One of my favorite sections in the whole entire library is the cookbook section. I get super excited whenever anyone stops by the desk and asks where the cookbooks are. At home I enjoy watching all the food shows on Discovery Plus and experimenting in my own kitchen. One of my favorite kind of cookbooks to play with in the kitchen are the themed cookbooks. In recent years there has been an uptick in cookbooks based off of TV shows or movies. There are even cookbooks based off of videogame worlds! I am only going to cover the ones I have actually cooked from in this post, but will include a bonus list of other titles we own at Mead Public Library at the end!
Tasting History by Max Miller
This themed cookbook is not based off of some fantastical made up world, but pulls recipes from our very own human history. Some readers may recognize Max Miller from his youtube show also titled Tasting History where he cooks up good eats from times long past. This book contains selected recipes all assembled in one volume. The cookbook is broken into chapters ranging from the ancient past to just a few decades ago. Max Miller takes you from recipes written on ancient Babylonian tablets to good old cafeteria pizza from the 90s. If you cannot get enough of the recipes in this book and are curious to embark on more culinary time travel-check out the website https://www.tastinghistory.com/ where there are many more recipes featured.
My featured recipe from this volume is straight off a Babylonian clay tablet and helpfully translated for us by Max Miller: Babylonian stew of lamb. I have always been a history buff. One of my bachelors degrees is in history. I feel like eating what the people of the past ate brings us a step closer to understanding who they were and how they lived. The author also includes a historical lesson with every recipe so that you can better understand the food you are eating. For this recipe I also found the video on his website so I could watch what he did before attempting as I was a bit nervous.
In addition to watching the video and reading through the history lesson (learning about the flat tailed sheep was interesting) I prepared by looking online as to where I could order Persian shallots. We do not have anything like them in America which is a shame. They have a very nice spicy taste as if they are a cross between a radish, garlic, and onion. I ended up ordering them from Amazon (a fellow reader of Tasting History left a review that made me feel confident in my choice of purchase.) I then went shopping to assemble the rest of my ingredients. I decided on a mix of beef and lamb even though the recipe calls for lamb. The author says you can substitute if you wish. Leeks also feature prominently in this recipe (I did unfortunately not take my husband on this shop so I missed out on his leek puns).
The cook. This stew is traditionally served with rinatsu (a crouton like cookie or bread prepared with olive oil). You are to serve this as a crouton over the stew and mix some of it in ground for texture. The crumbled portion is needed for the stew. However, it is optional if you want to eat your stew with the rinatsu croutons on top. (My husband liked them more than I). I was nervous about the taste as there is no seasoning in the recipe. Surprisingly, the Persian shallots more than made up for it! Their flavor sure packs a punch and hits all the right notes on your tongue. I wish they were available at my regular shops. All you need to do is soak them in water to rehydrate them for 30 minutes or so as they come dried. I then stuck them into the food processor to mince them down. The rest of the cook was rather straightforward and just a matter of following the directions. If you have made soup before the cook will seem a familiar dance. All in all this ancient recipe was a fun learning experience and a rather tasty meal. I can now say I have eaten like an ancient Babylonian! My husband also gave a thumbs up on this recipe which is saying a lot as he can be rather picky!
Click HERE to request Tasting History!
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