well my childhood taught me that ninjas
eat pizza it turns out that that's just
not true instead they ate these hyorugan
or provision balls so thank you to white
ramen for sponsoring this video as we
make ninja hyorgan this time on tasting
history
first off a huge thank you to niri
bakalian for helping me with some of the
translations as well as some of the
research i will put a link to her
wonderful history podcast in the
description and speaking of descriptions
there are several descriptions of these
hirogan in texts now collectively known
as the ninja scrolls namely the rodanshu
which is supposed to be the secrets of
the 16th century samurai strategist
yamamoto kansuke wanting to keep his
secrets to himself he didn't actually
write them all down so this was actually
written down in 1846 almost 300 years
after he died now it is based on much
earlier writings but the hearsay style
of compilation that it went through
means that we have to kind of take
everything with a bit of a grain of salt
or a grain of rice in the case of this
recipe see the writer gives us a list of
ingredients with specific quantities
then says gather these ingredients in
water and mix them well then steam them
in a bamboo steamer make balls this size
use five to seven balls a day it can
also give horses energy crush one and
put it in the horse's mouth with a bit
of water so i'm going to kind of go into
the weeds here about my process in
recreating these old recipes because
sometimes they're not perfectly
straightforward actually they're almost
never perfectly straightforward and i am
going to go through the entire list of
ingredients but first i want to point
out two ingredients that kind of make
this one a little tricky the main
ingredient is sugar and it calls for one
and a half quin aquin being about 600
grams and that is a lot of sugar because
pretty much everything else is at most
one rio or 38 grams and when it comes to
the glutinous and non-glutinous rice it
calls for five buu that's about two
grams that's like 20 grains of rice and
it seems that there are other recipes
that might reference using a lot more
rice like a lot more like 700 times more
rice and that will allow you to form
them into balls and then steam them like
you would a modern rice ball and so i
thought that maybe the rodan shoe made a
mistake it is an old recipe and mistakes
often happen but if we assumed that
there wasn't a mistake then you can't
steam the balls because they're almost
entirely sugar and they just melt but if
you look at the recipe closely he says
to steam the ingredients and then to
form them into balls it's odd and not
how we would typically use a steamer
today
but it actually works the other clue
that maybe the rice quantity is not a
mistake is that he says to crush them to
give them to a horse with a bit of water
and these balls turn out immensely
crushable well that didn't sound right
anyway i'm not saying that this is
definitely how they were made but i'm
also not saying that this is definitely
not how they were made and really i'm
just going to allow you to share in some
of the frustration that sometimes i go
through when
making these old recipes a frustration
you would never have to go through when
following a recipe from our sponsor vipe
ramen so i've been meaning to actually
do an entire episode on the history of
ramen but i've been putting it off
because the history is complicated and
very kind of convoluted in japan there
are so many types of ramen and many ways
to prepare it it's kind of like a blank
canvas and that is what vite is the
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ramen soup spoons chopsticks and
stickers and i'm sure if a ninja had
access to vite they would slurp it up
but as it was they had access to balls
of sugar called hyorgan and for that
recipe what you'll need is two and a
third cup or 450 grams of raw sugar one
quarter teaspoon or one gram of
glutinous rice flour and one quarter
teaspoon or one gram of non-glutinous
rice flour then three tablespoons or 19
grams of cinnamon yep it is a lot of
cinnamon a couple slices or 19 grams of
yam and if you can find a japanese yam
all the better but since we're not using
that much and i don't think it's going
to affect the flavor all that much go
ahead and use a regular yam if you can't
find a japanese one a quarter cup or 19
grams of dried lotus seeds and you can
find those online and i will put a link
in the description to where you can get
those along with two tablespoons or 19
grams of coix seeds sometimes called
job's tears and finally an inch or 1
gram of asian ginseng root also for this
i've cut all of the ingredients in half
so if you want to make the full recipe
just double everything so first grind up
all of your ingredients i'm using a
mortar and pestle but it's thought that
they would have likely been ground with
a yagen which causes more of a crushing
than grinding movement and was more
commonly used for medicine and really
that's what most of these ingredients
are because they're not there for flavor
there just isn't enough to to outdo the
the cinnamon which could also be a
medicine and the sugar everything else
is just there for its medicinal purpose
also some of the ingredients like the
coix seeds are rather hard to crush so
go ahead and use a spice grinder if you
have it when it comes to the ginseng
chop it as fine as you can before
attempting to grind it once everything
is ground up add all of the ingredients
together and mix now the recipe says to
use a bamboo steamer but if you don't
have one you can do this in a pot on the
stove but you'll want to add a couple
teaspoons of water but provided you do
have a steamer line it with some
parchment and then add the filling to it
and spread it out evenly then heat some
water in a large pan or a wok and set
the steamer with the filling into steam
for 10 to 12 minutes or until the
filling has turned to a liquid then
carefully remove the parchment and pour
the filling into a bowl now it is going
to be very very hot so be careful also
we're going to be forming these balls
with our hands so you're going to want
to stir the filling for a little bit
just to let it cool down but you can't
let it cool down too much or you won't
be able to form the balls there's like a
minute and a half where it's it's going
to be the right temperature so once you
can stay on the heat go ahead and start
rolling the balls and set them on
parchment to cool completely and if you
can't get them perfectly into balls
that's okay because as they cool you can
kind of shape them a little bit more and
while they cool make sure to hit the
like button as we explore
the ninja scrolls
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so some of the tropes of the modern
ninja are not really accurate and
actually didn't come about until the
19th or even 20th century first of all
they weren't turtles they were actually
almost exclusively human also they were
not all dressed in black with their
faces covered but rather tended to dress
to blend into crowds and even at night
when they were skulking in the shadows
they tended to wear brown or dark blue
or as one 17th century poem instructs on
a moonlit night wearing white is
unobtrusive but while the costume may be
a modern invention most of the rest of
what we think of as a ninja is actually
pretty accurate if a little incomplete
the modern term ninja more traditionally
called shinobi in japan were those who
practiced the martial art of ninjutsu a
discipline that dates at least to the
6th century during the reign of prince
shotoku though it likely goes back even
further than that essentially it's a
combination of strategy guerrilla
warfare and espionage and sometimes this
did mean sneaking around and doing
parkour off of the buildings of feudal
japan but more often it meant blending
in with the people around you and
observing what's going on for long
periods at a time then this was
punctuated with the occasional
assassination act of sabotage or smidge
of arson essentially the ninja had to be
a jack or jill of all trades and yes
there were female ninjas and they had to
really be ready for anything the ninja
scrolls are filled with everything that
one needs to know to become a successful
ninja from fighting tips to how to make
impromptu bombs that make no noise how
to properly tie someone up or how to use
weaponry like the amigasa lined with
darts or a fan that can be turned into a
dagger many of the lessons involve
survival techniques and kind of read
like a manual for the boy scouts and
that's because ninja could be sent far
far away on their missions and they had
to travel light and that is where ninja
food comes in because if you are having
to run through a forest for days on end
carrying a sack of rice with you is
probably not too practical though they
did often carry some rice with them one
text gives instructions on how to cook
rice with sea water and how to cook rice
without a pan which can be done either
in the ground or in a bucket with hot
rocks but cooking with seawater required
a pan and cooking without a pan required
fresh water so if you didn't have a pan
or fresh water worry not because it also
told you how to take seawater and turn
it into fresh water it involved covering
a vessel of water with red clay that
would supposedly suck out most of the
salt and i'm pretty sure that that is
the long-term plan to deal with our
water crisis here in california now if
the only water that you can find is
muddy water no good for drinking then it
instructs you to take a circle of paper
put a hole in the middle and lay that
over the rim of a puddle and supposedly
the clear water will actually come to
the center and you can drink that
i don't know if it works but i kind of
want to try that one of these days when
i find a muddy puddle now sometimes
ninja would find themselves staying in
one spot spying for days on end and so
they couldn't get to any water source
even if it was muddy or salty and for
that they would reach for a suikatsugan
or thirst pill these are balls just like
hirogan but they are made with sugar and
pickled plum and a bit of dwarf lily
turf and it said that these could allow
you to not drink water for days or even
weeks at a time which i'm going to guess
is is not true but the pickled plum does
have a lot of citric acid which produces
saliva and does make it so you are less
thirsty so maybe you'd be good for a
while now if you were hungry and
couldn't get to a bowl of noodles there
were other options there was hoshi which
was rice that you'd cook at home and
then you would dry and it could be
rehydrated by just mixing it with some
water there were also the red pills of
lord imagawa which kind of sounds like
it would be one of those male
enhancement pills that you see when
you're checking out at a bodega but in
fact they were very similar to the
hyorgan except that they were made not
with sugar but with honey and different
herbs and then there were kikatsugan
which were specifically designed to sate
your hunger these again were balls made
with many of the same ingredients as the
hirogan except that they included
buckwheat flour and licorice and were
supposed to be able to keep you fed if
you only ate three a day and i am going
to make these and in doing so that is a
vote of confidence for the longevity of
this youtube channel because instead of
steaming or drying these they have to be
soaked in sake for three years so please
stick around for the next three years to
make that worthwhile in fact if you're
not subscribed make sure to subscribe so
that in three years you'll get a
notification for when that video comes
out now both the kikatsugan and the
suicatsugan are great for when you're on
the go because they're easily
transportable and they last for a while
but if you're going on a mission that is
going to last months or even years then
you're going to have to turn to
something called katayaki these were
made with brown rice flour dried seaweed
and black sesame and they literally mean
hard baked and could last for years yes
these were ninja hard tack
these were originally made for the
students of the igariu which were those
practicing ninjutsu in the iga region of
japan they are some of legends greatest
ninja who worked under hattori hanzo not
the one from kilbil but the 16th century
samurai and tokugawa yasu founder of the
tokugawa shogunate but while the shogun
are long gone katayaki lives on even
today in the city of iga katayaki are
made and are traditionally sold with a
little mallet to break them up though
legend says they were originally called
subayaki because they looked like the
tsuba or handguard on a japanese sword
they were meant for all samurai as their
hardness represented the bravery of the
warriors and their sweetness was
comparable to the compassion of the
samurai though i don't imagine the
cracker nor the samurai to be all that
sweet so make of that what you will now
if you are lucky enough as a ninja to
get to sit down to a proper meal make
sure to pay close attention because
there could be information in that meal
if you find a mummy in your departing
meal it is a sign of luck for your
upcoming secret night attack a momi
being a grain of rice that is still in
its husk and if you come across a
comrade who has gone through all of his
rations and is on the verge of
starvation the bansen chukai says that
before giving him food you must boil red
clay in water and make him drink it may
seem odd but it likely reduced the risk
of what today we call refeeding syndrome
the book really thought of everything
and not just when it came to food see as
i was reading these texts i came across
several things that i just thought were
too interesting not to share like
sandwiched between the food recipes and
notes on different types of drum there
is instruction on how to attach a
decapitated head to your horse and for
some reason without explanation it says
that if you plan on continuing to fight
to make sure to cut off the head's nose
before doing so really want to know the
story behind that also it says you kind
of got to be on the lookout because
lower level people often steal heads you
should be aware of this and save the
evidence of your achievements there's
another text that talks more about the
covert aspects of ninjutsu like how to
infiltrate an enemy successfully or the
best times of day and night to sneak
into a fortress and how to tell things
about people's personality or their
future without actually talking to them
like those with slender hands are
benevolent and generous i present to you
slender hands though clearly i'm not
wise as that is shown when the hands
reach below the knees when the arms are
in a relaxed position at the sides which
i'm pretty sure only applies to gibbons
also next time you meet someone try to
count their teeth you should be aware
that those having 38 teeth are kings
those with 36 are nobles and princes 34
are men of wisdom 32 happy mean and
wealthy 30 ordinary and with good luck
and 28 base and mean
and if those teeth are shaped like
pomegranate seeds it means they'll have
good luck now i think my favorite is
probably also the one that is most
difficult to achieve without seeming
creepy and that's because it's based on
their tongue those whose tongue reaches
the nose when sticking it out will
ascend the throne those with a thin and
long tongue lie those with a pointed and
short tongue are greedy hi my name is
max can i see your tongue anyway it's
all useful information when spying on an
enemy as long as you have the energy to
complete your mission and for that
you'll need some hirogan and here they
are hyorugan fit for a ninja
so they are rather firm
they crumble a little bit but they're
pretty darn hard i think it would be
hard okay if you squeeze them they do
crumble and so i could see giving this
to a horse with with some water but
as it is i'm just gonna bite into one
here we go
that'll give you energy
wow
that will wake you up
yeah next time you're feeling a little
groggy hit one of these up because that
is that is powerful um it is so it's
sweet
but the cinnamon is
that's the flavor it's it's a ball of
cinnamon though
not unpleasantly so it kind of reminds
me of cinnamon toast crunch
if the cinnamon was squared i also think
that the size is right like i could
finish one of these i think after after
one i'd be kind of done in but
they're not bad and it's it's gritty
but it's not unpleasantly gritty it's
not like chewing on sand
but it is a little gritty
i noticed in one of these the um i had a
little bit of the ginseng kind of like
sticking out because the ginseng is
really really hard to to actually get
crushed so
i don't know how well that incorporates
but as long as you're getting like one
or two pieces of ginseng in each one
you're good to go they still use that in
energy drinks today so
maybe the ninja were onto something
anyway make sure to follow me on
instagram tastinghistory with max miller
and twitter tastinghistory1 and i will
see you next time on tasting history and
again in three years when i have those
hunger balls that are going to be
sitting in sake for the next three years
i'll see you then
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