Another Roman Recipe To Delight All

[Pertinax]

Whjte pudding brings us full circle ! As we have argued previously that the Roman's invented "Haggis", as a "marching food" , the essential omission is the blood! Every other pig organ/tissue can go into the mix, save the blood, so you tend to get the "caul" and other fats that would appear in a faggott (no jokes please Gaius). Its one of the few gustatory items that I cannot eat-I find that the intense fattiness causes me heartburn.

 

To cleanse our palates here is another Apician special:

 

1 round , sweet , ripe melon

generous fresh ground black pepper

3 tsp of fresh pennyroyal (mint if you must!)

1 dessert spoon fish sauce

2 dessert spoons vinegar

2 dessert spoons runny honey

 

Cut the melon (quarters would be fine) take off the skin.Dice the flesh up.Whisk all other ingredients together.Add the mix about 15 mins before you serve, and make sure the melon is well covered.Try and chill before serving.

 

Smack! that will wake you up!

[Gaius Octavius]

:notworthy:

 

If it is fats that trouble you when eating offal, Lipitor will help.

 

In the event of heartburn, two heaping tablespoons of Brioschi dissolved in three fingers of whiskey in your widest glass will do the job.

 

Set the faggot alight and dump the other stuff on and see what happens. Like Lord Percy, you may reinvent 'green'.

 

[Pertinax]

I was searching for a suggested "Roman" digestive aid, but was sidetracked by two items that I saw in the text.

regarding cumin:

Cumin was a commonplace spice, medicinally it is excellent, though we tend to think of the seed-the Romans used the green leaf also.Theophrastus (VII) enjoins us to curse and shout when sowing the plant to encourage its growth.The sympathetic aspect of the herb is its alleged encouragement of human seed, Pliny suggests easier impregnation if a woman scents the herb during coitus.(Pliny NH XX).

Allegedly Julius Vindex ( a contemporary of Nero) ate great quantities to encourage a pale complexion, thus to give hope to false flatterers seeking an inheritance (I presume that he , in effect, purged himself).

Culpepper says thus:

Formerly Cumin had considerable repute as a corrective for the flatulency of languid digestion and as a remedy for colic (GO notice the languid disposition reference here).

regarding Rue:

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...=si&img=336

rather the opposite of the cumin herb, as I have written in the note appended to the image. The snippet I gathered lately mentions that a guest fearing poisoning by aconite (monkshood) would take rue beforehand.

 

Some species of Aconite were well known to the ancients as deadly poisons. It was said to be the invention of Hecate from the foam of Cerberus, and it was a species of Aconite that entered into the poison which the old men of the island of Ceos were condemned to drink when they became infirm and no longer of use to the State. Aconite is also supposed to have been the poison that formed the cup which Medea prepared for Theseus. (Note---Aconite and Belladonna were said to be the ingredients in the witches' 'Flying ointments.' Aconite causes irregular action of the heart, and Belladonna produces delirium. These combined symptoms might give a sensation of 'flying).

[Aurelianus]

To cleanse our palates here is another Apician special:

 

1 round , sweet , ripe melon

generous fresh ground black pepper

3 tsp of fresh pennyroyal (mint if you must!)

1 dessert spoon fish sauce

2 dessert spoons vinegar

2 dessert spoons runny honey

 

Cut the melon (quarters would be fine) take off the skin.Dice the flesh up.Whisk all other ingredients together.Add the mix about 15 mins before you serve, and make sure the melon is well covered.Try and chill before serving.

 

Smack! that will wake you up!

 

I just tried this (feel free comment on my sanity) and it was actually quite nice, although I left out the fish sauce, and added ginger. It certainly woke me up.

[Pertinax]

Blasphemy! Did you hear him?..

 

I can assure you that you will also have seen off any intestinal parasites as well if you used the pennyroyal/honey combination.

 

Pliny gives a long list of disorders for which Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) was a remedy, and especially recommends it for hanging in sleeping rooms, it being considered by physicians as more conducive to health even than roses.

 

It was likewise thought to communicate its purifying qualities to water, and Gerard tells us: 'If you have Pennyroyale in great quantity dry and cast it into corrupt water, it helpeth it much, neither will it hurt them that drink thereof.' As a purifier of the blood, it was highly spoken of: 'Penny-royale taken with honey cleanseth the lungs and cleareth the breast from all gross and thick humours.'

 

The pulegone (thujone) content is the key here, the Ancients were aware that a number of related plants/plant oils had purgative and anthelmintic (worm/parasite killing) properties (camphor heartwood, arbor vitae, wormwood (absinthe) and many of the various sage species) . The herb is contra-indicated in pregnancy as it is a strong emmenagogue (ie: purges the endometrium), indeed it is a well known fok abortifactant.

 

Be brave and try some nam pla next time-the conflicting tastes on the palate are most stimulating, but the mix must be chilled.If the Pennyroyal scares you then any good , strong tasting , related member of the mint family will suffice. If sweetness is an issue , to counterbalance the bitter and savoury tastes, then try some agave syrup .

 

Sanity rating :drunk:

[Pantagathus]

The ancients loved pennyroyal... It's ashame the modern medical world has made people so afraid of it!

 

"My greetings, dear Boeotian, eater of spam.

What have you?"

 

"All the goods Boeotia boasts!

Got marjoram, pennyroyal, rush-mats, wicks for lamps,

got ducks and jackdaws, francolins and coots,

got wrens and grebes..." - Aristophanes, Acharnians

[Pertinax]

Praise Mercurius!

 

Here is a link for you avid consumers of Dormice:

 

http://www.flinthyll.org/documents/Dormous...cumentation.pdf

 

I take no credit for this , the worthy posters at "Apicius" drew this to my attention.So reach for those pesky squirrels!

 

I wonder if quail meat would be a worthwhile substitute here, certainly we would achieve a blend of fleshiness and a slight hint of game? Also as regards the laser substitute, pennyroyal/asafoetida/rue something with a bit of an edge to it perhaps.

[Pantagathus]

I take no credit for this , the worthy posters at "Apicius" drew this to my attention.So reach for those pesky squirrels!

He used cute ground squirrels!

 

Maybe he should have tried it with chipmunks...

[Gaius Octavius]

I take no credit for this , the worthy posters at "Apicius" drew this to my attention.So reach for those pesky squirrels!

He used cute ground squirrels!

 

Maybe he should have tried it with chipmunks...

 

My Lord: :notworthy:

 

You must be 'testing' something. You have yourself all wrong! Chipmunks are your pals, and squirrels your mortal enemies!

 

[Pantagathus]

My Lord: :notworthy:

 

You must be 'testing' something. You have yourself all wrong! Chipmunks are your pals, and squirrels your mortal enemies!

Please do not mistake me, the Grey varmits are still my enemy... :sniper:

 

The ground squirrel on the otherhand (which doesn't live in these parts) is cute and cuddly. The only reason I offered Sufflavus' kin for sacrifice is due to them being the right size...

[Pertinax]

Now then , I have a (perseus) quote from some private correspondence:

 

"Receive also a chicken coop, in which you have sets of glassware, two bowls of quinarius size, a dozen goblets, two papyrus rolls for school use, ink (for use) on the papyrus, five(?) pens, and twenty Alexandrian loaves. I beg you, father, to be content with that".

 

This is an extract from a letter of Claudius Terentianus to (his Father) Claudius Tiberianus , early II C , whilst serving in the Alexandrian Fleet.

 

Does anyone care to venture an opinion on "Alexandrian Loaves" as a distinct recipe/type?

[Guest cookinglady]

My son in grade 4 decided to write a report on the roman empire food era. Can someone suggest a book, or cookbook from this era? Recipes and one question he ask in the report is pasta was ever served during the roman empire era? What type of foods, and easy recipes that we can try at home and for him to bring to school? Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you, Cristina (mom), Guliano age 9.

[caldrail]

You might be suprised how modern some roman dishes were. Pasta was indeed cooked in roman times although I don't actually know what format it took. Burgers were available from traders in the street (seriously, although they're a bit cruder than our modern rubberised products). Bread, a staple roman of diet, is grittier than we would tolerate because of the milling process but I accept that there might be some variance in quality. Eggs are popular, figs too, and vine leaves are often used creatively to wrap meats or perhaps as side dishes. For the wealthy, pastries can be cooked. Fish are popular, eels too, and oysters were common even for poorer people. We might see mushrooms as a side dish for instance. Pork and poultry products are common but I wouldn't expect to see much beef - cows and oxen are not primarily raised for slaughter.

 

Lets not forget Garum - a sauce made from rotting fish (eeuww). very popular but you'll find that worcester sauce is the modern descendant. Not the same as, but similar.

 

The sort of extravangant tit-bits we sometimes hear about in tales such as lampreys spleens and larks brains - well - those are the reserve of the wealthy I would say, and none too cheap to acquire.

 

Those are just a few ideas to get you going.

Edited November 26, 2006 by caldrail

[vopattes]

i've got some links ; hope they help you

 

this one has a nice review (and i think the author visits this forum)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-...155&s=books

 

i love soya sauce, i wonder if i would like this sauce. (i can't say if this is the best recipe but it's got pictures)

http://www.coquinaria.nl/english/recipes/garum.htm

 

Pentagathus offers his version of ISICIA OMENTATA

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?showto...&hl=apicius

 

BTW Caldrail, i read somewhere that the pasta was a type of Lasagna.

Any ideas ? I had always thought pasta was from Marco Polo ; perhaps just the noodle-type pasta ?

[Andrew Dalby]

BTW Caldrail, i read somewhere that the pasta was a type of Lasagna.

Any ideas ? I had always thought pasta was from Marco Polo ; perhaps just the noodle-type pasta ?

 

Or you might say that lasagne was a type of pasta!

 

I'm sure the Marco Polo story is wrong: there's very good evidence that forms of pasta were known in Italy (especially Sicily) and north Africa long before Marco Polo's time. It seems most likely that Romans were familiar with pasta -- at least three of the names for types of pasta have Roman or Greek origins -- but they weren't very common back then, not much talked about in literature, certainly not as widespread in the diet as they are in Italy now.