Roman Cookery

The section is dedicated to historical Roman cooking.

Stuffed Dates/Figs Apicius 296

July 31, 2010 in Roman Cookery, Roman Sweets, Stuffed dates/figs | No comments

You have those days where you need a little sweet or a bit of salty sweetness?  This my friends is the Roman equivalent of rocking your socks with this salty (or unsalted) goodness!

Stuffed Dates

Apicius 296

Translation:

A home made sweet: remove the pits from palmyra fruits or dates, and stuff them with walnuts or pine nuts or ground pepper.  Roll them in salt, fry in cooked honey and serve. (Herklotz, pp. 189)

Ingredients:

Fresh figs and/or dates  Walnuts halves  Pine nuts           Tsp salt

4 Tbs honey (or enough to coat depending on size of cooking batch)

Redaction:

I decided to try half of the cooked dates and figs with walnuts and the other half with pine nuts.

figs dates salt

Next step was to take off the tops of the figs and pit the dates.

ready for stuffing

Then I wanted to try half of each type of stuffed fruit with salt and the other half with out salt.  i.e. I had 4 dates in total, 2 dates stuffed with walnuts and 2 stuffed with pine nuts, of these I rolled two in salt, one stuffed with walnuts and one stuffed with pine nuts.

stuffed

After stuffing several pieces of the fruit were rolled in salt.

rolled in salt

I heated up the 4Tbs of honey until thoroughly warmed and slightly boiling (or frying).  I then placed each stuffed piece of fruit in the honey.

frying in honey

I would suggest that the unsalted pieces be cooked first then the salted.  Once each piece was thoroughly coated I placed on a plate.  The salt did not stay very well through the cooking process, then again I only placed a light coating of salt on the fruit.  I might suggest sprinkling salt afterwards if the fruit appears to not have any or very little salt remaining.

ready to eat

I have to admit that the salted and unsalted date with walnut was my favorite.  The figs with walnuts were excellent as well though next time I would keep them in the honey a bit longer as the center was still a bit cool.  The pine nut stuffed fruit was a bit of a disappointment though it might have been because I did not stuff enough into the interior.

This is a quick simple very tasty dessert with or with out salt.

Moretum (Cheese with Herbs)

March 25, 2010 in Moretum Goat Cheese with Herbs, Roman Cookery, Roman Vegetarian | No comments

I had been wanting to do a little bit of Roman cooking for a couple of weeks now.  I had this really cheesy salty garlic recipe on hand and thought I’d share.

A little bit of history here about this period Roman dish.  There are several variations to the cheese with herbs recipe. Some call for leeks, savoy, and rocket leaves while others call for a plethora of spices.  There is one Roman cook who describes the making of this recipe with so much garlic that the person grinding the garlic into a paste has tears coming from his eyes at the strong fumes given off by the garlic.

Moretum

Cheese with Herbs

Translation:

Four garlic cloves/ 4 garlic bulbs (depending upon which translation is used), celery, rue, coriander, salt grains, and cheese.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup garlic cloves                 the heart of 1 celery bunch        1 tsp coriander

1/8 tsp salt (or to taste) 2 cups Feta                              4 Tbs olive oil

3 Tbs. vinegar

Herkotz, pg 54/Grant, pg. 72,73.

My Redaction:

I have taken liberties with the recipe from both Herkotz and Grant.   The type of cheese is unspecified in the original recipe.  The assumption would be that any soft goat or sheep cheese would suffice.  My choice is a feta cheese, unfortunately cow instead of goat feta.  The cow feta has a nice sharpness that compliments the multitude of garlic used.

spices

Garlic seems to be used sparingly, in most Roman cooking, as garlic breath was considered to be plebian by the more urban Romans.  Herkotz chooses to use only 4 cloves while Grant writes of how 4 bulbs were used.  That is a very big difference in amount for these two recipes.  I have chosen to go with roughly 2 bulbs worth of garlic and finely chopped instead of ground.  Grinding would have formed a paste blending well with a soft creamy cheese however with the use of a crumbling Feta I believed the finely chopped garlic was a better choice.

Both Herkotz and Grant suggest the addition of oil and vinegar, to which I agree are excellent additions.  The feta and garlic mixture with just coriander and celery is moderate in taste; however the addition of just a little oil and vinegar makes the dish much tastier.  Sea salt was used to taste.

The celery is not pictured in the above ingredients.  So we’ll add the picture below.

cellery being chopped

This is the heart of a celery bunch being finely chopped.  The leaves, for many period cultures and dishes were the prized ingredient not the fibrous ribs, we eat today.  Seems the flavor is strong in the leaves with out any extra work being required to eat the stems.  No stuffing of cheese or pate into stems for the Medieval Gourmet, they wanted all the flavor with out any of the work of actually chewing and chewing and chewing!

Once the ingredients are set out, mix together.  There is no need to apply heat…just mix and eat!

cheese with crackers

I would suggest a good flat bread and a nice bit of red wine to go with, as this dish is very VERY garlicky.  Ok, so I cheated a little and used triscuts.  They were on hand to help convey the cheesy spread from bowl to mouth!

Glires

December 18, 2009 in Glires (Stuffed Dormice), Roman Cookery, Roman Meats | No comments

Glires

Stuffed Dormice

It’s that time again, when the craving for tasty tasty piggy comes about.  So we return to our old hunting ground of recipes by the Romans for insperation.   This tasty tidbit came about by accident.  I was looking to do a very period recipe called Glires ( Stuffed Dormice).  The original Dormice are cute fluffy tailed small rodents that fit into the palm of a hand.  Dormice were raised by the Romans on large farms (called Glirarii) in great quantity, like chicken and rabbits, with the fattest of dormice being in the most demand.  They were such a popular dish that the consul Marcu Aemilius Scaurus issued a sumptuary law that attempted to prohibit the consumption of dormice, but the law was ineffective due to the popularity of these tasty morsals. (Herklotz, pg 75)  When I tried to get actual Dormice for this recipe there was a monkey pox going on (No, I didn’t make this part up!) and had to substitute some thing else.   At the original making of the recipe, I had a pork loin on hand and decided to use 1″ cuts to act as the “Dormice” body while keeping to the pork filling.   Here is my take on an old time favorite by the Romans with tasty tasty piggy.

Translation:

1). Doormice: Stuff dormice with a pork filling and with the meat of whole dormice ground with pepper, pine nuts, silphium, and garum.  Sew up, place on a baking tile, and put them in the oven; or cook the stuffed (dormice) in a pan. (Herkotz, pg. 75)

*Silphium: the Greek name for laser; a plant of the genus Ferula, now extinct.  Garlic juice is used as a substitute. (or crushed garlic)

2). Stuff the dormice with minced pork, the minced meat of the whole dormice, pounded with pepper, pin-kernels, asafetida, and liquamen,.  Sew up, and place on a tile, put in the oven or cook, stuffed, in a small oven. (Flower, pg. 205)

Ingredients:

3 – 1 1/2” pork rounds                    1/2 cup ground pork  (plain pork meat)

¼ cup pine-nuts                               1 tsp pepper

1 tsp fish sauce                                1 tsp crushed garlic

1 tsp thyme (optional)

My Redaction:

Romans’ were notorious for substituting so I have no qualms when substituting pork in the place of rodent.  I really did try for the original meat but was thwarted by a plague…ok a monkey pox.

The actual pork meat is 1 1/2″ thick cuts of pork loin though a thick cut pork chop would work as well.

spices

The pork filling is actually a pork chop ground fine in a little Cuisinart I have on hand.   Modern sausage could be used, though I’ve found the spices to be overbearing to the more subtle tastes of the nuts, pepper and garlic.

pork filling with spices

Here is the ground pork chop used for the stuffing with the spices, fish sauce and pine nuts.  Mix together.

I tried to stick to the period recipe as close as possible with the exception of adding a tsp of thyme.  The thyme is optional.  Period Roman sausage or sausage stuffing included a plethora of ingredients: “Lucanian sausages:…Pepper is ground with cumin, savory, rue, parsley, condiments, bay berries and garum.  Finely ground meat is mixed in, then ground again together with other ground ingredients…” (Herklotz, pp. 182)   The addition of thyme is acceptable as would be a host of other items though I would suggest moderation so as to not overpower the over all taste.  Experiment, but experiment with a light hand!

mixture

This is the mixture with everything incorporated into the finely ground pork.

The next step is to take the pork loin rounds and slice into the sides; roughly 2 1/2 – 3 inches wide.   Cutting into the pork loin along the sides and end with out cutting through to form a pocket on the inside of the meat.  (The picture is a little blurry…hard to handle the meat and take a picture at the same time).

sliced pork

Take the pork filling (about 1/3 of the mixture) and stuff into the opening of the pork loin, which will bulge out the side a little bit like an over stuffed wallet.

stuffed pork in dishI place the stuffed loins on their bottoms instead of laying them on the side.  I did not want any of the stuffing falling out but did want all the taste and juices to stay in the pork loin pockets.  I place at the bottom of the baking dish (no cooking tile was on hand to bake these on) a little mead I had on hand.

These bad boy stuffed piggy posing as Dormice are now ready to be placed into the oven for 30 minutes (or until thoroughly cooked) at 350.

cooked pork

I like the little extra sweetness when eating pork.  So did the Romans as the suggested sauce for Dormice is honey with poppy seeds drizzled over the tidbits, which is suggested by Pliny in Herkotz.

Patina De Piris (Pear Pudding)

November 15, 2009 in Patina De Piris (Pear Pudding), Roman Sweets | No comments

Patina de Piris

Pear Pudding

The original recipe is a bit sparse on direction.   This is one of those recipes where you really need to know what to do in the kitchen…but once you know what you are doing…the sky is the limit on how to blend these ingredients together for a most wonderful tasty treat!

Translation:

A pear patina: grind boiled and cored pears with pepper, cumin, honey, passum, garum, and a bit of oil.

Flower, pg. 109./Herklotz, pg. 172-173

*Passum: a sweet raison wine.  (If Passum is not available either to buy or made, use a sweet mead or rose hip wine.  The main feature to remember is that you want a sweet dessert wine to compliment the pear taste.)

Ingredients:

5 pears   (Peeled and poached)             1/3 – 1/2 cup of  honey

1 tsp  ea of ground pepper, cumin and fish sauce

1 C.  sweet wine          2 eggs            1  C.  cream

1tsp olive oil

My Redaction:

When I first read this recipe, translated the boiled pears as to be poached.  Roman’s loved their cooking far to much to just “boil” in water if wine was to be had on hand.   So with that in mind, I took 5 Bartlet pears (very firm) peeled, cored then poached in mead.   Poached pears

Now these pears were allowed to steep for about 5 hours in the mead for yummy maximum goodness (and I was crazy busy after I had finished poaching them.  So I turned of the stove and let them steep…a loooong time.)

After the pears were removed from their decedent mead bath (this is a Roman dish…and what is Rome with out a decedent bath some where?!),  I mashed the pears into a rough consistency and added the spices, honey and wine.

Now you may be going at this point…Fish Sauce!!! in a dessert!!! Ewwww.  Now now…don’t judge.  Try this once WITH the sauce.  It really makes the dish.  Like all dishes that have fish sauce, a little will do wonders…don’t go overboard or yes the dish will taste of fish.  As the saying goes, “A dab will do you!”.

precooked mixture

Now this is the mashed pears with all of the spices, honey and wine.   The pudding consistency will depend on how much or how little wine is used and eggs are added.  I like my pear pudding a bit on the wet side.  When I reach for a ladle of this sweetness, I have extra juice.    Just the perfect amount to add short bread cookies to, for sopping up the excess.   If you prefer a dryer pudding (one that is firm and not dripping with extra wine sweet spiciness, cut the wine by half and add an extra egg.

Once a consistency is decided upon, pour the pudding into your pottery dish (or pudding dish) and cook till golden on top.

cooked mixture

I had a little extra browning on the edges here while waiting for the center to firm up a bit.  Keep an eye on the pudding through out the cooking so that over cooking (or even burning) does not occur.

Now I eat this with candle light and a spoon in a hot tub.  Pfft…ok I would if I had the hot tub and the time to light the candles!  This dish is a sweet rich  confection that is just amazing.   I might suggest serving shortbread cookies on the side as a way to cut the rich sweetness of this, but then again everything goes with shortbread cookies and pear pudding.

Minutal Ex Praecoquis (Pork and Apricot Fricasee)

November 13, 2009 in Minutal Ex Praecoquis (Pork and Apricot Fricasee), Roman Meats | No comments

Minutal Ex Praecoquis

Pork and Apricot Fricasee

When I first started to do redactions, I adored doing Roman foods.    Now don’t get me wrong, the Romans did many things very well, cooking being one of them.  It is not my first cooking love but a wonderful stand by for those days when I need that little indulgence that Medieval ME just can’t and wont give me.  And by that…I mean, pork!!!  Yummy tasty piggy!  Err…I’ll get to the recipe now.

Translation:

1st translation:  In a pot, put oil, garum, and wine; chopped dried Ascalionian onion, and dice cooked pork shoulder.  When all these things are cooked, grind pepper, cumin, dried mint, and dill; moisten with honey, garum, passum, a bit of vinegar, and the cooking juice; mix.  Add pitted apricots, bring to a boil, and ehat until cooked.  Theicken with crumbled tracta, sprinklw with pepper, and serve.

2nd translation:  Put in the saucepan oil, liquamen, wine, chop in dry shallot, add diced shoulder of pork cooked previously.  When all this is cooked pound pepper, cumin, dried mint, and dill, moisten with honey, liquamen, passum, a little vinegar, and some cooking-liquor; mix well.  Add the stoned apricots.  Bring to the boil, and let it boil until done.  Crumble pastry to bind sprinkle with pepper and serve.

(Apicius 170/Flower, pg. 115/Herkotz, pg. 67)

Ingredients:

2 Tbs olive oil               2 tsp garum  (fish sauce)

½ cup wine

3 shallots/1 onion or 4 Tbs dried onion

1 lb cubed pork                   ½ tsp pepper

1 tsp cumin                          1 tsp dried mint

1 tsp dill                                 2 Tbs honey                 2 Tbs vinegar


My redaction:

The original recipe called for pork shoulders.  Now a quick note on Roman cooking.  Roman cooks liked to substitute, like mad.  Must have been the lead in the waterways.  Actually it was probably the fact that if item a was not on hand then item b would have to do, so new and improved recipes were always being formed, written, eaten and extolled about.  So here I am, with out pork shoulder but I do have some excellent boneless pork ribs.  What is a cook to do!  Well I cut those riblets up into bite sized chunks and boiled them to cook into tenderized tasty morsels!

pork

In a pan I poured in a bit of fish sauce (substituting for the original liquamen), wine (I had a 7 year old bottle of home made mead on hand…though I have used home made rose hip wine as well), chopped onion, and the cooked pork.

spices wine apricots

I let the meat, onions and liquids simmer for a few minutes (roughly 5-10) then I added the spices with honey and a touch of vinegar.  The vinegar is helpful in cutting the fish sauce’s salty fishy taste to a mellow slightly salty unique flavor.  Trust me on this one.  The fish sauce is a necessity and as long as it’s not over done in the dish the vinegar with a touch of honey mellows out the strong flavor to an excellence hard to find in today’s regular pork dishes!  I also added another 1/2 of mead with the chopped apricots.  I like the taste of mead and apricots with pork.

pork in bowl

Now here is where I and the translation part ways.  I did not want to add crumbled bread crumbs or pastry as I like the pork and apricot stew as a dry soup and not a breaded meat dish.   The original translation can be done with bread or with out.  I choose to go with out and I liked it!

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