A taste of Ancient Rome – A Saturnalia feast

As mentioned in a previous post (see here), I organised a small banquet at home on the occasion of the Saturnalia festival. I love ancient Roman food, and I tried a few more ancient recipes for this banquet. Once again, everything was delicious!

For the appetiser (gustatio), I chose to bake Mustacei must (grape juice) cakes from Cato The Elder’s De Agricultura. The recipe I used is taken from Mark Grant’s Roman Cookery and Sally Grainger’s The Classical Cookbook with some slight modifications. The recipe is slightly adapted using modern ingredients like yeast, as the must of the Romans would have fermented. Sally Grainger believes that Cato’s cook experts would have expected the cakes to rise.

Mustacei recipe in Latin (from LacusCurtius):

Cato’s De Agricultura 121: Mustaceos sic facito. Farinae siligineae modium unum musto conspargito. Anesum, cuminum, adipis P. II, casei libram, et de virga lauri deradito, eodem addito, et ubi definxeris, lauri folia subtus addito, cum coques.

Translation:

Moisten 1 modius of wheat flour with must; add anise, cumin, 2 pounds of lard, 1 pound of cheese, and the bark of a laurel twig. When you have made them into cakes, put bay leaves under them, and bake.

Ingredients:

• 400g plain flour
• 200ml red or white grape juice (I used red grape juice)
• 1/2 tsp dried yeast
• 60g cheddar or pecorino cheese, grated  (I used pecorino)
• 2 tsp ground aniseed
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 60g pastry lard or hard vegetable fat
• olive oil
• bay leaves

Method:

Pour the grape juice into a pan and warm it to body temperature. Dissolve the yeast in the grape juice and leave it to froth for a few minutes. Grate the cheese. Put the flour into a missing bowl and stir in the ground cumin and aniseed. Add the grated cheese and lard/vegetable fat and work them into the flour until it has the consistency of bread crumbs. Pour on the grape juice and yeast mixture. Knead for 5 minutes until you have a supple dough, and roll into a ball. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel. Now brush a baking tray with olive oil and position the bay leaves at 5 cm intervals. Flour a board. Place the ball of dough on the board and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until it is 1 cm thick. A pastry cutter about 5 cm in diameter can be used to make individual cakes. Place each cake on a bay leaf and bake them at 180°C for 30-40 minutes.

Serve warm with a spoonful of date paste (Mark Grant recommends vegetable purée). 

These sweet cakes should be accompanied by mulsum. Mulsum was a freshly made mixture of wine and honey with a certain number of plants and spices (pepper, bay leaf, saffron) which was often served with the gustatio or before the meal as an aperitif. You can purchase mulsum online from the roman-shop site here.

Because I love chicken, for the main course (primae mensae), I chose to cook pullum (chicken) with Apicius’ hazelnuts sauce Aliter Ius in Avibus (Another Sauce for Fowl) from De Re Coquinaria. I accompanied this dish with Cucurbitas more Alexandrino (Alexandrine Squash), again from Apicius’ De Re Coquinaria. As Sally Grainger says, this recipe has a modern Christmassy feel.

Aliter Ius in Avibus recipe in Latin (from LacusCurtius):

Apicius 6,5,2: Piper, petroselinum, ligusticum, mentam siccam, cneci flos, uino suffundis, adicies ponticam uel amygdala tosta, mel modicum, uino et aceto, liquamen temperabis. Oleum in pultarium super ius mittis, calefacies, ius agitabis apio uiridi et nepeta. Incaraxas et perfundis.

Translation: Pepper, lovage, parsley, dry mint, and fennel blossoms moistened with wine; add roasted nuts from Pontus or almonds, a little honey, wine, vinegar, and broth to taste. Put oil in a pot, and heat and stir the sauce, adding green celery seed and cat-mint; carve the fowl and cover with the sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken or other bird
• 170g hazelnuts
• 4 tsp chopped fresh mint
• 2 tsp chopped fresh lovage or celery leaf
• 2 tsp chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tbsp clear honey
• 280ml red wine
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• pinch saffron powder
• salt

Method:

Roast the hazelnuts for 10 minutes in the oven at 180°C. Pound or process them to a fine crumb. Add them to a saucepan with all the other ingredients for the sauce and bring them slowly to a boil. Place the chicken in a roasting pan and season with salt and pepper. Cut into the breast and leg and open the incisions before pouring the sauce over the bird. Roast in a preheated oven at 200°C for about 1 1/2 hours. While cooking, repeatedly bastes the bird to ensure the skin is well covered in the nut mixture.

Conditum paradoxum, a delicate red wine with an exquisite blend of spices and honey (similar to today’s mulled wine), was served to accompany this dish. I have said it before, but Conditum paradoxum is a true delicacy! You can purchase Conditum paradoxum online from the roman-shop site here.

The Cucurbitas more Alexandrino (Alexandrine Squash) recipe comes from Apicius’ De Re Coquinaria.

Cucurbitas more Alexandrino recipe in Latin (from LacusCurtius):

Apicius 3,4,3: Elixatas cucurbitas exprimis, sale asparges, in patina compones. Teres piper, cuminum, coriandri semen, mentam viridem, laseris radicem, suffundes acetum. Addicies cariotam, nucleum, teres melle, aceto, liquamine, defrito et oleo temperabis, et cucurbitas perfundes. Cum ferbuerint, piper asparges et inferes.

Translation: Press the water out of the boiled pumpkin, place in a baking dish, and sprinkle with salt, ground pepper, cumin, coriander seed, green mint and a little laser root; season with vinegar. Now add date wine and pignolia nuts ground with honey, vinegar and broth, measure out condensed wine and oil, pour this over the pumpkin and finish in this liquor and serve, sprinkle with pepper before serving.

Ingredients:

• 1 gourd (small pumpkin or squash)
• peppercorns
• cumin
• coriander seeds
• 3 – 4 mint leaves, shredded
• 1 garlic
• 3 tbsp vinegar
• 50 g dates, finely chopped
• 50 g blanched almonds, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp clear honey
• 4 tbsp Defritum (or Wine or Grape Juice reduced by two-thirds)
• 20 ml olive oil
• Sea salt to taste

Method:

Cut the gourd, courgette or squash into chunks. Place these into a steamer and cook until done. Squeeze out the excess water. Transfer the remaining pulp to a saucepan. While cooking the squash, put the dried spices in a pestle and mortar and grind. Next, add the mint and garlic, grinding to a smooth paste. Spoon this from the mortar and add to the cooked squash. Next, add the dates, almonds and honey. Finally, add the oil and mix it with the squash. Place the resulting mixture back on the heat and simmer gently for a few minutes for the flavours to combine. Serve immediately, sprinkled with salt and black pepper.

The different gourd species available today in Europe are imported from the New Worlds. The squash used by the Romans would have been the bitter gourd native to North Africa. The bitter gourd differs substantially in shape and bitterness.

For the Secondae Mensae (dessert), I chose to try Apicius’ Dulcia Piperata, a peppered honey cake topped with chopped hazelnuts.

Dulcia Piperata recipe in Latin:

Apicius 7,11,4: mittis mel, merum, passum, rutam. Eo mittis nucleos, nuces, alicam elixatam. Concisas nuces Avellanas tostas adicies et inferes.

Ingredients:

• 140 gr plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• ½ tsp ground rosemary
• 70 gr ground almonds
• 50 ml white grape juice
• 50 ml passum (or other 50ml white grape juice)
• 2 tbsp honey
• Milk
• Chopped hazelnuts

Method:

Mix the flour in a bowl with the baking powder. Add the rosemary and the ground almonds to the bowl. In a measuring jug, beat the two eggs, add the wine, grape juice, and honey, and mix well. Add enough milk to the jug to make up to 200 ml of liquid. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour the mixture into a well-greased 22cm round tin—Bake at 190ºC for about 30 minutes. When the cake is still warm, spread liquid honey over the top and sprinkle it with chopped hazelnuts.

If you are looking for some ancient eating inspiration, why not give one of these recipes a go?

Bonum appetitionem!

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