Pertinax Posted December 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2005 The Snails in Cumin are a brilliant ploy-a flavoursome dish but cleverly the Cumin is one of the best anti-parasitics (still) available ,snails as you know need careful purging (usually with milk ) to make sure your guests dont get nasty /bacterialparasitic infections.( beer would do as well). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted December 15, 2005 Report Share Posted December 15, 2005 The Snails in Cumin are a brilliant ploy-a flavoursome dish but cleverly the Cumin is one of the best anti-parasitics (still) available ,snails as you know need careful purging (usually with milk ) to make sure your guests dont get nasty /bacterialparasitic infections.( beer would do as well). I learned from an old frenchman to also put them in a sack of flour and let their gorging on the flour purge them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Dalby Posted December 17, 2005 Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 Asafetida (also called Devil's Dung) is Ferula rubicaulis-what happened is that Silphium was lost in antiquity and Asafetida was "slotted in " to its position in the medieval herbal materia medica, but ( importantly) they have no actual relationship save they both (appear ) to be Umbellifers .Well done for spotting the connection , very few people even know of it! Alice Arndt, Helen Saberi and I tried to bring out the connection between silphium and asafoetida in our papers to the Oxford Food Symposium in 1992. I've put my paper on the Web now at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/dalby/texts/SilphiumTexts.html My bit of the task (back in 1992) was to provide the direct ancient evidence about silphium (and asafoetida), and that's what this page now does: I hope all significant ancient sources are there in translation. If anyone finds any others, please tell me! But we certainly don't claim to be the first in post-classical times to spot the link between silphium and asafoetida! I give the credit for that to the Portuguese physician and spice expert, Garcia de Orta, who wrote /Colloquies on the spices and drugs of India/ in 1563. I wrote on this topic in my /Dangerous Tastes/ (2000) and in /Food in the Ancient World from A to Z/ (2003). So far as I know, asafoetida is more often identified as (botanical) Ferula assa-foetida and Ferula foetida. But you may well be right with Ferula rubicaulis, Pertinax, I'm no botanist. However, classicists who identify silphium with Ferula tingitana (as some do) are certainly wrong. You would need a plant which shares flavours and medicinal qualities with modern asafoetida (otherwise asafoetida would not have worked as a substitute), and there is no such plant in north Africa. Sadly, the silphium of Cyrene is really lost to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted December 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 (edited) Thats about the most comprehensive breakdown on silphium ive seen-ive kept an eye open for any additional material but im afraid its all bits and pieces,Nero really should have kept that last plant instead of scoffing it. I conjecture that harvesting might have been somewaht similar to Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadiensis ) , a wild growing herb, only reaching true potency after a couple of seasons , with a sparse range, picked by knowledgable locals, and picked only at a particular season. Asafetida doesnt figure prominently in modern herbal materia medica-it tends to be an add on to some nervine mixes,( being anticonvulsivant), ive never had ocassion to use it as a tincture or fluid extract (if I had I could tell which variant was the most common commercial variant) . I understand its main use is as a flavouring in Worcester Sauce,(but you probably knew that one!).The gum resin from the roots is the part of the plant used. Edited December 17, 2005 by Pertinax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted January 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2006 (edited) Happy New Year Fratres! now-a very plain ,very simple recipe for your jaded palates after the great Saturnalia. Roman Toasts- Remove the crusts from slices of white bread, dip these in milk ( camel is best , goat will do if you are poor-never use cow's milk ,that would make you no better than a gaul!), saute quickly in best virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with meadow honey. Lentil stew I suggest a dish of Lentils flavoured with onion and cumin to restore your flagging digestion, 45 minutes steady stewing should do it -if you are a robust trencherman add some red wine ( youve probably drunk way too much Falernian by now anyway). you see, I can be sympathetic to the overtaxed gut sometimes. Edited January 2, 2006 by Pertinax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLavius Valerius Constantinus Posted January 2, 2006 Report Share Posted January 2, 2006 Why does everything have to include wine and alcohol. Oh wels, I'm never going to touch those things. Nice comparison by the way :"( camel is best , goat will do if you are poor-never use cow's milk ,that would make you no better than a gaul!)" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted January 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2006 Why does everything have to include wine and alcohol. Oh wels, I'm never going to touch those things. Nice comparison by the way :"( camel is best , goat will do if you are poor-never use cow's milk ,that would make you no better than a gaul!)" The Romans disdain for cow's milk is very sensible-the size of the fat globules is considerable, the relative whey content is low, as far as digestion goes ( and skin condition) they chose shrewdly, the rule they followed was -the thinner the milk (ie; more whey) the better. . Nowadays as well certain of the substances injected into the poor animals ( never mind oxytet in feedstuffs) happen to accelerate damage to the surface of the pancreas. So I practice as a I preach, drinking only goat and sheeps' milk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Dalby Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 Anthimus (northern Gaul, 500 AD, dietician to a Frankish king, apparently a former Byzantine physician accused of treason and on the run) is worth a read if you get tired of sex, Suetonius, etc ... Anthimus's recipe for hare is today's Latin quotation on the FOOD WORD site. Anthimus claims it's good for dysentery (or rather, against dysentery), which sounds doubtful, but, who knows, it may be useful to somebody! Go here http://perso.wanadoo.fr/dalby/ephemeris/blog.html#6 for the original, and you'll find a link to a translation. But first, catch your hare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted January 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 spikenard-we must talk of this herb soon, in the meantime I will search out a picture.last time Madame pertinax made Hare (with chocolate sauce!!!) I had no peristaltic difficulties ( for quite a while). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLavius Valerius Constantinus Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 spikenard-we must talk of this herb soon, in the meantime I will search out a picture.last time Madame pertinax made Hare (with chocolate sauce!!!) I had no peristaltic difficulties ( for quite a while). Hare with chocolate sauce. Are we actually talking about the animal hare? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted January 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 (edited) yes , its an old italian recipe.Bit rich I admit. Edited January 5, 2006 by Pertinax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Dalby Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 Two Roman recipes have just appeared as daily quotation on the Food Word site. The Apicius recipe for 'spiced wine mix for travellers' appears here http://perso.wanadoo.fr/dalby/ephemeris/ar..._culinaria.html in Latin and English (I have borrowed the English from the draft of Sally Grainger and Chris Grocock's forthcoming translation, just to whet everybody's appetite for this long-awaited culinary bible, but if Sally objects it will disappear instanter!) The Latin version of Cato's instructions for salting hams appears on the same page, and the English translation is here http://perso.wanadoo.fr/dalby/texts/CatoTranslation.html and this time it's borrowed from my own edition and translation of Cato (published by Prospect Books, which has an amazing list in food history) Bon appetit! Andrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLavius Valerius Constantinus Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 Very nice blog you've got there Andrew Dalby! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Why does everything have to include wine and alcohol. Because it adds to the richness and depth of flavor, carries the tastes of other ingredients and its high acidity helps tenderize meat & poultry... Flavious, If you wish to abstain for health reasons; because you a worried about your liver or because of a family genetic tendency towards substance abuse that is quite admirable and commendable for a youth confronted with today's deteriorating moral fiber. However, if it is due to fear of some kind of divine persecution in the afterlife, then I must say you are missing out on one of the heavenly father's (or mothers!) most loving gifts to mankind... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted January 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Aha-my favourite Biblical Injunction "take not water , but a little wine ..for thy stomach's sake...." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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