We in the HEMA community love swords, weapons, training, and everything. Many of us even wear historical clothing and partake in living history to capture the look of the time period we are interested in. However, have you ever been interested in capturing the tastes of the periods to immerse yourself in your HEMA training fully?
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Today, we will review Max Miller’s Tasting History, a cookbook for historical interest. For many of you, I doubt Max Miller needs an introduction. However, for those unaware, Max Miller runs the YouTube channel “Tasting History with Max Miller” and makes numerous videos covering historical recipes and the history around them. His videos cover all sorts of periods, from the Roman Empire to the Titanic to World War II and so much more. 

The book is organized into five sections that group the recipes by region. The recipes by region are also organized in chronological order, making it easy to find food from the region and period that interests you. Each recipe in the book begins with a page or two summary of the dish's history. Each recipe's source is included, a fun way to connect the dish you prepare with the history.  
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Given that the book is primarily a cookbook, most of the pages are dedicated to cooking instructions to prepare the food. As someone with little cooking experience, I have found the recipes easy to follow. However, be warned that some of the ingredients are harder to find than others. Fortunately, in many cases throughout the book, alternatives are presented.

​As the book is a collection of modern instructions on historical recipes, the tastes can differ significantly from our modern food. However, this is a feature, not a bug! Other books with a vague historical (albeit fantasy) take on recipes, such as The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook, create modern recipes with modern food tastes in a fantasy-medieval setting. Tasting History is true to its source and includes recipes that taste strange today, such as vinegar candy or parmesan ice cream. Despite staying true to the source and the changes in taste preferences, many of the recipes I have tried are delicious.

So…… as I mentioned before, I have minimal cooking experience. Rumor has it I have burned bowls of cereal. Some may even know I started a fire at my day job by misusing a microwave…. (A story for another day).
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BUT this book started my journey in wanting to learn how to cook. As part of this journey, I wanted to tackle making the precedella or pretzel of 1581. That is when I learned the value of color when it comes to food because my first try with the pretzel tasted great, but I had a bit too much cinnamon, making the pretzel look far less tasty than they were. 

Yes, I know what the pretzels look like. 
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But I kept practicing, and while I was still trying to nail the classic look of the pretzel, I could at least say they looked and tasted better than my first try. 

​That is one of the greatest appeals of trying to learn to cook with this book which is not designed to teach people how to cook. I feel like I have placed myself into a baker apprentice’s shoes in the 16th century and practicing again and again until I can make a pretzel that would be satisfactory to the guild.

This book is truly a gem for history enthusiasts who want to use their sense of smell and taste to experience the periods they study. However, this may not be the book for you if you are not interested in trying different flavors throughout the ages. That being said, cooking recipes from this book is still an enjoyable experience, and I appreciate adding new recipes to my overall knowledge.

Are you still on the fence about getting into historical cooking right for you? This is where Max Miller goes above and beyond. His website has tons of other historical recipes paired with videos on his YouTube channel. You can try them for free before investing in his book. I particularly enjoy Chewtes on Flesshe Day or meat pies from 1430. His Tang pie even made it into my Thanksgiving feast, though I re-branded it as the Orange-Creamsicle Pie because some people are biased against Tang. I am looking at you, Matt.

If you love history but are hesitant about cooking, I recommend this book. For a price of about $30 for a hardcover book, this is a fantastic book. I cannot understate how much learning to cook has been an enjoyable journey. That dangling carrot of historical context was all I needed to resolve my reservations about trying to cook more than just microwavables. 

This month, Danial, Ash, and myself had the wonderful opportunity to do another sword and history demonstration at Uhuburg Castle. For this show, we create an epic journey back to the heart of medieval Italy as we dive into the fascinating world of the Condettieri! In this demonstration, we unpacked the lives and legacies of iconic mercenary leaders like John Hawkwood and Galeazzo da Montova and explore how these figures relate to the tradition of Historical European Martial Arts. Posted above is one of our shows.

The show began with us introducing the concept of Condettieri and the Italian landscape that allowed them to thrive. We then explored specific characters and their relation to duels which was used as a springboard to introduce the audience to Fiore dei Liberi.

These shows are always such a blast to do because we get to make history fun and engaging. After the show, we bring people to our table to show them different manuscripts and let them handle our training swords so they can feel what swords felt like.

As always, a huge thank you to the staff at Uhuburg Castle. They are so inviting and friendly and our show would not be possible without their hospitality. Thank you also do Danial and Ash for another successful show!

Credit to Ashley White for the Steller photography of the event!

The Flower of Battle: MS Ludwig XV13
​Flowers of Battle: The Complete Martial Works of Fiore Dei Liberi
The rise and fall of Italy’s warriors-for-hire - Stephanie Honchell Smith
The Golden Age of Mercenary Companies
Galeazzo Da Montova Activity
Captain of Fortune: Galeazzo Da Montova
Condottiere 1300–1500: Infamous medieval mercenaries (Warrior, 115)​
John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy

Today, we have an excellent opportunity to showcase another guest writer. Ryan Hancock heads the longsword curriculum at Vier Blössen Historical Fencing. They also actively practice Meyer's rapier system and, of course, sword and buckler. Join us today as Ryan provides a complete interpretation of the Andre Lignitzer sword and buckler techniques. We hope this interpretation helps guide you in your sword and buckler studies!

​Lignitzer's sword and buckler is a sword-with-buckler system that consists of six short plays, each of which has one-to-one counterparts within many of the early German longsword manuscripts. I interpret these plays as sword-with-buckler plays rather than sword-and-buckler plays, meaning that a buckler isn't mandatory for the success of these actions but acts as an aide to ensure the safety of the actor.

During the time period when the Lignitzer plays were produced, arming swords were beginning to become less common as a popular sidearm and dueling weapon. In contrast, longswords and messers were becoming more and more fashionable. As such I don't think that an arming sword is mandatory to perform these actions; in fact, many of our artistic sources of the time depict messers, falchions, arming swords, and even longswords being used with bucklers.

Note that this play can be done from both sides regardless if you're left or right-handed, but for brevity's sake, I am just going to describe it from the right side.
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1. Here, we start with a cut from below, starting on the right side.
2. If your opponent strikes from above toward your left then rotate the long edge of your sword into the cut and with a step bring your sword and buckler together in an ox -esc position to defend the blow.
3. Then thrust or cut to their head behind their sword and buckler while your buckler covers.
4. If they move their buckler out to your right to defend themselves, then transfer your cut under their buckler and strike their leg.

This is another play that can be done from both sides, but in my experience, it works better when done from your non-dominant side—in my case, the left.
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1. Here we have another cut from below directed against an opponent's strike from above but this time your sword should make contact with theirs with the short edge and should direct their blow out to the side all the while making a step out off the line with your left foot.
2. Next, quickly strike from above to the opening created toward the head.
3. The aforementioned strike will most likely not land, but it does well to entice your opponent to move their sword and buckler toward your left. You can then dip your point below their weapons and thrust to the face on the opposite side while moving your buckler to cover theirs.
4. If they move their buckler to cover the thrust, the momentum from that pushing motion can be used to cut toward the right leg instead.

This play I see as working best against a fighter who prefers to wait and react against your initial attack.
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1. You start by performing a thrust from your upper right side, with a step with the right foot, over their buckler arm.
2. Don’t commit to the thrust too hard because once they begin to respond dip the point of your sword down circle through to the otherside of their buckler. Ending with a thrust to their body with the long edge of your sword facing up and your sword a buckler arms crossed.
3. If they parry this thrust in time, then redirect it to a cut to the right leg.