The Great Courses
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Explore the fascinating decades of exchange between Portugal and Japan in the 16th century, and discover which Portuguese foods are still part of Japanese cuisine today. Explore the process of creating fine dried fish flakes from skipjack tuna, and learn why the dried blocks of this fish are so prized that they’re often even given as wedding presents.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Explore the earliest printed cookbook, composed in the early 15th century and printed around 1470 (making it one of the first generation of books in print on any subject). Learn to create its blancmanger, a combination of capon breast, white flour, rosewater, sugar, and almond milk that still exists in Turkish cuisine. And discover how to make pasta by feel and texture, no measurements allowed.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Continue your exploration of the Roman Balkans, heading inland to modern Serbia, which was repeatedly threatened by hostile kingdoms in antiquity. The Danube River plays a prominent role here, as do a litany of Roman emperors and their public and private works in three ancient cities. As Darius shows throughout the series, ancient Rome lives on through its enduring monuments and culture.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Explore the encyclopedic wonders of the Opera, a 1570 cookbook by Bartolomeo Scappi. Unusual for its time, Opera was a cookbook written specifically to teach cooking. With directions and recipes from the Late Renaissance style, and using lavish and contrasting flavors, you will create delicious meat rolls, salami, and an eggplant dish.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Visit the star of Rome's Middle Eastern domain, Petra in modern Jordan, known as the Rose City for its construction in rose-red local stone. Settled by Nabataean Bedouins, the city grew rich from the caravan trade, leading to the building of impressive temples, tombs, and other structures, many of which survive due to the arid climate and the abandonment of the site for many centuries.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Explore the rich cuisine of 19th-century Brazil with its indigenous American, West African, and Portuguese influences. From the Cozinheiro Imperial, first published in 1838, learn to cook vatapa with mandioca flour, green beans and shrimp, and a delicious black bean stew using every part of the pig, including tail and ears.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Spain became a gastronomic model for much of Europe in the 17th century, with its culinary influence becoming widespread even after suffering military defeat. As you cook its olla podrida, discover the riot of flavors (lamb, beef, pig’s feet, chestnuts, turnips, and more) in this “rotten pot” that became popular throughout Europe.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
The Dalmatian Coast was strategically vital to Rome, which conquered it starting in the 2nd century BC. Investigate the Roman legacy, including ancient Salona and Ragusa. Near Salona is Diocletian's Palace, a sprawling fortress built by the Dalmatia-born Emperor Diocletian around 300 CE. Also, probe the historic maritime economy of the region, which still flourishes.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Are the recipes in De re coquinaria (the oldest complete recipe book in the Western tradition) bizarre and disgusting, or do they reflect a time of elegance and luxury? Historians have expressed a gamut of opinions. As you explore its sala cattabia, minutal of apricots, and botellum, you might be surprised to find three delicious, and even somewhat familiar, dishes.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Examine the Chinese Wei dynasty’s Qi Min Yao Shu, an encyclopedic manual containing “essential techniques to benefit the people,” and learn about Chinese agricultural practices going back to antiquity. Explore the fermentation practices of the time, using both bacteria and mold, and follow a scaled-down recipe to create an intensely flavored fermented black bean dish.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Examine A Gift to Young Housewives by Elena Molokhovets, published during the Russian empire in the final decades before the revolution, featured the foods eaten by the Russian elite. Learn to make pirozhki iz vermisheli, Salad Olivier (known simply as Russian salad outside the country), and the delicious sweet Blinchiki for dessert.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
What can you learn about different cultural groups of people through the lens of their cookbooks? A lot, as Professor Ken Albala illustrates by looking at two chicken recipes 200 years and a continent apart. Learn to cook a recipe from the 1748 French cookbook Le Nouveau Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois, and another from The Can-Opener Cookbook of 1953.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Meet Guillaume Tirel (known as Taillevent), the first celebrity chef who served in the 14th century as master chef in the French imperial courts. His Le Viandier was not an introduction to cooking but served as an aid to help people remember how to cook the classics. Dive into his recipe for a polysavory white stew of capons, along with individual tarts with banners for your guests.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
From 14th-century Egypt, explore recipes that reflect the interchange between the many cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean of the time. Learn to make the sweet Byzantine specialty known as himmas kassa, and a super light and flaky phyllo dough stretched to the size of a table, just as Professor Albala remembers his grandmother doing.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Rome once ruled North Africa, cementing its control over the entire Mediterranean basin. Investigate Morocco, where Roman influences mixed with the indigenous Berbers to produce a unique culture. Visit the ruins of Volubilis, an ancient international hub, called the most beautiful Roman city in North Africa. Also, tour the thriving old quarter of Marrakesh.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Riding an Iberian horse, Darius opens his tour of Spain, one of Rome's richest provinces. Rome benefitted from the region's mineral and agricultural wealth. The grand Roman structures still standing include the massive arched bridge and theater complex at Mérida. Also, visit Roman monuments in Segovia, including its renowned aqueduct, and descend into an ancient gypsum mine.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Amelia Simmons, universally recognized as the first truly American cookbook author, wrote recipes for “all grades of life,” from elegant households to the most humble farmer, in the democratizing spirit of the early Republic. Explore her recipes to create a cornmeal-based johnnycake, a type of corned beef, and a predecessor to the pumpkin pie.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Begin the series on the outskirts of Rome, taking the Via Appia into the city. View the impressive tombs and aqueducts that line the road, testifying to the importance of the ancient capital. Within, visit major sites that include the extensive ruins of different forum spaces and temples. Also, explore subterranean Rome, and sample the market and café scene, as lively today as two millennia ago.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Did Lettice Pudsey create all the recipes in the 17th-century manuscript attributed to her? Or do as many as 13 others also deserve credit? Whatever the answer, Pudsey had great culinary skills and she wanted her peers to know it. Explore her hippocras, a delicious spiced wine, and the astounding flavors of her “capon in whit broth.”
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Explore the original Philadelphia, the ancient name for present-day Amman, Jordan, which came under Roman rule in the 1st century BC. Then, visit nearby Jerash, lauded as the "Pompeii of the East" for its remarkable state of preservation. Tour a Roman desert fort, a Crusader-era castle, and finish in the otherworldly landscape of Wadi Rum, the spectacular location for Dune and other movies.