The Delicious Legacy

A Greek Gourmand, travels through time...Imagine yourself dining with Socrates, Plato, or Pythagoras! What tasty morsels of food accompanied the conversations of these most significant minds in Western philosophy?Now picture yourself as you sat for a symposium with Cicero, or Pliny the Elder or Julius Caesar. The opulent feasts of the decadent Romans!Maybe, you're following Alexander the Great during his military campaigns in Asia for ten years. Conquering the vast Persian empire, while discovering new foods. Or try and picture the richness of fruits and vegetables in the lush Hanging Gardens of Babylon.What foods did our ancestors ate?How did all begin? Who was the first to write a recipe down and why? Sauces, ingredients, ways of cooking. Timeless and continuous yet unique and so alien to us now days. Staple ingredients of the Mediterranean world -as we think now- like tomatoes, potatoes, rice, peppers, didn't exist. What did they eat? We will travel far and wide, reconstructing the diet, the feasts, the dishes of a Greek Philosopher in a symposium in Athens, or a Roman Emperor or as a rich merchant in the last night in Pompeii.....Lavish dinners, exotic spices, so-called "barbaric" traditions of beer and milk, all intertwined...Stay tuned and find out more here, in 'The Delicious Legacy' Podcast!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy.

Listen on:

Gift a subscription

You can purchase any plan for someone else, and choose how long to purchase the subscription for.

Give now

featured episodes

Take a look at what's inside

The Delicious Legacy

Listen anywhere

Get Access

Featured Episodes

Ancient Greek Music with Pavlos Kapralos

More Episodes

A Traditional Jewish Greek Recipe from Thessaloniki

To Season, To Cure, Το Heal: A Briny History

Sep 02 48m

In the year 1734 three miners were taken aback when they discovered a male body inside Hallstatt salt mine. The body was very well preserved, having been mummified by salt. Accounts of the time say that the dead body, completely embedded into the rock salt deposits, was discovered following a collapse in the Kilbwerk. His shoes and traces of his clothes had been preserved: 'One can even see a bit of cloth on his dress, and the remains of the shoes on his feet'. The mine workers assumed that it was the long-dead body of a miner who had lived before the first official records, that is, more than 400 years earlier, but after thorough analysis and investigation, today’s assumption is that this man was the victim of a mining accident approximately 1000 BCE. The heyday of prehistoric mining was in the late Iron Age between 800 and ca. 400 BCE. At that time, miners would penetrate as much as 200 metres into the mountain, in the Austrian Alps, extracting not gold or precious metals but copious amounts of salt, about half a tonne a day with hand tools, supplying salt to half of Europe 2000 years ago!

Hello!

Today we are busting all the old myths about the salt!

What and how the Romans used it?

What did the Greeks say about it?

Humans, like other mammals, relied on the small amounts of salt naturally present in food to regulate the amount of fluid in the body. Very powerful mechanisms for conserving salt within the body were developed. For 5 million years, our ancestors added no salt to their diet. The addition of salt to food began relatively recently, about 5000 years ago. As people became increasingly addicted to it, salt became the most important object of trade and the economic foundation of several empires. It was used by authoritarian governments to control their people and as the main source of tax revenue.

Join me on another archaeogastronomical adventure!

The Delicious Legacy Podcast

Support the podcast on Ko-Fi and Patreon for ad-free episodes!

https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcast

https://www.patreon.com/c/thedeliciouslegacy

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Naxos, Weeds, Cheese and Patience Gray

Sesame, Halva and Tahini: A Rich Complicated History

Recipe of the week on a Sunday: Two Traditional Onion Recipes

My Grandmother's slow cooked pork & pickled cabbage

+ 263 more episodes

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to get started?

Subscribe Now

How do I listen to subscriber-exclusive podcasts and content?

How do I get in touch?

What is Supercast?

Can I send a subscription as a gift?

How do I cancel my subscription?

Privacy | Terms of use | Fulfillment Policy | Data Deletion

The Delicious Legacy

£5 GBP / month

£5 GBP
£4.17 GBP / month

(billed annually)

£10 GBP / month

£10 GBP
£8.33 GBP / month

(billed annually)

Gift a subscription

featured episodes

Take a look at what's inside

Featured Episodes

More Episodes

Frequently Asked Questions

£5 GBP / month

£5 GBP £4.17 GBP / month (billed annually)

£10 GBP / month

£10 GBP £8.33 GBP / month (billed annually)

Gift a subscription

featured episodes

Take a look at what's inside

Featured Episodes

More Episodes

Frequently Asked Questions

£5 GBP
£4.17 GBP / month

(billed annually)

£10 GBP
£8.33 GBP / month

(billed annually)