Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 24 Dec 2024A rectangular slice of cheese pizza, part of a complete meal in 80s and 90s schools in the US.
City/Region: United States of America
Time Period: 1988Food in US schools from when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s were, to put it mildly, not the healthiest. Either there was actual fast food available, or many meals mimicked fast food favorites, like this cheese pizza.
One bite of this pizza brought back a flood of memories. It is almost exactly how I remember it from middle school, and I highly recommend making it to anyone who has rectangle pizza nostalgia. I chose to make it with the pourable crust because I was intrigued, but after tasting it, I’m convinced it was the same one that my school used.
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April 28, 2025
Making School Cafeteria Pizza from the 1980s & ’90s
April 16, 2025
Food in the Japanese-American Internment Camps of World War 2
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 3 Dec 2024Tuna noodle casserole made with spaghetti, and rice with canned apricots for dessert
City/Region: Topaz War Relocation Center, Utah
Time Period: 1943In 1942, anyone of Japanese ancestry in the United States was forcibly sent to live in incarceration camps. Food was often in the form of leftover military rations that was augmented by crops grown by the people living in the camps, but there were also canteens that sold food and sundries. These items were great luxuries as the Japanese Americans living in the camps made only about 1/5 of a typical wage and included things like Ovaltine, apple juice, and canned tuna.
This recipe, from a newspaper printed in the Topaz War Relocation Center, makes a tasty, if basic, tuna noodle casserole. I would add more of the paprika, or really some more spices in general, but I really like the lightly crunchy texture of the bread crumbs and the celery.
If you’d like to serve this forth with dessert, as I did, then you simply need some cooked white rice and some canned apricots with syrup.
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April 8, 2025
What did Alexander the Great eat?
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 26 Nov 2024Game hens roasted with a hazelnut and herb sauce
City/Region: Rome | Macedonia
Time Period: 1st CenturyThrowing lavish feasts was one foreign custom that Alexander the Great was all too happy to adopt. We don’t have any recipes from Alexander’s court, so I looked to the ancient Roman cookbook, De re coquinaria, to find a recipe that used ingredients that Alexander would have had.
The herbs and seasonings in the sauce combine to form a new complex flavor that is delicious. The hazelnuts are prominent and form a wonderful crust on the game hens, and the garum adds its distinctive savory umami note. You can either make the sauce and serve it forth with poultry that you’ve already cooked, or roast the birds with the sauce like I did.
Aliter Ius in Avibus, Another Sauce for Birds:
Pepper, parsley, lovage, dried mint, safflower, pour in wine, add toasted hazelnuts or almonds, a little honey with wine and vinegar, season with garum. Add oil to this in a pot, heat it, stir in green celery and calamint. Make incisions in the birds and pour the sauce over them.
— Apicius de re coquinaria, 1st century
April 2, 2025
Eating in a London Blitz Bomb Shelter
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 19 Nov 2024Hearty, if mushy, vegetable soup with honey biscuits and a cup of tea
City/Region: London
Time Period: 1940If you were taking shelter underground during the Blitz, a period in WWII when German planes bombed British cities, the food options were somewhat limited. You could bring snacks with you, but there were also canteens from which workers sold things like tea, cocoa, soup, biscuits, and chocolate.
This soup, fittingly named Blitz Soup, is mainly composed of fresh vegetables that many would have had access to from their victory gardens. While it’s surprisingly flavorful and delicious, if you cut down the cooking time to about 30 minutes, the vegetables wouldn’t be as mushy. Though either way, a thermos of this soup would have been a comforting meal while taking shelter.
Instead of the historical recipe, which is very basic, here’s the poem that accompanied it.
When down to your shelter you flitz,
It may not be quite like the Ritz.
If you drink something warm,
You’ll come to no harm,
And the best soup to drink is the “Blitz”.
(P.S.- Any vegetables can be used, and you’ll find this a very useful soup to take to the shelter if you have to take cover. We hope you don’t.)
— Gert and Daisy’s Wartime Cookery Book, 1940
March 26, 2025
Cooking on the German Home Front During World War 2
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 12 Nov 2024Casserole made from sliced potatoes, fennel, and caraway served with pickled beets
City/Region: Germany
Time Period: 1941How well people ate in Germany during WWII really depended on who they were, where they were, and how long the war had been going on. This recipe, from 1941, assumes that people will still have access to ingredients like milk and eggs, which would become extremely scarce for most people in later years.
If you like the anise-like flavors of fennel and caraway, this dish is for you. The flavors are very prominent and really take over the whole casserole. If you’re not too concerned about historical accuracy with this one, I think some more milk or the addition of some cream or cheese would be delicious and add some moisture.
Fennel and Potato Casserole
1 kg fennel, 1 kg potatoes, 1/3 L milch, 1 egg, 30 g flour, 2 spoons nutritional yeast, caraway, salt
If necessary, remove the outer leaves from the fennel bulbs and cut off the green ones. Then cut them and the raw peeled potatoes into slices. Layer them in a greased baking dish, alternating with salt and caraway and the finely chopped fennel greens. The top layer is potatoes. Pour the milk whisked with an egg and a tablespoon of yeast flakes over it. Sprinkle with caraway and yeast flakes and bake the casserole for about 1 hour. — Serve with pickled beets or green salad.
— Frauen-Warte, 1941.
March 18, 2025
Ancient Roman Cheesecake – Savillum
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 5 Nov 2024Ancient Roman cheesecake drizzled with honey and sprinkled with poppy seeds
City/Region: Rome
Time Period: 2nd Century BCAncient Romans took their feasting very seriously. If you had the money, a feast could be made up of several courses, starting with hors d’oeuvres and aperitifs and ending with sweet dishes. These dessert-type foods were sweetened with fruit or honey, like this cheesecake.
This savillum is very dense, and also quite flavorful and tasty. With the amount of honey I used, it’s not as sweet as a modern cheesecake, but you can see how it has evolved over the last two thousand years. What type of cheese you use will make a big difference in the flavor of your cheesecake. I used ricotta, and my cheesecake was smooth and mild with a prominent honey flavor, but if you choose a stronger flavored cheese, I think it’ll be the main note coming through.
Make the savillum this way. Take half a pound of flour and two and a half pounds of cheese, and mix together as for the libum. Add 1/4 pound of honey and 1 egg. Grease an earthenware dish with oil. When you have mixed the ingredients well, pour into the dish and cover it with an earthenware lid. See that you cook it well in the middle, where it is thickest. When it is cooked, remove the dish, coat with honey, sprinkle with poppy seeds, and put it back beneath the lid for a short while, then remove from the fire. Serve it in the dish with a spoon.
— De Agri Cultura by Marcus Porcius Cato, 2nd Century BC
March 11, 2025
The Myth and Truth behind Croissants – A Recipe from 1850
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 29 Oct 2024Crescent-shaped bread rolls, from before the croissant was a flaky pastry
City/Region: France
Time Period: 1853Croissants weren’t always the buttery, flaky pastries that we know and love. While today, that flakiness is what defines a croissant, in the past, it was the crescent shape that was most important.
This recipe from the mid-19th century, a good 50 years before the croissant got its flakes, is a wonderfully soft bread. It doesn’t bear much resemblance to a modern croissant besides the shape, but it is much easier to make. The bread is a little plain, but would be lovely with some butter and jam.
In luxury bakeries, small loaves called croissants are prepared, usually in the semi-circular shape of a roll curved and tapered at the ends. The liquid is used to form the dough with one kilogram of flour consists of one or two eggs beaten and mixed with about five hundred grams of water. Moreover, the choice of flour, the dose of yeast, as well as the working of the dough, require the same care as when it comes to the other luxury breads mentioned.
— Des substances alimentaire et des moyens de les améliorer by Anselme Payen, 1853.
March 4, 2025
The Titanic Survivors Arrive in New York – Hamilton Pudding
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 18 Oct 2024A tart with apricot jam topped with a vanilla cookie-like filling, and toasted meringue
City/Region: Carpathia | United Kingdom | United States of America
Time Period: 1903 | 1912The menu from the last meal aboard RMS Carpathia before it docked in New York, carrying the survivors of the Titanic, lists Pouding Hamilton as one of the dessert options. After a fruitless search of my late 19th- and early 20th-century cookbooks, I finally found one recipe for it in a newspaper from 1903.
Honestly, I don’t know why there isn’t more mention of this tart. It’s delicious. The texture has kind of a wonderful crumbly shortcrust quality to it, and it’s not too sweet. It’s reminiscent of a vanilla cookie with jam, and you could really swap out the apricot jam for any flavor you like. I could see this being a great dessert for the holidays.
Hamilton Pudding –
Line a pie dish with a good short crust and cover the bottom with a layer of apricot jam; then fill up with the following mixture: Cream three ounces of butter with the same quantity of caster sugar, then add the yolks of two well beaten eggs and the white of one. Sift in by degrees three ounces of flour and flavor with a few drops of vanilla essence. Bake in a moderate oven and when nearly cooked beat the remaining white of egg to a stiff froth and lay it on top in tough lumps. Return the pudding to the oven till it is slightly browned.
— The Gazette, York, Pennsylvania, Sunday, August 9, 1903.
February 25, 2025
Surviving the Titanic – Dining on Carpathia
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 15 Oct 2024Purée Crécy (Creamy carrot and potato soup)
Beautifully vibrant carrot and potato soup garnished with homemade croutons and chervil
City/Region: Carpathia | United Kingdom | France
Time Period: 1903 | 1912While I don’t know if this is the exact soup that was served to the Titanic survivors once they were on board the Carpathia, the captain, Arthur Rostron, ordered for coffee, tea, and soup to be readied for the survivors. The menu from the last meal served aboard the Carpathia before it docked back in New York on April 18th lists Potage Crécy as one of the soups, so if this wasn’t the soup that was first served to survivors, it was at least in the Carpathia‘s repertoire.
Dishes featured on the channel rarely make it into my rotation, but this is one of them. It’s simple, quick, and has such a wonderfully rich, buttery, creamy texture and flavor. I was really surprised at how developed the flavors were after such a short cook time, and while it’s carrot-forward, there’s a little of the potato and the butter and cream are so delicious. A high-quality butter can really make the difference in this.
Smooth, rich, creamy. A perfect fall and winter soup.
Stew the carrots in butter with onions as for Purée Crécy but replace the thickening of rice with 250g potatoes and moisten with 1 litre water; season with salt. When cooked pass through a fine sieve and adjust the consistency with 2 dl very fresh cream; pass through a fine strainer at the last moment and add 150g butter. This soup does not now require any further simmering or skimming. Garnish with chervil and small Croutons of bread fried in butter.
— Le Guide Culinaire by Auguste Escoffier, 1903.
February 18, 2025
World War 2 rations on the British Home Front
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 8 Oct 2024Mock banana cream on whole grain National Loaf
City/Region: United Kingdom
Time Period: 1944British rationing lasted from 1940 all the way to 1954, and they had to completely do without foods like bananas for years. The National Loaf began to be distributed in 1941. Made of 85% wholemeal flour enriched with vitamins B and C, it was nutritious, but dense, gummy, and went stale very quickly.
My National Loaf, based on the Imperial War Museum’s version, is dense, but I like the complex flavors from the whole grains. The mock banana cream has a texture that’s really close to mashed bananas, though the taste is an interesting mixture of parsnip and banana. Not bad, but not quite banana.
Mock Banana Cream
Here is a more economical banana cream recipe. Prepare and boil 1lb. parsnips until soft. Add 2 ozs margarine, 1 level tablespoonful sugar, 2 teaspoonfuls banana flavouring and beat until creamy. This must be used quickly, but half the quantity can be made if desired.
— Daily Record, Glasgow, May 27, 1944
February 12, 2025
Did Medieval People Eat Breakfast?
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 1 Oct 2024Toasted white bread with sweet spices, white wine, and thick homemade almond milk
City/Region: England
Time Period: c. 1450Some medieval people ate breakfast sometimes. It depended on things like your social status and job, your age, and what part of the Middle Ages it was. Bread, cheese, and ale were common breakfast items, and sops are mentioned in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. There are a lot of variations of sops, but essentially it’s toast that’s soaked in some kind of flavorful liquid like wine or ale.
This recipe for golden sops uses white bread that is soaked in white wine and topped with almond milk that has been simmered until it resembles a thin custard. I was worried that the wine would dominate the flavor, but it doesn’t. What comes through most are the warm spices and light sweetness that remind me of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Delicious.
Soppes Dorre.
Take rawe Almondes, And grynde hem in A morter, And temper hem with wyn and drawe hem throgh a streynour; And lete hem boyle, And cast there-to Saffron, Sugur, and salt; And then take a paynmain, And kut him and tost him, And wte him in wyne, And ley hem in a dissh, and caste the siryppe thereon, and make a dregge of pouder ginger, sugur, Canell, Clowes, and maces, And cast thereon; And whan hit is I-Dressed, serue it forth fore a good pottage.
— Harleian MS. 4016, c. 1450
February 5, 2025
Beef Tea from a Victorian Hospital
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 27 Sept 2024Beef tea made with beef, onions, and clove
City/Region: England
Time Period: 1851Beef tea, largely unfamiliar to us now, was all the rage in 19th century hospitals. Believed to contain all of the nutrients of solid beef (not true), it was given to convalescents of all afflictions and social statuses. You can even find it in cocktail books, though you’d be hard pressed to find a bar that serves it today.
This beef tea is surprisingly nice. It’s not really like a beef bouillon or beef stock, and is much lighter in flavor and color. There’s a hint of beef flavor, but I noticed more of a delicious savoriness and unctuousness. While I don’t think it could replace a cocktail, I could see this being lovely on a cold evening.
Soyer’s new way of making Beef Tea
Cut a pound of solid beef into very small dice, which put into a stewpan, with a small pat of butter, a clove, two butter onions, and a salt-spoonful of salt, stir the meat round over the fire for a few minutes, until it produces a thin gravy, then add a quart of water, and let it simmer at the corner of the fire for half an hour, skimming off every particle of fat, when done pass through a sieve. I have always had a great objection to passing broth through a cloth, as it frequently quite spoils its flavor.
— The Modern Housewife or, Ménagère by Alexis Soyer, 1851
January 28, 2025
Dining at the Wild Parties of Regency England
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 24 Sep 2024Drop biscuit-style cakes with dried currants
City/Region: London, England
Time Period: 1806In the 18th and 19th centuries, members of the aristocracy threw wild parties called routs. These parties, which sound akin to a modern frat party, eventually devolved to rooms stuffed with way too many people, so that attendance consisted of jostling from room to room before leaving. If you were lucky, you could grab a rout cake to help sustain you while you party hopped.
These cakes are dense and dry, but not unpleasantly so. While they are delicious, because of the dryness I recommend enjoying them with a cup of coffee, tea, or party beverage of your choice. They’re just sweet enough, and the flavors of the brandy and the flower waters shine through.
Rout Drop Cakes
Mix two pounds of flour, one ditto butter, one ditto sugar, one ditto currants, clean and dry; then wet into a stiff paste, with two eggs, a large spoon of orange-flower water, ditto rose-water, ditto sweet wine, ditto brandy, drop on a tin-plate floured; a very short time bakes them.
— A New System of Domestic Cookery by A Lady (Maria Rundell), 1806.
January 21, 2025
January 14, 2025
Baking the Original Brownie – The History of Brownies
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 3 Sept 2024Fudgy brownies with walnuts
City/Region: Chicago, Illinois
Time Period: 1904I love a gooey, chocolatey brownie, so I opted not to make the first recipe for something called brownies from 1896, because it had no chocolate and instead used molasses. Certainly not the brownies of my heart.
There are a couple of origin stories about brownies, but the one for Bangor brownies goes that a housewife forgot to put baking powder into her chocolate cake. While I question the validity of this story, we do see a lot of recipes for Bangor brownies during the early 20th century that closely resemble brownies today.
While these may not rival my favorite modern ones, they’re very good. They come out fudgy and dense without being heavy and have a surprising amount of chocolate flavor for the amount of chocolate in the recipe. No matter their origin, brownies haven’t changed all that much in the last 120 years.
Bangor Brownies
Cream one-half cup of butter, one cup sugar. Add two squares (one-quarter cake) Baker’s chocolate, melted, two eggs. One half-cup pastry flour and one-half cup chopped walnuts. Spread on baking tins and bake fifteen minutes in a moderate oven.— Service Club Cook Book, 1904
