This was amazing. My mother’s ancestry is Cree and Cherokee. When we would go to re-enactments (or camping with my gran), she would cook around the fire exactly as you did - around the edge, not over the top. She said hanging the pot directly over the fire, the bottom was too hot and would scorch, or someone had to stir the pot frequently (and you could tumble everyone’s dinner into the fire). Pulling the coals to the side and using a pot or using a Dutch oven, you had more control over the heat. She never burned anything, and she actually baked cobblers and made fry bread. What I’d give to have some of that now….Iron Age technology still works, even if you use a cast iron pot. Good memories. Thank you.

As a Potter, we have always been interested in different ways of firing our pottery. And have tried all the different methods known in the earliest days we think that people might have wrapped food in clay, and then found out sometimes they could save the outer shell of clay and use it as a pot.

This is the most insightful video on the diet of Iron Age Britons I’ve seen on KZfaq, thank you for sharing.

What a delightful and engaging presenter they have in Caroline.

I'm trying to put together a winter diet for a larp event that fits an iron age aesthetic so this has been very helpful! I couldn't find anything anywhere about this topic, thank you so much.

Fun fact: we like to think global trade routes gave us a large amount of foods to choose from, yet, in reality, we are currently eating only around 25% of the varieties of food our ancestors did. This includes many wild edibles or simply local varieties of the same fruit or vegetable which tasted differently or had different properties. My favourite example for this is the plain apple, which Europe alone had something thousands of varities - nowadays only five American hybrids are grown commercially.

She needs to make more videos. She is excellent at iron age.

I am just surprised that this is 2 years old already and only 500 or so likes; surely there should be more for something this great and informative? What a remarkable woman. If the lights went out and we had to go back to basics, I for sure would go find this woman; basic survival.

Thanks for the awesome video! I find it fascinating that a genetic condition called hemochromatosis where excess iron builds up in the body is the most common in traditionally celtic and other places which relied heavily on dairy. Calcium, largely found in dairy, inhibits the absorption of iron through digestion so they developed in response to the diet to be very efficient at absorbing iron. A great excess of it can cause a lot of problems but the treatment for it is still basically to take blood out of you, so I'm guessing it wouldn't have been much of a problem for say a warrior who gets banged around a lot (or a woman with very heavy periods like myself lol) 😂 This condition also leads to a bronzy or reddish tint to the skin, which I believe some roman authors described some celts having. Sorry for the random fact dump, I just find it incredibly fascinating how traces of our ancient diets are still reflected in our genes. I believe places like Ireland and Finland (which is where I live and was also very cattle reliant place once upon a time) also have some of the lowest rates of lactose intolerance and milk allergies!

This was WONDERFUL!!!!! What a LUXURY to have such a wide array of global foods available at any time of year in most places around the world.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Caroline for this wonderful and insightful video! I am in the long processes (years!) of writing a British Iron Age historical fiction story. I love to come across anything related to food, which can easily be replicated by most (unlike handmade clothing and tools), and thus, makes us feel closer to the past and our ancestors. I love experimental archaeology and living history so much! I'm a big fan of Time Team and the BBC 4 Living History Farm Series with the lovely Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn, Alex Langlands, and Tom Pinfold. I specialized in American and Medieval Histories in University.

Great display. You’ve made me rethink my medieval cookery.

Very interesting! I always thought they cooked in iron pots/cauldrons too. I thought clay pots would explode for cooking in! I never thought about the pots being placed in embers. I would imagine that a lot of cooking would've been done outdoors in dry warm weather to reduce the amount of smoke in the round house, plus it would be lighter to see what one was doing. I reckon in those days during good weather people spent much more time outdoors. I'm very glad potatoes eventually made their way to this island!

I’ve got most of my cooking and eating utensils for Iron Age cooking, but I don’t yet have a proper pot or knife, this is an excellent way to show what I may want to look at and get for my own Iron Age cooking! Thank you for sharing!!!

One of the best videos on early medieval cooking! Thank you!

Thank you for this insight into the diet of Iron Age people

fascinating video. I'm glad you mentioned the importance of seasonality. With possibility of IT outages, learning how to go lower tech is really important

Brilliant. You give me answers to a lot of questions I have in my research.

Absolutely fantastic channel. Glad this was on my feed!

This is really good you’ve included so much and gone into depth. Not one other video, I’ve came across has spoke about seasonality with food.

I am so glad to have found this video. I studied this period of time from the art history viewpoint, but I am also interested in how the people lived. I love to garden and am curious as to whether there are any indications of a kitchen garden, near the house. Were there temporary outdoor kitchens in the summertime for processing the vegetables, for drying, or for immediate feasting. You would need a shady awning over the processing area, a place to hang herbs for drying and use later as seasoning and remedies, I am also curious about fruit trees, and whether there were some in the village, or maybe they would travel a day or two to a wild orchard,. Hope I am not bombarding you with questions, What impresses me is the carefully considered use of resources. Thank you for your work, very inspiring.

This woman is a gem 💯

That was so interesting. Thank you very much..

Thank you! That was very interesting.

Absolutely brilliant, please do more on Iron Age cooking please!❤❤❤

This is fantastic! So informative, thank you for sharing your expertise! 🙂

Thank you, excellent.

Loved this video. It’s so interesting to see life from their point of view.

What an exceptional presentation! Really engaging and informative

Genuinely, absolutely fascinating. Loved it.

This is super. I've learned so much and many questions answered. Thankyou for posting 😁

this is awesome you rule!!! thanks

This was so interesting! I would love to see a video of iron age cooking in the summer, its really fascinating

outstanding!

take into account there were two sleeping periods during the night, first and second...in the very busy interval you could revive the fire, make some cooking, look after the animals beside or below etc.

SO well explained! 🙂 Thought you did a really good job balancing the level of information needed & explaining the reasons behind things... esp. taking into account that many viewers may not ever have cooked with fire, grown their own food, or lived without electricity? Even for somebody who has some familiarity with those things, there's still great wee nuggets here like not tapping one's stirring-spoon for fear of cracking the pots... Presenter is very natural & fluent too, interesting & entertaining to listen to. Brava! 👏

Excellent teacher!

Very interesting.

Brilliant!❤

Nice overview and explanation.

Awesome video! I enjoyed it very much.

What a fantastic video. Thank you ❤

1:48 I can already tell I’m going to enjoy this.

excellent video

I was worried about your sleeves and that flame . I am sure they had some horrific events because of this. Very informative and good advice for survival.

The fun part is that you can date this representation of iron age as 1900+, 1960+, 1990+, 2000+,2000+

excellent thank you

You do have a bit of an accent. You must come from the Little Britannia of course! Jokes aside, so much can be learned from an Iron Age cooking video, it's amazing!

Wonderful video. An open fire in the middle of the room seems very dangerous, both to the home and the cook. I imagine it was even more dangerous than Elizabethan hearths.

Please caption your content so everyone can enjoy

Thank you👍💪 New sub 👍

Excellent advice for Brexiteers.

Solcherart gelebte Geschichte oder Institute oder Vereine, die sich mit so etwas beschäftigen, muss es doch in Deutschland auch irgendwo geben. Weiß da jemand etwas?

Trying to place the accent, is it Belgian? Dutch?

the iron age people dint eat much pork or chicken tbh, pork only started to be eaten all over after the roman conquest because the roman are known to love pork and poultry.

❤ love the video❤ love the explanation❤ even love the accent… from Continental Europe❤ there is an issue with language @2:06 Please say it correctly, it is “Fewer eggs” NOT “less eggs”.❤ One man/woman & fewer men/women. - NOT “less men/women” Many people & fewer people - NOT “less people” and NOT “alot of people”

Wouldn’t a fire be needed to keep babies warm?

You’d also slaughter your animals in fall so you didn’t have expense of feeding them through winter. And they’d be nice and fat from summer plenty.

What no Mc Donald’s😢

"slight" accent ^^

I wish you cooked something

NARRATIVE. Do your own research. This is a skit.

I have a hard time believing a copper caldron would have been too expensive for the average household 4.5 grams of silver or 1 denarii a day was low end of pay in Roman times they worked 7 days in a 8 day week that’s over an ounce of silver a week yes a caldron would be expensive but not out of reach