Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome Part 49

[320] ANOTHER WAY FOR TRUFFLES _ALITER TUBERA_ [1]

PEPPER, c.u.mIN, SILPHIUM, MINT, CELERY, RUE, HONEY, VINEGAR, OR WINE, SALT OR BROTH, A LITTLE OIL.

[1] Wanting in G.-V.

[321] ANOTHER WAY FOR TRUFFLES _ALITER TUBERA_ [1]

COOK THE TRUFFLES WITH LEEKS, SALT, PEPPER, CHOPPED CORIANDER, THE VERY BEST WINE AND A LITTLE OIL.

[1] Wanting in Tor.

This, to our notion of eating truffles, is the best formula, save ? Nos. 315 and 316.

XVII

TARO, DASHEEN _IN COLOCASIO_

[322] COLOCASIUM [1] TARO, DASHEEN _COLOCASIUM_

FOR THE COLOCASIUM (WHICH IS REALLY THE COLOCASIA PLANT, ALSO CALLED "EGYPTIAN BEAN") USE [2] PEPPER, c.u.mIN, RUE, HONEY, OR BROTH, AND A LITTLE OIL; WHEN DONE BIND WITH ROUX [3] COLOCASIUM IS THE ROOT OF THE EGYPTIAN BEAN WHICH IS USED EXCLUSIVELY [4].

[1] Cf. notes to ? Nos. 74, 172, 216, 244; also the copious explanations by Humelberg, fol. III.

[2] Tor. who is trying hard to explain the _colocasium_.

His name, "Egyptian Bean" may be due to the mealiness and bean-like texture of the _colocasium_ tuber; otherwise there is no resemblance to a bean, except, perhaps, the seed pod which is not used for food. This simile has led other commentators to believe that the _colocasium_ in reality was a bean.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has in recent years imported various specimens of that taro species (belonging to the _colocasia_), and the plants are now successfully being farmed in the southern parts of the United States, with fair prospects of becoming an important article of daily diet. The Department has favored us repeatedly with samples of the taro, or dasheen, (_Colocasium Antiquorum_) and we have made many different experiments with this agreeable, delightful and important "new" vegetable. It can be prepared in every way like a potato, and possesses advantages over the potato as far as value of nutrition, flavor, culture and keeping qualities are concerned. As a commercial article, it is not any more expensive than any good kind of potato. It grows where the potato will not thrive, and vice versa. It thus saves much in freight to parts where the potato does not grow.

The ancient _colocasium_ is no doubt a close relative of the modern dasheen or taro. The Apician _colocasium_ was perhaps very similar to the ordinary Elephant-Ear, _colocasium Antiquorum Schott_, often called _caladium esculentum_, or _tanyah_, more recently called the "Dasheen" which is a corruption of the French "de Chine"--from China--indicating the supposed origin of this variety of taro. The dasheen is a broad-leaved member of the _arum_ family. The name dasheen originated in the West Indies whence it was imported into the United States around 1910, and the name is now officially adopted.

Mark Catesby, in his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, London, 1781, describes briefly under the name of _arum maximum Aegyptic.u.m_ a plant which was doubtless one of the tanyahs or taros.

He says: "This was a welcome improvement among the negroes and was esteemed a blessing; they being delighted with all their African food, particularly this, which a great part of Africa subsists much on."

Torinus, groping for the right name, calls it variously _colosium_, _coledium_, _coloesium_, till he finally gets it right, _colocasium_.

[3] The root or tubers of this plant was used by the ancients as a vegetable. They probably boiled and then peeled and sliced the tubers, seasoning the pieces with the above ingredients, heated them in bouillon stock and thickened the gravy in the usual way. Since the tuber is very starchy, little roux is required for binding.

[4] Afterthought by Tor. printed in italics on the margin of his book.

XVIII

SNAILS _COCHLEAS_

[323] MILK-FED SNAILS _COCHLEAS LACTE PASTAS_

TAKE SNAILS AND SPONGE THEM; PULL THEM OUT OF THE Sh.e.l.lS BY THE MEMBRANE AND PLACE THEM FOR A DAY IN A VESSEL WITH MILK AND SALT [1]

RENEW THE MILK DAILY. HOURLY [2] CLEAN THE SNAILS OF ALL REFUSE, AND WHEN THEY ARE SO FAT THAT THEY CAN NO LONGER RETIRE [to their sh.e.l.ls]

FRY THEM IN OIL AND SERVE THEM WITH WINE SAUCE. IN A SIMILAR WAY THEY MAY BE FED ON A MILK PORRIDGE [3].

[1] Just enough so they do not drown.

[2] Wanting in Tor.

[3] The Romans raised snails for the table in special places called _cochlearia_. Fluvius Hirpinus is credited with having popularized the snail in Rome a little before the civil wars between Caesar and Pompey. If we could believe Varro, snails grew to enormous proportions. A supper of the younger Pliny consisted of a head of lettuce, three snails, two eggs, a barley cake, sweet wine, refrigerated in snow.

Snails as a food are not sufficiently appreciated by the Germanic races who do not hesitate to eat similar animals and are very fond of such food as oysters, clams, mussels, cocles, etc., much of which they even eat in the raw state.

[324] ANOTHER WAY _ALITER_

THE SNAILS ARE FRIED WITH PURE SALT AND OIL AND [a sauce of] LASER, BROTH, PEPPER AND OIL IS UNDERLAID; OR THE FRIED SNAILS ARE FULLY COVERED WITH BROTH, PEPPER AND c.u.mIN.

Tor. divides this into three articles.

[325] ANOTHER WAY FOR SNAILS _ALITER COCHLEAS_

THE LIVE SNAILS ARE SPRINKLED WITH MILK MIXED WITH THE FINEST WHEAT FLOUR, WHEN FAT AND NICE AND PLUMP THEY ARE COOKED.

XIX

EGGS _OVA_

[326] FRIED EGGS _OVA FRIXA_

FRIED EGGS ARE FINISHED IN WINE SAUCE.

[327] BOILED EGGS _OVA ELIXA_

ARE SEASONED WITH BROTH, OIL, PURE WINE, OR ARE SERVED WITH BROTH, PEPPER AND LASER.

[328] WITH POACHED EGGS _IN OVIS HAPALIS_

SERVE PEPPER, LOVAGE, SOAKED NUTS, HONEY, VINEGAR AND BROTH.