alternatehistory.com
Spice
And so in the period of greatest division between Western and Eastern Hellenes we find that the use of krokos became a strong marker of affiliation. Krokos, to the old Hellenic mind, was a kind of aphrodisiac and a perfume associated with courtesans, and were invariably suspicious of krokos as used to dye fabrics, to flavour food, and indeed in almost any use whatsoever. This was considered one of the most bizarre prejudices of the Hellenes by the rest of Asia, and indeed it seems bizarre, both in its own right and compared to the far more civilized mindset of the Hellenes of our own time. The Persians, along with the rest of Asia, by contrast, were happy to enjoy the luxury and benefits of the krokos. Those Hellenes who became accustomed to, or indeed welcomed, the coming of the Great King would often signal their wealth and status with high quality krokos robes, and would emulate the Persians by consuming krokos-flavoured rice. By contrast the city of Dikaia made the use of such krokos a crime punishable by the loss of political power among their society, and banned the import of high quality krokos from Kolkhis. Kimon, famed anti-Persian, frequently accused the wives of the Great King of bathing in krokos water in order to seduce as many men as they could, counted as one of his many slurs against the Great King and the Persians. But in Hellas, as well as being considered an enjoyable addition to food and a vibrant pigment, krokos came to be considered a sign of healing and of medicine. The cultists of Asklepios, in particular those following the philosophy of Hippokrates, began to wear robes of krokos-yellow. Their reputation was too strong, their skill too great, for this to be censured in Italia and among the rest of the Western Hellenes. Sure enough we find that the acceptance of krokos also comes with the earliest reconciliation of the Hellenes, and it is thus fitting that the Italiote emissaries that aligned with Amavadata chose to wear krokos robes, signalling respect to their new ally and an end to their unfounded, barbarian prejudices.
The received, rote-learned, tired old ‘wisdom’ on the Parsian conquest of Hillas is of course that the Athinians and Spartans earned the wrath of Dareeus the Great by their treatment of his ambassadors, and partaking in the revolt of Yunia. There is, of course, no reason why someone of such powers and majesty as the King of Asia would have needed to pay attention to anyone as lowly as the Hillenes of that time and place, and let alone would invest over a million men in its taking at the time of Xirxes, particularly when the lands of Hillas had so little to offer to the great and the good. Instead, the truth behind the Parsian invasion was clearly because the country, at that time, in its primitive purity, was uncorrupted by spice. No spice is known to have been used in those times in Hillas, as everyone was too poor to have been able to afford it. As ones under the heady sway of spice Dareeus, and his son Xirxes, saw an opportunity, saw a chance to introduce the temptation of spice to new lands, indeed a new continent. This was the true power that the Akhaminidis sought after and recognised, the subordination of humans to pepper, to cinnamon, to cloves. It is from this time that the flow of cinnamon, master of befuddlement and licentious vice, became a torrent, with Hillas now directly connected to the heart of the vice lying in Hindush. It is said that a thousand tonnes was imported into Hillas every year, and that the closer to Parsian power you got in Hillas, the redder the food became. It is perhaps a temptation to be grateful, thus, to the vice of spice, for then we can perhaps recognise the bringing of the Parsians to Hillas, and the boon of this to civilization, but we question the very notion of civilization so founded upon vice. The body as temple is violated by these substances that promote the worst instincts of a working, thinking, active mind. And from the Akhaminidis’ end even worse was to come, with the coming of sugar, and star anise. One scarcely marvels at the caked, vice-ridden horror that the world arises to in the present age, from the time of the Parsians the rise of spice in the lands of the west has been inexorable, and along with it the encouragement of almost all vices capable of corrupting body and soul, even those most deadly.
To all those who would quote the well-respected Hipppokrates of Kos in the matter of kinnamomon. In the considered opinion of Koiranos, Hippokrates of Kos was a fuddy-duddy, insufficiently travelled, and a killjoy. For those of us who experience cruel winters we cannot talk of an excess of heat, in the depths of snows and bitter winds there is no such things. With this in mind, kinnamomon over-consumption must be entirely re-reckoned for those who dwell in Illyria, the colder parts of Italia, or in Sindika to the east, that is to say if one agrees with the distinguished practioner of Kos that kinnamomon consumption is that dangerous to the general health of the public at large. Perhaps, in the heart of the Akhaimenid domain, where reams of every luxury litter the landscape the way trees do elsewhere, perhaps there overconsumption is possible, but we are not the sensuous luxury-devourers of Persia and its royal court, we are Hellenes in wish of warm food to come home to, and to enjoy with our close comrades. Permit us, please, to inject a little pleasure in life, to generously coat a lovely leg of lamb in kinnamomon, to stir it into our strengthening stews in broths, to inject excellence into our cakes. Is this so much to ask?
Speaking of the matter of cakes, Koiranos recommends that you take water and flour, mix into a dough, and then fry the mixture until it is golden in all quarters. Coat the cake in honey, then sprinkle kinnamomon and a little thyme. Some prefer to just add the thyme rather than the kinnamomon. This is a cake of Issa, best eaten with friends near to a warm fire.
Take first milk and wheat flour. The cakes can be made with water rather than milk, but milk will create a better mixture. As with all things, the finer the flour the better the result. Mix into a dough, folding in sugar throughout the process. Now take the mixture and shape it into several bullets of dough, it is a great temptation to make bigger sizes but this will inevitably lead to an uneven finish, and probably a raw centre to the cake. Place the bullets in hot oil, and fry them until they achieve a rich colour on all sides. Warm an apricot and honey sauce with the freshest apricots you can get your hands on, rendering the apricots down and creating a consistency that is able to be dribbled but not entirely liquid. Coat the cooked cakes in the sauce on all sides, there are many who only coat the upper half but it creates an inferior product. Crush and pound together thyme, cinnamon, and cardamom. Roll the cakes in this fragrant mixture. Serve with hot spiced wine for best effect.
There is no cake that I see so commonly misprepared as the Aribyli, and as Mihr is my witness I have seen many prepared better by common street vendors than those in the high courts. Follow this recipe, demonstrate your virtue by putting high quality food into people’s mouths, and you will earn the respect of proper society. You will be as expensive as lapis dust. The most important note is that the earliest preparation should be done the day before the cakes are needed. Make most preparations the day before they are needed! Take water, sugar, fine white flour, eggs, a little salt, and cinnamon. Mix this all together, and then add butter. Create an elastic dough. Place the dough in a metal container, cover the container in a linen cloth, and then leave to rise until the dough has now doubled in size. Now take the cloth off, and place the container and dough in a cool location. Do not immediately use the dough for cooking! Be patient! The next day, cut the dough into equal sizes, this should be sufficient to create twenty portions. Do not try to reduce the number to create larger cakes! Roll the pieces of dough so that they are round and smooth! Do not be lazy! Heat oil, any oil can be used so long as it is good quality oil, ghee can be used also but the cakes will go a different colour, and you may find it difficult to judge if they are cooked. Now begin to place the uncooked cakes in the oil, when it has become hot. Do not pierce the cakes! This will create ugly, deflated cakes! Only place as many cakes in the oil as the size of the pan will allow! Do not be over-eager and greedy to cook too many at once! Once one side has become golden and nicely fried, immediately turn over the cake and allow the other side to fry in the same manner. Immediately! Now take out the cakes, and allow them to dry, do not allow people to eat greasy Aribyli cakes. Now when you are learning to make Aribyli cakes, it is best to start with the traditional coating. Take honey of a liquid consistency and coat the Aribyli cakes on the top, preferably when still warm. Do not coat the entire cake! This will make it impossible to adequately handle whilst eating! Take cinnamon, thyme, sugar, a little salt, and roll the cake in the mixture. For best presentation it is good to place a nice rose flower on top of the cake. This will produce for you, and those who consume your food, perfect Aribyli cakes every time you make them. When you have become proficient at doing so, you can consider different toppings, or the addition of rose cream, but these are trivial accoutrements compared to the core recipe. Practice!
Imagine it. In the space of a century these seas, which had been travelled, lived in, and home to some small amount of local trade, but had otherwise seen nothing remarkable, were suddenly transformed into a single great avenue of precious things. Tin from Pride could reasonably expect to end up at the mouth of the Orin river, and Idonian pepper in the halls of warlords across Pride. Indeed, the only great rival to Isipania’s great rush of silver in terms of profits was the spice of Idonia, and many of these are the familiar spices of Morikan cuisine down to this day; Idonian pepper, kwa pepper, Idonian mosca, smooth pepper. Here we find the origin of Poit Cuisine (with, of course, the exception of mustard). These trading missions were the first time that any people originating from the Mediterranean had encountered what we would now recognise as a rainforest, and the fruit of Idonia was the source of many a fabulous report. Whilst spice was the most valued thing to come from Idonia, its colourful and intense fruit were what caught the imagination. A new connective artery between maritime Europa and the tropical south had now been firmly established. A king of Morika who could not afford kwa pepper with his salmon was considered a king of very low status indeed. This westernmost of trade routes soon intensified further; the appeal of tropical fruit gained a great hold across these societies now hearing tales of their great variety and piquancy. However, there was no way to bring many of these fruits to the people who were so interested in them, salt not being an ideal preservative for such things. This changed with the spread of sugar cultivation into the Mediterranean, and the associated spread of candying processes. This became the method by which the sour apple and lotus apple were first distributed into maritime Europa. The destruction of the African outposts in Pride did not, in fact, deter this trade route, so profitable as it was. The natives of Pride now directly connected with Morika Celtica, and in general the peoples of Morika were beginning to take more of a direct hand in this previously African affair. This also led the Idonian peoples of the coast to take a more active interest in controlling their own trade and their own waters, and they had already dealt with the expansion of Mazica traders across the desert between Africa and Idonia, they knew that peoples and cultures existed to their far north, and they became anxious as to what these peoples would do if the Idonians remained passive onlookers to these (to them) foreigners increasing congress and travails around their coast. Starting from the *5th century CE, Idonians began to enter into the ancient world centered around the Mediterranean as active participants. One can now talk of a single trade ecosystem spreading between Idonia and Thina.
Μηδίζω! THE WORLD OF ACHAEMENID HELLAS
CHAPTER 5: SPOROS or CIHYA
EXTRACT FROM DATIS OF SINOPE’S HISTORIA (96 BCE)
THE HELLENES AND KROKOS
CHAPTER 5: SPOROS or CIHYA
EXTRACT FROM DATIS OF SINOPE’S HISTORIA (96 BCE)
THE HELLENES AND KROKOS
And so in the period of greatest division between Western and Eastern Hellenes we find that the use of krokos became a strong marker of affiliation. Krokos, to the old Hellenic mind, was a kind of aphrodisiac and a perfume associated with courtesans, and were invariably suspicious of krokos as used to dye fabrics, to flavour food, and indeed in almost any use whatsoever. This was considered one of the most bizarre prejudices of the Hellenes by the rest of Asia, and indeed it seems bizarre, both in its own right and compared to the far more civilized mindset of the Hellenes of our own time. The Persians, along with the rest of Asia, by contrast, were happy to enjoy the luxury and benefits of the krokos. Those Hellenes who became accustomed to, or indeed welcomed, the coming of the Great King would often signal their wealth and status with high quality krokos robes, and would emulate the Persians by consuming krokos-flavoured rice. By contrast the city of Dikaia made the use of such krokos a crime punishable by the loss of political power among their society, and banned the import of high quality krokos from Kolkhis. Kimon, famed anti-Persian, frequently accused the wives of the Great King of bathing in krokos water in order to seduce as many men as they could, counted as one of his many slurs against the Great King and the Persians. But in Hellas, as well as being considered an enjoyable addition to food and a vibrant pigment, krokos came to be considered a sign of healing and of medicine. The cultists of Asklepios, in particular those following the philosophy of Hippokrates, began to wear robes of krokos-yellow. Their reputation was too strong, their skill too great, for this to be censured in Italia and among the rest of the Western Hellenes. Sure enough we find that the acceptance of krokos also comes with the earliest reconciliation of the Hellenes, and it is thus fitting that the Italiote emissaries that aligned with Amavadata chose to wear krokos robes, signalling respect to their new ally and an end to their unfounded, barbarian prejudices.
EXTRACT FROM THE SECRET HISTORY BY ALITHAGUR OF ISH (c.650 CE)
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE AKHAMANIDI INVASION OF HILLAS
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE AKHAMANIDI INVASION OF HILLAS
The received, rote-learned, tired old ‘wisdom’ on the Parsian conquest of Hillas is of course that the Athinians and Spartans earned the wrath of Dareeus the Great by their treatment of his ambassadors, and partaking in the revolt of Yunia. There is, of course, no reason why someone of such powers and majesty as the King of Asia would have needed to pay attention to anyone as lowly as the Hillenes of that time and place, and let alone would invest over a million men in its taking at the time of Xirxes, particularly when the lands of Hillas had so little to offer to the great and the good. Instead, the truth behind the Parsian invasion was clearly because the country, at that time, in its primitive purity, was uncorrupted by spice. No spice is known to have been used in those times in Hillas, as everyone was too poor to have been able to afford it. As ones under the heady sway of spice Dareeus, and his son Xirxes, saw an opportunity, saw a chance to introduce the temptation of spice to new lands, indeed a new continent. This was the true power that the Akhaminidis sought after and recognised, the subordination of humans to pepper, to cinnamon, to cloves. It is from this time that the flow of cinnamon, master of befuddlement and licentious vice, became a torrent, with Hillas now directly connected to the heart of the vice lying in Hindush. It is said that a thousand tonnes was imported into Hillas every year, and that the closer to Parsian power you got in Hillas, the redder the food became. It is perhaps a temptation to be grateful, thus, to the vice of spice, for then we can perhaps recognise the bringing of the Parsians to Hillas, and the boon of this to civilization, but we question the very notion of civilization so founded upon vice. The body as temple is violated by these substances that promote the worst instincts of a working, thinking, active mind. And from the Akhaminidis’ end even worse was to come, with the coming of sugar, and star anise. One scarcely marvels at the caked, vice-ridden horror that the world arises to in the present age, from the time of the Parsians the rise of spice in the lands of the west has been inexorable, and along with it the encouragement of almost all vices capable of corrupting body and soul, even those most deadly.
OIKOMAKHIA BY KOIRANOS OF ISSA (394 BCE)
DEFENCE OF KINNAMOMON
DEFENCE OF KINNAMOMON
To all those who would quote the well-respected Hipppokrates of Kos in the matter of kinnamomon. In the considered opinion of Koiranos, Hippokrates of Kos was a fuddy-duddy, insufficiently travelled, and a killjoy. For those of us who experience cruel winters we cannot talk of an excess of heat, in the depths of snows and bitter winds there is no such things. With this in mind, kinnamomon over-consumption must be entirely re-reckoned for those who dwell in Illyria, the colder parts of Italia, or in Sindika to the east, that is to say if one agrees with the distinguished practioner of Kos that kinnamomon consumption is that dangerous to the general health of the public at large. Perhaps, in the heart of the Akhaimenid domain, where reams of every luxury litter the landscape the way trees do elsewhere, perhaps there overconsumption is possible, but we are not the sensuous luxury-devourers of Persia and its royal court, we are Hellenes in wish of warm food to come home to, and to enjoy with our close comrades. Permit us, please, to inject a little pleasure in life, to generously coat a lovely leg of lamb in kinnamomon, to stir it into our strengthening stews in broths, to inject excellence into our cakes. Is this so much to ask?
Speaking of the matter of cakes, Koiranos recommends that you take water and flour, mix into a dough, and then fry the mixture until it is golden in all quarters. Coat the cake in honey, then sprinkle kinnamomon and a little thyme. Some prefer to just add the thyme rather than the kinnamomon. This is a cake of Issa, best eaten with friends near to a warm fire.
HOW TO EAT LIKE A GOTHIK BASILEUS (401 CE)
THE KLOROPEMA
THE KLOROPEMA
Take first milk and wheat flour. The cakes can be made with water rather than milk, but milk will create a better mixture. As with all things, the finer the flour the better the result. Mix into a dough, folding in sugar throughout the process. Now take the mixture and shape it into several bullets of dough, it is a great temptation to make bigger sizes but this will inevitably lead to an uneven finish, and probably a raw centre to the cake. Place the bullets in hot oil, and fry them until they achieve a rich colour on all sides. Warm an apricot and honey sauce with the freshest apricots you can get your hands on, rendering the apricots down and creating a consistency that is able to be dribbled but not entirely liquid. Coat the cooked cakes in the sauce on all sides, there are many who only coat the upper half but it creates an inferior product. Crush and pound together thyme, cinnamon, and cardamom. Roll the cakes in this fragrant mixture. Serve with hot spiced wine for best effect.
SETTLED AFFAIRS BY ANSHADAT (731 CE)
ARIBYLI CAKE
ARIBYLI CAKE
There is no cake that I see so commonly misprepared as the Aribyli, and as Mihr is my witness I have seen many prepared better by common street vendors than those in the high courts. Follow this recipe, demonstrate your virtue by putting high quality food into people’s mouths, and you will earn the respect of proper society. You will be as expensive as lapis dust. The most important note is that the earliest preparation should be done the day before the cakes are needed. Make most preparations the day before they are needed! Take water, sugar, fine white flour, eggs, a little salt, and cinnamon. Mix this all together, and then add butter. Create an elastic dough. Place the dough in a metal container, cover the container in a linen cloth, and then leave to rise until the dough has now doubled in size. Now take the cloth off, and place the container and dough in a cool location. Do not immediately use the dough for cooking! Be patient! The next day, cut the dough into equal sizes, this should be sufficient to create twenty portions. Do not try to reduce the number to create larger cakes! Roll the pieces of dough so that they are round and smooth! Do not be lazy! Heat oil, any oil can be used so long as it is good quality oil, ghee can be used also but the cakes will go a different colour, and you may find it difficult to judge if they are cooked. Now begin to place the uncooked cakes in the oil, when it has become hot. Do not pierce the cakes! This will create ugly, deflated cakes! Only place as many cakes in the oil as the size of the pan will allow! Do not be over-eager and greedy to cook too many at once! Once one side has become golden and nicely fried, immediately turn over the cake and allow the other side to fry in the same manner. Immediately! Now take out the cakes, and allow them to dry, do not allow people to eat greasy Aribyli cakes. Now when you are learning to make Aribyli cakes, it is best to start with the traditional coating. Take honey of a liquid consistency and coat the Aribyli cakes on the top, preferably when still warm. Do not coat the entire cake! This will make it impossible to adequately handle whilst eating! Take cinnamon, thyme, sugar, a little salt, and roll the cake in the mixture. For best presentation it is good to place a nice rose flower on top of the cake. This will produce for you, and those who consume your food, perfect Aribyli cakes every time you make them. When you have become proficient at doing so, you can consider different toppings, or the addition of rose cream, but these are trivial accoutrements compared to the core recipe. Practice!
IDONIA BY ADBAL BEN ASHREAMEN (1740 CE)
What other land could entice the seabound Canaanite
Half as well as you, Idonia,
With your tall, strong trees in their great green forests,
Your pungent spices, your milky white ivory,
Your waters like rippling agate,
Your golden beaches guarded by strong, fierce warriors,
You drew them from their safe harbours in lands far away
For none could resist your pull, your allure,
Not when they had caught your scent or gazed upon you,
Idonia.
Half as well as you, Idonia,
With your tall, strong trees in their great green forests,
Your pungent spices, your milky white ivory,
Your waters like rippling agate,
Your golden beaches guarded by strong, fierce warriors,
You drew them from their safe harbours in lands far away
For none could resist your pull, your allure,
Not when they had caught your scent or gazed upon you,
Idonia.
A POPULAR HISTORY OF MORIKA BY GELO SYRAKOSEUS (1659 CE)
THE WESTERN SPICE TRADE
THE WESTERN SPICE TRADE
Imagine it. In the space of a century these seas, which had been travelled, lived in, and home to some small amount of local trade, but had otherwise seen nothing remarkable, were suddenly transformed into a single great avenue of precious things. Tin from Pride could reasonably expect to end up at the mouth of the Orin river, and Idonian pepper in the halls of warlords across Pride. Indeed, the only great rival to Isipania’s great rush of silver in terms of profits was the spice of Idonia, and many of these are the familiar spices of Morikan cuisine down to this day; Idonian pepper, kwa pepper, Idonian mosca, smooth pepper. Here we find the origin of Poit Cuisine (with, of course, the exception of mustard). These trading missions were the first time that any people originating from the Mediterranean had encountered what we would now recognise as a rainforest, and the fruit of Idonia was the source of many a fabulous report. Whilst spice was the most valued thing to come from Idonia, its colourful and intense fruit were what caught the imagination. A new connective artery between maritime Europa and the tropical south had now been firmly established. A king of Morika who could not afford kwa pepper with his salmon was considered a king of very low status indeed. This westernmost of trade routes soon intensified further; the appeal of tropical fruit gained a great hold across these societies now hearing tales of their great variety and piquancy. However, there was no way to bring many of these fruits to the people who were so interested in them, salt not being an ideal preservative for such things. This changed with the spread of sugar cultivation into the Mediterranean, and the associated spread of candying processes. This became the method by which the sour apple and lotus apple were first distributed into maritime Europa. The destruction of the African outposts in Pride did not, in fact, deter this trade route, so profitable as it was. The natives of Pride now directly connected with Morika Celtica, and in general the peoples of Morika were beginning to take more of a direct hand in this previously African affair. This also led the Idonian peoples of the coast to take a more active interest in controlling their own trade and their own waters, and they had already dealt with the expansion of Mazica traders across the desert between Africa and Idonia, they knew that peoples and cultures existed to their far north, and they became anxious as to what these peoples would do if the Idonians remained passive onlookers to these (to them) foreigners increasing congress and travails around their coast. Starting from the *5th century CE, Idonians began to enter into the ancient world centered around the Mediterranean as active participants. One can now talk of a single trade ecosystem spreading between Idonia and Thina.
- Daeres
- Word Count: 2.4k