Historian Tastes Food From Every Historical Era | Full History Hit Series

Historian Dan Snow samples historical food and drink from across the world.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free exclusive podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsely, Mary Beard and more. Watch, listen and read history wherever you are, whenever you want it. Available on all devices: Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, Roku, Xbox, Chromecast, and iOs & Android.

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00:00:00 Roman Food
00:09:51 Medieval Meal
00:16:59 Aztec Banquet
00:28:16 Tudor Feast
00:37:08 Georgian Dinner Party
00:48:51 Victorian Grub
00:57:03 World War One Rations
01:06:30 World War Two Rations

[KarenSDR]

I remember an old song I learned in school:

"The biscuits in the army
They say are mighty fine.
One fell off the table
And killed a pal of mine."

[lilgnomey]

I heard him say ‘hardtack’ and had a Pavlovian response of hearing *clack clack* straight after.

[CarolynParsons-mvji]

If anyone else on here watches Tasting History, as soon as he said hardtack, did you envision the video clip of Max going *clack, clack*? Lol!

[mirandalarsen]

Why isn't this titled "History Hits Tortures Dan Snow for Likes"?

[wadejustanamerican]

I read that hard tack or biscuits weren't meant to be eaten without soaking them first. My hats off to you for surviving all of these meals.

[maryjackson]

Spam is not meant to be eaten cold. Some people actually like it, but only when fried to render some of the fat.

[OG]

I think there's one aspect missing here. Dan Snow is not starving. He does not exert himself from sun up to sun down with hard manual labour. He does not walk miles back and forth every day. For those soldiers in the trenches, for the poor in Victorian UK, the food they ate everyday that tastes terrible to us today would be normal and heartening to them. They would be grateful and thankful that they had those to eat when faced with starvation.

[evelinharmannfan]

In Germany during WW II cigarettes again became the main currency on the black market. Almost everybody started smoking, sometimes even children. Because nicotin would calm your shattered nerves after an air raid and even dull the feeling of constant hunger. That was certainly unhealthy, but at a time when you felt you could die any minute, a longterm healthy lifestyle seemed less urgent.

[vkat]

Pig trotters are actually a part of traditional dish among Eastern Europeans. It is cooked for long hours, better overnight, then cleaned from skin and bones, and the broth was divided on small portions and cooled in wells or basements where the T was never higher than 6-8C. The broth which is the collagen extract turns into jello, and was eaten with garlic or horseradish. People who had meat, added meat on the bottom on the jello form, also pepper or other spices, so they could get much more delicious jello, and it looked nice too. From biochemical point of view this dish is very fulfilling and healthy, because it’s a pure collagen, very well extracted from joints. Humans digest it easily, and it goes directly to build our skin and joints. BTW biochemically pigs are very close to humans, we even can use pigs’ organs as transplants. My friend who was a vegetarian for over 2 decades suffered from terrible joints pain, had to use a cane to walk. I recommended her to stop idiotic diet and eat collagen foods at least for 2 weeks… she refused, but after the pain became severe so she barely was able to walk, she did similar dish as I described earlier but used chicken feet, not pig’s. How long it took her to be able to walk as normal human, what do you think? 3 weeks. After that she decided to eat chicken ones a week.

[brandonarkell]

Maize alkalized in lime is called hominy. It's hominy.

[shotgunbettygaming]

01:08:40 Ohhh the disrespect shown to SPAM😆You never eat it cold Dan, thats disgusting🤣You fry it up in thin slices and eat it with eggs or as a sandwich. Scramble some eggs, dice some SPAM up, add rice and seasoning, fry it all up together...delish!

[Anamillio]

This was a great documentary. I love that he is actually tasting the food vs just talking about it

[lindsaydrewe]

Chocolate with chili is brilliant, and yes it does cure everything, as far as I’m concerned😂

[heatherevert]

Spam is so much more edible when sliced and cooked and served hot.

[brightphoebesays]

And sweetbreads is not ovaries in testicles, it is the thymus gland of the throat, and the pancreas.

[darinwink-ouqk]

It would be interesting to see if Dan's opinions would change if he revisted these foods with some "historical hunger" such as after fasting for a few days.

[gina]

Pickled pig's feet! I was raised on those. My Nannie was raised in the South and used to make this. It really was delicious.

[JG]

Finally a full complete series of Dan eating all of the foods cold

[RichWoods]

My dad used to love his bread and dripping, though my mum couldn't stand it. It brought her too many bad memories of childhood, incorporating aircraft falling out of the skies and respectful funerals for foreign and/or enemy pilots whose families would likely never get to visit the graves.

Three decades after the war we used to eat spam sandwiches, with the block of spam cut into thin slices like luncheon meat and covered with pickles. I've never eaten it like that since I left home, but I do love spam grilled or fried and eaten as part of a full English or in a bap with a shit-ton (technical term) of brown sauce.

[paulathomson]

You have dripping completely wrong! It is the fat that is in the baking tin after a large piece of meat is roasted so it contains the flavor of the meat plus any spices or herbs rubbed into meat before cooking. Yes there was a layer of fat on top but I grew up in postwar Britain and we loved dripping spread on bread. Your father was right!