Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome Part 23

[124] ANOTHER WAY _ALITER_

THE CARROTS [are] BOILED [and] SLICED, STEWED WITH c.u.mIN AND A LITTLE OIL AND ARE SERVED. AT THE SAME TIME [1] [here is your opportunity]

MAKE A c.u.mIN SAUCE [from the carrot juice] FOR THOSE WHO HAVE THE COLIC [2].

[1] Ex Tor. wanting elsewhere.

[2] Tac. _coliorum_; Tor. _c.u.minatum colicorum_; List.

_c. coloratum_--colored; G.-V. _c. colorium_.

END OF BOOK III

_EXPLICIT APICII CEPURICA DE OLERIBUS LIBER TERTIUS_ [Tac.]

{Ill.u.s.tration: THERMOSPODIUM OF PLAIN DESIGN

Water and food heater for everyday purposes. Charcoal fuel. Foods were kept on top in pans, dishes or pots, and were thus carried from the kitchen into the dining room. They were also used for food service in hotel rooms, supplied from adjacent tavern kitchens, as some hotels had no food preparation facilities. This handy apparatus was designed for general utility, as it also served as a portable stove on chilly days in living rooms that were not heated from the central heating plant found in larger houses. Ntl. Mus. Naples, 73882; Field M.

24179.}

APICIUS

Book IV

{Ill.u.s.tration: ROMAN WINE PRESS

Reconstruction in Naples, in the new section of the National Museum.}

{Ill.u.s.tration: A DISH FOR THE SERVICE OF EGGS

Hildesheim Treasure}

BOOK IV. MISCELLANEA

_Lib. IV. Pandecter_ [1]

CHAP. I. BOILED DINNERS.

CHAP. II. DISHES OF FISH, VEGETABLES, FRUITS, AND SO FORTH.

CHAP. III. FINELY MINCED DISHES, OR _ISICIA_.

CHAP. IV. PORRIDGE, GRUEL.

CHAP. V. APPETIZING DISHES.

I

[125] BOILED DINNER _SALACATTABIA_ [2]

PEPPER, FRESH MINT, CELERY, DRY PENNYROYAL, CHEESE [3], PIGNOLIA NUTS, HONEY, VINEGAR, BROTH, YOLKS OF EGG, FRESH WATER, SOAKED BREAD AND THE LIQUID PRESSED OUT, COW'S CHEESE AND CUc.u.mBERS ARE ARRANGED IN A DISH, ALTERNATELY, WITH THE NUTS; [also add] FINELY CHOPPED CAPERS [4], CHICKEN LIVERS [5]; COVER COMPLETELY WITH [a lukewarm, congealing]

BROTH, PLACE ON ICE [and when congealed unmould and] SERVE UP [6].

[1] Read: _Pandectes_--embracing the whole science.

[2] Read: _Salacaccabia_--from _salsa_ and _caccabus_--salt meat boiled in the pot. Sch. _Sala cottabia_; G.-V. _cattabia_.

[3] Sch. _casiam_ instead of _caseum_.

[4] Sch. _Copadiis porcinis_--small bits of pork; List.

_cepas aridas puto_--"shallots, I believe"; Lan.

_capparis_; Vat., G.-V. _id._

[5] Dann. Chicken meat.

[6] This dish if pork were added (cf. Sch. in note 4 above) would resemble our modern "headcheese"; the presence of cheese in this formula and in our word "headcheese" is perhaps not accidental; the cheese has been eliminated in the course of time from dishes of this sort while the name has remained with us. "Cheese"

also appears in the German equivalent for custard--_Eierkase_.

[126] APICIAN JELLY _SALACATTABIA APICIANA_

PUT IN THE MORTAR CELERY SEED, DRY PENNYROYAL, DRY MINT, GINGER, FRESH CORIANDER, SEEDLESS RAISINS, HONEY, VINEGAR, OIL AND WINE; CRUSH IT TOGETHER [in order to make a dressing of it]. [Now] PLACE 3 PIECES OF PICENTIAN BREAD IN A MOULD, INTERLINED WITH PIECES OF [cooked]

CHICKEN, [cooked] SWEETBREADS OF CALF OR LAMB, CHEESE [1], PIGNOLIA NUTS, CUc.u.mBERS [pickles] FINELY CHOPPED DRY ONIONS [shallots]

COVERING THE WHOLE WITH [jellified] BROTH. BURY THE MOULD IN SNOW UP TO THE RIM; [unmould] SPRINKLE [with the above dressing] AND SERVE [2].

[1] List. _caseum Vestinum_--a certain cheese from the Adriatic coast.

[2] The nature of the first pa.s.sage of this formula indicates a dressing for a cold dish. The dish was probably unmoulded when firm, and the jelly covered with this dressing, though the original does not state this procedure. In that case it would resemble a highly complicated chicken salad, such as we make today--_mayonnaise de volaille en aspic_, for instance.

We recall the artistic molds for puddings and other dishes which the ancients had which were nicely suited for dishes such as the above.

The Picentian bread--made of spelt--was a celebrated product of the bakeries of Picentia, a town of lower Italy, near the Tuscan sea, according to Pliny.

Cf. ? No. 141.