User:IamEmpressDowager/Black soup

Black soup was a regional cuisine of ancient Sparta, made with boiled pork meat and blood, using only salt and vinegar to flavour. The soup was well-known during antiquity in the Greek world, and no original recipe of the dish survives today. The earliest recording of the soup can be dated to the fifth century BC, in a comedy titled The Miners, written by Pherecrates (see section "Ancient Sources"). The ancient sources provide contradictory accounts on whether the soup was a luxurious meal served only at banquets or a dish that could be afforded by all in Sparta (see section "Occasions of Consumption"). Throughout history, black soup has been praised by and associated with figures such as Benjamin Rush and Hitler (see section "Modern Associations"). Today, one can find modern re-created recipes of this dish on websites written by history enthusiasts (see section "Modern Associations).

IamEmpressDowager/Black soup

Type	Soup/ Broth
Region or state	Ancient Sparta
Main ingredients	Pork meat, Pork blood, Salt, Vinegar

Etymology

The ancient Greek author, Plutarch, who wrote in the first and second century AD, once made mention of a Spartan dish in his Life of Lycurgus, named "μέλας ζωμός" (mélas zomós). Today, the phrase has been translated to "black soup" or "black broth." In other ancient sources, this same dish was also known as "αἱματία" (haimatia), which means "blood soup," and bapha, which can be translated as "dip sauce." Other times, this dish was simply referred to as "ζωμός" (zomós).

In ancient Greek, the term "μέλας" (melas) means black, while "ζωμός" (zomós) could refer to any soup cooked using animal products. The first century AD medical writer, Dioscurides recorded that there were many variations of zomós. For example, it could be cooked using frog, crayfish, rooster, beef, deer fat, and fish. The fifth/fourth-century BC philosopher Plato had also used the term "zomós" when referring to a meat dish. In addition, Aristotle, who was writing around fourth century BC, stated in his Historia Animalium that zomós could be made using horse, pork, mutton, or goat. Contrarily, the ancient Greeks had another designated name for soups made primarily with vegetables, which was "ἔτνος" (étnos).

Ancient Sources

The majority of the ancient sources that describe the black soup are written by non-Spartan authors. These authors include Pherecrates of the fifth century BC, Alexis and Matro of Pitane of the fourth and third century BC, Nicostratus of the fourth century BC, and Euphron of the third century BC. For example, in Pherecrates' comedy, The Miners, a woman returning from the underworld states that she saw black broth free-flowing through the streets. Antiphanes, a contemporary comedian of Alexis, had also noted that black soup was a staple of the Spartan culture in a play titled The Archon. In addition, a fragmentary anecdote indicates that Nicostratus had once ridiculed a cook for not knowing how to prepare the Spartan black soup, along with other dishes such as "thríon" (θρῖον: stuffed leaves), "kándaulos" (κάνδαυλος: a Lydian dish), and "mattýe" (ματτύη: a type of dessert).

Some sources on the black soup are indirect references and are also helpful in attesting to its existence. For example, in Aristophane's Knights, one of the lines in this comedy is as follows: "He has had tasty stews exported from Athens for the Spartan fleet." Although the reference is indeed indirect, Aristophane was suggesting that the Spartan version of stew was not as good as the stew cooked by the Athenians. The Classics scholar, David Harvey has stated that the playwright here was very likely making fun of the Spartan black broth.

In comparison to the above sources written mostly during the Classical period, the much later tenth century AD Suda Lexicon states that zomós was a stock made through cooking pig, cow, goat, sheep or bear meat. Julius Pollux's lexicographic work, Onomasticon, also once again notes that the black broth was a Spartan dish cooked with meat and blood.

Origin

According to what Euphron (a third century BC comedy poet) had written in one of his fragmentary comedies, titled The Brothers, a cook mentions that a man named Lamprias was responsible for inventing the Spartan black soup. However, this claim would be impossible to verify today. (It should be noted that a "fragmentary" text refers to a piece of writing of a certain ancient author that have been passed down to modern scholars through "indirect transmission." "Indirect transmission" refers to how fragmentary texts are often quotations from the lost works of a specific ancient author that are cited in the writings of other ancient authors).

Ingredients

A photograph of the remains of ancient Sparta's agora. Xenophon has described the location as a bustling market during the Classical period. This is also where the Spartans would purchase the pigs for cooking black soup.

No specific recording of black soup's exact recipe exists today. However, a combination of ancient literary sources, including historical, medical, and lexicographic, contain descriptions of the black soup and its ingredients. Through interpreting these sources, it is believed that the Spartans cooked this dish using pig's blood and meat, with salt and vinegar as the only condiments.

Plutarch alludes to this dish in his Life of Lycurgus. As the name suggests, the work discusses the semi-mythical Spartan political reformer, Lycurgus. Plutarch states that Sparta's most famous dish was black soup in a passage that explains the Spartan society's dining and banqueting culture. In the Life of Lycurgus, the text suggests that the elders would save the meat for the younger attendees, and they themselves would drink only the liquid. From Plutarch's account, "μέλας ζωμό" can be interpreted as a soup dish made primarily using meat.

In another work of Plutarch, De Tuenda Sanitate Praecepta, the author states that the Lacedaemonian (Spartan) cooks could only use vinegar and salt to prepare their food and were also supposed to utilize all parts of a sacrificed animal. This historian, Maciej Kokoszko has theorized that the Spartans did not use vinegar to marinate the meat. Instead, the vinegar was to be mixed with the animal's blood during cooking. As the vinegar was added to the blood, it would naturally slow down the clotting process and prevent the blood from spoiling.

Another ancient source providing an insight into what the black soup was made of is Dicaearchus. Writing in the fourth and third centuries BC, his works only survive in fragments today. As stated by this author, one of the dishes once served in Classical Sparta was a "ζωμός" made using meat, and more specifically, boiled pork. The pork was paid for using the money collected from each member eating at the Spartan mess (sysstia) in order to purchase the pigs at the market. The mess (sysstia) was a membership based institution that Spartan adults would join upon completing their military training and was essentially a dinner club where men would banquet together. According to Plutarch, each Spartan mess member's monthly contribution included not only different kinds of produce, but also cash. In addition, this amount of the money was specified as "ten Aiginetan obols." The sum collected would allow them to purchase up to a dozen piglets per month as the raw ingredients for cooking black soup. The German scholar, Link has also theorized that black soup was the contribution made by the poor Spartans to the epaiklon, the extra voluntary donations of pre-prepared dishes and wheat bread.

Based on both Dicaearchus and Plutarch's descriptions, black broth was a soup cooked using both the blood and the meat together with salt and vinegar. The solid meat chunks were then to be taken out and served separately to the younger attendees during banquets.

The British Hellenistic scholar, W. Geoffrey Arnott has also raised the speculation that the Spartan black soup was meatless, made using a black variety of chickpea or Bengal gram, but this theory has been refuted by Classicists such as Kokoszko.

Occasions of Consumption

How often the Spartans consumed black soup and whether it could be considered a delicacy are both debated questions in ancient sources. As inferred from a seven-century BC Spartan poet, Alcman, the food that the ordinary people of Sparta consumed was a pea soup, not the meat-based black soup. On this basis, the historian, Hans Van Wees has suggested that black soup could not be a dish that the average Spartans regularly consumed since it would entail the slaughtering of an animal. For example, it was during royal sacrifices that pigs were part of the offerings. However, there are also other contrary evidence that would suggest that black soup was in fact a modest dish. For example, in one of Matro of Pitane's poems, the soup appeared in the text alongside a dish named akrokólia (ἀκροκώλια). Akrokólia were boiled animal off-cuts, such as the skin, ears and snouts, suggesting it was an inexpensive dish.

Banquets

According to an excerpt from Dicaearchus' Tripoliticus, in Classical Sparta, the dishes served for communal banquets were the máza and the following sides dishes: black soup, modest servings of boiled pork meat, olives, cheese, figs, and additional courses such as fish, hare, and pigeon. The Spartans also consumed seasonal produce, such as birds and games. Modern scholars today have interpreted "máza" as a type of barley bread, gruel, or flat griddle cake. The writings of Pherecrates and Alexis also confirm that the Spartans likely served black soup along with máza. Máza was a common food among the Greeks, and the poor would consume it when they could not afford anything else. Máza could also used as plates when no utensils were available. Based on Alexis and Plutarch's account, Kokoszko has inferred that both the black soup and máza were unsophisticated foods and were not delicacies.

Typically during the Spartan banquets, the meal would end with dessert (ἐπαῖκλα) as well. Plutarch further asserts that the Spartans also served wine at these banquets. In one the fragmentary poetries written by the seventh century BC poet, Alcman, it depicts that Sparta once had a luxurious feasting tradition. However, Plutarch's Life of Cleomenes provides a contradictory account. It states that the banqueting culture in Sparta was "unsophisticated" and the Spartans served neither side dishes (karykeíai: καρυκείαι) nor baked goods. Herodotus' Histories contains a story of the Spartan general, Pausanias ordering his servants to prepare him a Laconian dinner when visiting the lavish military camp of the Persian leader, Mardonius. This anecdote suggests that the typical meals in Sparta were much less extravagant.

Religious Celebrations

A scholia reference further implies that zomós was made using the leftovers from cooking the sacrificial meat during the Panathenaea celebrations. While the soup was served to the poor, the wealthier individuals could receive servings of the meat. Several ancient fragmentary poetries, including Philyllius' The Island Towns and Epilycus' Coraliscus, have noted that during the Cleaver festival (kopis), black soup was served at the temple of Apollo in Amyclae, a city located in Laconia that was at the time under the Spartan control. The same sources also recorded that aside from the soup, barley cakes and wheat loaves would be served as well.

Military campaigns

There is no recording of the Spartans consuming black soup on military campaigns. For example, the fifth century BC historian Thucydides' account of the Spartan attack on Pylos in 425 BC includes a description of the Spartan army ration: ground corn, cheese, wine, and "any other food useful in a siege," which was not further specified. While the Spartan soldiers were typically well-nourished, no ancient texts could provide any concrete evidence that black was part of their regular diet on military campaigns.

Domestic Settings

Notably, the ancient sources do not provide accounts of whether black soup was cooked or served in domestic settings. The attendance of Spartan banquets were exclusive to male adult citizens. Therefore, there is no ancient recording of whether younger children or women in Sparta also had the chance of tasting and consuming the soup.

Notoriety

The Spartan black soup was known to the other Greeks during antiquity.

For example, Plutarch mentions that one of the kings of Pontus had once purchased a Lacedaemonian cookbook to recreate this dish. This anecdote also informs the readers that this king did not particularly enjoy the soup after it was prepared by his cook. Then, after the king has stated his dislike of the dish, the cook responded that one could only appreciate this broth after having swum in the Eurotas River, a famous landmark located within Sparta. In other words, the cook was suggesting that the you could not develop a palette for this particular dish unless having been brought up in the Spartan society. Plutarch's account probably drew from the earlier writings of Xenophon. Furthermore, Cicero's Tusculan Disputations retells the same story, although the figure of the king of Pontus was changed here to Dionysios of Syracuse.

Plutarch's Life of Pelopidas has recorded that an inhabitant of Sybaris had once claimed that:"...it was no great thing for the Spartans to seek death in the wars in order to escape so many hardships and such a wretched life as theirs." Today, historians such as Kokoszko and Alcock, have interpreted this claim as supporting evidence of ancient Sparta's unbearable customs and food.

The broth's unique taste could also be cross-referenced by a narration of how willing the Spartans themselves were to share this dish with outsiders, as detailed in another work of Plutarch, the Life of Cleomenes. Cleomenes, a Spartan king who lived in the third century BC, once had a disagreement with his friend over serving the black soup to foreign visitors, whom he argued could not appreciate the flavour. Kokoszko has theorized in the article, "Mélas zomós (μέλας ζωμός), or on a Certain Spartan Dish. A Source Study," that the Spartans were reluctant to introduce this dish to those who were not part of their community likely because the soup had a unique taste.

Modern Associations

As Spartan history gained popularity in the United States during its early days of becoming an independent country, Benjamin Rush, one of signatories of the Declaration of Independence, is recorded to have praised the Spartan black broth.

Hitler, an admirer of certain selected aspects of the ancient Spartan society, had expressed a particular fondness for the Spartan black soup. He also compared the broth to a regional dish of the German state, Schleswig-Holstein.

W. Geoffrey Arnott, a British Hellenistic scholar, has suggested that "the Gypsies still served this dish at fairs in northern England up to the 1940s."

Several blog posts of modern recipes and re-creations of the Spartan black soup are also listed below. While these websites make occasional references to ancient texts that contained descriptions of the dish, such as Herodotus and Plutarch, none of the pages provide complete citations to the exact portion of the ancient text which they are quoting. Some of the pages, such as The Red Cellar, have clarified that there exists no ancient recipe of the Spartan black soup. They have also stated that their recipes were original creations, drawing on the ingredients that have been mentioned by ancient sources. In addition, the authors of LGS Greek Project and The Red Cellar have described that their recipes of black soup are partially based on the Filipino blood stew, dinuguan:

• LGS Greek Project: https://lgsgreekproject.wordpress.com/tag/black-broth/
• Greece High Definition: https://www.greecehighdefinition.com/blog/ancient-greek-recipe-spartan-black-broth-melas-zomos-how-to-make-the-spartan-black-soup
• Deja Food: https://dejafood.uk/2016/08/11/black-broth/
• The Red Cellar: https://theredcellar.com/2020/11/27/melas-zomos-spartan-black-stew/
• Ancient Greece Reloaded: https://ancientgreecereloaded.com/blog/how-to-make-or-cook-the-original-and-famous-ancient-spartan-black-soup-in-7-steps

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Further Readings

• Sparta
• Laconophilia
• Syssitia