Summer Arts and Sciences Fair Roman Cena

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Roman Cena
Summer Arts and Sciences Fair Feast Menu and Recipes

Domina Clotilda Suessionensis Dominus Honorabilis Leonidas Mantinia

Head Cooks

contents copyright 2001 Darice L. Moore

Bibliography
We are fortunate to have a large collection of Roman recipes from such sources as Apicius, Columella and other writers who referenced food and feasting. Thanks to these writers (and their modern translators), we can recreate a wide variety of Roman foods.

A Note on Spices, Sauces and Flavors

Roman cookery is based around a unique palette of tastes and flavors. Spices and sauces were part of every recipe; very seldom was a food served without some sort of additional flavoring. And to modern tastes, the combinations the Romans used are sometimes quite familiar and sometimes very different. The Roman Empire encompassed a huge portion of Europe and Asia, and Roman cooking reflected this. In addition to local flavoring agents, such as honey, olive oil, marjoram, oregano, coriander and pine nuts, the Romans imported spices such as pepper, laser and saffron. In fact, the Romans imported so much laser that the plant was extinct before the empire fell; the Romans used asafoetida as a replacement. The most common flavoring ingredient in Roman cookery is garum, or liquamen. Both terms refer to a sauce made from fermented fish. Today, researchers differ on modern equivalents, but the two most often cited are Worcestershire sauce and Nuoc Mam (Thai fish sauce), both of which have anchovies as a main ingredient. We are using Nuoc Mam in those recipes that call for garumspecifically, Herb Rustic (salad) and Pullus Tractogalatus (chicken and dumplings). Modern cooks will notice the absence of dairy products. In a hot country with no dependable refrigeration, milk and butter were used sparingly, although cheeses were available. Tonights feast strives to showcase Roman tastes while still remaining accessible (and palatable!) to the modern diner. This booklet provides the recipes we used for the feast as well as information on Roman eating habits. Where we have differed from the source, we have cited that here.; however, our aim has been to stay as close as possible to the original recipes.

To the Roman Taste:

Anthimus. On the Observance of Foods (De obseruatione ciborum), trans. Mark Grant. Prospect Books, Devon, 1996. Apicius. Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome, trans. J.D. Vehling. Dover Publications, Inc., New York. 1977.* Cowell, F. R. Life in Ancient Rome. Perigee Books (G. P. Putnams Sons), New York. 1961. Giacosa, Ilaria Gozzini. A Taste of Ancient Rome, trans. A. Herklotz. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London. 1992. Grant, Mark. Roman Cookery: Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens. Serif, London. 1999.
*Vehlings translation is not the best; it is, unfortunately, the only one we had access to. We supported our reading of Vehlings translation with our own (painful) translations from the original Latin, which we took from this site: http://users.ipa.net/~tanker/apicius.htm.

All art on these pages is taken from:

Art Credits

Leighton, John. 1,100 Designs and Motifs from Historic Sources. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1995. Grafton, Carol Belanger. Treasury of Book Ornament and Decoration. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1986.

A Roman Cena

Latin You Can Use

For your amusement, each page of this issue includes a Latin motto, courtesy of How to Insult, Abuse & Insinuate in Classical Latin (Lovric & Mardas) and Latin Stuff & Nonsense (Lovric & Chambers). Here are the definitions: 1 2 3 4 5 6 I intend to spend my final days in a bar. If you leave me now, you take away the biggest part of me. If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me? What shall we do with a drunken sailor? Does this make my butt look big? When will you stop using that obsolete, ancient language? (Plautus, Miles Gloriosus) 7 My book is filthy, but my life is pure. (Martial, Epigrams) 8 Ive got the brains, youve got the lookslets make lots of money!

Tonights feast was designed to follow the Roman method of serving mealsa pattern that we still follow today. A light appetizer course (gustum) is followed by a series of entrees (prima mensa) and rounded out by dessert (secunda mensa).

Gustum
Appetizer

Panis (bread) Olive Oil and Spices Olives

First Tables, or Entres

Prima Mensa

Herb Rustic (Salad of field greens with vinaigrette) Assaturam Simplicem (Roast Beef with Honey) Lenticula (Lentils) Lumbuli assi ita fiunt (Spiced Rolled Roast Pork Loin) Pullus Tractogalactus (Roman Chicken and Dumplings) Pastinac (Fried Carrots)

Second Tables, or Dessert

Secunda Mensa

Savillum (Honeyed Cheesecake) Fresh fruits

Acumen mihi, venustas tibiquaestum appetamus!

Meum est propositum in taberna mori.

a salad of field greens with vinaigrette

Field and forest herbs are prepared with garum, oil and vinegar or as a cooked dish by adding pepper, cumin and mastich berries. Apicius, De Re Coquinaria A variety of lettuces Field greens 1/2 cup Oil 1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar 1/4 cup Garum (Nuoc Mam) 1/2 tsp. Cumin 1/4 tsp. Pepper

Herb Rustic

honeyed cheesecake
Make a savillum thus: Mix 1/2 libra of flour and 2 1/2 librae of cheese, as is done for libum. Add 1/4 libra of honey and 1 egg. Grease an earthenware bowl with oil. When you have mixed the ingredients well, pour into the bowl and cover the bowl with an earthenware testo. See that you cook it well in the middle, where it is highest. When it is cooked, remove the bowl, spread with honey, sprinkle with poppy, put it back beneath the testo for a moment, and then remove. Serve it thus with a plate and a spoon. Cato 84

Savillum

Wash and tear up lettuce and field greens, and toss in a large bowl. Mix the remaining ingredients in a cruet and shake. Pour over the salad and toss.

Redaction Notes
Although the original recipe uses spices only in the cooked version of the salad, we have prepared a vinaigrette using those ingredients. If you have a seafood allergy, please let your server know; we will offer you a dressing without garum.

1 2/3 lb. ricotta or other soft cheese 1 cup flour 1/2 cup honey 1 egg 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds 1/4 cup honey Blend the cheese with the flour, 1/2 cup of honey and egg. Grease a baking pan with oil, pour in the mixture and bake in a hot oven (400 F) for 20 to 30 minutes. Fir the first 15 minutes, cover the cake with aluminum foil so it will not burn. Remove from the oven. Drizzle 1/4 cup honey over the surface and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Replace in the oven for 5 minutes, then remove and serve. (This can be served cold.)

Assaturam Simplicem
roast beef with honey
Simply put the meats to be roasted in the oven, generously sprinkled with salt, and serve with honey. Apicius, De Re Coquinaria Pot roast of beef Kosher salt Honey Rub the meat with salt all over ,and seal it in tin foil or place in a covered casserole. Cook slowly, over low heat, until roast is cooked through and tender (approximately one hour per pound at 300 F). When the roast is done, pour honey over it before serving.

Redaction Notes
This redaction is based on one in Giacosas A Taste of Ancient Rome, and is an excellent example of how the Romanswho used sugar only for medicinal purposesdepended on honey as a sweetener. We have increased the amount of honey and are planning to serve the dish colda nod to the Trimarian weather as well as to ease in preparation for a feast.
Lasciva est nobis, paginas vita proba... 7

Redaction Notes
The head cooks would like to thank Sir Artorius for this redaction. 2 Si me deseris, adimis maximam partem mei.

Pastinic
fried carrots
Parsnips and carrots are good when boiled well and mixed in other dishes. They are also diuretic. If they are eaten friend, parboil them first in water. Anthimus, De Obseruatione Ciborum

Lenticula
lentils
Lentils are good when washed and carefully boiled in fresh water. Make sure that the first lot of water is poured away, and a second lot of hot water added as required, but not too much, and then boil the lentils slowly on the hearth. When they are cooked, add for flavor a little vinegar, together with the addition of that spice which is called in Syrian sumach. Sprinkle a spoonful of this spice over the lentils while they are still on the fire and stir in well... You can for flavoring add a good spoonful of oil from unripe olives to the second lot of water while the lentils are still cooking, as well as one or two spoonfuls of coriander... and a pinch of salt for seasoning. Anthimus, De Osbseruatione Ciborum 200g/6 oz. lentils 1 T red wine vinegar 2 t sumach (or juice of lemon) 1 T olive oil 2 t ground coriander seeds Handful of fresh cilantro (coriander leaves) Sea salt

Carrots 1 Tbsp. olive oil Sea salt Pare and slice the carrots, then boil them in water. When they are cooked but not too soft, drain them. Heat olive oil in a skillet; toss the carrots in and fry them, then sprinkle with sea salt just before serving.

Redaction Notes
The original recipe does not include salt; we felt it added to the taste of the carrots. In Roman recipes, carrots were often grouped with parsnips. The Roman carrot was paler and tougher than our modern carrot. For familiarity, we have used modern carrots.

Boil the lentils in 1 pint of water for about 30 minutes or until tender. Then drain off the water, add the vinegar and sumach (or lemon juice), olive oil, a half-cup more water and the coriander seeds. Season with salt and simmer gently with the lid on for 20 minutes. Just before serving, chop the cilantro finely and sprinkle over the lentils.

Redaction Notes
This redaction was taken from Mark Grants book Roman Cookery, in which he suggests the substitution of lemon juice for sumach. We have tried this with sumach, and the taste is somewhat similar with lemon; we liked it both ways. Anthimus was a sixth-century Greek physician whose letter on the observance of foods, written to the Frankish king Theuderic, combines Roman cooking traditions with those of the Franks. (This recipe is more Roman in character).

Quin tu istanc orationem hinc veterem atque antiquam amoves?

Si dicam corpus formosum tibi esse, tu id habeas adversus me?

Lumbuli Assi Ita Fiunt

spiced rolled pork loin
Roast pork loins made thus: Slice a pork loin in two parts so that you can spread it out unfolded, and sprinkle it with rubbed pepper, nuts and coriander chopped into small bits, and rubbed fennel seeds. Next, roll up the loin and wrap it in intestines and thus before harden in oil and liquamen, after that roast in a clibano or craticula. Apicius, De Re Coquinaria 2 lbs. boneless pork loin 4 Tbsp. pine nuts 1 1/2 tsp. pepper 2 tsp. fennel seed, crushed 2 Tbsp. cilantro Olive oil Dash of garum (fish sauce)

Pullus Tractogalatus
chicken and dumplings
Cook the chicken in garum, oil, with wine added, to which add a bunch of coriander and green onions. when done take it out of the broth, and put it in a new saucepan. Add milk and a little salt, honey and a pint of water, that is, a third part; place it back on a slow fire to simmer. Finally break the paste, put it little by little into the broth, stirring well so it will not burn. Put the chicken in, either whole or in pieces, dish it out in a deep dish. This cover with the following sauce: pepper, lovage, marjoram, moistened with honey and a little reduced must. Add some of the broth, eat in a small sauce pan and when it boils thicken with roux and serve. Apicius, De Re Coquinaria 1 whole chicken, cut up 1/4 cup garum (fish sauce) 1/2 cup olive oil 1 cup white wine 1 handful fresh cilantro 1 bunch green onions 1 cup milk Dash sea salt cup honey Paste: flour, water and olive oil Sauce: pepper, marjoram, honey and red grape juice, reduced and mixed with broth

Preheat the oven to 350. Split the pork loin lengthwise almost all the way through, leaving enough to hold the pieces together. Open it like a book and flatten it out. Put the peppercorns and fennel seed into a mortar and crush them; then add the pine nuts and cilantro and crush them all together. Spread this mixture evenly across the open pork tenderloin. Roll up the tenderloin and tie it with kitchen twine. Heat the oil and garum (or substitute) in a frying pan. When it is hot, put the pork tenderloin roll in and brown it on all sides, then remove to a roasting dish. Put in the preheated oven to roast for an hour to an hour and a half. Serve by slicing it across the grain, so it looks like pinwheels. Can be served cold.

Put the chicken in a pot of water to which the garum, olive oil and wine are added; add a good handful of cilantro and a bunch of green onions, tied together. Boil until done, then remove the chicken from the broth and debone. Strain and reserve the broth. Make paste (dumplings) by mixing flour, water and a bit of olive oil into a firm dough. Roll out the dough and cut into strips. Bring the strained broth to a boil and drop the dumplings in (reserve a cup of broth for the sauce, below). When the dumplings are done, return the deboned chicken to the pot. Mix well, and serve by pouring the sauce into the chicken and dumplings. Sauce: In a saucepan, mix a cup of the broth with a cup of red grape juice and a half-cup of honey, adding pepper and marjoram to taste. Bring to a simmer over low heat and reduce.

Redaction Notes
This redaction leaves out the intestines, which served as a sausage casing to hold the rolled roast together. Instead, we have tied the roasts with twine. If you have a seafood allergy, please let your server know; we will be preparing a version of this recipe without garum.

Redaction Notes
This redaction differs from Apicius in that the chicken is initially boiled, rather than sauteed. This was done for ease in pre-cooking, and also to make more broth.

Ebrio quid faciamus nauta?

Lata videtur puga in hac?