Minoan Cretan Cuisine - An Interview with Jerolyn Morrison

Surely everyone wondered how did the Minotaur tasted like! After Theseus killed him in the famous labyrinth of King Minos, why didn't he cook the monster? Hmmmmmm...OK I guess it is just me then! Joking aside, I had the great honour to talk with food archaeologist Jerolyn Morrison who is in the island of Crete. For the almost 3 decades now, with teams of dedicated, hard working archaeologists from different fields, she explores and excavates ancient sites all over the island. Jerolyn specialises on findings from the Minoan times, so we are talking really ancient stuff here! Times full of myths and legends! On average the findings generally are 3 to 4 thousand years old! Very little was written back then and mostly in a writing system that we haven't deciphered yet. Most of the evidence is in the form of foodstuff remains, fragments of earthenware pots, and ancient rubbish or what was the kitchen type rooms when these were abandoned /destroyed. A lot of detailed and forensic zoo-archaeological work is going on as you can imagine! So i was delighted to talk with Jerolyn and get an insight of the first European civilisation and their eating habits! What follows is an hour of fascinating facts about this mythical, distant past! I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did! On top of all her hard work, Jerolyn is involved more broadly in recreating ancient food for modern audiences, with her social enterprise "Minoan Tastes" where people can book to learn how to cook with ancient ingredients, ancient cookware and ancient methods and techniques or more simply just to taste a menu inspired by Minoan Crete! More about how you can get involved you can find here:https://www.minoantastes.com/about Music by the exquisitely talented Pavlos Kapraloshttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgAonk4-uVhXXjKSF-Nz1AHave a lovely weekend and enjoy!The Delicious LegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. If you love to time-travel through food and history why not join us at https://plus.acast.com/s/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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A Greek Gourmand, travels through time...Imagine yourself dining with Socrates, Plato, or Pythagoras! What tasty morsels of food accompanied the conversations of these most significant minds in Western philosophy?Now picture yourself as you sat for a symposium with Cicero, or Pliny the Elder or Julius Caesar. The opulent feasts of the decadent Romans!Maybe, you're following Alexander the Great during his military campaigns in Asia for ten years. Conquering the vast Persian empire, while discovering new foods. Or try and picture the richness of fruits and vegetables in the lush Hanging Gardens of Babylon.What foods did our ancestors ate?How did all begin? Who was the first to write a recipe down and why? Sauces, ingredients, ways of cooking. Timeless and continuous yet unique and so alien to us now days. Staple ingredients of the Mediterranean world -as we think now- like tomatoes, potatoes, rice, peppers, didn't exist. What did they eat? We will travel far and wide, reconstructing the diet, the feasts, the dishes of a Greek Philosopher in a symposium in Athens, or a Roman Emperor or as a rich merchant in the last night in Pompeii.....Lavish dinners, exotic spices, so-called "barbaric" traditions of beer and milk, all intertwined...Stay tuned and find out more here, in 'The Delicious Legacy' Podcast!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.