Byzantine Honey Fritters

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RECIPE
2 cups (475ml) cow or goat milk
1 1/4 cups (225g) fine durum flour
About a liter of extra virgin Olive oil for frying
⅓ cup (100g) Honey
About a teaspoon of Black pepper

1. Heat the milk in a saucepan over low heat. Let it steam but do not bring it to a simmer. Add in half of the flour and mix until incorporated. Continue to add flour a little at a time until you have a very thick mixture that pulls away from the sides of the saucepan. You may not need all of the flour and you can add more milk if required. Cook for 10-15 minutes total, stirring the entire time. Then remove it from the heat and let it cool for 2 minutes.
2. While still quite warm, dump the mixture onto a plate and spread it out to cover the plate with a uniform thickness. Smooth the top. Let cool completely (you can put it in the refrigerator to chill faster and make it easier to cut).
3. Once cooled, slice the mixture into small, bite sized pieces of any shape.
4. Heat the olive oil in a deep pan until it reaches 350°F/175°C. Then add 6-8 pieces of dough in at a time. Let them fry for 1 minute, then use a spoon to break them up and continue to fry for another minute and a half or until they're golden brown. Remove them and let them drain while you continue to fry the rest of the dough.
5. Once they are all fried, toss them in a bowl with some warm honey and coat them well. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.

Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @worldagainstjose

PHOTO CREDITS

#tastinghistory #byzantine #constantinople

[TastingHistory]

I’ve started posting short videos on TikTok and Instagram, so make sure to follow me over there for appetizers to hold you over between episodes.

[teddypawncrumps]

What I learned watching this video:
- Honey and pepper is an underrated combination
- Never be a monk
- The messi is the aesthetic Whole Foods is trying to recreate
- Price gouging is a tale as old as time
- Wine is Byzantine water

[ltw]

Just imagine how much work the tasting history guy 500 years from now is going to have to do to find out how big a frosted mini-wheat is.

[Buizie]

>adds a little more flour now it's too sticky
>adds a little more milk now it's too runny
>after 5 minutes of fine tuning
>congrats you now have 2745 fritters to serve to people

[aBANDIT.]

This channel has become a sort of comfort, when I need an interesting yet useful videos this is the first pick I think I’ve watched the whole backlog, I’m not very good at cooking but learning about it all is awesome, thank you.

[jonjohns]

Fun fact: if you lightly toast the Semolina flour before you add it to the Milk it imparts a nice nutty flavor. The Levant region has a similar Sweet called "Halawat Al-Sameed" (translated: Semolina sweet) which involves toasting the Semolina first in 2 table spoons of butter until it is light brown then adding it to a sweet simple syrup and stirring until a porridge like consistency is achieved.

[ΠαναγιώτηςΚαπερναράκος]

Honey fritters, or as we called it today "loukoumades" (λουκουμάδες), is still one of the most common desserts in Greece to this day

[lhfirex]

You know, I think this "flogged, shaved, and expelled from the guild" punishment for overcharging on prices is an anti-inflationary solution we should look into trying.

[boofriggityhoo]

This is absolutely crazy; my nonna used to make these when I was little, and unlike some of the modern things she made like cannoli or doughboys, we had no idea where these came from. When we'd ask she just called them Globi...except there were a few things that she called globi...that basically became the word she'd use for "fried sweet thing, " I guess. I was able to find the more conventional "globi" online, but I never found a recipe for these fritters anywhere.

Sometimes she'd throw poppy seeds or sesame seeds on them too. She also did them in squares from what I remember, but they'd often puff up to look not quite round, not quite square. I remember as a kid really loving the slight bite of the pepper with the honey, it's not a flavor combination people appreciate anymore, but I really loved it.
She said it depended on the season, how much they'd puff up; no idea whether that refers to the grain or when you make them, or if that's even true lol.

I should have known these were ancient because the mild sweetness is so balanced and not in your face, you can really hurt yourself eating too many of these without thinking too hard about it! Thank you so much for posting this so I finally could solve the mystery of what those delicious childhood desserts were, and now I can pass them on to my children (she never wrote down ANY of her recipes, and this one wasn't common enough to learn from memory). I'm so glad I found your channel, I love the combo of history and cooking. You're a treasure!!

[Chameleonradio]

I'm building a D&D campaign around a Byzatine-esque region and I love torturing my players with food descriptions, so this was a great starting point for building each city's food culture, especially since I was able to find an earlier printing of that book in my library! :)

[darthjuno]

As a Greek, I'm so impressed and thankful for your excellent pronunciation of all the Greek words and names in this video ❤️

[Lauren.E.O]

Well, the guild of pork butchers fighting back against members trying to scam people was not the story I thought I’d hear in a honey fritters episode, but it’s pretty interesting that prices were so strictly maintained.

[darkstarnh]

Mushrooms (9:26) To quote Terry Pratchett 'All mushrooms are edible; some only once.'

[deezntes]

Once a year a Greek Orthodox Church near me has a celebration day with homemade foods for sale. There are small honeyed sweets that instantly remind me of these!! There’s lines AROUND THE BLOCK for food orders, first come first serve…and every time my family argues over who gets the last honey-treat….I believe they’re called Loukoumades!

[lifeisdeath]

I’m a professional, trained, chef and I watch these videos ravenously when they come out. They are so informative of the history of food. I truly don’t know how you find all this amazing information. I love food and consume all forms of media about it and still you teach me many new things every video

[bruisedpeach]

My boyfriend is making these right now and we just tried the first two batches. THEY ARE AMAZING! He rolled them into small marble shapes and finished them with the honey and a combination of black and szechuan pepper. They are like tasty ancient doughnut holes. Or for the other Australians here kind of like damper! 15 out of 10 would recommend to a history nerd friend. We've been eating them so quick I haven't even taken a picture.

[fcon]

Great episode! The Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire never gets as much attention as the Western despite having technically lasted until the 1400s. Also, those fritters I think after time evolved into the Greek desert known as lukumades. Basically fried doughballs coated with honey and nuts. Definitely try them if you've never had them before.

[hoggypare]

I had the opportunity to eat this dish once. In my Uni the department of Byzantine history has some researchers specializing in ancient dietetics, medicine and cuisine, and they did lectures with degustation - which, gotta admit, is a pretty cool concept. Ours seemed however to be cut thinner and they were more crispy overall.
Knowing the ancient cookery, there were probably many various ways of making those fritters, so I think both are correct.

[mustafaercumen]

My mother is from Edirne. She said during times they were kids they used to drink water with calcium which made the water more salty. Maybe it was because the water came from Edirne it get calcite

[driopas]

in a 17 minute video i learnt more about my byzantine heritage and coulture than 12 years in hellenic education system, (elementary, gymnasium, lykaeum), thank u very very very much sir for yr precious journey and knowledge u provided me today, as well as the faster, esiest, super gourmet sweet recipe....