Recipe - Ancient Roman Ingredients

None; help file

From: hz225wu@unidui.uniduisburg.de (Micaela Pantke) (COLLECTION)

Date: Thu, 22 Jul 93 11:12:07 +0200
The following recipes are taken from an old Roman cookbook MARCUS GAVIUS
APICIUS: DE RE COQUINARIA. The book I have is edited and translated from
Latin by Robert Maier. My humble person only translated the German
translations into English. I hope the recipes are still rather near to the
originals. First I have to introduce you to some native Roman ingredients,
such as:

~ Caroenum: Boiled must (you have to boil the new wine or grape juice
until it is only half the amount you started with).

~ Defritum: Either thick fig syrup, or must that's boiled until you have
only a third of the amount with which you started.

~ Liebstoeckl: I didn't find an English translation. In Latin it's called
'levisticum officinale'. It's an umbelliferous plant with yellowish
flowers. Its dried roots are used as spice. It seems to be a kind of
celery.

~ Liquamen: a salty fish sauce. Most of the time you can replace it by
salt.

~ Passum: Very sweet wine sauce, made by boiling the must (new wine or
grape juice) to thicken it. (maybe add honey? just my guess)

~ Poleiminze: A kind of mint that's growing in inundated areas. Just
replace it by ordinary mint.

~ Saturei: I didn't find an English translation. In Latin it's called
'satureia hortensis'. It's a violet or white flowered kind of labiate
plants which grows mainly in Southern Europe. It's used as a spice plant,
especially for bean dishes.

~ Silphium: Its other names are 'Laser' or 'ferula asa foetida'. I've
noticed that it's also called 'hing' in the Indian cuisine. It is an onion
and garlic substitute and should be used rather sparingly because of its
very strong taste and smell.