well as used non-pokemon toys, but don't remember in which videos.
There's a very similar recipe that's usually made during winter in Brazil. Heated red wine combine with sugar and some of those same spices and, I think to balance the sugar and give it an extra punch, cachaça (like rum, but not aged and less sweet) is added. Great to drink during cold nights. We call it "quentão" which would translate to something like "super hot" or "big heat".
Every video, you have wine with food. Why not just make a historic wine to go with the historic food!? GENIUS!
As a swede and knowing that the pronunciation of many words and letters in the Swedish language is pretty challenging for most people, I have to commend you for saying "Glögg" and especially getting the sound of the letter "ö" as close to perfect a foreigner, who doesn't fluently speak the Swedish language, can! :)
Btw, just found you through recommendations and as a history nerd that I am I subscribed almost immediately when I was met with humour almost right at the start of the video!
Keep it up!
~ Cheers!
Thank you. It’s a hard word. ☺️
@@TastingHistory Your welcome and thank you for the reply! :D
And, if/or whenever, you will cover the history of mead, which is called 'mjöd' in Swedish, shouldn't be a problem for you to pronounce after managing "Glögg" like a pro! :)
I wish you a great weekend!
~ Cheers!
@@TastingHistory the wörd. (Börd, börd, börd, börd is the wörd) Americans definitely can pronounce "Ö".😂
Gluhwein is definitely from the 'as much sugar as you can dissolve' branch of the modern spiced wine family.
Yeah. I happily take a cup when someone offers, but just one sip makes your mouth feel coated in sugar.
Depends. The stuff sold at christmas markets very often is, to mask the abhorrend quality of wine they use, but if made properly, not so much. Don´t buy it if it´s less than 3,50€/cup, and you might just get a really good experience.!
The sugar-bomb Brain-destroyer is a hot wine punch called "Feuerzangenbowle", which is basically very similar, only with the addition of oranges, and you have a sugar cone suspended over it that gets soaked in Rum or Arrak, and set on fire, so burning booze and molten sugar drip into the hot spiced wine. Spectacular display, equally spectacular effect.
Also sometimes is sold at christmas markets. Can be very tasty, although sickly sweet, but also absolutely devastating. If you drink it indoors, and then go out into a frosty night, you should have picked a nice ditch to pass out in beforehand.
I don't like regular wine, but I do enjoy myself some Glühwein during the winters here in Germany. Maybe I should give Hyppocras a try.
I hate wine on it's own but love mulled wine. I feel like making this too. I'll probably wait until Christmas though.
You should try feuerzangenbowle if you like gluhwein
Ryan Smith wine by itself.... 🍷
Glühwein is a gift from Heaven!
Alas, I now live in Australia, where it NEVER gets cold enough to make it. And anyway Aussies only drink beer.
This is so interesting! In Brazil we also have our own version of Hippocras: Quentão. It is hot wine with spices. It is normally served in folcloric festivals that occur all over Brazil during the month of June. Cheers, Max!
I’ll have to try it someday!
Which is not a surprise, because brazil was colonized by portuguese people, which also has saint john parties in the north, in the city of Porto, and a drink like quentão, named vinho quente (spicy wine) that it's drunk in the winter. The only difference is that in Portugal the pine is different from the one find in brazil.
Didn't know quentão was wine
Carai
I've thought the very same thing while he was doing the recipe. 'Isso é quentão.'
This channel, like history itself, is a treasure trove for worldbuilders.
I now consider myself lucky to live in an area of Germany that was once Swedish, so we get drunk on both Glögg and Glühwein every Weihnachtsmarkt. Your pronounciation was very good! Also loving the return of the beard
As a bartender I find this absolutely fascinating, especially you tasting them at different temperatures. Thank you!
My family actually still makes and drinks Wassail during Christmas, it’s delicious.
I make an easy form of it and it’s yummy!
A teacher at my high school would make some for us every Christmas (in class) and hardly anyone ever drank it. I got a few cups every time. Is very good.
@@blackie126my choir class had a Christmas dinner while we sing (a madrigal?? I don't remember) but we had some of that as one of the drinks
My mom always makes a warm spiced wine on Christmas eve. It’s similar to this
My nieces mom used to bring it to family functions. I miss her so much. So happy my nephew married her daughter.
Max: "other spiced wines" [...] "mostly in the winter months."
Me, a Norwegian: hey wait that sounds familiar
Max: "Wassail in England, glühwein in Germany..."
Me: ok that's just gløgg
Max: "And in Nordic countries they have glögg!"
Me: eyyyyyy \o/
And I can confirm, gløgg a staple even today, though now people get like, spiced sirup in a bottle which is heated up in a pan and then you add either wine or a little bit of water or whatever, depending on your company. And it should be served with some chopped almonds and raisins that you can spoon into your cup as you like it. No julebord is complete without it.
AH! I assume gløgg is the origin for Grog? So Pirates were drinking spiced wine?
@@SirWussiePants No, "grog" is something completely different. It's Old English and is a type of watered down rum often served to sailors.
A *syrup*? How curious; I've seen both ready-made glühwein and gløgg being sold and in essence, that's just a lazy way to make it yourself when it takes less than half an hour and you get to pick the wine. Wasn't aware of spooning raisins right into the cup though!
Har ni glöggsirap i Norge? Skumt! Och hackade mandlar? Ni är allt lite konstiga. ;)
@@SirWussiePants The etymologi for gløgg/glögg is the act of warming the wine. It was called to "glödga" wich come from the word for ember wich is "glöd".
I really appreciate the description of the taste of the unusual spices because, many times, during your videos, you mention things I've never heard of or didn't even know you could eat.
Glühwein is the most important part about the festive season! I loved it as a child (Kinderpunsch) and now as an adult it makes your head feel funny too! Never tried it cold though.
hello 😊 yes mulled wine is sooo good in winter.
Finally an excuse to get tipsy 'studying' history.
DEUS EX 💗
Who needs an excuse?
@@ix8750 I was just gonna say that! :)
Yes 😂
My vision is *hick* augmented.
Max you are a gem and so very glad you stuck with your channel!! When I make this wine I might just call it hippogriff for fun when I serve it. Having a blast bing watching from the beginning.
My wife and I make glogg twice a year. Because we love the taste. And the alcohol content is high. It's an old swedish recipe from her grampa. Will never stop making it.
During quarantine I decided to make Limoncello for the first time. But I also had a ton of kumquats, so I decided to make a second batch with kumquat peel instead. It was absolutely delicious, I prefer it to lemoncello or orangecello. Very easy to make and something I think that you would enjoy doing in your free time!
your voice is one of the most soothing things i can find on the internet.
recently i learned that historians debate if gilles de rais was actually framed. i read up on it and it was pretty compelling and interesting. it's a shame we'll never know for certain, probably, but now i tend to lean towards his innocence. it's a fun rabbit hole to fall down sometime if you look into it!
Its indeed a amazing case of extremely likely historical citogenesis keeping on in literature and encyclopedias on his guilt despite the most damning evidence being a confession he made under watch of the very church executives, happening to be close family friends of the Duke of the Breton peninsula that put him to trial and got almost half his wealth AND being "unofficially"/for crown and title exonerated by the king in accord to a few of his other fellow nobles that were serving with Joan in the very next year (before official government exoneration 551 years later) as they testified that multiple cases of women (and some kids) disappearing couldnt align with him as he wasnt even at those estates (and instead with other fellow pals from the war).
I tend to lean towards his innocence too. Or at the very least, if he did commit crimes, it was nowhere near the proportion history says it was. I'd say there's some compelling arguments out there on why his contemporaries would rather see him slandered and dead! Very interesting. Also any 'confessions' are automatically suspect since it's fair to say a lot of them tended to involve torture... xD
"If you can afford cinnamon can't you afford better wine?" Never underestimate the length some rich people will go to pinch pennies.
And sometimes you would purchase expensive wine but it wasn't as tasty as expected or the transport made it "meh". You can still shine your rich friends with expensive wine from far countries but you'd add expensive spices to make it even more special.:-)
I expect that the spices added to the wine was to show wealth.Just like how sugar was used in to show wealth (the birth of "sugar disease", diabetes) and they would heavily spice rich foods to show wealth. It's conspicuous consumption--literally!
And good wine wasn't always easy to get? No Trader Joe's back then.
@@joealtmaier9271, good point.
I live in France on one of the main medieval trade routes between France and England (there's a castle nearby that was besieged three times during the 100 year war). We have a lot of "debris" that was found: barrels, carts etc. We know that wine, at the time, was BAD. Even the best wines were of poor quality compared to our modern wines (the cheapest vinegary thick wine you find today for a copper at the store is a good approximation for the best they had). They weren't bottled, which made them age badly, turned them sour, sometimes even moldy if the barrel was of bad quality. The techniques and grape selections weren't as pushed as they are today either. That's why adding spice and sugar, or just fruit and honey for the poor, was so popular. There were businesses that made Hypocras for export and didn't even bother with selling wine, because they made far more money that way. There's still a couple of those workshops in existence, with a very small production, in Arriège (if you ever visit that region in France).
Thanks for the video, as we're approaching the holidays this will become useful. It also reminds me of the origin of a phrase - to "hob-nob" (usually with "the gentry" or some such). The phrase comes from holiday/winter parties, where when you got there the host would ask you if you wanted drinks off the "hob" (a sort of shelf either on a stove or a fireplace) or the "nob", apparently a shelf next to an open window (like how I used to keep beer on the fire escape for winter parties). Basically the host was asking if you wanted your drink warm or cold, and eventually it came to mean parties where this sort of thing was common (to "hob and nob", then hob-nob, came to mean going to a party of people of means, people who could afford to just keep a window open in winter for cold drinks).
The added metric measurements for the ingredients is much appreciated!
The serving temperature will affect the rate at which the volatile oils are released from the different spices. So, different flavour profiles: chemistry 🧪
11:34 in Brazil we still drink "Vinho Quente" (hot wine) in winter, when there'e a religious festival called "São João" aroud June and July. It's usually a cheap and sweet wine boiled with apple, cinnamon, cloves and fresh ginger and served hot. There's also a version with cachaça instead of wine and it's stronger and called "quentão" (big hot, I guess?). So, the tradition is still alive. Please talk more about Brazilian and South American food! Love your channel!
no one:
medieval spice traders: S P I K E N A R D
I already had some hippocras made up in my fridge! My obsession with spiced wine is now totally justified by a youtube video. Hippocras is better without sugar and with more cardamom and galangal than you think. More than too much is just enough.
Hands down, the best part of these videos is when you taste what you've made and we get to see your passion for historical food shine through as you marvel at the flavors
One of the most underrated channels on RUclips! As a history and cooking nerd, this is right up my alley. Thanks for making these videos, Max!
Thank you for watching!
You: whole we wait here's the perfect excuse to take take a look at why Europe fell in love with.... -cuts to ad-
Ad: HUMAN PLASMA!!
me: -spits out my earl grey-
Mine said "THE LIBERAL MOB", because thanks politicians, I definitely want you to interrupt me with your biases while trying to learn how to make a medieval spiced wine
See, now you're going to have people walking around asking for 'the Jesus foot oil' x'D
From wine education classes I've taken, here's a tip: when comparing wines in a group or flight, always sniff all the wines before sipping. Once you start sipping you won't be able to smell much because of the wine fumes in the back of your throat. Prost! 😄
Great info. Thanks.
I know that post-rain desert smell!!
Occasionally I used to Spritz a part of the backyard with the hose for a minute so I could get a whiff of it!🥰
We also have a drink in Germany that's even got a movie named after it: Feuerzangenbowle. It's made by putting spices and fruit into a bowl filled with red wine, putting a cone-shaped sugar loaf on top of it, held up by metal (originally a pair of tongs), dousing the sugar with rum, and setting it on fire.
Bellossom is perfect for this episode as it learns Sweet Scent. I definitely need to try a variant of this with honey wine. Nutmeg and Cinnamon would seem right at home with it.
Fellow desert AZ person here! The word for the smell of the desert after rain is petrichor ;)
12:20 - You can still go Wassailing in several counties in England, although it's slightly different from the medieval practice. You basically go to an apple orchard in winter, and drink Wassail Cider around a bonfire and, depending on who's organised it, sing songs and chants wishing good health to the trees in the orchard.
The word "Pyment" is still in use in meadmaking for meads that include Grape must. Fun fact from your friendly neighborhood meadmaker.
I just found your channel a few days ago and I’ve already watched most of the videos. Not only is it informative, you’re absolutely excellent in front of a camera. I’ve rarely seen channels this polished, especially this quickly. I could totally see you with your own network tv show someday. Keep up the great work!
Thank you!
Love the channel. All the weird questions about food I ever thought of! On the meaning of spikenard, it seems that the name has been used to refer to at least 3 different plants: Aralea racema, which is native to northeast America and would not have been accessible in Europe in 1390, Nardostachys Jatamansi, which is an endangered Himalayan medicinal herb, and I guess if were a king you might have the resources to get it. The third is Lavandula latifolia, or Spike Lavender, which is similar to Lavender except much more aromatic and camphor-like. According to some sources, the ancient Greeks called lavender Nardus or Spikenard, named after the Syrian city of Naarda. Spike Lavender grows in southern France, Portugal, and Spain. Since the recipes says "Spikenard of Spain", I am thinking that they were most likely referring to this third one?
Coming soon: washing history, where Max takes us through the soaps, lotions and exfoliants of the past!
No but I would watch that. No word of a lye.
Soap pun, I am a nerd.
If you wanna know how Saxons washed their clothes, urine luck!
if he demonstrates the soaps and lotions shirtless ...
Drinking only things that take a day to make is really an ideal way to self regulate during quarantine.
🤣
Not if you prepare one each day ;)
It takes a day to prepare one and a half litres... after the first day you're not going to have a great time