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Attila the Hun scourge of the Roman Empire and destroyer of cities
had a real affinity for meat, at least according to the records from one feast in the year 448,
and so I'm making a 5th century recipe for lamb with salted wine sauce.
Dinner with Attila the Hun this time on Tasting History.
Attila the Hun is a man with quite the reputation I think most would agree with the ancient Roman author Jordanes who said
"Attila was a man born into the world to shake the nations.
The scourge of all lands, who in some way terrified all mankind by the dreadful rumors noised abroad concerning him."
But when I think of Attila I think picky eater because when Priscus an emissary from the Eastern Roman Emperor
sat down to a dinner with the leader of the Huns he says many dishes were served but
"Attila ate nothing but meat on a wooden trencher."
Now what that meat was he doesn't say but while he was with the Huns Priscus says
"We set out with the barbarians, and arrived at Sardica, 13 days quick travel from Constantinople...
The people there sold us sheep and oxen which we slaughtered, and we prepared a meal."
So mutton and beef are good bets but how they prepared those dishes
he doesn't say anything about that. He does say that they didn't have a lot of spices.
In fact long pepper or Indian pepper was one of the gifts that Priscus was bringing to Attila
but neither he nor any other author from the time tells us exactly what they were eating and how it was prepared.
But there is a 5th Century writer Anthimus who does right of what another non-roman people, the Franks, were eating at the time.
And one simple recipe from his 'De Observatione Ciborum' sounds like it might have been up Attila's alley.
"Mutton is suitable and can be eaten frequently, both with a simple sauce and in roasting it,
keeping it far away from the flame. Indeed, if it is near the fire, the meat will be burned on the outside
and the inside will remain raw, and this causes more harm than good.
However, roast it from afar and for a long time, so that the result is almost as if it were steamed,
as it roasts, season it with salt mixed with wine, brushed on with a feather."
So pretty clear instructions considering it's from the 5th century but he doesn't say what the sauce that is supposed to be served with it is
though he does have other sauces is in his writings so I'm going to take my cue from those.
One sauce has wine, vinegar, pepper which we know Priscus was bringing to Attila
and honey or saba. And saba is still around today sometimes called Mosto Cotto,
and it's grape must that has been reduced down into a thick syrup and it is absolutely heavenly.
If you have never tried it
just do yourself a favor and and try it I'll put a link in the description to where I got mine
but there are lots of different varieties. You will thank me when you have tried it.
Now the Huns were also well known for their reliance on root vegetables so I'm going to throw some of those in
just for flavor as well. So for this recipe what you'll need is:
2 pounds or 1 kilogram mutton or lamb, 2 cups or 475 milliliters of wine.
Again we don't know what was popular amongst the Huns but sweeter white wines were kind of in Vogue at the time
amongst the elite and since this is for Attila the Hun who is the ruler of the Huns I'm going with that.
2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of salt, a 1/4 cup or 60 milliliters of honey or sapa,
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons long pepper or black pepper crushed.
I'll also put a link to where you can find long pepper if you've never tried that.
A head of garlic cloves peeled but left whole, and some pearl onions or large slices of onion or both.
So make your salted wine by mixing the salt into the wine and then give the lamb a light rub of olive oil and start to baste it with the wine.
Now do you have to use feathers? No,
but hey if you have some sterilized feathers laying around go ahead and use them.
What you should not do is go out and take a feather off of a pigeon because you're going to get a disease.
And if you don't have feathers then you can just use a regular brush and
honestly halfway through I went that way too because my feathers started falling apart.
Then line the bottom of a pot with the onions and garlic and then set the meat on top,
and you can also stick a few whole cloves of garlic into the meat for some extra garlickiness.
So meat in this culture was typically cooked in pots. Sometimes it was done over a spit but very rarely and
the fact that he says that it should be as if steamed makes me think it should be done in a pot.
Then take the rest of the wine and mix it with the vinegar, sapa and any oil that's left as well as the pepper
and pour it over the lamb and set the lid on the pot.
Then set it in the oven at 335 degrees Fahrenheit, 170 Celsius, for about an hour.
You want the internal temperature of the meat to get to around 140. Then take it out and give it another basting,
and then return it to the oven uncovered for about 15 minutes just to let the meat kind of brown up a little bit.
Now I do wish that Priscus had given us a little bit more information about the food at this feast
but he didn't seem to think that it was very important.
What he did seem to think important was the character of Attila the Hun and its effect on his current reputation and so
we kind of need to know what his current reputation amongst the Roman people was at the time,
and considering many called him 'Flagellum Dei' or the scourge of God you can bet it wasn't a nice reputation.
Europe in the late 4th century was a rough place with the death of Emperor Theodosius the first,
the Eastern and Western Roman Empires had finally made their divorce official,
and while the East was living their best life,
#BlessedToBeByzantine
the West was taking the break up a little bit harder.
They now lived in the bad part of town that had been overrun by vandals
and Goths and Visigoths and all sorts of other Germanic tribes.
Now the Eastern Roman Empire had their fair share of Germanic tribes attacking them as well but they seemed to handle it a lot better than their Western cousins,
that is until the Huns arrived. Now who exactly the Huns were is still a matter of debate but
by the year 400 or so when they had settled in Europe they were probably
a mishmash of all sorts of different people from all over Central Asia possibly as far as Mongolia and China.
These were the people who with their mounted archers were likely the ones who had pushed the Germanic tribes into Rome in the first place.
They were the barbarian's barbarian.
The Roman soldier and historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that "The nation of the Huns...
surpasses all other barbarians in wildness of life... they are of portentous ugliness
and so crook-backed that you would take them for some sort of two-footed beasts,
or for the roughly-chipped steaks which one sees used for the railings of a bridge."
Sick burn, and he even comments on their cuisine or rather lack thereof.
"Though they do just bear the likeness of men (of a very ugly pattern),
they are so uncivilized that they make no use of fire nor of any kind of relish in the preparation of their food,
but feed upon the roots which they find in the fields, and the half-raw flesh of any sort of animal.
I say half-raw, because they give it a kind of cooking by placing it between their own thighs and the back of their horses."
Which is almost certainly not true he was probably confused about what he was seeing but
that is what the people thought about the Huns at the time.
And so a few years later when Attila comes along that is his starting point for a reputation,
and he really seems to kind of have leaned into that. Following the death of his uncle Ruda in 434 he and his brother Bleda
took control of all the Hunnic tribes.
They were vicious in battle and even more so following the battle
because they made a point to pillage towns and cities not only taking whatever they wanted
but with the aim of inflicting the most pain and suffering possible.
Their reputation of fear was their weapon and so this caused the Eastern Roman Emperor to come to the bargaining table
with a bunch of gold just to buy off the Huns, to stop him from attacking his cities.
And Attila and Bleda took the money and left...
but then they came back and then they got more money to leave ,
but then a few years later they came back to get more money to leave. It was
really the original Lucy and Charlie Brown football fake out but with much higher stakes.
And it was after one of these payoffs that Attila's brother Bleda died and nobody is entirely sure of how it happened but
many of the ancient sources imply that Attila was the one to kill his own brother.
Basically they went on a hunting trip and Attila shot Bleda with an arrow and Bleda blooded to death.
[Bad Dum Tss]
But whether he killed his brother or not it didn't really matter because he became sole ruler of the Huns,
and it was during this short time of peace that the Emperor sent Priscus with a message and gifts for Attila.
It takes him a little while to actually find Attila but when they do they follow him into a Scythian village
which was the home of Attila's right-hand man Onegesius.
"Attila approached Onegesius' compound. His wife came out with a multitude of servants, some of whom were carrying food, others wine.
She saluted him and begged him to partake of their hospitality. This is the highest honor that can be shown among the Scythians.
To show favor to the wife of his friend, Attila ate, sitting on his horse, as the barbarians accompanying him raised the platter up to him.
And having tasted the wine, he went on to the palace."
Then they continued North deeper into the Hun's territory until finally they reached Attila's, home one of his many homes but the most splendid of them.
"It was made of polished boards, and surrounded with wooden enclosures, designed not so much for protection
as for appearance sake... Attila's wife, Kreka lived there; and having been admitted by the barbarians at the door,
I found her reclining on a soft couch. The floor of the room was covered with wool and mats for walking on.
A number of servants stood round her... Having approached, we saluted her, and presented the gifts."
Then he says Attila struts into the room.
A later author using Priscus as his source says
"Attila was haughty in his walk, looking around on this side and on that,
so that the power of his proud spirit appeared in the movement of his body...
Short of stature, with a broad chest and large head; his eyes were small... his beard thin and sprinkled with grey;
and he had a flat nose and swarthy skin, showing evidence of his origin."
Then Attila holds court hearing all of his people's complaints and meeting out his judgment,
and then at 3 o'clock in the after noon it is time for the feast.
When Priscus enters the feasting hall cup bearers come up to him with wine and tell him to drink and pray which was the custom of the Huns.
"Having tasted the cup, we proceeded to take our seats, all the chairs being ranged along the walls of the room on either side.
Attila sat in the middle on a couch... the places on the right of Attila were held Chief in honor-
those on the left, where we sat, were only second."
Then there's a long ceremony of everyone drinking and pledging fealty to Attila after which he pledges protection back to them.
Then the cup bearers all leave and tables are brought out followed by the food.
"The attendant of Attila first entered with a dish of meat, and behind him came the other attendance with bread and other foods,
which they laid on the tables. A luxurious meal, served on silver plate, had been made ready for us and the barbarian guests,
but Attila ate nothing but meat on a wooden trencher.
In everything else, too, he showed himself temperate;
his cup was of wood, while to the guests were given goblets of gold and silver.
His dress, too, was quite simple, affecting only to be clean. The sword he carried at his side,
the ratchets of his Scythian shoes, the bridle of his horse were not adorned, like those of the other Scythian
with gold or gems or anything costly."
And this is important because here is this man who is thought to be a brute, a complete savage,
who has only recently become one of the wealthiest men in Europe because of his incessant pillaging
and yet he is not showing off that wealth like the Romans would probably think that he would,
new money and all that. Rather he's quite humble however
he does make sure all of his guests get the best that money can afford.
Though as humble as he was he wasn't above
letting everyone individually one by one toast to his health in between courses.
After everyone had toasted to him, a second course of food was brought in.
And "After this course the same ceremony was observed as after the first. When evening fell torches were lit,
and two barbarians coming forward in front of Attila saying songs they had composed,
celebrating his victories and deeds of valor in war."
And he had plenty of deeds to sing about and in the years following this
he only added to his lifetime Attila the Hun war and ransacking collection.
But now with a tentative peace in the East he turned his sights to the West.
Now for years he had actually been working with one of the West's greatest generals Flavius Aëtius and now in 450
they were going to attack the Visigoths and this would help cement the alliance between Attila and the emperor Valentinian III,
but in a display of inexplicably bad judgment
the Emperor's sister Honoria sent her engagement ring to a Attila with a plea for help.
She was being forced to marry a Roman senator who I guess she didn't like and so she turned to Attila,
not sure exactly what she was expecting him to do, but he got the ring and the plea for help,
and he took it as, and quite understandably, as a proposal of marriage.
And so he accepted and along with that he would accept half the Western Roman Empire as the dowry.
Well the Emperor was like no, no, no, no, no, no, she didn't mean that- she was joking. You know what just-
I've already exiled her pretend she didn't even exist
but Attila could could not forget. He said it was legitimate and I am owed what I am owed.
And so he attacked the Roman Empire going in first to Gaul but the Roman army under his once ally Flavius Aëtius
along with the Visigoths dealt Attila his one and only defeat on the battlefield.
And even then it's really less of a defeat and more of just a withdrawal of troops on Attila's side,
letting him come back in the future which of course he did this time going straight for Italy.
He ransacked the Northern Italian Peninsula taking cities and burning them to the ground.
Then finally as Attila eyed Rome itself the Eternal City, Pope Leo I went to the Huns camp
and talked Attila into going home.
How he did that nobody really knows especially considering Attila was not a Christian so the pope didn't mean squat to him
but he was able to talk him into leaving.
Some say Attila was afraid he would suffer the same fate as the Visigoth Alaric who had died after he sacked Roman 410.
Others claimed that the Hun army was under supplied and had disease ravaging it so they would have had to turn back anyway
but if this 14th century depiction of the event is any indication
Attila just had a bad crick in his neck and so it was just looking for any excuse to get out of there and crawl into bed.
But whatever it was it was the last great thing that Attila ever did because
very shortly after he did get home he married yet another wife and died that night of a nosebleed.
Some today say that it was probably a hemorrhage of some sort in the esophagus.
Attila lived a life that built this incredible, fierce reputation as the destroyer of civilizations...
...and then he dies of a bloody nose.
Couldn't really stick the landing
but luckily for him it's it's all the other stuff that most people remember
because today when you hear the name Attila the Hun you typically think barbaric atrocities,
Though today I'm thinking lamb with salted wine sauce,
So once the lamb has darkened up a bit take it out of the oven and give it one more basting.
Then remove it from the pot and let it rest for 15 minutes before serving,
and while it rests take out a few of the garlic cloves and chop them up and then add them and all the juices into a saucepan and let it simmer.
It'll reduce down a bit but this is also a time that you can add some more pepper or saba
if you want, and you're going to want to, because it's just freaking so good
just to make it a little bit sweeter to kind of offset all of the salt that you have added to that sauce.
And here we are lamb and salted wine fit for Attila the Hun.
Here we are. Got some lamb got some onion.
Smells so good. It smells very
lamb-y. I actually thought it would be more garlicky but it's really the lamb that you're getting.
Let's give it a shot.
Hmmm.
Hm!
Yeah it is the lamb. That is- that's the flavor that's coming through.
I think the first thing I would do is not pour the sauce onto the lamb but kind of have it on the side as a dipping sauce,
which is actually probably how they would have done it then, so you can control how much you're getting
because it is quite salty and yet it's not unpleasantly so.
It's because of of that Saba there's a sweetness there and with the onion too
I think it just adds this sweetness that kind of offsets the saltiness.
So it's not unpleasant but a little bit goes a long way.
What I also really love are pearl onions just in general but these just kind of fall apart because they've been cooked for so long.
So sweet. Hm! Love them.
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and I will see you next time on Tasting History.