Subject: Roman Recipes

From: [email-masked] (Donna Lettow)
Date: 9 Apr 1993 22:25:30 -0400

Oooh, welcome to my parlor said the spider to the fly!  My area 
of historic cooking interest is Roman Britain and, thanks to 
Apicius, I've won prizes the past three years at Military Through 
The Ages for it.  Here are some sources and some recipes that 
have worked extremely well for me.  All (except for the bread) 
can be made over an open cook fire, but if you've got a stove, 
more power to you!

Selected Sources:
Apicius.  Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome.  Trans. Joseph 
   Dommers Vehling.  New York:  Dover Publications.  1977.
Berriedale-Johnson, Michelle.  The British Museum Cookbook.  
   British Museum Publications, London.  1987.
Davie, R.W.  "The Roman Military Diet."  Britannia.  1971.  Vol 
   II.
Edwards, John.  The Roman Cookery of Apicius.  London:  Century 
   Hutchinson.  1984.
Sass, Lorna J.  Christmas Feasts.  New York:  Metropolitan Museum 
   of Art.
Smith, Jeff.  The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines.  
Woodman, Marian.  Food & Cooking in Roman Britain.  Corinium 
   Museum, Park Street, Cirencester, Glos, GL7 2BX, UK.

A note on Apicius:  M. Gabius Apicius was a celebrated first 
century Roman gourmet who wrote a series of cookbooks that 
survive to this day.  Several more volumes were added later in 
the Roman period by different authors, all writing under the name 
Apicius.  The Edwards book is much preferable to the Vehling -- 
his adaptions really work.

Steamed Fish Custard (Patina De Apua Sine Apua)

Source:  Apicius IV ii 12
"Finely chop enough baked or boiled fish to fill a casserole dish 
of the size you want to use.  Grind pepper and a little rue, and 
mix with sufficient fish stock and some olive oil.  Mix these 
seasonings with the fish pieces.  Then add raw eggs and blend all 
until the texture is smooth.  Next, gently place sea nettles on 
top, taking care to see they do not mix with the eggs.  Cook by 
steaming so that the sea nettles and the eggs may not mix.  When 
they have become firm and dry, sprinkle it with ground pepper and 
serve."
[I elect to skip the anemones, but suit yourself.]

Recipe:
2 lbs cooked fish fillets          1/2 teaspoon pepper
pinch rosemary                     2 t olive oil         
2 c fish stock                     4 raw eggs     

Steam fillets and reserve liquid.  Chop them and put them into a 
cooking pot.  Mix pepper with ground rosemary or rue, olive oil, 
and fish stock.  Stir this sauce into the fish.  Now add well 
beaten eggs and stir the mixture until it has a smooth texture.  
[Finish by gently placing sea anemones on top.]  Cover and steam 
over low heat until eggs are firm.  Serve with a sprinking of 
pepper.

Lentils with Chestnuts (Lenticulam de Castaneis)

Source:  Apicius V ii 2
"Take a new sauce pan, place therein the chestnuts carefully 
cleaned.  Add water and a little soda and place on the fire to be 
cooked.  This done, crush in the mortar pepper, cumin, coriander 
seed, mint, rue, laser root, and flea-bane moistened with 
vinegar, honey and broth; add vinegar to taste and pour this over 
the cooked chestnuts, add oil and allow to boil.  When done, 
crush it in the mortar.  Taste to see if something is missing and 
if so, put it in, and at last add green oil.  Cook the lentils, 
skim them, add leeks, green coriander; crush coriander seed, 
flea-bane, laser root, mint seed and rue seed moistened with 
vinegar; add honey, broth, vinegar, then oil, stirring until it 
is done.  Add chestnuts, sprinkle with pepper and serve."

Recipe:
2 1/2 cups beef stock              1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 lb chestnuts                   1/2 teaspoon coriander
2 leeks (approx. 2 cups)           1 teaspoon mint
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar      1/2 teaspoon cumim
1 cup lentils                 salt
1 tablespoon honey                 2 tablespoons olive oil
(all measurements are approximate)

Soak and drain chestnuts.  Simmer stock and chestnuts until 
tender.  Add additional water to make approx. 2 1/2 cups of 
liquid.  Grind the spices.  Add spices, leeks, vinegar, and honey 
and bring to a boil.  Add lentils and simmer until lentils are 
tender and liquid is absorbed.  Add salt, pepper, and oil to 
taste.

Commentary:  This recipe was derived from Apicius and from 
different variations on the original Apicius recipe published by 
Lorna J. Sass (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Jeff Smith ("The 
Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines").  Some of the 
spices listed in the original recipe have been left out in 
deference to the modern palate and because there are some spices 
such as laser and laser root which, although Apicius considered 
them indispensible in cooking and they were known Roman trade 
goods, modern archeologists, anthropoligists, and chefs have been 
unable to locate.

Leeks (Porros)

Source:  Apicius III x 1
"Well matured leeks are stewed in oil and in the best kind of 
broth.  The leeks are cooked with juniper or laurel berries and 
served."

Recipe:
1 tablespoon whole juniper berries
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 leeks (approx. 3 cups)
1/2 cup stock
salt & pepper
(all measurements are approximate)

Crush berries.  Saute in oil briefly, add leeks and again saute 
briefly.  Add broth, stew until tender.

Parsnips Cooked in Sweet Wine Sauce (Aliter)

Source:  Apicius III xx 3
"Take boiled parsnips, half cook and then stew in olive oil, 
stock, and pepper.  Color them with passum [raisin wine], thicken 
and serve."

Recipe:
6-8 parsnips                       1/4 c sweet raisin wine 
2 t olive oil                           (Malaga)
1/2 t pepper                       flour

Slice parsnips lengthwise and half-cook in water.  Drain and 
reserve liquid.  Finish cooking them in the following sauce.

Combine olive oil, stock, pepper, and sweet wine.  Bring to a 
boil, add parsnips, then simmer until parsnips are tender.  
Thicken sauce with flour and serve with parsnips.

A Dish of Pears (Patina de Piris)

Source:  Apicius IV ii 35
"A dish of pears is made this way:  stew the pears, clean out the 
center, crush them with pepper, cumin, honey, passum, liquamen, 
and a little oil; mix with eggs, make a custard of this, sprinkle 
with pepper and serve."

Recipe:
2 lb pears, cored                  1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup raisin wine (Passum)       1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup water                 1/4 teaspoon liquamen
2 medium eggs                 1 teaspoon olive oil

Simmer pears, raisin wine, and water for 10 minutes or until 
pears are soft.  Pound the mixture with the rest of the 
ingredients except the eggs.  Combine the pear mixture and the 
eggs.  Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.  
Garnish with pepper.

Passum was a raisin wine, very similar to today's Malaga wine, 
which we've used in this recipe.  Liquamen was a popular Roman 
liquid that was used the way soy sauce is used in the East, to 
salt and to spice.  Liquamen, a fish sauce flavored with 
anchovies and other spices, was brought to the British isles by 
the Romans.  Later, the British would take it to India, where 
they would add tamarin and other Indian spices to create 
Worchestershire sauce.  The closest modern equivalent to liquamen 
is nuoc mam, a salty Vietnamese sauce made with anchovy.  Both 
passum and liquamen were exported to Britain.

Bread

Recipe:
2 1/2 cups tepid water
2 envelopes yeast
enough rye & whole wheat flour combined to make approx. 2 lbs 
flour
1 teaspoon salt dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

Dissolve yeast in tepid water.  Put four cups of the flour 
mixture into bowl with water and whip for 10 minutes.  Add the 
salted water.  Add remaining flour and knead the dough until 
smooth and elastic.  Let dough rise once, punch it down, let it 
rise again.  Punch down and form into 2 or 3 loaves.  Let loaves 
rise until doubled.  Bake at 450 about 25 minutes or until 
golden.

Commentary:  Bread is such a staple of life that there is very 
little literature evidence for it at all.  Apicius never once 
mentions bread, although the archeological evidence indicates 
commercial bakeries existed on nearly every street in Rome.  We 
do know that leavened bread dates back at least as far as the 
Egyptians and perhaps farther and as early as the second century 
B.C., the Greeks introduced the Roman Empire to multigrained 
breads.