Episode 50: Ancient Academia and Edible Antiquities in a Modern Quest
Mar 11, 2024Episode 50
Marty Smarticus
Embark on a voyage through the annals of time with us, Smarticus and Phoenix, where you'll uncover the unexpected connections between an ancient university and an empire lost to history. Prepare to be astonished by the revelation that the hallowed halls of Oxford University date back even before the Aztecs laid their first stone in Tenochtitlan. But it's not all about dusty old facts; we'll whisk you away on a whimsical adventure into the realm of historical baking. Who knew that a lardy cake could teach us so much about the past, and more importantly, about the subtleties of flavor that our ancestors enjoyed—or perhaps endured?
As we journey on, you'll find yourself enthralled by the tales of civilizations that rose and fell, and the enduring legacy of education as seen through the eyes of institutions like Oxford and Cambridge. With the aid of cutting-edge Lidar technology, new secrets of the Aztec Empire are coming to light, offering a fresh perspective on their storied existence. So come along, share your curiosities, and suggest paths for our next historical foray. For in the weave of history, every thread counts, and we're here to trace them all with you, one story at a time.
Embark on a voyage through the annals of time with us, Smarticus and Phoenix, where you'll uncover the unexpected connections between an ancient university and an empire lost to history. Prepare to be astonished by the revelation that the hallowed halls of Oxford University date back even before the Aztecs laid their first stone in Tenochtitlan. But it's not all about dusty old facts; we'll whisk you away on a whimsical adventure into the realm of historical baking. Who knew that a lardy cake could teach us so much about the past, and more importantly, about the subtleties of flavor that our ancestors enjoyed—or perhaps endured?
As we journey on, you'll find yourself enthralled by the tales of civilizations that rose and fell, and the enduring legacy of education as seen through the eyes of institutions like Oxford and Cambridge. With the aid of cutting-edge Lidar technology, new secrets of the Aztec Empire are coming to light, offering a fresh perspective on their storied existence. So come along, share your curiosities, and suggest paths for our next historical foray. For in the weave of history, every thread counts, and we're here to trace them all with you, one story at a time.
Welcome to Smart against Hell's History. Alright, enough with the Echo and Fanfare. You're here for history, right, and not that boring crack you learned in high school. This stuff's actually interesting, like things you've never heard about the Civil War, cleopatra, automobiles, monopoly, the Black Plague and more Fascinating stories, interesting topics and some downright weird facts from the past. It's a new twist on some stories you may know and an interesting look at some things you may have never heard. So grab a beer, kick back and enjoy. Here's your host, smarticus.
Speaker 3:
Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to another exciting episode of Smarticus Tells History. I am your host, smarticus, one of the history enthusiasts, and this is my co-host, phoenix. Hello, today we're diving deep into a historical fact that might surprise you. Oxford University, the renowned seat of learning, is older than the Aztec Empire. That's right, but before we get started on that, we are going to eat while he's dying and by we he means him because my food.
Speaker 2:
I don't even know what the mistakes were. I don't think I know how to bake.
Speaker 3:
That's okay, it's so sad Guys.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so our food for this week for this episode was sorry is lardy cake, which the recipe was pretty simple, the ingredients were pretty simple, but y'all I made another doorstop and this one was how did I word that?
Speaker 3:
It's pasteier than a fat white account in Bermuda.
Speaker 2:
Yes, that is exactly what it looked like and yeah, sorry, it tasted exactly like you think. It tasted like nothing, with cranberries in it.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I didn't put cranberries in mine, I put raisins in mine.
Speaker 2:
Why did cranberries and raisins, but the cranberries stood out more?
Speaker 3:
Did they?
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
I only put raisins in mine. It said currants. I didn't have any cranes. Currants, currants, whatever, cranberries, whatever. I call them currants.
Speaker 2:
I'm pretty sure currants are actually just dried cranberries.
Speaker 3:
Are they? I don't know.
Speaker 2:
I think I don't know, I didn't look it up, but I wanted cranberries.
Speaker 3:
If that's the case, then I did in fact have some and I just didn't know that's what they were. Yeah, but I just used a bunch of raisins. It was a couple raisins and I didn't use a cup exactly. It said to coat a third of it, so I just coated a third of the dough. I didn't measure a cup, but it said half a cup of raisins and half a cup of the currants and that's what I did. But yeah, it's Lardy Cake is the recipe. I don't know if we said that already. Yes, tell me how it tastes.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I actually. I still haven't had any yet, so let me try it real quick.
Speaker 2:
Get it, smarty Kids get it.
Speaker 3:
The middle of mine did not turn out very well. This, this has gotten hard. We waited too long.
Speaker 2:
Go warm it up.
Speaker 3:
No, it's okay. Okay, I'll just peel the flake off here.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, see, I'm watching you through Discord and you look like you're having a hard time chewing it. No, I'm not having a hard time at all, oh no, Okay. So, as you keep putting more in, you couldn't chew mine. You guys, you couldn't chew it. It was like dried clay and it tasted like it.
Speaker 3:
No, it's peeling off in flakes. We might have waited too long, I might let it sit too long. Let me sit out here, but it tastes fine. The middle of it, though, it didn't. It didn't finish, it was still a little doughy, and I did put it back in the oven for about another 10 minutes. Let me just get some of the middle out A little bit. It's a little bit softer. There we go. That's probably a little bit better. It's not so. It got really toasted on the outside and it got pretty hard, but on the inside it was still doughy. So I made a sacrifice and ate a little bit more towards the middle.
Speaker 2:
Is it anything to write home about?
Speaker 3:
It tastes like dough. It tastes like raisins and dough.
Speaker 2:
That's a sad meal. I don't know. Maybe we should have shopped around for the recipes or something, because the recipe didn't have. You put anything in the dough to when you're mixing the dough to give it any flavor. It was just gonna taste like bread.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:
So I'm not sure how this is a cake.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, there was no egg in it or anything like that. It was a Four cups of flour, a cup of water. Excuse me here, what else was it? It was a.
Speaker 2:
Don't forget the lard.
Speaker 1:
Oh, yeah, oh.
Speaker 2:
Oh See, I'm looking at another recipe and they're suggesting brown sugar.
Speaker 3:
See that probably would have been good.
Speaker 2:
But yeah it's very simple still white flour, salt, yeast, lard water, butter, dried fruit and then brown sugar.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so here and ours. It said use six tablespoons of lard, or six tables Well, I didn't say. Or it said six tablespoons of spoons of lard, six tablespoons of butter now an actual recipe. It never told you to use the butter, so I'm assuming that it meant to use it as a substitute as lard if you didn't have lard. But it doesn't say that. I'm pulling the recipe up here now.
Speaker 2:
Okay, grief, I'm looking at Paul Hollywood's Version of this recipe and it's lengthy.
Speaker 3:
So one and a half teaspoons of active dry yeast, one cup warm water, plus more if needed. Now you might have made the mistake of adding more water. You said.
Speaker 2:
I died. Definitely added too much.
Speaker 3:
Whereas I, when I was making the dough, like I said, I didn't add more water. The dough is still dry. So I just wet my hands and I dampen the dough. Yeah, that way, and I needed a handful times, I think. I wet my hands, maybe like four times, and then I just wet them. I didn't, you know, I didn't like drench or anything, I just wet them.
Speaker 3:
Um, a pinch of white sugar, four cups all purpose sugar or all purpose flour, not sugar, jesus Uh. One teaspoon of salt, six tablespoons lard divided, six tablespoons butter, half a cup of saltana raisins, half a cup of dried currents Bend strips of orange zest and a quarter cup of white sugar. So that's literally the all. The rest, I mean that's. It's very simple. The vast majority of stuff is probably already in your pantry. Um, if not everything. I mean if you got kids or something, you probably already have raisins. Um, I mean you probably have. You, you might have oranges too already. I mean you can make your own zest if you need to. Um, I bought just a thing of dried, uh, orange zest.
Speaker 3:
I had oranges, so I um made my strips. Yeah, so, and I, yeah, I just used the grated dried. I didn't use the strips, um, I just kind of sprinkled it on there when I did the raisins, um, but uh, it's, I think, oh, and then you just throw it in the oven for 425. That, for 30 minutes, is what it said.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, Well, after you do the kneading and the resting and the folding.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, you get a little rest for an hour and, um, you gotta roll it. Roll it, uh, flat into the rectangle, put the raisins and the Zest and everything and you can read the recipe. I'm not gonna.
Speaker 2:
I was wondering if you were gonna give the whole thing to him.
Speaker 3:
There's no point thinking of the recipe. Look it up yourselves. Okay, probably put it on there so you can look at it. Not for the clicks, um, but they help.
Speaker 2:
Hmm.
Speaker 3:
Anyways.
Speaker 2:
Well, I'm glad it's edible. I mean yours was I mean it's, it's mostly edible.
Speaker 2:
All right. Well, on with the show. On with the show. Alrighty, let me set the stage. We often think of ancient civilizations like the Aztecs as exceptionally old. Mostly that's due to how little we know about them, thanks to the thick jungle surrounding and covering their cities and dwellings, but since archaeologists have been able to use Lidar in recent years, we're learning much more. The Aztecs thrived in what is now modern day Mexico from the middle of the 15th to the middle of the 16th century, which came to a screeching halt when the Spanish conquistadors arrived and started the ball rolling for their demise.
Speaker 3:
Darn, those conquistadors. They keep showing up.
Speaker 2:
They just, they just can't mind their own dang business.
Speaker 3:
This is like what the third story that we've said that have brought in the conquistadors.
Speaker 2:
Yes, I was thinking about that too and I was like good grief they. There's so much rich information down there in South America of all these different civilizations the Mayans, the Aztecs and so on that all got just obliterated because of the Spanish.
Speaker 3:
Yep. Can anyone guess when the University of Oxford in England was first established? The answer is the 11th century, specifically in 1096. Of course, it wasn't officially recognized as a university until the early 13th century when it got organized and became official. Interesting fact Oxford is not the oldest university in the world. That honor goes to the University of Bologna a full century before, even though there is less than 10 years between their doors opening for the first time. Still, oxford is known worldwide and held with the highest esteem. Imagine it's been educating minds for nearly a millennium.
Speaker 2:
The Aztecs, or Mexica as they call themselves, rose to prominence in the 15th century and established their capital, tenote Tichlan, which is on the western side of Lake Texacoco in Mexico City. And when I say the western side of the lake, I mean they built their city on the lake. Tenote Tichlan is believed to have covered 3.1 to 5.2 miles. Their civilization was known for its incredible achievements in agriculture, engineering, art and warfare.
Speaker 3:
That's oddly. Specific mileage or an approximation Like why does it Right? Why don't? Why don't 3 to 5 miles?
Speaker 2:
I know I'm sorry, but that's what the research I came up with said. So I that's a quote 3.1 to 5.2 miles folks.
Speaker 3:
It's funny how that last one always goes hand in hand with the rest. But here's the twist when we say Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire, we're not talking about its establishment as a university, but rather its origin as a place of learning. Before the Aztecs even existed, scholars and teachers were gathering in Oxford to share knowledge, study and debate in various degrees.
Speaker 2:
Too true. By the time the Aztecs were building their magnificent city on the lake, oxford was already established as the educational institution we know today. In fact, by that time, many scholars who had come to odds with townspeople of Oxford moved to Cambridge and started the second most known university in England.
Speaker 3:
University of Cambridge. Now we must clarify that comparing Oxford University to the Aztec Empire is like comparing apples to oranges. They were vastly different in terms of culture, purpose and societal structure. And of course, it is worth mentioning that the Aztecs did not make it past the year 1524. Those that didn't die thanks to the Spanish invasion and attack South American societies went on to integrate into ones that would accept them. Another fun fact Spain has the fourth oldest university in the world. It was also established before the Aztec Empire. Isn't that wild.
Speaker 2:
That is wild. Yes, I just think that's so cool. These historical facts are certainly a testament to the enduring power of knowledge and the role of education in shaping the world. The University of Oxford, with its roots dating back to the 11th century, is indeed older than the Aztec Empire, which rose to prominence in the 15th century. It's a captivating reminder that the pursuit of knowledge is long and growth has a storied history of its own.
Speaker 3:
Well, folks, that wraps up this episode of Smarticus Tales History. We hope you enjoyed this intriguing tidbit from the annals of history. If you have any historical questions or topics you'd like us to explore in future episodes, don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you for joining us and if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. We will be back with more stories from the past. Until then, keep exploring you.