Anthimos’ Aphraton - Byzantine steamed chicken foam

Anthimos was a Greek medical doctor who lived at the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th century AD in Constantinople. In his letter De observatione ciborum (“about healthy food“) to the Frankish king Theuderic he describes foods from Byzantium, Rome and the Frankish region and how to use them for treating different diseases such as dysentery, diarrhea, dropsy, and fever, based on the humoral theory. One of the recipes he describes is aphraton (or afrutum, spumeum in Latin), a Byzantine speciality made of steamed egg whites with chicken. Practically fat-free and packed with proteins, this dish might indeed have been a food suited for people suffering from certain ailments. You need: cooked, lean chicken meat, egg whites, a broth of your liking and a little wine. Stay tuned - there are many more historical recipes to come on this culinary archaeology channel. In these little videos I focus on easy-to-reproduce recipes (“try this at home“). For complex historical dishes and cooking techn