No kidding. I can’t find this show available in the US from any source I can think of. Not Netflix, Amazon, iTunes. :mad:
Well, for simplicity’s sake, there is an old nursery rhyme which describes a rather bland peasant diet.
Peas Porridge Hot
Peas Porridge Cold
Peas Porridge in the pot
Nine days old
I just read about a book company you might be interested in: “Poison Pen Presssells books, specializing in medieval cookery, costuming, and other material relating to the domestic aspects of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.”
I assume that the hardtack would be crumbled (with a hammer if necessary) into the porridge, the lentil soup, or even the wine if no other flavored liquids were available, right?
Or Worcestershire sauce, possibly.
Right, if you’re talking about a legionary in garrison, I’m sure they’d spend some of their time gathering wild onions or garlic, or even growing some in the camp.
Bread, cheese, apples and beer or wine.
Maybe some bacon once in a while, or oysters, or an onion.
Oh, and potatoes of course.
Modern hardtack aka pilot biscuits is not so bad, somewhat balnd, but not all that hard. In fact, I sorta like it.
There are several sources on line.
Look up some pre-Famine Irish potato recipes? Their diet consisted mostly of potatoes and buttermilk.
The Frugal Gourmet did an excellent series on immigrant ancestors food.
used copies are a couple bucks. There’s some really old, old recipes in this book.
You want to try ancient food from Rome, Greece or China? This guy tracked down and tested 2000 year old recipes. Couple bucks for used copies
The tales of it, yes.
The claws, on the other hand, were delicious. /groucho
Freaking hell no - I made a list of every error in the book, and it ran to over 100. I wrote them up, included references to why it was wrong and added a polite cover letter and never heard back from the publisher.
If you really want roman recipes, get the Apicius with the translation by Flowers and Rosenbaum. The Vehling sucks [which is the more common reprint to find in the US, Dover did a reprint of it.]
You should be able to find salt pork at your local grocery store. It can be used as a seasoning, but if you slice it up, including the skin, you can fry it up just like bacon. It will be very salty at first, but it rapidly becomes addicting.
Way back when, our family had fried salt pork for breakfast mostly every day. My granddad would sometimes make a gravy out of the remaining fat and serve it over grits or toast.
That is the one meat that I truly miss since going vegan.
Potatoes are New World, and so not in European cuisines before 1500.
Yes, that occurred to me about ten minutes after I posted. :smack: 
They must have had some kind of root vegetables, though – carrots, turnips, parsnips?
I should have mentioned fish as well as oysters, and also eggs.
Naah, that has other crap like tamarind, soy and the like. Garum, and the similar Asian fish sauces like nam pla, should be basically just fish and salt. It’s OK to add herbs & spices, vinegar, wine, verjus, oil or honey( but then you’re into the “dash-garums”,) but too many other strong umami tastes are going to completely cover the essential fishiness of garum, rendering the exercise of attempting a Roman recreation moot. Believe me, there’ll be a strong difference between peaches with honey, cumin and fish sauce, and peaches with honey, cumin and Worcestershire sauce.
Of course, you can still get the real thing today, if you know what to call it
No, that would be silly, that’s what the *calones*are for. Two to every 8 soldiers.
All of those, also celeriac & beets of all sorts.