When you roasted yourself by saying you were spending the quarantine making candied horseradish I laughed, but then I got sad because I’m spending my time in quarantine watching you spend yours making candied horseradish
StinkyPirates during quarentine im reading a comment thread from a comment someone made on a video of a guy making candied horseradish during quarentine T_T
@@ActionAlligator as a cool rock enthusiast, I am forever spiteful of the crystal peddlers for inflating the price of gemstones with their "medicinal energies". I just want a cool rock, damn it!
@@dragonfell5078 I know of a geology student who worked with a professor studying rocks in a river, collected the pretty ones, polished them, and made a fortune selling them to people who think those rocks have magical properties 😅 Now, he never advertised the rocks as having any magical powers, so technically he didn't lie. He never deny those claims too tho 🤭
@@TastingHistory would you be willing to make a longer list of your favorite books about the black death or maybe other medieval topics too? I love not being the only millennial medieval history nerd :D
TastingHistory lol, you just have to be a history major/theater minor or vice versa. Sorry for prying, I’m so curious. (Ok, I was once a theater major, then some/many yrs later a history major. Now I advise history students, & would love to recommend yr channel with a little background. No worries, if you don’t want to share I’ll be recommending anyway :) )
I know this is a bit of a long shot, but what about Garum? It's a Roman fermented fish sauce! It'd take ages to make, and it would probably stink your house out, but... Who knows? It could be fun!
Not a long shot at all! I've been contemplating making it and figuring out where to store it. It's such an important historical ingredient, it would be a shame not to make it. Thank you for the recommendation!
Wow, it seems the garum video is the reason the channel has exploded in popularity recently (and was the one that RUclips first suggested to me), so thank you George, and congratulations Max on 100k well-deserved subs!
I wasn't looking at my screen when you said 'flagellants'', misheard it as 'flatulence' and was very confused for a moment there. Couldn't work out how that would stop God being angry - thank you for immediately giving the explanation, that would have been very strange to go on with.
Honestly though based on some of the other "cures" I wouldn't be surprised if someone thought that might be a way to release the miasma or bad juju from your body. We dumb
Recipes from the classical era are essentially nonexistent. With the exception of the epicius and a few recipes from ancient Babylon, recipe books didn't really become a thing until the early medieval period, specifically the Islamic world and later the mongol controlled China.
I know that I'm not an early viewer of this one, having found you a part of a year ago....but you asked, so I'll answer. I'd love to see you produce some older Native American recipes.
I would really love to see some ancient Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese foods. I’ve always found their modern foods really interesting and as something I desperately would like to try. Given some of those cultures have recorded history dating back further than most western cultures there should be plenty of recipes to pull from! Thanks!
Well, I'm sure that some history loving guy there in East Asia has such a channel here on youtube. Just look for it there in those languages. You know, Max concentrates on the history of his own people. And, of course, now and then he makes some excursion in some other cultures.
@@neinundnein6358 max specifically stated people leave recommendations from different eras and cultures. it would be nice to see someone so enthusiastic about food and history, with such big a platform, to explore cultures and people groups that are different from his own. please sit down.
should he concentrate too much on oriental food, and make this idealised, lik he does with some other cultures, I would loose my intrest in his channel.
@@neinundnein6358 "oriental food"? kindly don't lump an entire continent into one offensive word. there's nothing wrong with exploring asian culture and asian food. if you have issues with that, something's wrong with you, not with max. for all our sakes, i hope you indeed lose interest in his channel, because racist folks like you are certainly not welcome.
Darn! Just yesterday I reaped and bottled my first crop of horseradish, that I have struggled to grow for 8 long years, and now I discover this recipe. I could spit blood because it's impossible to buy fresh h/r in South Africa and I have to wait another year before I can try it. Love your videos.
Here’s an idea for a video: mole. Mexican curry if you will. Specifically Mole Poblano. It’s got a lot of history and there are about a hundred variations of mole in Mexico 🇲🇽
Would love to see you make pease porridge. I have a good recipe if you need it. I do Medieval, Renaissance, and US Civil War events and it works for all of them.
Marsh mallow mucilage (dried marshmallow root) soaked in warm water until it is like...clear gel then strained. Then mixed into powdered sugar and eggs whites beaten and firmed up (?) on trays with cornstarch. It's for coughs and respiratory ailments.
I spy KK Slider! I love that you have a different plush in the background for every video. I just discovered your page about a week ago and I am really enjoying your content! You're so energetic, informative, funny, and clever. Thank you for making these videos! Your channel is one of the few that I actually will turn the notifications on!
I wonder if the fear of miasma came from the "mal aria" of Roman times (They thought swamps had "bad air", when in reality it was just that swamps had lots of mosquitoes that carried malaria), maybe in conjunction with experience from toxic gasses such as from mines?
Great video! So informative. I’m in the medical field and we use the term for the inability to smell “anosmia”, and when something (a wound) produces a nasty smell it’s “miasmic”. I never knew the bubonic plague theory though. So...thank you “divine teacher of history” 😉.
Miasma theory as it was practiced was really interesting, since on one hand, the miasma itself was really fantastical, but the way the body reacted to it was not that far removed from modern germ theory. The point of living in sewers, or living around filth, wasn't so much that the miasma didn't like being there. I have this book called "Medieval Medicine: It's Mysteries and Science" by Toni Mount, and it discusses this very thing. I'm supposing that some observers guessed that people working in smelly trades, like tanners and butchers, didn't get plagued nearly as bad as the general populace, and assumed that working in miasmatic conditions all their lives gave them an immunity. Living in a sewer, or hanging out by a latrine, was basically a medieval vaccination. Spend more time in less-bad smelly stuff to protect yourself from the REALLY BAD smelly stuff.
Thanks for some really interesting videos. I stumbled across them earlier and just realised I've been watching them for 3 hours and could eat a whole beaver stuffed with a puffin I'm so hungry right now.
The interesting bit is the plague masks/holding herbs to your face, probably did work a bit. Due to the same reason we wear masks they may have blocked/put up a barrier between you and the person with an aerosolized disease.
@@nathangamble125 pneumonic plague is caused by the same bacteria as the bubonic plague, and it does have coughing as a symptom so those plague masks could help.
Certain facets of the plague were spread by coughing, and really the whole outfit does quite well to keep the germs and pests off. Between the fragrant herbs, the long and sometimes tighter fitting clothes, gloves, and boots, it left little exposed flesh and added protective layers, which makes for quite the hazmat suit given it was entirely accidental. Granted I'd still absolutely not take my chances with it over antibiotics, but hey medieval people weren't stupid just ignorant, which means if pattern recognition showed something to work they'd do it and ascribe some insane reason later.
I love your videos, I’ve been binging them like crazy as a history nerd and a cooking enthusiast trapped at home! I’d love to see more recipes, the more ancient the better, specially if you have any River valley civilization era man recipes it would be really interesting, as well as any recipes from any long past times of prosperity in powerful empires (Greece/Macedonia during Alexander the great’s rule, Post-Ceasar Augustus Rome, Persia’s golden age, the general Middle East during the Islamic golden age, the Mongols , China, the Aztecs, Inca or Mayans, or something along those lines! It might be nice to compare what the average person would eat vs what somebody with access to the wealth of the particular moment of success would choose to spend it on food wise!
So this came up on my feed. Guess they thought I would enjoy your video’s and they were right. I am enjoying the recipes, the history and most importantly- you. Your delivery is spot on and so much fun to listen too, plus I love seeing what stuffed creature will be sitting on the shelf behind you. I even made the Lenten almond and date dish which was....delectable.
That head shake when talking about the herbs had me laughing so hard and not sure why. Really glad I found this channel, you’ve earned another subscribe
I'm in charge of making hypcras on holidays. It's a extremely simplified version, taken from "Fabulous Feasts", by Madeleine Pelner Cosman (the full list of ingredients of the complete recipe is insanely long). My sister-in-law had a stomach ache once, and asked me for the recipe. She said it worked. Dry red wine, sugar, black pepper, ground or fresh ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom (which I looked for long before it became more easily accessible!). Boil then simmer, and serve HOT in a ceramic container with a stem or a handle.
@@jessicali8594 Oh, I just reviewed a couple of videos on glühwein and it looks absolutely wonderful! The fresh fruit actually makes me think of a warm sangria.
I love your videos, can’t believe you just started! I am from Canada, so my suggestion is from here. Tourtières from Québec ....the pioneers made this...and we still do at Christmas time.
Thank you! I’ve never heard of Tourtieres so I’ll have to do some research. I think the only Canadian food I partook of when I was there last was Poutine and Tim Horton’s 🤣
Oh ! How wonderfully interesting your channel is.. All the dad jokes & references are charming, interestingly woven through & quite clever.. I am certainly, in one afternoon of binging later, A huge fan now.. Thank you.
My aunt would always make canned sweet pickled horseradish relish each year from their homegrown patch. It was great served with grilled or roasted meat.
just found you and your videos are incredible. thank you for blessing us with your humor and wisdom. my friend and i would love to see some old Japanese cuisine, if you can find any recipes! any kind of unique recipes, or recipes that have lasted over long periods of time would be interesting. go wild!
Hoping you did not burn your eyes from strong fumes of fresh dug horseradish as I have done in the past! Lovely recipe, sir! Sharing with my medieval historical re enactment group ! Cheers!
I will most definitely do a figgy pudding. It was one of the first things I ever baked years ago. I used a recipe that took 30 days! I was going to wait for Christmas, but perhaps I’ll have to push it up.
"Figgy pudding" is an archaic variant of "christmas pudding" or "plum pudding". It's a very common dessert in Britain, and as the "christmas pudding" name suggests, it's mostly eaten around Christmas. It's effectively like a very dense and very soft fruitcake (almost like a thick porridge), which is traditionally cooked by steaming, though in modern times is most commonly bought pre-made from a shop and cooked in a microwave. Its usual ingedients are raisins and other dried fruit (modern forms typically don't include actual figs, though they do sometimes), suet (shredded pork fat), nuts, sugar or honey, spices, citrus peel, and alcohol (which can be basically any alcoholic drink you choose, including wine or beer, though brandy is the most common). These sort of puddings (both the old and modern forms) are often doused in brandy and set alight when they're brought to the table. I'm not sure exactly how similar the old "figgy" pudding is to the more modern variants, though I think the modern types are absolutely delicious, especially with thick cream.
@@TastingHistory Another Christmas item I'd like to see is the origins of the fruitcake...and how it became such a maligned bread. I loved my grandmother's recipe--didn't have neon bright candied fruit in it, just whatever dried fruit she had on hand and steeped in brandy for over a month! As a kid, looked forward to that & the trifle one of my dad's co-workers would make (she was British). Authorized alcohol consumption!
This was a very interesting one. Plus your witty comments on treatments for the plague were very funny. Thanks for another walk hand in hand down crazy lane when it comes to what humans will do when desperate.
I love your channel! All of it is so interesting - the history, the recipes, you, your reactions when trying the food. I cannot believe you don't have 2 million subs yet. It will happen, for sure.
Ehis is wonderful. I'll try it soon. My brother's friend, a pulmonary and thoracic specialist says there is no super food for your lungs and circulatory system like horseradish. I try to incorporate fresh horseradish into lots of dishes that I prepare, but nobody wants to taste that all the time... Candied? What a wonderful way to take your medicine!!!
Just discovered your show, it’s so much fun. I would like to see a show on depressions/WWII foods, when they couldn’t afford food, and during the war things were rationed. My Grandmother told great stories that during the depression, they couldn’t afford things like a lot of sugar, or even flour to bake cakes and cookies. So one thing her and her siblings would make if they wanted something sweet was to use what they had and what was cheap. They would take Saltine crackers, slather yellow mustard, and then sprinkle a tiny bit of sugar on top. Surprise depression era cookie. Tried it once, not for me.
How did I guess you'd be a fan of Animal Crossing? This channel is amazing. Even when it's barely touching on the food aspect, the history lessons and entertaining delivery are what I pine for, the kinda perfect combination that I've been craving ever since Bill Wurtz decided 2 such videos was enough. I don't even think I'd want to hear most RUclipsrs talk about this particular subject but with you it's a hoot. Keep 'em comin' man.
Re. flagellants: those dudes are still around, kind of. Growing up in New Mexico, I would occasionally see Penitentes crawling along rural roads towards local churches. Los Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno remain active to this day in New Mexico and parts of Colorado and include self flagellation in their lenten rituals.
I’d love to hear about the origin of recipes / food that are everyday staples hamburgers, hotdogs, mac & cheese, apple pie, sandwiches, ice cream etc. Would also be interesting to learn how and what people cooked during WW2 with rations and how they substituted. Another area of fascination is to learn what early American settlers meals were like. And what meals consisted of during the Civil War era. I enjoy your videos so much! Can’t wait to see what you think of next :)
As a child I visited the remains of one of the villages wiped out by plague in the North of England. They were good and isolated then some bright spark got an order of blankets in from London and it all went a bit wrong. The surrounding villages isolated from them (this was a medieval plague) and made the infected villagers put coins in a well before they traded them for food. They had some idea what was happening even if the medical people didn't.
I absolutely love your channel. I’m totally hooked!! I look forward to all of your new videos. Your channel is one of favorites on RUclips, hands down! Thanks for all that you do!
It's funny how we look back on the way humans used to behave and what they believed in and how we're acting now with the whole covid-19 pandemic. The phrase "history repeats itself" has never rung more true.
yup, it starts with a bunch of crazy people coming up with all sorts of convoluted ideas to explain why it's happening and self medicating only to realize all you had to do was quarantine for a bit
I know I've mentioned this before but here goes. New to the channel and LOVE IT! French major and historian now living in Alabama. The name Jean Froissart - you are pronouncing it fairly well except for the final T. NO FINAL Ts in French. Really enjoyed this video and I'm thinking I might add this video to my history 101 class. VERY nicely done!!!
I am going to share your link with my history classmates at Uni. You should have more subscribers. I look forward to seasonal/holiday videos. You're awesome!
Thank you! Hopefully the subscribers will come with time. (I’m pretty new). And yes, I have a whole batch of things around the holidays I want to do. I can’t wait!
Ah yes, the greatest form of medicine, practiced to this day: prescribing chicken noodle soup for all that ails you (just kidding, he's grabbing the leeches as we speak).
I'd love to see you make mediaeval beer! I've read that in Bohemia it was called "bread water" because it was so thick, so I'd love to see how it looks re-created!
hey Max, I'd love to see you take on a recipe that's a little impractical to do in a modern setting - make your own ginger bug! or, I don't know, prep a whole fish for some reason. Something no one does anymore, but would have been commonplace. Thanks for the excellent channel, loving it so far!
I've always wondered about the role and use of alcohol in medieval times. I have the idea that they often couldn't drink the water, and alcoholic beverages killed germs. I recall reading that wine and beer and mead were extremely prevalent and so I envision an era of complete drunkenness. That might make for an interesting video lol.
Hey Max, if you're interested in the Decameron one of the most interesting parts imo is the Introduction, in which Boccaccio describes many things about what happened when the plague arrived in Europe, its effects and how people reacted to it. It's a very interesting read.
"What hast thee to lose? I say it again: What hast thee to lose? Taste of it. Verily, should they taste of it - save since it is they and their physicians' choice (or the physicians of the healing-houses). Concerning candy'd chren - taste of it, if thou wouldst.”
The horrifying thing is so many of these weird plague remedies I know from my weirdo esoteric relatives... because of _course_ if people in The Old Days used it, it's a good idea! *sigh*
1:00 I heard an anecdote from my highschool history teacher that there was a french doctor who was executed for witchcraft shortly before the plague hit. Apparently he developed a bunch of methods for curing people of various diseases, and refused to tell people exactly what his potions contained (most likely because he was making a LOT of money and didn't want competitors to dig into his profits), so the local priests were all like "WIZARD, BURN HIM" and that's what they did. When they looked into his journals after the execution, apparently one of the secret ingredients was an "odd mold" (huh, wonder what THAT could be), and the local doctors thought that was ridiculous so they dismissed it. I never looked into that story being true but I could easily imagine it was.
Damn, if he wasn't so stingy and maybe spun a religious aspect to it (I had a vision of an angel's flaming arrow falling on this mold!) we could have had antibiotics much sooner x3
There were several folk cures which involved placing mouldy objects on infected body parts, and other things like vinegar left in a copper vessel (which formed copper acetate, which is a mild antiseptic). 99% of cures from the mediaeval era were a load of rubbish, but a few of them could actually have been somewhat effective.
Really love the history in these videos. I think people would like more glamour shots of the finished product after you cook it and maybe have other people try it and film their reactions.
I'll bet there aren't many fleas in a sewer, so it probably worked! No more effective quarantine. Even then ... I'm not sure I'd do it. For that matter, some herbs also repel bugs, so I wonder if that worked, even a little bit.
From Wikipedia. The enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP), found in the roots of horseradish, is used extensively in biochemistry applications. It is a metalloenzyme with many isoforms, of which the most studied type is C. It catalyzes the oxidation of various organic substrates by hydrogen peroxide. Note those last two words: hydrogen peroxide. A strong antibacterial agent. Might have discouraged Yersinia Pestis quite a bit, at least inside the mouth.
![YoungBoy Never Broke Again - Missing Everything [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dTYeMZGzOzw/mqdefault.jpg)
When you roasted yourself by saying you were spending the quarantine making candied horseradish I laughed, but then I got sad because I’m spending my time in quarantine watching you spend yours making candied horseradish
@StinkyPirates How deep does this rabbit hole go?
StinkyPirates during quarentine im reading a comment thread from a comment someone made on a video of a guy making candied horseradish during quarentine T_T
StinkyPirates third level bro
JosephDoesMore What’s fourth level? Am I fourth level?
Horseradish-ception.
“No thanks I’ll just die” made me laugh out loud... loudly.
Truly that would be my response to so many things if I were alive in that period.
you mean you wouldve died from laughter? ^^ 😂
Johannes Siglreithmaier that was one of the possibilities. Dancing too. Or meowing.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who enjoyed that. I need to turn that into a meme or a gif or something
It's such a great reminder to be more grateful of what we have :)
Did it make you... erect?
The emerald dust cure sounds like something Goop would sell 😂
😂
Yeah it's a good thing we've learned that random gems and crystals don't have magical powers
@@MickShaftItsAPun Orrr diiid weee?
@@ActionAlligator as a cool rock enthusiast, I am forever spiteful of the crystal peddlers for inflating the price of gemstones with their "medicinal energies". I just want a cool rock, damn it!
@@dragonfell5078 I know of a geology student who worked with a professor studying rocks in a river, collected the pretty ones, polished them, and made a fortune selling them to people who think those rocks have magical properties 😅
Now, he never advertised the rocks as having any magical powers, so technically he didn't lie. He never deny those claims too tho 🤭
"My favorite books on the Black Death" is not a phrase I get to hear on RUclips nearly often enough.
I actually have many more than I listed too! Lots on the social impact of the plague on England in the late 14th century.
TastingHistory the swedish historian Dick Harrison has written a great book on the black Plague!! The Guy works on my University aswell :)
@@TastingHistory would you be willing to make a longer list of your favorite books about the black death or maybe other medieval topics too? I love not being the only millennial medieval history nerd :D
TastingHistory lol, you just have to be a history major/theater minor or vice versa. Sorry for prying, I’m so curious. (Ok, I was once a theater major, then some/many yrs later a history major. Now I advise history students, & would love to recommend yr channel with a little background. No worries, if you don’t want to share I’ll be recommending anyway :) )
do you hear it outside of youtube often??
"no thanks, i'd rather die" is a wholeass mood and why i subscribed
🤣
I know this is a bit of a long shot, but what about Garum? It's a Roman fermented fish sauce! It'd take ages to make, and it would probably stink your house out, but... Who knows? It could be fun!
Not a long shot at all! I've been contemplating making it and figuring out where to store it. It's such an important historical ingredient, it would be a shame not to make it. Thank you for the recommendation!
Wow, it seems the garum video is the reason the channel has exploded in popularity recently (and was the one that RUclips first suggested to me), so thank you George, and congratulations Max on 100k well-deserved subs!
The comment that changed everything
@@Tomanna It really did!
Love the channel! Without the garum episode my I never would have discovered your great videos
I wasn't looking at my screen when you said 'flagellants'', misheard it as 'flatulence' and was very confused for a moment there. Couldn't work out how that would stop God being angry - thank you for immediately giving the explanation, that would have been very strange to go on with.
So did I! It could work as a form of, er, social distancing.
Honestly though based on some of the other "cures" I wouldn't be surprised if someone thought that might be a way to release the miasma or bad juju from your body. We dumb
And Lo, God did hear of their air-biscuits and spake; “T’were a nice one brah”. And it was good.
This was awesome! I was wondering if you can find any ancient Persian recipes! The classical era is my absolute favorite!
It’s definitely on the list of things I want to do. I’m not too well versed in ancient Persian food, so I’ll have to get researching.
Recipes from the classical era are essentially nonexistent. With the exception of the epicius and a few recipes from ancient Babylon, recipe books didn't really become a thing until the early medieval period, specifically the Islamic world and later the mongol controlled China.
@isabel elenes I'm doing it right now : )
Surrounding oneself with herbs was also a way to avoid the horrendous stench of rotting bodies.
Keeps the stench and fleas away!
I know that I'm not an early viewer of this one, having found you a part of a year ago....but you asked, so I'll answer. I'd love to see you produce some older Native American recipes.
Oooh, that would be awesome!!
“It feels like drinking shards of glass... but that’s how you know it’s working.” 🤣😂🤣
On the plus side, dying of a perforated intestine would definitely prevent you from dying of the plague.
@@hjalfi Goal technically achieved; that's some big brain thinking ;)
I would really love to see some ancient Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese foods. I’ve always found their modern foods really interesting and as something I desperately would like to try. Given some of those cultures have recorded history dating back further than most western cultures there should be plenty of recipes to pull from! Thanks!
Well, I'm sure that some history loving guy there in East Asia has such a channel here on youtube. Just look for it there in those languages. You know, Max concentrates on the history of his own people. And, of course, now and then he makes some excursion in some other cultures.
@@neinundnein6358 max specifically stated people leave recommendations from different eras and cultures. it would be nice to see someone so enthusiastic about food and history, with such big a platform, to explore cultures and people groups that are different from his own. please sit down.
seconding this recommendation!
should he concentrate too much on oriental food, and make this idealised, lik he does with some other cultures, I would loose my intrest in his channel.
@@neinundnein6358 "oriental food"? kindly don't lump an entire continent into one offensive word. there's nothing wrong with exploring asian culture and asian food. if you have issues with that, something's wrong with you, not with max. for all our sakes, i hope you indeed lose interest in his channel, because racist folks like you are certainly not welcome.
try some weird jello recipes from the 50s please, like tuna jello pie.
I think that’d be a great episode! Jell-O and maybe SPAM
Aspics, also ew.
@@dirtbagnomad Someday, but it'll be put WAY down the list.
Don't ask our beloved Max to try the tuna jello pie... it's absolutely disgusting. Like, literally gag-worthy.
@@TastingHistory Don't do it, you will literally not be able to eat it and will gag just thinking about it for months after.
Darn! Just yesterday I reaped and bottled my first crop of horseradish, that I have struggled to grow for 8 long years, and now I discover this recipe. I could spit blood because it's impossible to buy fresh h/r in South Africa and I have to wait another year before I can try it. Love your videos.
Here’s an idea for a video: mole. Mexican curry if you will. Specifically Mole Poblano. It’s got a lot of history and there are about a hundred variations of mole in Mexico 🇲🇽
Would love to see you make pease porridge. I have a good recipe if you need it. I do Medieval, Renaissance, and US Civil War events and it works for all of them.
I’d love that! Send it my way. Tastinghistorywithmaxmiller@gmail.com
Pease porridge hot
Pease porridge cold
Pease porridge in the pot
Nine days old
Marsh mallow mucilage (dried marshmallow root) soaked in warm water until it is like...clear gel then strained. Then mixed into powdered sugar and eggs whites beaten and firmed up (?) on trays with cornstarch. It's for coughs and respiratory ailments.
I spy KK Slider! I love that you have a different plush in the background for every video. I just discovered your page about a week ago and I am really enjoying your content! You're so energetic, informative, funny, and clever. Thank you for making these videos! Your channel is one of the few that I actually will turn the notifications on!
I wonder if the fear of miasma came from the "mal aria" of Roman times (They thought swamps had "bad air", when in reality it was just that swamps had lots of mosquitoes that carried malaria), maybe in conjunction with experience from toxic gasses such as from mines?
Great video! So informative. I’m in the medical field and we use the term for the inability to smell “anosmia”, and when something (a wound) produces a nasty smell it’s “miasmic”. I never knew the bubonic plague theory though. So...thank you “divine teacher of history” 😉.
Miasma theory as it was practiced was really interesting, since on one hand, the miasma itself was really fantastical, but the way the body reacted to it was not that far removed from modern germ theory. The point of living in sewers, or living around filth, wasn't so much that the miasma didn't like being there. I have this book called "Medieval Medicine: It's Mysteries and Science" by Toni Mount, and it discusses this very thing. I'm supposing that some observers guessed that people working in smelly trades, like tanners and butchers, didn't get plagued nearly as bad as the general populace, and assumed that working in miasmatic conditions all their lives gave them an immunity. Living in a sewer, or hanging out by a latrine, was basically a medieval vaccination. Spend more time in less-bad smelly stuff to protect yourself from the REALLY BAD smelly stuff.
Thanks for some really interesting videos. I stumbled across them earlier and just realised I've been watching them for 3 hours and could eat a whole beaver stuffed with a puffin I'm so hungry right now.
I'd love to see a video on the history of pickling and how it came to become a common practice!
The interesting bit is the plague masks/holding herbs to your face, probably did work a bit. Due to the same reason we wear masks they may have blocked/put up a barrier between you and the person with an aerosolized disease.
For things like plague, which are spread by fleas, face-masks wouldn't help. It might have helped for things like smallpox or measles though.
could be the smell of herbs keep the fleas away.. rosemary is a mosquito repellant
@@nathangamble125 pneumonic plague is caused by the same bacteria as the bubonic plague, and it does have coughing as a symptom so those plague masks could help.
Certain facets of the plague were spread by coughing, and really the whole outfit does quite well to keep the germs and pests off. Between the fragrant herbs, the long and sometimes tighter fitting clothes, gloves, and boots, it left little exposed flesh and added protective layers, which makes for quite the hazmat suit given it was entirely accidental. Granted I'd still absolutely not take my chances with it over antibiotics, but hey medieval people weren't stupid just ignorant, which means if pattern recognition showed something to work they'd do it and ascribe some insane reason later.
There's an interesting bit of history around the recipe of '4 Thieves' that adds credence to the value of herbs.
I love your videos, I’ve been binging them like crazy as a history nerd and a cooking enthusiast trapped at home! I’d love to see more recipes, the more ancient the better, specially if you have any River valley civilization era man recipes it would be really interesting, as well as any recipes from any long past times of prosperity in powerful empires (Greece/Macedonia during Alexander the great’s rule, Post-Ceasar Augustus Rome, Persia’s golden age, the general Middle East during the Islamic golden age, the Mongols , China, the Aztecs, Inca or Mayans, or something along those lines! It might be nice to compare what the average person would eat vs what somebody with access to the wealth of the particular moment of success would choose to spend it on food wise!
So this came up on my feed. Guess they thought I would enjoy your video’s and they were right. I am enjoying the recipes, the history and most importantly- you. Your delivery is spot on and so much fun to listen too, plus I love seeing what stuffed creature will be sitting on the shelf behind you. I even made the Lenten almond and date dish which was....delectable.
Glad you enjoyed! 😄
I would love to see the history of beer, with you making the Sumerian beer from the poem honouring Ninkasi.
That head shake when talking about the herbs had me laughing so hard and not sure why. Really glad I found this channel, you’ve earned another subscribe
I'm in charge of making hypcras on holidays. It's a extremely simplified version, taken from "Fabulous Feasts", by Madeleine Pelner Cosman (the full list of ingredients of the complete recipe is insanely long). My sister-in-law had a stomach ache once, and asked me for the recipe. She said it worked.
Dry red wine, sugar, black pepper, ground or fresh ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom (which I looked for long before it became more easily accessible!). Boil then simmer, and serve HOT in a ceramic container with a stem or a handle.
That sounds pretty yummy.
@@rejoyce318 It is! Definitely not a summer drink, though....
Similar enough to glühwein
@@jessicali8594 Oh, I just reviewed a couple of videos on glühwein and it looks absolutely wonderful! The fresh fruit actually makes me think of a warm sangria.
I love your videos, can’t believe you just started!
I am from Canada, so my suggestion is from here. Tourtières from Québec ....the pioneers made this...and we still do at Christmas time.
Thank you! I’ve never heard of Tourtieres so I’ll have to do some research. I think the only Canadian food I partook of when I was there last was Poutine and Tim Horton’s 🤣
TastingHistory Tourtiere is quite regional in its composition, so you’ll find many variations.
Oh ! How wonderfully interesting your channel is.. All the dad jokes & references are charming, interestingly woven through & quite clever.. I am certainly, in one afternoon of binging later, A huge fan now.. Thank you.
Essentially the same way I make candied ginger.
That’s what I was thinking- if candied ginger works, why not horseradish? I might have to try this.
I love candied ginger but hadn't thought of making it myself. XD
Im not alone! I went to comment this but you already did
I think most candied peals are made this way
@@dak4465 yes! i think there must be a bunch of us who love candied ginger, heard candied horseradish, and thought hm...sounds yummy.
My aunt would always make canned sweet pickled horseradish relish each year from their homegrown patch. It was great served with grilled or roasted meat.
just found you and your videos are incredible. thank you for blessing us with your humor and wisdom. my friend and i would love to see some old Japanese cuisine, if you can find any recipes! any kind of unique recipes, or recipes that have lasted over long periods of time would be interesting. go wild!
I’m researching some Japanese recipes. Should be up soonish.
My eyes are watering already. Have grown it for years and grind it by the quart for family and friends.
Hoping you did not burn your eyes from strong fumes of fresh dug horseradish as I have done in the past! Lovely recipe, sir! Sharing with my medieval historical re enactment group ! Cheers!
Can't help but think Vickary got caught doing something unsavoury to chicken and had to think on his feet
I am interested in figgy pudding. Why did they ask for it, why could they ask for it (politically), and what was it made from?
I will most definitely do a figgy pudding. It was one of the first things I ever baked years ago. I used a recipe that took 30 days! I was going to wait for Christmas, but perhaps I’ll have to push it up.
Had my first taste last Christmas. It is very nice indeed.
"Figgy pudding" is an archaic variant of "christmas pudding" or "plum pudding". It's a very common dessert in Britain, and as the "christmas pudding" name suggests, it's mostly eaten around Christmas. It's effectively like a very dense and very soft fruitcake (almost like a thick porridge), which is traditionally cooked by steaming, though in modern times is most commonly bought pre-made from a shop and cooked in a microwave.
Its usual ingedients are raisins and other dried fruit (modern forms typically don't include actual figs, though they do sometimes), suet (shredded pork fat), nuts, sugar or honey, spices, citrus peel, and alcohol (which can be basically any alcoholic drink you choose, including wine or beer, though brandy is the most common). These sort of puddings (both the old and modern forms) are often doused in brandy and set alight when they're brought to the table.
I'm not sure exactly how similar the old "figgy" pudding is to the more modern variants, though I think the modern types are absolutely delicious, especially with thick cream.
TastingHistory why not do it now and call it a “Christmas in July” episode? I think we could all use a little early Christmas cheer right now
@@TastingHistory Another Christmas item I'd like to see is the origins of the fruitcake...and how it became such a maligned bread. I loved my grandmother's recipe--didn't have neon bright candied fruit in it, just whatever dried fruit she had on hand and steeped in brandy for over a month! As a kid, looked forward to that & the trifle one of my dad's co-workers would make (she was British). Authorized alcohol consumption!
This was a very interesting one. Plus your witty comments on treatments for the plague were very funny. Thanks for another walk hand in hand down crazy lane when it comes to what humans will do when desperate.
I love your channel! All of it is so interesting - the history, the recipes, you, your reactions when trying the food. I cannot believe you don't have 2 million subs yet. It will happen, for sure.
I forgot to say that the comment sections are pure gold, too!
Ehis is wonderful. I'll try it soon. My brother's friend, a pulmonary and thoracic specialist says there is no super food for your lungs and circulatory system like horseradish. I try to incorporate fresh horseradish into lots of dishes that I prepare, but nobody wants to taste that all the time... Candied? What a wonderful way to take your medicine!!!
I absolutely love this. It's the perfect thing to find falling down the RUclips hole.
Just discovered your show, it’s so much fun. I would like to see a show on depressions/WWII foods, when they couldn’t afford food, and during the war things were rationed. My Grandmother told great stories that during the depression, they couldn’t afford things like a lot of sugar, or even flour to bake cakes and cookies. So one thing her and her siblings would make if they wanted something sweet was to use what they had and what was cheap. They would take Saltine crackers, slather yellow mustard, and then sprinkle a tiny bit of sugar on top. Surprise depression era cookie. Tried it once, not for me.
How did I guess you'd be a fan of Animal Crossing?
This channel is amazing. Even when it's barely touching on the food aspect, the history lessons and entertaining delivery are what I pine for, the kinda perfect combination that I've been craving ever since Bill Wurtz decided 2 such videos was enough. I don't even think I'd want to hear most RUclipsrs talk about this particular subject but with you it's a hoot. Keep 'em comin' man.
I love it when I find a fun channel to binge! Thank you for the fun content! Now subscribed of course!
your channel is gold!
i enjoyed the cooking and history lesson
Thank you! So glad people are finding it.
i love ur kk slider in the background
Re. flagellants: those dudes are still around, kind of. Growing up in New Mexico, I would occasionally see Penitentes crawling along rural roads towards local churches. Los Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno remain active to this day in New Mexico and parts of Colorado and include self flagellation in their lenten rituals.
Only 141,000 subs?! You deserve so many more! I love your channel and am so glad I found it! 💜💜💜
In 1665 a whole village locked itself away in Eyam, Derbyshire, and prevented the plague from spreading to the rest of the county
This channel is an absolute gem, thank you for all the research (and humor) that you pour into this historic passion.
I’d love to hear about the origin of recipes / food that are everyday staples hamburgers, hotdogs, mac & cheese, apple pie, sandwiches, ice cream etc. Would also be interesting to learn how and what people cooked during WW2 with rations and how they substituted. Another area of fascination is to learn what early American settlers meals were like. And what meals consisted of during the Civil War era. I enjoy your videos so much! Can’t wait to see what you think of next :)
There's a channel called "Weird History" that has an interesting food playlist you'd like!
This was great. I love horseradish! Something new to try! 😊 😁😆
As a child I visited the remains of one of the villages wiped out by plague in the North of England. They were good and isolated then some bright spark got an order of blankets in from London and it all went a bit wrong. The surrounding villages isolated from them (this was a medieval plague) and made the infected villagers put coins in a well before they traded them for food. They had some idea what was happening even if the medical people didn't.
You make anything sound fun! Thanks!!!
😁
I love your videos! I love food and history so these are perfect. I would love to see some Korean dishes!
I absolutely love your channel. I’m totally hooked!! I look forward to all of your new videos. Your channel is one of favorites on RUclips, hands down! Thanks for all that you do!
It's funny how we look back on the way humans used to behave and what they believed in and how we're acting now with the whole covid-19 pandemic. The phrase "history repeats itself" has never rung more true.
Yeah no kidding, except a lot of people actually died back then so its more understandable they started doing crazy stuff
@@MM-op6ti Right? Until I start seeing people drop like flies, I'll go about my regular day 🤣
yup, it starts with a bunch of crazy people coming up with all sorts of convoluted ideas to explain why it's happening and self medicating
only to realize all you had to do was quarantine for a bit
@@stever7627 i mean, they already did
bunch of people died my guy
This will be something relived in our lifetime via social media our lifetime- the horseradish recipe? Sounds epic!!!
make ancient Egyptian style unfiltered beer and drink it room temperature through a reed straw to get under all the floating chaff.
I know I've mentioned this before but here goes. New to the channel and LOVE IT! French major and historian now living in Alabama. The name Jean Froissart - you are pronouncing it fairly well except for the final T. NO FINAL Ts in French. Really enjoyed this video and I'm thinking I might add this video to my history 101 class. VERY nicely done!!!
KK Slider! He shreds on the guitar, with out wearing a shred of clothing!
First time viewer here... just wanted to say thx for the history lesson on the theories of curing plagues. It was... informative.
Nice video. Holds up a whole year later.
Keep up the good work
I am going to share your link with my history classmates at Uni. You should have more subscribers. I look forward to seasonal/holiday videos. You're awesome!
Thank you! Hopefully the subscribers will come with time. (I’m pretty new). And yes, I have a whole batch of things around the holidays I want to do. I can’t wait!
@@TastingHistory then I will be watching and waiting in anticipation!
You asked for suggestions. I did my O.T. thesis on Queen Esther's feast.
I’d love to hear more. Tastinghistorywithmaxmiller@gmail.com
I want to know, too!
KK Slider!!
I'm binging your videos tonight because I love your channel, but I'm really enjoying this scavenger hunt for background characters too.
Ah yes, the greatest form of medicine, practiced to this day:
prescribing chicken noodle soup for all that ails you (just kidding, he's grabbing the leeches as we speak).
Low key that quote from Jean Froissart at the front fits this d&d character concept i have perfectly. Can't wait to borrow it
i love your videos so much
Thank you!
Your mention of treacle makes me want to see some recipes that use it in the future.
It would be interesting to see you tackle some truly ancient recipes, like nettle pudding or some dating back to ancient Babylonia in 4000BC.
I would love to see some on ancient irish food. Also i really love your videos and while i hated making and tasting the garum my fiancee loves it.
I'd love to see you make mediaeval beer! I've read that in Bohemia it was called "bread water" because it was so thick, so I'd love to see how it looks re-created!
That description sounds like they left the wort in the small beer when brewing it, rather than strain it out and use it in baking.
hey Max, I'd love to see you take on a recipe that's a little impractical to do in a modern setting - make your own ginger bug! or, I don't know, prep a whole fish for some reason. Something no one does anymore, but would have been commonplace. Thanks for the excellent channel, loving it so far!
I’d love to find out about the origins of chai.
You are a crack up as well as giving us a great bit of education. Thank you.
I've always wondered about the role and use of alcohol in medieval times. I have the idea that they often couldn't drink the water, and alcoholic beverages killed germs. I recall reading that wine and beer and mead were extremely prevalent and so I envision an era of complete drunkenness. That might make for an interesting video lol.
You drink enough and you build up a tolerance.
I laughed so much at your comments on social distancing because of the style you said it.
I approve. I agree with you.
I love the way you said it.
I'd be interested in finding a use for the water where all the spice is boiled off.
Maybe as a pest repellent?
Have to have my daily dose of Max Miller!!!
"No, thanks, I'll just die." lol forever
Hey Max, if you're interested in the Decameron one of the most interesting parts imo is the Introduction, in which Boccaccio describes many things about what happened when the plague arrived in Europe, its effects and how people reacted to it. It's a very interesting read.
"What hast thee to lose?
I say it again:
What hast thee to lose?
Taste of it.
Verily, should they taste of it -
save since it is they and their physicians' choice
(or the physicians of the healing-houses).
Concerning candy'd chren - taste of it, if thou wouldst.”
Having a wonderful time here in UK mixing up the Christmas puddings watching plague cures. Ah! Just what The Chef prescribed 🤣
This reminds me of the wasabi sweets a friend of mine brought me from Japan. They were... interesting.
In the wake of the plaugue was an excellent book. I had read it a couple of years ago. Great recommendation
The horrifying thing is so many of these weird plague remedies I know from my weirdo esoteric relatives... because of _course_ if people in The Old Days used it, it's a good idea! *sigh*
Good show! As always. Have you done anything on Peony sauce? That or old cocktail recipes.
4:18 Just like my Morrowind alchemist character.
This is my new favorite channel. Thanks!!
1:00 I heard an anecdote from my highschool history teacher that there was a french doctor who was executed for witchcraft shortly before the plague hit. Apparently he developed a bunch of methods for curing people of various diseases, and refused to tell people exactly what his potions contained (most likely because he was making a LOT of money and didn't want competitors to dig into his profits), so the local priests were all like "WIZARD, BURN HIM" and that's what they did. When they looked into his journals after the execution, apparently one of the secret ingredients was an "odd mold" (huh, wonder what THAT could be), and the local doctors thought that was ridiculous so they dismissed it. I never looked into that story being true but I could easily imagine it was.
Damn, if he wasn't so stingy and maybe spun a religious aspect to it (I had a vision of an angel's flaming arrow falling on this mold!) we could have had antibiotics much sooner x3
There were several folk cures which involved placing mouldy objects on infected body parts, and other things like vinegar left in a copper vessel (which formed copper acetate, which is a mild antiseptic). 99% of cures from the mediaeval era were a load of rubbish, but a few of them could actually have been somewhat effective.
Really love the history in these videos. I think people would like more glamour shots of the finished product after you cook it and maybe have other people try it and film their reactions.
I'll bet there aren't many fleas in a sewer, so it probably worked! No more effective quarantine. Even then ... I'm not sure I'd do it.
For that matter, some herbs also repel bugs, so I wonder if that worked, even a little bit.
From Wikipedia.
The enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP), found in the roots of horseradish, is used extensively in biochemistry applications. It is a metalloenzyme with many isoforms, of which the most studied type is C. It catalyzes the oxidation of various organic substrates by hydrogen peroxide.
Note those last two words: hydrogen peroxide. A strong antibacterial agent. Might have discouraged Yersinia Pestis quite a bit, at least inside the mouth.
omg this episode was so funny!! you are a gem on youtube
Newton didn’t “lock himself away,” he retreated to the family farm.
And number ten: Quarantine...Social distancing they thought it was NUTS, we know it works. Ooooooof, that social commentary, brutal.
I'm enjoying catching up on the old videos. You know the ones with the good kitchen. ;-)
"no thanks I'll just die" LMaooooOOOoo
Hello, love your content, so thank you. Would love to see you connect theses recipes into a complete menu. Extra points for a holiday!