Roman Archaeology Group

Roman Food

Food and Diet in the Roman World

Saturday 23 August 2008

Archaeology of Roman Food

Lecture

Dr Smadar Gabrielli

Preperation of Roman Food

Marg Dorey

Recipes


VITELLIAN PEAS OR BEANS (Apicius 5.3.5 p. 213)

500g shelled broad beans* boiled for 4-5 minutes and the tough outer skins removed

Ground black pepper to taste

1 tbsp chopped lovage (or celery leaves)

2 cm knob of fresh ginger peeled and chopped fine

3 hard boiled egg yolks

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp liquamen

2/3 cup wine

1/3 cup vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

Process the broad beans in a food processor. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the pepper, lovage and ginger to a paste. Add the egg yolks and honey and mix in thoroughly. Put the liquamen, wine and vinegar into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the spice and egg mix to the beans and process. Flush the mortar with the wine mixture and add to the bean mix – adding slowly to ensure the correct consistency. Taste and adjust flavourings.

*Frozen broad beans work well with this recipe


MINUTAL OF APRICOTS (Apicius 4.3.6 p. 197)

To cook the Pork Shoulder:

Shoulder of pork cooked and diced (~ 1 kg)

3 tbsp Olive Oil

2 tbsp Fish sauce

1 cup wine

1 bunch spring onions trimmed and chopped


The sauce:

2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp Cumin

1 tbsp Dried Mint

2 tbsp Dill chopped fine

1 tbsp Honey

2 tbsp Fish sauce

½ cup Raisin wine

¼ cup wine vinegar

20 dried Apricots soaked for ½ an hour in hot water then drained*

Corn flour to thicken mixed with a spoonful of the cooking liquor before being added to the pan.**


Place oil, wine and fish sauce and spring onions with the pork shoulder in a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer until the meat is cooked, remove from heat and leave to cool in liquid. When it has cooled, remove the meat from the pan and dice. Retain the liquor.


Pound the pepper, cumin, dried mint and dill. Add honey, fish sauce, wine and vinegar with some of the cooking liquor. Heat in a large saucepan and add the Apricots. Taste and correct the seasonings to balance the flavours. Add the diced pork and simmer for 30 minutes. Then thicken the mixture with either tracta (see below) or corn flour. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.


*If using dried apricots rather than fresh ones the sauce may need a little more vinegar for balance the flavours and the thickener may not be necessary.

**Traditionally tracta would have been used instead of corn flour as a thickener. To make it mix fine semolina with water (2:1), roll into small balls and dry them by indirect heat. To use, crumble a few into the stew juices and allow to thicken.


PEAR PATINA (Apicius 4.2.35 p. 193)
1.5 kilos of pears, such as Beure Bosc or Bartletts, peeled, cored and chopped into large pieces
2 ½ cups of wine
4 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons cumin
1-2 tablespoons fish sauce
1-2 tablespoons oil
8 eggs.

Place pears in saucepan with wine and honey and bring to boil and simmer until cooked. Process until smooth. Add cumin, fish sauce, oil and eggs and mix together. Pour into a greased lasagna dish. Bake at 190C until set.

Serve warm with a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper.



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DATES (Apicius 7.11.1 p. 251)

dates – fresh or dried

pine nuts chopped

pepper

honey


Pit the dates, stuff them with pine nuts and pepper, roll in salt and fry in honey.


BEETROOT AND LEEK RELISH (Apicius 3.2 p. 159)
10 large beetroots peeled
1 large leek, sliced and rinsed to remove sand
2 cups sweet wine, like muscat, reduced down to 1 cup
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp cumin
Pepper to taste

Chop beetroot into even sized chunks, bring to boil and cook until soft. Add the leek to the cooked beetroot and simmer until leek is cooked.
Puree the beetroot with some of the reduced wine to make a soft consistency. Add fish sauce, cumin and pepper and blend together until thoroughly mixed.


PEAR PATINA (Apicius 4.2.35 p. 193)

1.5 kilos of pears, such as Beure Bosc or Bartletts, peeled, cored and chopped into large pieces

2 ½ cups of wine

4 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons cumin

1-2 tablespoons fish sauce

1-2 tablespoons oil

8 eggs.


Place pears in saucepan with wine and honey and bring to boil and simmer until cooked. Process until smooth. Add cumin, fish sauce, oil and eggs and mix together. Pour into a greased lasagna dish. Bake at 190C until set.


Serve warm with a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper.


MUSHROOMS WITH CORIANDER (Apicius 2.13.4 p. 255)
1 kg button mushrooms, stalks trimmed and wiped to remove dirt
3 cups of sweet wine reduced to 1 cup
1 bunch coriander.

Add mushrooms to reduced wine with coriander and bring to the boil. When boiled remove coriander and serve the mushrooms with the liquid.


MEATBALLS (Apicius 2.1.7 p. 149)
1 kg pork or chicken
2-3 cups white bread moistened in wine
Pepper to taste
1 tbsp Fish sauce (liquamen)
A few juniper berries crushed (optional)*
1 cup Pine nuts (other nuts such as blanched almonds or hazelnuts crushed into pieces could be substituted)
Coarsely cracked black pepper corns
Caul fat to wrap the meatballs in for cooking**
1 cup of sweet wine reduction***

Remove the crusts from the bread and soak in wine. In a food processor pound up the meat with the bread, pepper and fish sauce. If you are using the juniper berries they can also be added at this point. Shape meatballs around some of the nuts with some coarsely cracked pepper. The nut mixture should be completely encased in the meat. Wrap them in caul fat and saute in the reduced wine.

Notes:
* The original recipe calls for myrtle berries which are difficult to source but juniper has a similar taste so can act as a substitute.
** Caul fat is the fatty layer surrounding the intestines of cows, sheep and pigs. It is used in butchery, sausage making and cooking. It is a lacy translucent layer, most often sold for making sausages, pâtés, terrines, etc. so that they hold their shape when cooked. It is also used to wrap roasts for cooking, since it keeps them moist without adding as much fat as larding. Before using, it's recommended that caul fat be soaked for a few minutes in lukewarm water to soften it.
*** The wine should have been reduced down by one third.

SCALLOP FORCEMEAT BALLS (Apicius 2.1.3 p. 147)
1 kg scallops
2 tbsp fish sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
Stock for poaching

Place scallops, fish sauce and pepper in a food processor and process until it is completely combined.

Bring stock to the boil. Using two dessert spoons to form the balls – or patties – drop scallop mix into the water about 10 at a time and poach for a couple of minutes. Remove from stock and serve. Do small batches at a time to keep it manageable.

Prawns also work well in this recipe and are the original ingredient of the recipe

The translated text referred to in these recipes is: Christopher Grocock and Sally Grainger, Apicius: A Critical Edition with an Introduction and English Translation, Prospect Books, 2006