Eats History

Today I cooked for a king.

This would have to be one of my favorite experiences so far in my life, I was invited to the palace of King John III Sobieski, the 17th century King of Poland, who was extremely famous for defeating the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Vienna, preserving Christianity in Europe for centuries to come.

We cooked directly from Compendium Ferculorum, one of the earlist royal Polish cookbooks from 1682, and made the iconic Polish soup Rosół (a rich meat broth simmered for hours, spiced with ginger, lime, and saffron for a royal finish, with an assortment of ingredients to try with it, usually eaten in most modern houses with noodles), and a traditional 17th-century dessert of waffle cones on a tree of rosemerry and whipped cream on the base.

A video will be coming out soon so you can try the recipes out yourself.
I got to check out the palace afterwards: beautiful architecture, paintings, and it really captured the spirit of 17th century Poland.

-Donnie

Thank you for the help putting this together ‪@polandtravel‬

eatshistory.com

2 days ago | [YT] | 1,360

Eats History

I just spent a month living in Kraków, Poland. I attended the International Pierogi Festival. I took pierogi making classes. I ate late night pierogi at milk bars in Kazimierz. I browsed every vendor at Stary Kleparz. And I am now fully convinced that pierogi ruskie is one of the greatest things humans have ever invented.

Full Recipe: eatshistory.com/authentic-pierogi-ruskie-recipe...…

The history of pierogi is considerably more interesting and more contested than most people realise. The Saint Hyacinth legend says that a 13th century Dominican friar named Jacek Odrowąż brought the recipe to Poland from Kievan Rus, now Ukraine, after a miraculous storm destroyed all the crops and the grateful people made pierogi from the regrown harvest. The connection was so embedded in Polish culture that it produced one of the most common Polish expressions still used today: Święty Jacku z pierogami, Saint Hyacinth with his pierogi, said in moments of surprise.

The historical reality is that the dumpling technique almost certainly arrived in Central Europe via the Mongol and Tatar invasions of 1240 to 1241, tracing back through Turkic manti traditions to China, where archaeological evidence of dumplings dates back 1,700 years. The word pieróg itself may be connected to the Turkic word börek, meaning stuffed food, which is a linguistic breadcrumb pointing directly to Central Asia. A dumpling that started in China, traveled through the Mongol Empire, arrived in Ukraine and became Poland's national dish.

The version I made after a month of living with this food is pierogi ruskie. Potato and Polish farmers cheese filling with caramelized onion mixed through, sealed in a thin hand-rolled dough, boiled and then pan-fried in butter until golden, topped with more caramelized onion, melted butter and fresh chives. After some practice and a lot of technique work in a Kraków pierogi class, these came out as genuinely one of the best things I have made for this channel. There is no single documented historical recipe here. This is Polish grandmother technique passed down orally through generations, which in its own way is a more legitimate form of food history than any cookbook could provide. 9.7 out of 10.

Have you ever made pierogi from scratch? Give these ones a try...

-Donnie

3 days ago | [YT] | 1,562

Eats History

After this past month of trying an insane amount of pierogi here in Krakow, I finally took a stab at an authentic recipe.

This is pierogi ruskie, hand-made dough filled with a mixture of potatoes and tvorog (Polish farmer's cheese), topped with slow-cooked carmalized onions and chives.
Let's just say I was extremely proud of how these turned out, and the recipe video will be coming soon (all about the history of pierogi)...

-Donnie

eatshistory.com

5 days ago | [YT] | 2,187

Eats History

Big collab in the works.... ‪@tableofgods‬

Btw his cookbook is available for preorder!

www.tableofgods.com/

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6 days ago | [YT] | 1,165

Eats History

In Stockholm this weekend to celebrate ‪@tableofgods‬ book launch, of course I had to find a local huscarl fight and try the local kanelbulle (cinnamon buns).

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1 week ago | [YT] | 911

Eats History

Since launching my journey, a few of you have asked how you can support the Eats History Project, so I wanted to take a moment to explain what this project actually is and how it all works...

What is the Eats History Project?

It is the biggest thing I have ever committed to. I sold almost all of my belongings, gave up my apartment, and I am spending the next several years traveling the world full-time, cooking, documenting, and telling the stories behind traditional and historical dishes from every corner of the globe. Whether that is recreating a Roman feast in Italy, tracing ancient grain traditions in Egypt, or cooking the way Vikings did over an open fire in Scandinavia, the goal is to build a living archive of culinary historical recipes that anyone, anywhere can access.

Every recipe will always be free. Every video will always be free. That is non-negotiable. This channel has always been about sharing food and history with as many people as possible, and that will never change.

I have launched a newsletter through the Eats History Project where I will be sending dispatches from the road, recipes, historical deep dives, travel stories, and behind the scenes moments that never make it into the videos. The newsletter and every recipe inside it are completely free. Always.

A Note on Memberships

I will be phasing out my Facebook and Patreon memberships this month and consolidating everything into one home. If you are currently supporting on either platform, I am genuinely grateful for you. I kindly ask that you head over to the new membership page, choose the tier that feels right, and cancel your existing subscription on whichever platform you are currently on. This lets me keep everything in one place and focus more of my energy on the actual work.

How to Support (Completely Optional)

For centuries the greatest discoveries were funded by people who believed the work mattered before the world knew what it would become. The Eats History Project is a different kind of expedition. One person traveling the world, recovering lost recipes and the human stories behind them, country by country, before they disappear.
If this work means something to you, here is how you can make more of it possible.

👉 theproject.eatshistory.com/

Please only support if you are in a position to do so comfortably. If you are going through a difficult time financially, your viewership and your engagement mean just as much to me as anything else. This project and the recipes exist for everyone!

Thank you for being part of this, the journey is just getting started.

-Donnie

1 week ago | [YT] | 721

Eats History

I made it to the High Tatras in Zakopane, Poland today. And that means... sheep and cheese!!

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1 week ago | [YT] | 1,462

Eats History

Millions of Americans eat a bagel every morning, but did you know its medieval origins were right here in Krakow, Poland?

Today I visited the Obwarzanek Museum in Kraków and spent the morning learning to make one of the oldest continuously documented street foods in Europe. The obwarzanek, the braided ring-shaped bread sold from blue carts on virtually every street corner in this city, has been documented in Kraków records since the 14th century. Polish soldiers reportedly ate them before the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. Queen Jadwiga ate them during Lent. They have a protected geographical indication from the EU, and they are almost certainly the direct ancestor of the bagel you had for breakfast this morning.

Here is the connection. Medieval Polish law banned Jews from baking bread commercially in an oven, since baking was considered the exclusive domain of the Christian guild. Jewish bakers found a legal loophole: bread that was boiled before baking was technically not baked bread. So they adapted the obwarzanek technique, boiling the ring of dough first, which also created the distinctive chewy texture that defines the bagel. The first known written mention of the bagel appears in the Jewish community regulations of Kraków in 1610, where bagels were listed as gifts to be given to women after childbirth. By the 17th century the bagel was woven into Jewish communal life in this city. When Jewish Poles emigrated to New York in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they brought the bagel with them. The rest is New York breakfast history.

One important note for the purists: the Cracovians in this city will tell you loudly and correctly that an obwarzanek is not a bagel. They are related but distinct. The obwarzanek is larger, braided, and baked after parboiling. The bagel evolved into its own thing. But Kraków is unambiguously where both stories begin.

Full video on how to make the obwarzanek from scratch coming soon.

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1 week ago | [YT] | 1,275

Eats History

I made a French WW2 soldier's meal this week and it is genuinely the best ration recreation I have done in this entire series.

La soupe au lard et riz, rice soup with smoked bacon and onion. Les rutabagas bouillis, boiled rutabaga as a potato substitute, because the Germans were requisitioning every potato crop in France to feed Germany while restricting French civilians to 1,200 calories a day. Du pain. And le pinard, a shot of rough red wine, because the French Army issued wine as a standard daily ration while every other Allied army gave their soldiers tea or coffee. That institutional decision tells you something specific and entirely true about French food culture that nothing else in this series has managed.

The rutabaga is the food trauma of the French occupation. Before the war it was cattle feed. Under German occupation it became the primary potato substitute for four years. The French who survived on it developed a cultural aversion so severe that rationing ended in 1949 and people still refused to cook it decades later.
8.3 out of 10 and the soup specifically I would make again with no historical pretence required. Full history including my actual defence of France and the complete recipe on the blog now.

eatshistory.com/what-did-french-soldiers-eat-in...…

1 week ago | [YT] | 712

Eats History

Yesterday’s adventure was a tale of two Polands.

I started my Sunday checking out the Tyniec Benedictine Abbey, one of the oldest in all of Poland. The monestary has been continuously used since 1044, and the monks still brew their own beer just like in medieval times.

To get a better view of the monastery, down by the river they offered kayaks, which was a really fun way to get a great picture.

Later that afternoon, I checked out Schindler’s factory museum, which told the story of the German occupation of Krakow, and all the horrors that period produced.

I think today was an opportunity to see two sides of Poland, a 20th century past that was marked by brutality and hardship, but also a bright 21st century future- people chilling by the river, taking in views of the monastery, enjoying a beer in the pleasant late summer weather of Poland.

-Donnie
eatshistory.com

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1 week ago | [YT] | 1,018