Tasting History: Explore the Past through 4,000 Years of Recipes (A Cookbook)

Grains of paradise: Grains of paradise is a complex, aromatic spice popular in historic recipes. They offer the heat of black pepper with a hint of citrus and sweet ginger and cardamom. Their flavor is hard to replicate, though equal amounts of black pepper, ginger, and cardamom will come close.

Asafetida (Asafoetida): Still used in Indian cuisine under the name hing, this ingredient is infamous for its pungent odor, which transforms to a smooth leek and garlic flavor during the cooking process. It was used during the Roman Empire as a replacement for the famous ingredient silphium, which was thought to have gone extinct in the first centu

Savory: Savory is an herb common in historic recipes and comes in two varieties, summer and winter. Recipes rarely call for either specifically, so it is chef’s choice. Both varieties offer a robust and peppery taste to a dish—the summer variety has a tinge of heat that the earthier winter variety does not, though winter savory carries a hint of pi

Sandalwood powder: Sandalwood was used to color food red in the Middle Ages, though today it is more often used in cosmetics.

Lovage: A mildly sweet herb used in ancient and medieval cooking, lovage can be found in some gardens but is not common today and, like rue, has been used as an abortifacient. Celery leaf can be used as a substitute.

Long pepper: Long pepper is a spice popular throughout history, only losing favor in recent centuries when black pepper came to dominate Western cuisine. It has a similar flavor to black peppercorn but with a bit more heat and a lot more complexity. It truly is superior to black peppercorn in every way except in its availability at the grocery stor

Hyssop: A popular medieval herb still commonly used in tea, hyssop has a flavor that is a combination of mint and anise.

Persian shallots: These are often dried and can be rehydrated in a bowl of water after a half hour. Their flavor is more akin to strong garlic than to a shallot.

Garum: This ingredient is a must for nearly every Ancient Roman recipe. It’s a fermented fish sauce that was often used in place of salt, but its flavor cannot be compared to salt and cannot be reproduced by anything other than fermented fish sauce.