Ancient Egyptian Tiger Nut Cake
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- čas přidán 30. 08. 2021
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Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | @ketchupwithmaxandjose
PHOTO CREDITS
#tastinghistory #ancientegypt
I googled tiger nuts and got a bunch of furry art pictures, including Tony the Tiger. What a time to be alive.
Huh.........I only got boring results like "Tiger nuts are tubers and not really nuts." and such..
@@BlindErephon the safe search toggle is your friend
How many of them did you save
He was my first crush when I was growing up
Lmao
Little note. Bastet, the ancient Egyptian goddess of cats and guardian of homes was the daughter of Amun Ra and she had all cats as her eyes and ears on earth. Since your cat seems satisfied, Bastet is satisfied, and when Bastet is satisfied, Amun Ra is satisfied. Thus I bestow unto thee Max Miller the titles: *Satisfier of Bastet* and *Pleaser of Amun Ra* .
Jeesh… Pleaser of Amun Ra sounds like something a stone’s throw away of “fluffer”
And Satisfier of Bastet doesn't?
@@shishoka nah, that is already in mistress alley
@@SEELE-ONE Isn't Amun Ra that dude that brought the world into being by, um, doing himself?
@@nunyabiznes33 No, no, that’s Ptah (at least in the version of Egyptian myth that I know)
I love the fact that he was concerned with someone taking the "as long as his arm" comment out of context, and yet he didn't even consider the many possible interpretations of "Tiger nuts"
But Candice tho
@@astranix0198 Candice what?
Or how "gods would be able to polish of several"
"Polish" really?
He wanted it to be taken out of context
@@adrianaslund8605 "polish off" means to finish, to eat all the cakes, in this context. It comes from the idea of finishing a job by giving it a final polish (shine, cleaning). It's not the most common phrase but hardly unheard of, and has zero to do with the Polish. :)
"The only one judging me is my cat cersei, And I've made peace with that"
Spoken like a true cat owner
Wait is it not like Circe from Greek mythology??
@@genericyoutubehandle. Well, his other cat is Jaime, who is Cersei's secret brother-lover in the show and books, so it seems pretty cut-and-dry.
Honestly some pretty inauspicious names, but I imagine they're probably neutered and spayed by this point.
U mean Cat Servant?
@@mary-janereallynotsarah684 🤣🤣🤣 Too right!
@@mary-janereallynotsarah684 you know what they say. Dogs have masters, cats have staff.
“No I said I wanted a “dessert pyramid” not a “desert pyramid”… what did you make?” - Rekhmire
The guy working for him panics and tries to cover up the desert pyramid with a cloth.
Best comment in my opinion 😂😂
Giggity
Next level comment. Priceless.
‘At least we haven’t need to worry for the Pharaoh’s burial, Vizier Rekhmire.’
"and the only one judging me is my cat, Cersei"
...and Bastet
ACAB. All Cats Are Bastet.
And cats judge you….harshly.
Better than Sekhmet, I hope.
And Jamie too!
Amon must be pretty miffed about how Max underestimated his presence.
This looks a lot like a dessert that my Egyptian grandma used to make called “sad el-hanak” or سَد الحَنك which to make you’d just replace the tiger nut with any other flour! You can also make it with sugar and butter instead of the ghee and honey. It also reminds me of a Saudi dish (where my mom is from) where you would add dates to the mix to make “Hnaini” or حْنيني. It’s fun to think that these things have been made by people for thousands of years without interruption.
Nice heritage 💛
Any recipes you’d love to share? I’d be eager to try them!
Also, just as you mentioned… as he was saying they had to piece everything together. I figured there are modern adaptations of the same dishes, because culture adapts with the time, but the soul of the food stays the same. Glad to hear that the traditions are alive and well within your family. 😃
This is one reason I love the MENA region (from afar). The region has been populated for so long that languages, foods, all sorts of things with genuinely ancient roots.
But why is the el-hanak sad? 😥
@@Oberon4278 Because it has no tiger nuts, obvs..
the bit with you reading all the titles of Rekhmire in a sports announcer voice made me choke on my lemonade. dude you're HILARIOUS, please never stop
I could see rekmere comming out with the Rocky theme.
“And a monkey riding a giraffe.”
...I love that someone took the time to immortalize that image
"Hehe monke."
- unnamed Egyptian artist
"Hehe monke."
- me, yesterday
Because of COURSE someone did.
@@diehounderdoggenalt
reject modernity
return to ancient egyptian monke
I mean, if i saw that i’d tell everyone about it too
Would you not?!
My girlfriend has been trying her best to decifer her Italian grandmother's recirecipes. She is only two generations separated and has difficulty understanding certain measurements, I can only imagine how accurately someone could guess from ancient emojis and nuts of tigers
I got a recipe for homemade phyllo dough from my Greek sister-in-law's grandmother. It went something like this: "take the correct quantity of flour, add some oil, and enough water to make nice dough." Honestly.
@@thehadster7043 The correct quantity usually refers to how many you wish to serve, in the bakery we used a scale & weighed every thing. the amount of oil & water depends on the flour it's self wich can vary.
@@dianapovero7319 Yes, I know all of that. However, I am not a professional baker, and had never made phyllo before, so the measurements were not a good starting point for me. I have since learned.
@Mel Hawk Yes. I've made fudge before. And it can go from not all the way cooked to over cooked SO quickly! One of the things I enjoy so much about cooking is all the "fuckery" that can happen. Its different every time!
@Mel Hawk From my decades of making fudge and other candies, it sounds as though the fudge was undercooked OR, your sugar ratio was off. Again, after decades of making mistakes, loving the results, and then not being able to replicate my failure/success; I have learned to write down my measurements and what I do as I do it. If you know the measurements, then all you need to do is undercook your fudge and see if you get the same results. A thermometer is good here, but I've been using the "soft ball" method for so long now..... I make a hot fudge sauce that does the same thing. After I reheat it a bunch of times, it turns to fudge. Some of my most loved and requested recipes were originally massive failures, and I just said, "f*ck it, I'm serving this anyway." Peanut butter fudge over ice-cream does sound dangerous..... :-)
"For the American mortal, Max Miller."
That sounds like something an immortal would say.
(*Insert dramatic prairie dog gif here*)
I have a nut allergy and tigernut flour is by far the best almond meal substitute I've come across - including nut free macarons. Highly recommend if you were desperate to know how macarons tasted like I was.
Edit: I buy tigernut flour pre-ground, it's still 'pleasantly gritty' and it's always worked perfectly well for me
Where do you buy it
i am in fact desperate to know what they taste like and will make great use of this information 🫡
@@demonpants1613 health shops or specialty stores
@@demonpants1613available on line
Max the Immortal started Tasting History so he could have an excuse to eat all of the ancient dishes he’s enjoyed throughout his millenia-spanning existence.
I was thinking experimental archaeology, but that works too
Thank you for the story idea!
This brought back the memory of the Rebecca episode of "So Weird". It's a sad episode, but one of the characters ages very slowly and has been alive for thousands of years.
Ancient Egyptians don't play, even their desserts are monuments
Fun fact: we use tiger nuts in Eastern Spain to make horchata! The nuts are called "chufas" and basically you grind them and add water until you obtain a nice drinkable liquid, similar to how one would make almond milk.
No sólo se hace horchata con la chufa, sino que aún sigue siendo una golosina para los niños, vendida en los quioscos, previo remojo. Y estoy de acuerdo, pocas cosas hay mas deliciosas en verano que un vasito de horchata bien fresco sentados a la sombra.
Any tips to soften the tiger nuts for grinding?
@@jenkcomedy I suggest working the shaft first
@@jenkcomedyPerhaps soaking them previously in water
And in the Eastern Mediterranean such sweet sturdy drinks with herbs, mainly drank in Autumn and Winter, are called Salépi.
btw in Egypt, this is called Hab Al Aziz "حب العزيز" which actually means "vizier's nuts/beans" so that name may actually have its origins from The Ancient Egyptians, it's usually eaten raw or treated with sugar water and it's the freaking bomb.
Rekhmire’s mile long character description is fantastic. Imagine if people were introduced that way today...
Then maybe they would be more careful with their reputation and st least try to avoid getting caught up in one scandal aftr another. On the other hand I suspect that even the ancient Egyptians had their celebrity scandals.
@@michaelpettersson4919 Probably, but the higher ups back then would likely be able to punish anyone they caught bad-mouthing them.
Hmmm maybe I should start asking people to introduce me like that. Not that I ever leave the house to meet people.
@@Lauren.E.O Today we got cancel culture...
Definitely an introduction fit for a professional wrestler.
As a modern Egyptian, this kinda reminded me of a dish we have called “sad El hanak” (literally “mouth closer”) it’s called that bc it stopped this who’s complaining of hunger from complaining. And it’s really really close to this
Share the recipe?
@@zanbudd well, it’s 1 part ghee or butter but ghee is more preferred, 2 parts sugar, 2 parts milk, 3 parts flour, and any nut of your choice, sesame seed is a popular option too. First you dissolve the sugar into the milk. Then you make a roux out of the flour, ghee, and nuts. When the roux is thickened you add your sweet milk and mix until you get a smooth texture with no lumps. Some people like it thick like a dough so they add less milk and serve it in small patties (I think here is a good place to point that it thickens more as it cools down so be careful), some other people like it more like a thick pudding so they add more milk, you do you ☺️ tell me if you try it plz
Marwa Mohammed Abdeltawab
Thank you for taking the time to write out such clear instructions! I will have a chance to cook again next weekend. Do you know if using oat milk or almond milk will be a problem?
@@zanbudd I don’t think it will be a problem cuz some people use water 🤔 in fact I think it will be tastier 😋
Marwa Mohammed Abdeltawab
Very nice! Thank you so much🙏🏼🦋
Max, as a geologist and former cook: 'granularity' is probably the word I'd go for to describe that 'pleasant grittiness' you talk about. Also, thanks for showing us yet another way to have more dates in a safe way during the pandemic.
Just say graininess.
Hehe dates
I know this isn't the main point of the channel, but I appreciate so much how accurate the closed captions are on Tasting History videos! They clearly have been written by someone familiar with the video's content, so they are both accurate and comprehensive. Unfortunately, a lot of videos on this website either have no CC or pretty poor CC with glaring mistakes. I know it takes time and effort to put in CC, so I just want to let y'all know that it's very appreciated!!
I believe his husband does all of the CC on the videos!😊❤
"I hope nobody takes that out of context"
He says, in a video featuring tiger nuts
I'm disappointed in the lack of jokes here.
And the most phallic looking cake of the century lol
😂
@@SEAZNDragon Now you've said it... 😐
Fun fact: there’s a theory that the tiny elephant was actually to scale, and it was depicting one of the many species of dwarf elephant that evolved on medditeranean islands
😮 that’s cool. I need to look them up!
I was thinking this…. Like what if it’s just an elephant spect that’s not around anymore? Hehe. & Hi Max!!! Thank you for the awesome videos!! I always look forward to Tuesdays😊
Or crazy thought but hear me out what if elephants aren’t always huge!!! What if maybe ,just maybe, when they’re younger they’re much much smaller and then as they get older they amplify in size, and this drawing was of one of those hypothesized young ones. Now that I say it, it sounds dumb. I’m guessing it is an ancient Sicilian dwarf elephant.
Possible. There were dwarf mammoths on Catalina at one point.
Yes! PBS Eons did an episode on this.
11:30 This is actually very interesting, since there have been experiments where judges tend to judge more harshly when sitting on harder surfaces, meaning the amount of comfort of the Vizier might have had might mean that they were a more forgiving judge. This and more interesting examples can be found in my personal favorite book "Behave" by Robert Sapolsky. Highly recommend it, life changing for me.
I wad thinking this. If you're in pain ppl are a lot less likely to leave dealing with you smiling. Also the litany of officials reminds me of Senate, or maybe court would be more accurate
Last episode you said measuring by candle volume was too vague. Now you’re all “we got a few pictures of this being made, we’re good.”
I love this show
I would totes buy a shirt with "there's no right way, there's only many wrong ways" on it if you're looking for merch suggestions.
I vote the text should be very obviously crooked and the first letter should be default Calabria
@@Lichen8404 Perfect.
I second that.
As with historical recipe reconstructions, so with life in general... Have an upvote from me, too, for that suggestion!
Can we just appreciate for a second that this vizier basically just had his CV carved on the walls of his tomb?
can whoever it was help me with mine, I'm supposed to be job hunting
Well most persons would do that if they had the money to do it (it's not cheap to build a 5olv large enough and have scribes writing on it), it's the best way to make sure you won't be forgotten. And often it had a religious sense too like how would you explain to the gods your accomplishments if you don't write them?
@@krankarvolund7771 You can think of it as mummified thoughts. And of course, a picture is worth 1000 words.
It helps with the afterlife job search, very competitive.
Imagine what he would have done with Linked In.
FYI the "world's smallest elephant" may have been brought to Egypt from Malta (where pygmy elephants were native at the time and not extinct yet) as Malta and Egypt were big in trade with each other - in fact Maltese is still one of Egypt's national languages spoken by the "Maltijja tal Egyptu" (as they are locally referred to in Malta)
The problem is that Maltese is for all intents and purposes an Arabic dialect, which is spoken in Malta due to the much later Arabic domination of the island. So the Maltese of Egypt are a later phenomenon not related to trade with ancient Egypt, but Islamic Egypt.
@@esmeraldagreen1992 However the Gigantijja temples in Gozo are older than even the pyramids and it is known in Malta (my being semi-native) that trade has been going on long before the Ottoman enslavement of the Maltese people that came to an end with full Catholicisation. Even saying it’s Arabic isn’t quite accurate - Bonju is hello, closer to bonjour. We say Ciao too - the food is closer to Italian and French. Have a read here for a little more detail on the language: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_language
The dates don't really add up. The Maltese dwarf elephant become extinct about 10,000 years ago, a very long time before the earliest of the ancient Egyptian kingdoms. And there wasn't anything that could plausibly be considered as a specific ancestor of the Maltese language until about 800 AD, when the Aghlabid Dynasty occupied Malta; this was well after the last Pyramid-building Egyptian kingdom.
@@wardakawababa6213 There is a lot of uncertainty with the dates even now - there’s a lot of margin of error and not a lot of samples. Here is an interesting read en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C4%A7ar_Dalam regarding the age of the people who interacted with the animal in Malta ( there are cave paintings of the thing that have been recently vandalised unfortunately so was with us a while ). There is recent debate on the age of the Sphinx structure and its original lion faced form - there is a lot of historical inaccuracies being uncovered every day so all I offer regarding my opinion is the spoken knowledge passed down to me from my family, tied with some research and theory. Just note the more you research into the really ancient stuff in Malta and Egypt, the more contradictions in time estimations you’ll find. Still a fun journey though so by all means dig in! :)
There's an island of the west coast of the usa where there were pygmy mammoths.
I admire Max's dedication in recreating an Ancient Egyptian cake without a complete list of ingredients or even an order in which to complete it.
Next week - roast auroch in a silphium sauce based on a Pleistocene cave painting.
Mmm, birth control....
"I mean, this guy's is as long as his arm!"
-- Max Miller
Thank you for saying it; I didn’t want to be the first.
The out-of-context quotes are adding up. I approve!
I think I'll just make my own context thank you.
Then you get the nuts
"The God Amun, he's not around here..." *OMINOUS THUNDERCLAP*
*_thunderclap, horses whinny_*
Come back later, he's on the crapper.
Amun was a god of air, so it would be more like
*WIND HOWLS OMINOUSLY*
No but shiva the destroyer is available hes currently dividing his time between Louisiana and Nevada
@@Strategiain Did somebody say 'Blucher'?
Tiger nuts are so good that you can make Nutella out of them (with cacao) without adding any sugar. It’s my favorite thing ever.
Great episode!! I was so excited to see something made with tiger nuts (chufa). My sister grew this crop one year as an experimental alternative to oats for making plant-based milk. The tubers are quite small and cluster at the base of the plant which grows much like a clump of tall grass; to harvest you must dig up the clump including its mass of tangled roots from which the tubers form. It's incredibly tedious and labour-intensive, we spent multiple days harvesting what amounted to perhaps only 5lbs of tiny tubers! But the texture when fresh is very similar to a water chestnut: somewhat crisp yet not exactly juicy. Very easy to mash into a fine paste. So all this is to say, I wonder how these cakes would turn out if made with fresh mashed/ground chufa instead? Might be more gooey! Anyways just wanted to share my chufa experience 🤗 thanks again for another delicious taste of history!
Thats so neat! Did you all try to cook with the tiger nuts any way other than making a dairy milk alternative?
@@hettar7 We just tried the milk alternative (which turned out quite nice! Very mild flavor but nice texture, not as 'chalky' as homemade oatmilk can be - we made a drink from it similar to horchata!) We didn't really harvest enough to do much else, unfortunately - but I do think there would be a lot of interesting possibilities, both sweet and savory! It was an extremely easy crop to grow and basically needed no care apart from watering occasionally, if you have a bit of extra garden space it could be a fun experiment! 🤗
@@mithrilfire I have very little garden space, but you make me want to try it anyway. 😁
This is such a lovely contribution ! Thank you for adding it :)
Nice! Note that during drying, the starch in the nut is converted into sugar, so dry tiger nuts will have a sweeter taste than fresh ones. Hope this helps to open up some new possibilities with your next crop!
Could the liquid have been a beer? I mean it's brown, and they took the time to color the fat the right color.
Max, Bast was the Daughter of Amun Ra which means it's very possible she's watching you through Cersi and reporting to Amun.
Possible. Egyptian beer was very… chunky, but it’s possible. I want to make some one day soon.
@@TastingHistory For me is beer, they used beer to make some breads, so is not so incredible they also used beer for cakes.
Do you think they might have skipped a step where the chunky beer was strained?
I recall reading somewhere that colors in Egyptian art were often representational rather than literal - for instance, one color was used to denote females, and a completely different color for males. So I would caution against placing too much importance on the color of the liquid.
Admittedly, I can't think of any other common liquid from that area and time period that would be brown.
@@TastingHistory I imagine it's pretty similar to the Hymn to Ninkasi.
I was wondering at first if it could have been wine, but beer does make more sense, given the time and place.
This is shockingly similar to the Tibetan “Torma” used as offerings for deities and Buddhas. It’s made with roasted barley oat flour (the same staple as in classic Tibetan tsampa) and butter, and then often elaborately decorated. In shape, appearance and form; they’re almost indistinguishable!
Interesting. I am really getting into Tibetan cooking at the moment, too!
That's so cool! I wonder if there was any cultural exchange that led to the similarities, or if they developed independently of one another. Maybe a Torma recipe could help shed light on some of the missing pieces of the method and ingredients of the Egyptian version.
True, it's similar
@@missbeans most likely independent creation, considering that ancient Egypt was getting to be pretty ancient by the time Buddhism came around. But it is interesting that two different people's decided that this cake form was the best way to honor/feed important spiritual figures.
it's because of the indo europeans who spread from europe to east asia and down into the middle east
I have an undergrad degree (and lifelong interest) in history, focussed primarily on late medieval. I love the process you work through on this video trying to guesstimate the facts of the day based on scant or inconclusive documentary evidence. Too often in the field academics seem to feel a need to make absolutely authoritative statements about their research - and yet here we have the humility to make a statement like ‘date syrup because I like dates’.
Wonderful episode. Bless the Egyptian artists for their delight in everyday life, showing us so much that would be lost.
fr sometimes i feel so lucky that ancient peoples wrote so much and made so much art that we can marvel over today, thousands of years later. it's kind of surreal!
Okay, I wasn't ready for how phallic that cake turned out 😂
🤣 I didn’t think about that but YEAH. Especially made of tiger nuts.
You definitely don't want to look up 'banana candles' then...
well next we need something from the Dionysus festival.
"I hope no one takes that outta context."
What would Tasting History out of context look like?
"Hierogrifacts!"
Ah, that's what it would look like.
Max out of context is that clip of him smiling and bashing two hardtack biscuits together
@@harrytodhunter5078 (*click click*)
I just love how Max is able to pull off looking *absolutely innocent* while he says that. I would definitely have at least a twinkle in my eye, but he just 😐- delivers the line. That skill must have come in handy at Disney!
@@harrytodhunter5078 *tonk tonk*
"The only one judging me is my cat."
Sekhmet, Nephthys, and Bastet will find you in your sleep.
Sekhmet would be especially worrying considering her general... Attitude/approach to things
I've made these cakes as conical cookies with no date syrup, with the flour, and it was very much like a marzipan.
I've never heard of tiger nuts before this, and I'm glad it isn't from an actual tiger. That would've been awkward... (biting lip)
You biting your lip with anticipation?
Awkward, but delicious. I hear they're grrrRRREAT!
I was wondering if he had a hard time keeping a straight face for this! 😅
For the very bravest of bakers only.
Horchata is actually Tiger Nut milk. Look it up in any Spanish/Latino store
The best part of every Tuesday is getting a Tasting History notification
Not watching the video? Kinda mean, don't ya think?
It honestly helps the beginning of the week go by a little faster.
I agree!!!!
Max, you are a stronger man than I. I don't think I could have NOT made a single nut joke for this entire video.
"Book of the Dead" or, as Egyptians were calling it "The Book of Coming Forth by Day" is such a fascinating read, especially with good, historical explenations
I love when your background Pokemon plushie is thematically appropriate, lol. Although it makes me wonder how large of a collection you must have...
If you watch Ketchup with Max and Jose you will see they have 100s lol
I have wondered about the background plushies - thank you for mentioning this!
Jose has a huge collection
@@alexsis1778 what name Pokemon?
@@kerrygamer9359 Cofagrigus. Gen 5.
Has anyone considered that the dark liquid being added to the tiger nuts is the beer Theophrastus mentions?
However, with the honey and the fat, I suppose it's basically an ancient halwa!
I thought the nut meal would be simmered in the beer instead, but great idea.
Halwa, yes you are right. It also resembles marzipan which is equally toasted when you make it from scratch. Maybe those two are related as well. Never struck me before now.
If I ever stumble upon tiger nuts, I'll try this recipe. But I'll cover it with chocolate. The ancient Egyptian gods will be jealous for sure.
beer was my first thought too... might have to try that
@Mel Hawk ❤ Unless they strike me with unannounced lightning, I'll bribe them with a piece of this treat 😀
I had the same epiphany as it seems like it was the normal preparation for the tiger nuts.
Perhaps the brown liquid was beer with live yeast; as a leavener.
Oooooh, that’s a cool theory!!
Max: "I hope nobody takes it out of context"
Also Max: "He's as long as his arm"
It's really touching when you try to recreate recipes from long ago, even when you understand 100% accuracy wouldnt be achievable. I think the priests that made these cakes thousands of years ago would be delighted and honoured to know that we try to recreate their work in a future world so distant and different to theirs. Who knows, maybe our descendants will make similar attempts at our recipes.
Yes Kraft mac and cheese and brownies. The recreationists preparing a 21st century pandemic feast eating it from their cubicles while "zooming"
Mom's spaghetti
This is such a nice thought, it warms my heart! Thank you for sharing this! 🤗
Especially since it means they are still immortal.
Actually they may have even foreseen it to some extent. In the very least they wouldn't have been surprised. They always knew their legacies would live on forever.
You know you've made it in the world when you get a gift of a giraffe with a monkey climbing its neck.
“So what do you do for a living?”
“I inspect and crush tiger nuts.”
This reminds me of besan laddu, Indian chickpea flour candy, which is just ghee, fine sugar, and chickpea flour at its base. They fry the besan in ghee to start instead of mixing it with a liquid like honey and water and then frying it.. If you rolled the chufa, honey, water and fat into balls instead of the cone log thing it would look almost identical,just a shade darker. And then when you have a bunch of tiger nut laddu balls, you can make a pyramidal stack and drizzle date syrup over it and Rekhmire would be mad impressed.
yeah, I thought it reminded me of besan laddu.
That final step of the recipe, the reduced date sauce, kinda reminds me of a thing we do down in South Asia in the region of West Bengal and Bangladesh, where we pretty much follow almost exactly the same steps, down to the reduction of the date syrup, and then let it cool. When done properly, this results in a crystalized lumps of date syrup, which we call Goor. It can be ground and used as a sugar substitute, or be eaten in lump form as a treat.
Edit: minor spelling correction. (This removes the heart icon from the comment apparently)
@Mel Hawk
I think you can find a more accurate recipe for it if you search with the term "Jaggery", which is what it would be called outside of South Asia.
@@arifhossain9751 Oh, I've heard of jaggery from a Desi friend! I didn't know it was made from dates. Thanks!
@@arifhossain9751 I think jaggery or goor is made from the sap of the date palm, not from the fruits though?
@@fionaclaphamhoward5876
There's many regional variants. Where Im from we use dates cos we have the climate to grow them. In parts of South India, the use palm sap. There are probably many more versions out there that we dont know because they werent written down or they come from remote villages.
"this guy's is as long as his arm" - max miller, tasting history with max miller, 2021
I mean... It's a very provocative cake. Especially standing up like that.
@@foxyfoxington2651 It might be intended that way. Ancient Egyptian culture was really big on phallic symbols. For instance, the god Osiris was often depicted lying on his back with an erected penis, which symbolized his rebirth and resurrection.
@@alexandersolodovnikov4840 Obelisks represented the penis of Osiris as well. The Egyptians were not alone in having phallic symbols used for religion. There were some cults in the middle east which also did, and to this day stone representations of the "lingam" are venerated in Hinduism.
I admit, part of me is waiting for this to become a meme.
I’m actually growing Tiger Nuts in my garden this summer so I am excited to try this later in the year!
Recently my colleagues and I participated in a cooking contest between museums - the pitch was to make food that could have been eaten during the time of the Roman Empire. I made this as a dessert to follow the main dish, and we won second place! I admit I made a few modifications, but nonetheless thanks Max :)
In Spanish the tiger nuts are called 'chufa', and in Spain there is a drink, typical from Valencia, called 'horchata de chufa', made from this tubers. It's sweet and usually you drink it during the summer. Very good! I recommend you try it! 😄😄
Next on Drinking History.
@@Hephaston I hope so!
I am really going to have to do some research on this ...never heard of them before. I love life ... learn at least one new thing a day.
I was going to say the same thing! I tried it for the first time in 2020, which was the first time I went to Valencia. LOVED IT! I live in California, where we have rice-based horchata, a Mexican recipe.My guess is that the Spaniards in Mexico used rice instead since they didn't have tiger nuts. It's awesome! But I have to admit that if I had to choose, I would go for the tiger nut version.
And the origin of the name horchata forms part of the folklore of Valencia's culture. The myth says that was a hot day during the seizure of the city and Jaume the conqueror was thirsty so a girl gave him the drink that they were having. When Jaume taste it he asked her how did the called that drink, to what the girl answered "leche de chufa" (chufa's milk) to what he answered back "no, això es or chata" (no, this is gold girl). And from the mix of his words "or" (gold) and "chata" (there's no real translation to english so consider girl in a family way) is where the name appears
I love these recipes from antiquity because although the recipe is not exact and you have to fill in the blanks, it's like a window into their day to day lives literally thousands of years ago.
Max, your presentation skills and storytelling abilities make this one of the most entertaining channels to watch. I have seen some other folks on CZcams try something similar but they don't have the same panache as you!
Meanwhile in another dimenson...
Amun:"Hey where is my cake?"
Before you poured on the date syrup, the cake looked exactly like an incense cone! I love it! 💖
It did! A very big one.
I just found sour cherry jelly from Italy that rivals Nostradamus', haven't gotten to the Peach Melba yet, and now there's a tiger nut cake to add to my list. So many carbs! So little time! ☺️ Don't stop please 😂
Sour cherry jam is a classic in kahvalti, traditional Turkish breakfast.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I was able to find some Sour cherry jam made in Turkey today, so I'll be trying that soon. Thanks for mentioning this.
Max, your show should be sponsored by PBS. With the history you give us about the recipes you’d fit right in with the other PBS CZcams channels
12:49 There was once a dwarf elephant breed in the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus Crete and several other islands in Italy. Scholars estimate that they became extinct between 11 and 6 thousand BC that this corresponds to the time period in which ancient Egypt ruled so there is a chance that the painting is slightly accurate
You mention beer nuts. It would be awesome to get some history on drink snacks, maybe for Drinking History 🤍🍹🍻
That’s a good idea!
It's a shame theres so little in the way of recipes from Ancient Egypt, that is literally my favourite time period, I'm absolutely fascinated by it, so much so that many years ago, before the internet became public, i taught myself to read and write hieroglyphs... both ancient egyptian and mayan... just because both were covered in the same book...
Didn't the Greeks make any records, or were they too self absorbed?
@@mollymillions6586 iirc the greeks didn't get to document much of egyptian daily life and such, mostly just important bits like royal proceedings and the language itself
"Hieroglyphact!" I'm such a nerd, but I love this play on words.
I love the Cofagrigus plushie in the background, absolutely fitting and a great Pokémon design in general
The hieroglyphact was worth the price of admission! My favorite part of this channel is that I always learn something new in every video. In addition to stuffed frens and cats.
By the way, pigmy elephants where known to exist and eventually became extinct. They were found on some Mediterranean islands…so the picture may be correct to scale.
But right afterwards ivory is shown as a gift and the tusk is quite massive. So still both are viable guesses.
@@trzynasty909 maybe…all possible.
Why are all the cool animals ew extinct? I want a pigmy elephant! Also a Tasmanian Tiger. Separate enclosures if course.
@@rosemali3022 I want a passenger pigeon or a labrador duck. Thanks American settlers for killing so many unique birds off.
Would this be Cyprus? I knew there used to be pygmy hippos there. Fantastic place, fantastic food.
Another yummy trip to Egypt. I'm still hoping you might finally find a recipe for that elusive Egyptian Honey Cake that many histories mention but no one seems to know the recipe for. If you can find it, I'll owe you big time!
My compliments to the chef for you having the guts to recreate an ancient recipe from a few pictures on the walls of a tomb. Best episode yet!
"Making a Cake for Amun... or Max. Hey, cake is cake. Go for it. Eat the god cake!
EDIT: as for the guy shaping the cake, he may be laying down a long mould and stuffing it with cake mix: Terracotta bread moulds are a semi-common find from Ancient Egypt, and long conical ones are a known type.
I wondered about that too - you could maybe get more structural integrity if you were able to really pack the mix into a mold. (Though I imagine you'd have to grease the crap out of the mold in order to get a release?)
Yeah, the bread molds are a thing, but it's noted in the commentaries from the site Max listed that the way the tiger nut cakes are depicted is different from the way the bread preparation is depicted. With bread, they show the molds being held up and filled with dough, then baked in an oven. Since there's no depiction of these cones being filled or put in an oven, it seems like the dough itself is being shaped into cones and isn't baked.
@@sarahwatts7152 or just break them
This is what I was thinking
@@00muinamir Neat! thank you for the info.
I see now why the Egyptians suffered from obesity and diabetes. Sugary tubers mixed with honey and possibly served with dates. Thatll do it lol
Also lots and lots of olive oil.
I remember watching a documentary where some grad students tried building a small pyramid to see how easy the stones would be to move, while eating a typical diet based on rations for pyramid workers. The main complain was “I’m going to weight as much as these blocks eating all this!” So I guess the workers were given lots of fuel for their labours,
The process reminds me of the making of ladoos! And for similar reasons as temple offerings
Your video sent me on a spiral down a rabbit hole that involved unearthing distant memories from my childhood to figure out what the hell are tiger nuts. As an Egyptian, I needed to know, where does that stuff exist back in Egypt, and what is its colloquial Egyptian name. After much research, so extensive it resembled archeological exploration, I found it online! And once I saw a picture of the nuts (called Aziz's seeds in Egyptian Arabic) I had a Ratatouille moment, where childhood memories flooded my mind and I could even taste the stuff again! They don't sell it in regular stores back in Egypt, rather, they sell it in rural areas on trains as snacks! It tastes a little sweet, liquorice like, with a chewy fibrous texture and a weird aftertaste. Childhood memories of traveling to the countryside to see my grandparents...happy times!
I wonder if he'd taken a slice from the bottom, where the 'frosting' and the 'cake' were more balanced if it would of been less date intense. Like the difference from a corner piece of cake and an inner piece.
I was hoping he'd taste the uncoated bottom for a comparison.
of course he picked the top...max is clearly an corner piece kinda guy. mo frosting... :)
More fun facts: the Sidr is also known as St Christ tree, and date syrup is called Dibss (hard S)
Sidr honey is considered to have many healing properties, also seen as sacred, in the Middle East
**Runs to Amazon to find Sidr Honey!!**
I've been watching your channel for months during Covid. Max you're a spectacular personality and I can only say just keep it up
Tiger nuts are a tuber from a Reed grass called Bullrush. It grows near most bodies of water. Rivers, ponds, marsh's etc etc.
This man is spending big money on Pokemon plushys for his videos, very respectable
I think the plushies belong to his partner, José.
The Pokemons are Jose's and Max mentioned in an early episode that he had over 100.
I'm sure they've added to the collection in the last 18 months.
Can you please ask to have "American Mortal" put under your chyron (that stupid thing at the bottom of the screen) if you're ever interviewed for the local news? it sounds weirdly awesome for some reason.
“Get those nuts away from my face!” - Latrice Royale (I can imagine that scene happening in Ancient Egypt) 😄
I've only ever had tiger nuts in horchata...but it is quite a delicious flavor that is pretty similar to marzipan, but also has a hint of the flavor of the outermost layer of pistachios. I will also say that, like many other sweet flavors, a hint of salt really amplifies the flavor of this drink, so I imagine it would also be good in this cake. I have personally made date syrup through a similar method to this video, and I found that the date "scraps" after all of the pressing and stuff were an excellent addition to add bulk and a hint of sweetness to buckwheat and brown rice pancakes, though I did still end up topping them with cinnamon syrup.
You know that feeling?... When you're just a bit down and you find out Max just uploaded a new video and it just brightens your demeanour ;)
Im not alway in the mood for his videos but when I am I bing watch him for hours
"...Making a cake for the American mortal Max Miller" I don't know, sounds a lot like something an ancient god trying to live among the rest of us, would say.
Or maybe he is just a servant and the cat is the cat godess Bast under cover...
Remember the Melas Zomos episode? He's clearly immortal.
Sounds like a line said right out of Star Gate SG-1
‘Greetings, fellow mortals!” He says, skateboard on his shoulder.
Palimpsest also refers to scraping and reusing parchment, as it was so hard to make, and thus valuable writing material.
Love the use of Papyrus font for the translations from hieroglyphics, a nice touch
Please make Marie Antoinette’s Bone Broth, she had it with sugar-free whipped cream, she had it with biscuits, and whenever a party would happen at Versailles she would have the chefs to make a bowl of bone of broth
That sounds like an awesome video topic.
Honestly any of the things she ate. They were usually very modern and light. Similar to our contemporary clean cuisine. But I agree I’d love to see the bone broth recipe!
I’d watch that video!
@@LaDivinaLover That is a good point. I'd also like Max to do a video on a recipe made by Antoine Careme, the superstar chef who invented dishes like croquembouche and served the like of Talleyrand and Prince George IV or perhaps one on Alexis Soyer the technology nut chef who served food both on the battlefield of the Crimean War and provided soup kitchen aid during the Great Famine.
@@LaDivinaLover As I recall she was worried about her weight and also hated having to eat in public. Of course sweets didn't count. haha The polar opposite of what her husband liked to eat.
There is a Louisiana French cookbook published in 1900 called The Picayune Creole Cook Book that you might want to take a look at. I have had it in my library for years, and am still intimidated by the boned turkey recipe on page 121 of my copy...
Th announcement of the vizier at 10:38 is an underrated moment in this entire video! Made my day :)
Btw, this cake reminds me of halawa, which is a Middle Eastern sweet that is very popular.
Hey boys, I had surgery today and I'm in a lot of pain. But seeing your video today really cheered me up. As you can imagine I had a meal at the hospital that was atrocious. I was wondering if you could find and cover hospital food/edible medical remedy history? Any time period you like the best!!
I hope you’re on the mend! There’s a lot of medical foods in history, so I can definitely cover that.
@@TastingHistory I'll be out of bed and back to work in no time! Take care of yourselves too!!
The civil war pudding episode covered hospital food 🚑
I’m really happy you returned to ancient Egypt. Your last Egypt video was so good 🙂
It’s always an interesting topic.
Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't....
FINALLY a cake I can eat! I have celiac disease. I use tigernut flour in a couple of recipes that I've created myself. It's very expensive here in Canada, so I don't use it often. I just may be crazy enough to try this one sometime tho 😁
So no one's gonna mention that the Pokémon for this episode is literally Cofagrigus? I look forward to a Runegrigus for the next Anglo-Saxon or Viking preparation.
As awesome as always!
God I love your channel. A friendly, funny and nice man presenting an interesting show about historical food. No current politics, no smarminess, no snobbery, no over the top acting - just wonderful, insightful and educational entertainment to escape to and soak up. Never change man - you're the best.
Rekhmire’s long list of honors and accomplishments would make Daenerys Targaryen green with envy.
Tiger Nut Horchata!
I would love to see a Drinking History or main channel episode about this drink. I’m from Spain and what we call Horchata over there is tiger nut milk. It’s a very refreshing drink extremely popular in the summer all around the country.
I believe both tiger nuts and horchata were introduced in Spain by the moors when they conquered from the south.
It would be interesting to me to explore one of the many things Spanish culture owes to Arabic culture and how thru Spain that little bit of culture spreed ending up in places like Mexico and lately in the US adapted to the available ingredients. Since even though Mexican Horchata is based on rice milk it tastes surprisingly similar to tiger nut milk.
I love that you mentioned the level of uncertainty and interpretation that went into this.