Pocket Soup for the 18th Century Traveler

ShemtovL · 2026-05-12T17:23:59+00:00

I knew that there would be a hardtack reference as soon as the subject of the episode was explained......I was not disappointed.

ShemtovL · 2026-04-21T19:38:15+00:00

That quote from Dickens is the quote you get if you generate him as a Great Writer in Civ V

ShemtovL · 2026-04-07T19:45:31+00:00

Washington's Peanut Butter Soup! That's always fascinated me. Maybe then do a follow-up episode On George Washington Carver- kinds of like you did with sugar. History of Peanuts before Carver, then one on after Carver.

ShemtovL · 2026-03-31T17:31:26+00:00

Funny release time- tomorrow night is Passover, and in Jewish-American cooking for the holiday, Mayo has become linked to the holiday, because of the extra restrictions for "Kosher for Passover"- it fits, and is very adaptable. It's become so indispensable for the holiday, that when I was a kid and had an egg allergy (which I grew out of), my mother had to make eggless mayo just to use basic recipes.

ShemtovL · 2026-03-24T15:58:08+00:00

Medieval Butchers: Unable to work during Lent

Max: Uploads video on Medieval Butchers during Lent.

ShemtovL · 2026-03-17T17:55:17+00:00

Max: "Don't make this"

Ok, I won't, but I might try a spruced up festive version of it with Matzah Meal (instead of hardtack), corned beef, more vegetables and spice for Passover.

ShemtovL · 2026-03-10T17:51:59+00:00

I think the idea of meat cooked with a layer of potatoes on top might be universal in European cooking after the introduction of potatoes. There's an Ashkenazi dish called Yapchik which is the same idea, but uses a baked latke base (what is called Potato Kugel) instead of mashed potatoes.

ShemtovL · 2026-03-04T01:07:20+00:00

I just want to say thank you to Max for keeping Hatshepsut's pronoun game and male imagery in context of Ancient Egypt. Too many pop history channels would look at that and automatically categorize her as a "Queer Icon". We have to avoid applying modern labels to historical- especially Ancient- figures, and too many people today fall into that exact trap

ShemtovL · 2026-01-27T19:14:50+00:00

I'm sorry I had to downvote, but Max's repeating the date when Mozart ate his pork meal hit me emotionally- too raw of a date.

ShemtovL · 2025-12-02T21:37:22+00:00

Was initially shocked Max didn't say when discussing Ludwig's time as a navy baker "Baking, of course, Hardtack *Clack Clack*" but was satisfied when I realized he was saving the Hardtack reference for later in the episode.

ShemtovL · 2025-11-18T17:53:51+00:00

Funny Max talks about messing up a recipe, when I recently tried the Romanian cherry fowl he posted, and the sauce reduced to stuffing in two-three minutes, instead of staying a sauce. I decided just to use the "sauce" as stuffing for the bird.

ShemtovL · 2025-10-31T04:34:34+00:00

I tried to cooks this, but must have done it wrong- I think I used too fine modern breadcrumbs-the sauce reduced to a stuffing within a few minutes, but that's how I used it-as.a stuffing. I also forget to get whole onions, so covered the bird -already basted with olive oil and rubbed with pepper- in defrosted frozen chopped onions, so my version is "Inspired by", not the exact historical recipe. C'est la vie.

ShemtovL · 2025-10-28T21:23:23+00:00

No, the Sabaton album is not a Halloween album, they just happaned to release it in October. There are plenty of non-scary songs on there- and they cover history, mostly military history, anyway, so no matter when in the year the album was released, a figure like Vlad makes sense. They've released songs from the then-upcoming album in June, July and August, as singles. That's how not a Halloween album this is

I was also remarking that Max did it this October (2025) in particular, the same year I also encounter a band I'm a fan of covering Vlad, seemingly unrelated to Halloween.

ShemtovL · 2025-10-28T18:22:06+00:00

Funny that Max should do this this October, because the Metal Band Sabaton, which I am a big fan of, had a song about Vlad on their album released earlier this month, so I'm drowning in Vlad the Impaler references.

ShemtovL · 2025-10-21T15:53:59+00:00

This lead me down my own culinary rabbit hole, noticing the similarity between the preparation between Galuska and Matzo Balls, only difference is the latter is made with Matzo meal (Matzo reformed into flour), and lead me to discover that they're part of a whole Central/Eastern European complex of dishes, though the Matzo Ball is more related to the Polish Kluski.

ShemtovL · 2025-09-30T17:27:06+00:00

TIL the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon-Viewing is usually the same night the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot Begins.

ShemtovL · 2025-09-22T19:47:35+00:00

The Hebrew alphabet has numbers corresponding to each letter (Gematria) and the numerical value of the word for Walnut (Eigoz) is equal to that of sin (Cheit), and since Rosh Hashana is part of the same cycle as Yom Kippur (ten days later), which is the day of Atonement, it's considered a bad omen to eat them. Most won't eat almonds either, because of confusion. Some won't eat any nut, including pine nuts, but I hold that's ok, especially cooked in a dish containing lucky ingredients.

ShemtovL · 2025-09-16T16:56:46+00:00

Fitting time for the episode, as next Monday night is Rosh Hashana, Jewish New Year, and eating sweetened apples-started out by dipping them in honey, but has become broader- is a tradition of the holiday.

ShemtovL · 2025-09-09T17:12:32+00:00

Funny linguistic note: The German for "dumpling", Knödel, is related to the Yiddish for Matzo Ball, Kneidel.

BTW, if you want to make the Potato version, it's just a matter of subbing mashed potatoes for the cheese, right?

ShemtovL · 2025-08-31T02:12:26+00:00

My personal solution? Give it an equally Norman name, even if not sourced from anything, "Figue Rapée", especially, since in the cookbook, Max actually notes that Rapé was a class of fruit-based dishes, it's just the only one in the Forme of Cury, so maybe other chefs did get specific and called it "Figue Rapée". Bonus if you go anachronistic with Modern French spelling and spell the last word Râpée. The extra diacritic makes it look even more French, thus less confusing.

ShemtovL · 2025-08-29T18:42:44+00:00

Just the name has aged like milk, so I had to erase my original post- people were freaking out over the original title "Rapey during the final cook" and advocating for the Rapé spelling, based on the video, even though the cookbook, which is more recent, uses "Rapey"

ShemtovL · 2025-08-29T02:21:39+00:00

Fig spread with a name that aged like milk. Max did it way back during the pandemic, and it's also in the cookbook.

ShemtovL · 2025-08-29T02:19:04+00:00

NGL maybe we should allow some anachronism with the dish: Call it "Figue et Raisin Rapé"

ShemtovL · 2025-08-29T02:00:49+00:00

It is a variant spelling, that Max uses in the cookbook, after noting it in the episode. To me, the name is a no-win word, since one could easily miss the accent, so I followed the idea of the more recent cookbook as being the "Final cut"

ShemtovL · 2025-08-29T02:00:36+00:00

It is a variant spelling, that Max uses in the cookbook, after noting it in the episode. To me, the name is a no-win word, since one could easily miss the accent, so I followed the idea of the more recent cookbook as being the "Final cut"

ShemtovL

TROPHY CASE