Feeding a Roman Legion | Posca & Laridum

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#tastinghistory #ancientrome #posca

[TastingHistory]

Who out there played the original Rome: Total War? I played it all through college and can't wait for the remastered version.

[pubjubz]

“Oh my god men that can cook~”

VINEGAR AND LARD

[dansharpe]

"Posca and Laridum" sounds like an awesome Roman era cop show with an 80's soundtrack.

[mhoican]

in the Italian countryside, especially in the Lazio region, posca is still used today with the name of acqua acetosa or acitéllo and is prepared with a liter of fresh water, two tablespoons of honey or sugar and one of wine vinegar are added. (this is the basic recipe that my grandfather taught me but the quantities may vary according to personal taste)

The mixture is stirred well, so that the honey melts, and is immediately ready to be drunk.
This drink was used in summer while working in the fields, it was refreshing and restores fatigue, providing easily assimilated sugars.
laridum (lardo in Italian) is also widely used, my grandfather together with acqua acetosa used to eat a sandwich of homemade bread with lard spread on top ( even guanciale or panecetta), pecorino romano and honey (sometimes with an addition of rosemary)

[YTIsRanByFeds]

"I GOT YOUR 4 FOOD GROUPS RIGHT HERE, BEANS, BACON, WHISKY AND LARD!"

[sheenachristina]

Old school Gatorade and bacon. Sounds like how my teenage sons eat breakfast. 😂

[Eviltwin]

From boiled lard at the Rubicon to deep-fried sticks of butter at the Iowa State Fair, some things will just never change.

[perciusmandate]

Huh. Growing up Catholic, I remember hearing about the centurions soaking a sponge in water and vinegar for Jesus to drink on the cross. I never connected that they were giving him their posca rations to drink, probably from their own canteens. That's actually pretty kind. Except for the whole part where they're still... letting him be crucified.

[gandalf]

Gall was often used to make ink, and was possible to do at the spot with some iron dust (which was easily obtainable from grindstones and such). Romans in the military wrote a lot in their service, and were required to do so at all times, so they carried with them a small bottle of gall in case they needed ink to write with.

[KaramonTheHyborean]

I would love a series called "Who wants to feed a Legionaire" Just imagine a chef serving watercress
sandwiches to a legionary. "Legionary Pullo how was your meal" spits out his sandwich...."How am I to kill gauls on such little food."

[tyrant-den]

Reminds me of that classic old ditty:
"Hey, can I have a sip of your water?"
"I'm not drinking water."
"Vodka? My kind of man-"
"It's vinegar."
"What?"
"I said it's vinegar, pussy."

[aidanfarnan]

That hard tack *TAP TAP* is becoming my favourite running joke.

[tylere.]

I just made the Laridum now, holy moly is this stuff SO GOOD! I never thought pig fat would be so tasty boiled, basically how you described it. The texture wasn't that bad and the olive oil made it addictive, I did get a slight hint of the dill too, very subtle, boiling the dill was nice to smell. Definitely wish this was served at restaurants, it's honestly as great as bacon.

[aleishagalligan]

The hardtack *tap tap* is damn near iconic at this point

[theduane]

Knowing that Max basically spends his Tuesdays responding to comments because he cares so much about his community is amazing. Come for the Roman Lard and Vinegar, stay for Max's personality.

[AdaSoto]

When I was a teenager I worked the California Renaissance Faire and workers got dehydrated very quickly in the heat. One of the things we drank was cold pickle juice. Water, vinegar, and salt. And if you were REALLY dehydrated it tasted good and helped a lot.

[Shade_fox]

The hardtack cutaways will never cease to make me laugh XD

[uberneanderthal]

this wouldn't have been everyday soldier food, more like an emergency ration. and it suits that role near perfectly: long shelf life, stable in almost any climate, calorie dense, easy/quick to prepare.

now we just need an archeologist to dig up an intact kit so Steven1989 can eat it.

[imhoused]

In the ruins of Pompeii they recently found a tablet that was advertising an ancient roman charity food drive. The motto of which read "Pliny the elder and Pliny the younger getting together to wipe out hunger"

[SvdB]

As an archaeologist I've tried a very similar drink - essentially the same type of origin, roman legionnaires - that one of my teachers took to one of our Byzantine classes. She called it "Phouska", and the recipe we used was 1.5 cups of vinegar, 0.5 cup of honey, 1 tablespoon of crushed coriander seed, and 4 cups of water, then boiling it until the honey is dissolved and then straining the coriander seeds. It's actually one of my favorite archaeological/historical dishes (closely tied with Babylonian date-and-nut bars, which I would eat daily if I wasn't allergic to nuts XD), and one Christmas I actually drank a few liters of Phouska across a couple of days.