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| Phil's Roman recipe page | |
The Time Team Roman menu
Aurello Spagnolo
Cena (Menu)
Gustum IDactilos Domesticos
Dates stuffed with pine-nuts, almonds, walnuts and pepper, rolled in prosciutto ham and fried with honey and pepper sauce
Gustum II
Hypotrimma
Grilled endives with ricotta, dates, pine-nuts, raisins, mint, honey, pepper and defrutum sauce
Gustum III
Carduos et ovis
Fresh artichokes stuffed with egg, basil, bread, garlic and wine with fresh mint, coriander, fennel, honey and pepper sauce
Gustum IV
Ofellas Apicianas
Snails, chicken meatballs, sausage, onion, celery, turnips, plums, ginger, wine and egg pudding with passum, celery seed, vinegar, garum and raisin sauce
Gustum V
Epytrium
Fresh ricotta dressed with spring onions, fresh mint, cumin, fennel, green and black olives and olive oil, served with broad beans, endives and fennel salad
Mensa Prima 1
Sardam farsilem sic facere oportet
Sardines stuffed with almonds, walnuts, honey, garum, cumin and mint, then grilled wrapped in vine leaves with a sauce of passum, caraway seeds, rosemary and mint
Mensa Prima II
Minutal Matianum
This is a recipe of Caio Mazio, a good friend of Julius Caesar. Pork meatballs and pork pieces cooked with apples, coriander, mint, vinegar, garum and passum
Mensa Prima III
Curcurbitas cum Gallina
Chicken baked with roast pumpkin and peaches served with a sauce of black truffles, coriander, fresh mint, dates, honey, garum and vinegar
Mensa Secunda
Apotermum sic Facies
Semolina, raisin, pine-nuts, almonds, passum and honey pudding
The following text and recipes are taken from Jane Renfrew's Food and Cooking in Roman Britain: History and Recipes (English Heritage, 1985) paperback £2.95. Channel 4 would like to thank English Heritage for their kind permission in allowing us to reproduce these.
In reconstructing the diet of Roman Britain we have several sources of evidence to draw on. There is the physical evidence of the bones and seeds recovered during excavations. There is the literary evidence which comes in two forms: the letters preserved at Vindolanda, written by soldiers serving on Hadrian's Wall to their families, where they list their foods as, in once case, 'spice, goats' milk, salt, young pig, ham, corn, venison and flour'; in another letter, vintage wine, Celtic beer, ordinary wine, fish sauce and pork fat are mentioned. The other literary evidence is of a more general kind: the cookery book of Apicius, the agricultural treatises of Cato, Varro, Columella and Palladius, Pliny's great work on natural history and the descriptions of notable feasts, such as Trimalchio's feast as described by Petronius. Finally, there are illustrations of foods and dining scenes both in wall paintings and on mosaics, and hunting and vintage scenes depicted on pottery ...
The Romans had a profound influence on the development of civilisation, and although not all the new ways were adopted by the indigenous populations, a great many of their sophisticated systems of doing things continued to be copied for centuries. In the case of cooking and cuisine ... they introduced many items into the diet which are still common today, together with methods of cooking which we are very familiar. If one asks what are the main differences between Roman cooking and that of today the answer must be that they had an extraordinary fondness for using [liquamen], a sauce made from the fermented entrails of fish, which was used equally often in sweet as in savoury dishes, often combined with liberal amounts of pepper. They also used large amounts of honey in their cooking, and were fond of using a wide range of herbs to flavour their dishes. In their more elaborate feasts, great store was set by making dishes look as if they were made from other ingredients - playing a sort of identification game with guests.
Recipes
In the following recipes, anchovy essence is used instead of Roman liquamen.Milk-fed snails
6 edible snails per person2 pints (1.1 litres) milk
salt
1 tsp (5ml) anchovy essence
1 tbsp (15ml) wine
Clean the snails with a sponge and remove the membranes so that they can come out of their shells. Put in a vessel with half the milk and salt for 1 day, then in a fresh vessel with the remaining milk for 1 more day, cleaning away the excrement every hour. When the snails are fattened to the point that they cannot return to their shells, fry them in oil. Serve with a dressing of anchovy essence and wine.
Boiled partridge
1 partridgePinch of each of the following: pepper, lovage, celery seeds, mint, myrtle berries or raisins
1 tbsp (15ml) wine
1 tbsp (15ml) vinegar
1 tbsp (1ml) olive oil
1 tsp (5ml) anchovy essence
1 tbsp (15ml) honey
Place the partridge with its feathers on in a large saucepan. Cover with cold water and simmer gently for about 45 minutes over a low heat. Pluck the bird when cooked but still wet. A freshly killed partridge may be plucked first and then braised in the sauce so that it does not get tough. To make the sauce, pound together the pepper, lovage, celery seeds, mint, myrtle berries or raisins in a mortar, and then mix them with the wine, vinegar, olive oil, anchovy essence and honey. This makes a pleasant cold dressing to serve with the cooked partridge.
Hot lamb stew
1 1/2-2lb (700-900g) lean loin, neck or breast of lamb, cubed1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tsp (5ml) coriander seeds
Pinch of each of the following: pepper, lovage, cumin
1 tsp (5ml) anchovy essence
1 tbsp (15ml) olive oil
1 tbsp (15ml) wine
1 tbsp (15ml) cornflour
Put the pieces of meat into a saucepan and toss in hot oil to seal. Pound the onion, coriander seeds, pepper, lovage and cumin in a mortar. Mix with the anchovy essence, olive oil and wine. Pour this mixture over the meat in the pan and simmer gently for about 2 hours, until tender. Mix the cornflour with a little water and add to the stew to thicken the sauce. Stir until boiling. Serve hot.
Sauce for soft-boiled eggs
4 oz (100g) shelled pine kernelsPinch of pepper
Pinch of lovage
1 tbsp (15ml) honey
1 tbsp (15ml) vinegar
Soak the pine kernels and let them dry. Pound the pepper, lovage and pine kernels in a mortar until smooth. Mix with honey and vinegar, and pour this sauce over freshly boiled eggs which have been removed from their shells.
Julian pottage
8oz (225g) whole wheat grains, soaked overnight1 tbsp (15ml) olive oil
2 cooked brains
8 oz (225g) minced meat
Pinch of each of the following: pepper, lovage, fennel seeds
1 tsp (5ml) anchovy essence
1 tbsp (15ml) wine
2 pints (1.1 litres) stock
Drain the wheat grains and bring them to the boil in a pain of water. Simmer until soft, add the olive oil and continue to cook until thickened to a creamy consistency. Pound the brains and minced meat in a mortar, then put in a saucepan. Pound the pepper, lovage and fennel seeds, and moisten with anchovy essence and wine. Add this to the meat in the pan. Bring gently to the boil and add the stock. Add this mixture gradually to the wheat, mixing it in by the ladleful, and stir until smooth, to the consistency of thick soup.
Sweet wine cakes
1 lb (450g) self-raising flour1 tbsp (15ml) sweet white wine
Pinch of aniseed
Pinch of cumin
2oz (50g) lard
1oz (25g) cheese, grated
1 egg, beaten
12 bay leaves
Moisten the flour with the wine and add the aniseed and cumin. Rub in the lard and grated cheese and bind the mixture with egg. Shape into 12 small cakes and place each one on a bay leaf. Bake in the oven at gas mark 6/400°F/200°C for about 25-30 minutes.
