
The Mystery of a Lost Roman Herb - tomcam
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170907-the-mystery-of-the-lost-roman-herb
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carlob
> In fact, Roman cuisine wasn’t at all like Italian food. It was all about
> contrasting sweet with salty and sour foods (they liked to eat fishgut
> sauce, garum, with melon).

It's true that it wasn't at all like Italian food, but this is a particularly
bad example:

1\. garum kinda lives on as colatura di alici, though the former was
fermented, and the latter isn't [1]

2\. Italian cuisine still contrast melon with salty food, just prosciutto, not
fish

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colatura_di_Alici](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colatura_di_Alici)

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maxerickson
I guess it is notable that the Romans didn't have tomatoes.

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carlob
Or zucchini, peppers, eggplants, chillies, and coffee which are all staples of
Italian cuisine now.

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wizardforhire
Don't forget pasta, avocados, pineapples, chocolate, potatoes or chocolate

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13of40
They had olives, bread, cheese, mushrooms, and sausage, though. Imagine being
stuck in a dystopian Italy where they were one ingredient away from being able
to make pizza.

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notfromhere
olive oil based pizza is actually pretty good

~~~
photojosh
Yes. We regularly have this, cooked by Nonna or my wife...

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xaedes
Reminds me of hindu soma:

Soma (Sanskrit: soma) or haoma (Avestan) was a Vedic ritual drink[1] of
importance among the early Indians. It is mentioned in the Rigveda,
particularly in the Soma Mandala. It is described as being prepared by
extracting the juice from a plant, the identity of which is now unknown and
debated among scholars.

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mkl
The bit about camel-llama hybrids being camel-sized and llama-woolly seems to
be completely wrong (they've confused the general goal of the project with
reality), so I'm a bit dubious about the rest of the article. According to
Wikipedia [1] and google image search, camas are smaller than both llamas and
camels, and not very woolly.

I do find it fascinating that camels and llamas, whose last common ancestor
was roughly as long ago as that of chimpanzees and us, can produce viable
offspring.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cama_(animal)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cama_\(animal\))

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def8cefe
I have to ask, do we know that humans and chimpanzees can't produce viable
offspring?

~~~
hutzlibu
With all the cracy shit people are doing ... I can't imagine that it has not
been tried yet. But I also do not know anything further.

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jleahy
Of course it's been tried.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Ivanovich_Ivanov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Ivanovich_Ivanov)

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Abdullah3870
Pliny wrote that within his lifetime, only a single stalk was discovered
[http://www.oocities.org/syrtica/silphium.html](http://www.oocities.org/syrtica/silphium.html).

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m_st
Funny, lovage (which they mention near the end) is or was quite common here in
Switzerland. My mother used it a lot while my generation uses it a lot less
already. Still have some in the garden though.

~~~
dEnigma
Same in Austria. It's commonly called "Maggi-Kraut", because it tastes very
similar to a sauce produced by Maggi (which is now part of Nestlé). Funnily
enough, the sauce doesn't contain any lovage.

~~~
vsl
Not usual (but not hugely popular) in Czechia too.

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chrismealy
You actually can grow red huckleberries (at least in the PNW). I even have one
in a neglected pot that does ok. Here's an advanced technique:

[http://www.skilledwright.com/redhuckleberries.htm](http://www.skilledwright.com/redhuckleberries.htm)

I've don't think I've ever seen a cultivated evergreen huckleberry plant with
berries on it though.

~~~
autokad
i believe that's the point "When they’re grown from seed, they are
mysteriously devoid of fruit."

~~~
chrismealy
I don't know how plants people buy are propagated (seed, cuttings, layering,
etc).

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eps
Re: Asafoetida - anyone got a good way to use it?

Bought it a while ago because of an Indian curry recipe that called for 1/8 of
tsp per bucket, but never got around to actually adding it, because of its
eye-popping burnt rubber aroma.

~~~
sandGorgon
Most indian cooking, especially lentils use it. It's always used in tempering,
which means you add it in hot oil a few seconds before you dunk it in the
dish.

It is also used as a replacement for garlic in dishes, for people who refuse
garlic for religious reasons.

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mabbo
> for people who refuse garlic for religious reasons

I've never heard of this. What religions ban garlic? (and pity for them, I
love it!)

~~~
epmaybe
I'll try and explain why Jains do not eat garlic (along with other rooted
vegetables like onions and potatoes):

When taking out the entire plant, you also take out any organisms like bugs
and such from their ecosystem, killing them in the process. Jains try and
limit the amount of violence they cause (Ahimsa), so in turn they try and
avoid eating rooted vegetables.

On top of this, by removing the whole plant you prevent them from sprouting
again, which is effectively "killing" in Jainism.

All of this being said though, modern agriculture techniques kind of make this
reasoning insignificant. Mass farming practices mean that all plants are
effectively killed along with any organisms in that area when harvesting.

And to top it all off, many Jains do not follow this practice, at least in the
US. Many of my family eat all of these things, maybe trying to avoid them
during Paryushan (holy week).

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Houshalter
How do you grow any crop without killing weeds and pests?

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mcbits
By growing a lot more of it (which prevents the birth of whatever would have
grown in its place, but that's an invisible effect and technically not
killing).

Also, grow mixtures of plants together that naturally crowd out weeds, inhibit
the spread of pests, and replenish certain nutrients like nitrogen. IMHO this
is grossly under-studied but could become more relevant with smarter robotics.

~~~
Houshalter
How do you even establish an initial batch of the crop large enough to crowd
out all weeds, without killing the existing weeds to start with?

Plants are hypercompetitive and constantly fighting for space and resources.
The only reason modern agriculture works is we are so effective at killing
weeds with machines and herbicide. Otherwise crop fields would quickly be
taken over by whatever grows the fastest.

~~~
mcbits
I don't know how they do their farming in practice, but I'm pretty confident
that it involves more land use and lower yields.

They may also adapt their diet to whatever is the most edible among the weeds.
This year a grape vine mysteriously sprouted in my garden and started taking
over before I realized what it was and murdered it to save the zucchinis. A
Jain would probably be happy enough with the grapes. I had even considered
adopting it.

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mirimir
tl;dr : We don't know, but here's a lot of other information.

