Variation in Roman Cooking: The Tale of the Cucumber and the Melon

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This post recounts the results of an experiment that took place recently between me and my husband.  In the Apician cookbook there are two recipes very close together that can be used for either cucumbers or melons:

PEPPER, PENNYROYAL, HONEY OR CONDENSED MUST, BROTH AND VINEGAR; ONCE IN A WHILE ONE ADDS SILPHIUM. (Apicius III.6.3 (for cucumbers) and III.7.1 (for melons))

Ingredients are listed, but no amounts are offered. My husband, who is also a good cook, wanted to join me in the cookoff.  So I proposed using our different takes on the cucumber-melon Apician recipe to demonstrate the role of variation in Roman cooking.  We cooked our dishes separately, and did not compare notes until after the experiment was over. Interestingly, we came up with radically different dishes based on the same ancient recipe.  The results follow:

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Apician Cucumbers by Laura Kelley
This is a slightly sour starter salad or condiment in a large meal that has the unusual flavor of red wine must and vinegar as the main flavors.  The pennyroyal sweetens the mixture just a bit and the asafetida adds a bit of depth.  The garum of course is the umami factor for this unusual combination of flavors.

Ingredients
1-2 large western cucumbers (or multiple smaller Asian ones)

Dressing
3 teaspoons dried, shredded pennyroyal
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black peppercorns
2 tablespoons beef broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3-4 teaspoons reduced red wine *
4 teaspoons garum
1-2 pinches asafetida (optional)

Apician Cucumbers by Laura Kelley

 

Prepare the dressing by whisking all of the ingredients together in a shallow bowl or cup.  If you are sensitive to textures, you may wish to grind the pennyroyal into a powder.  Peel, deseed and cut the cucumbers crosswise.   Pour dressing over the cucumbers and mix well.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  When about to serve, add the asafetida if desired, and mix well.  Serve cool, not cold or at room temperature.

* Reduced wine or must is very simple to make.  For reduced wine, simply heat wine to a near boil, then turn down the flame to low or medium low and cook very gently – stirring often – until light syrup is formed.  For reduced must, use procedure above on commercially available 100% grape juice – unless you live near a vineyard and can get a large amount of fresh must.  Best if prepared at least one day before cooking and allowed to fully cool before using.  Stores for months if refrigerated in a sterilized, sealed glass jar. 1.5 liters of wine makes about ¼ to 1/3 cup of must.  (Reduced wine and must carry a wallop of sweet and sour flavor and should be used cautiously, or they will easily overpower and recipe.)

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Apician Melons by Stephen Kelley
This melon recipe is surprisingly sweet given the addition of so much white vinegar.  It provides a delicious and remarkable dessert or sweet snack of melons flavored in an unusual way – with sweet pennyroyal and lots of black pepper.  Best when served cool or room temperature – but not cold.

Ingredients
½ honeydew melon
½ cantaloupe

Dressing
3 teaspoons dried, shredded pennyroyal
2½ teaspoons coarsely ground black peppercorns
6 teaspoons white vinegar
6 teaspoons reduced white wine
4 teaspoons garum

Apician Melons by Stephen Kelley

Prepare the dressing by whisking all of the ingredients together in a shallow bowl or cup.  If you are sensitive to textures, you may wish to grind the pennyroyal into a powder.  Peel, deseed and dice the melons and mix them together.   Pour dressing over the melons and mix well.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Serve cool, not cold or at room temperature.

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First off, let me say that both dishes were delicious. We were both surprised to see what different dishes we made from the same list of ingredients. As you can see, to some degree, our preconceived notions about what to do with the main ingredient greatly influenced our choices.  Working with the cucumber, I went for a more sour, salad-like dish, and my husband went the dessert route becasue he was working with melons.

We both used reduced wine instead of reduced must (which would usually be slightly sweeter) or honey because that is what we had on hand.

We were also impressed by the absence of any fish flavor on the vegetables and fruits despite a fair amount of garum added to each dressing. I am not a big fan of dishes with a strong flavor of alcohol in them and particulary dislike rum cakes and tipsy parsons. That said, however, the rich flavor of reduced wine on the cucumbers and melons was fantastic and I urge you to try it.

Those of you who follow this blog will know that I pay a lot of attention to variation in Asian “recipes” many of which are offered as rudimentary lists of ingredients, just as the Roman recipe above. To sum up some of the posts I’ve written on variation, which are available here and here, I’d note that most of the rest of the world doesn’t care about the uniformity that so many in the west desire.

For example, many recipes in Central or Western Asia are given with the ingredient, “greens”. Most of the time this could be cilantro, parsley, tarragon, dill or even one of the savories – the varying balance of which could drastically change the flavor of a dish. A modern western version of such a recipe would, on the other hand, report the exact amounts of the herbs needed and the form in which to add them. This would lead to a single taste for the recipe, instead of a range of variation. A loss, indeed.

When Asians without formal culinary training are queried about how much of an herb is needed in a recipe, most don’t even understand the question. They shrug and say something like, “however much you wish”.

I find it interesting that many Roman recipes work like many modern Asian ones. We found out in the Mesopotamian cookoff that some dishes – like mersu – could take on many different forms by mixing and matching ingredients according to the diners likes and dislikes, wishes of the cook, their skills, and what they had on hand. Both ancient and modern recipes are part of the legacy of the Silk Road which stil influences our world today. (Words by Laura Kelley; Recipes by Stephen and Laura Kelley as noted, and Photographs of the Apician Cucumbers and Melons by Laura Kelley).

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They Went That-a-Way: How the Roman Emperors Died

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Derek Jacoby as Claudius I

As fitting to the Roman Cookoff as the Mesopotamian Rap was to our exploration of that culture’s cuisine, is a recent post by Josh Fruhlinger on how the Roman emperors died.

Sure the job had perks, but it also had real pitfalls as well.  Murder and assasination are by far the most common causes of death for the emperors with some of the killings being both horrendous and creative – like Valerian’s death by having molten gold poured down his throat.

Fruhlinger rates the deaths of the emperors by how, “hard core” their deaths were, with natural causes being low on the scale and Valerian’s death as noted above rating the highest – possibly because he was also used as a human footstool by the Persian Emperor and was taxidermed after death.

In a desperate effort to keep this relevant to a food site, I note that Claudius I died by ingesting poisoned food probably given to him by his wife (and niece) Julia Agrippina who was also the mother of Claudius’ successor, Nero.

(For those of you who like this sort of thing, I recommend to you Malcom Forbes’ book entitled, “They went that Away” which recounts how some famous men and women from history died. An enjoyable, easy read. (Words by Laura Kelley; Photo of Derek Jacoby as Claudius I borrowed from the internet.))

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Ancient Roman Cookoff Entry 4: Mixed Meat Patella by Sally Grainger

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For our fourth entry in the Ancient Roman Cookoff, we have none other than Sally Grainger cooking for us. Sally is author of Cooking Apicius: Roman Recipes for Today and with historian Andrew Dalby, she is co-author of the The Classical Cookbook and its recently revised edition. For her entry, she chose a patella of mixed meat. The original recipe calls for tidbits of fine meats to be used. In her case, she used, pheasant, chicken, lucanika sausage, pork belly, king prawns and monkfish.  Sally layered these meats, along with eggs and spices in between layers of dough or bread, roasted and then cut into pieces for service.

Sally found a number of surprises, includijng how good it tasted after it was baked together after construction.  She writes, “You make an Apician patina like this: pieces of cooked udder, flaked fish, chicken meat, figpeckers, or cooked breast of thrush, and whatever finest qualities things there may be . . .

Dice all these carefully apart from the figpeckers. Beat up raw eggs in oil. Pound pepper, lovage, pour on liquamen, wine, passum; put in pan so that it warms through and thicken with starch. Before this however put all the chopped meat in and bring it to the boil. When this is cooked, take it out with its sauce and ladle it into a dish in alternate layers with whole pepper corns and pine nuts in such a way that, with each layer, you spread out a ‘double layer’ like a lagana (clearly actually ‘a lagana like a ‘double layered (cloak). Fill as many ladles as lagana you put in and put (the mixture) on top. Then pierce one lagana with a reed and put it on top. Sprinkle with pepper. Beforehand you should have thickened the meat mixture with the broken eggs and put it in the pan with the seasonings (Apicius 4.2.14) The kind of bronze pan you aught to have is shown below.

Ancient Roman Patina

I have cooked this recipe many times before and done so with the firm belief that it was not a forerunner of the lasagne and so it didn’t go back in the oven. In remaking the patina Apician for the cook off It seemed like a good idea to be a little more adventurous and try a number of different way to cook and serve it.

This is quite a perplexing recipe and made more so because the information seems to have been dictated. It is quite common in Apicius to find confusion as to the order in which you work because the cook has forgotten to add a key instruction until the end. There seem to be two ways to tackle the recipe; either treat it as an early version of lasagne and use pasta sheets where lagana are required or, as I do, consider pasta rather anachronistic at this time and use some thing other than pasta: un-leaved bread is the actual translation of lagana in classical Latin. I also note that it is whole-wheat flat breads that the famous Oliveto restaurant in Oakland used when they made this dish for their Roman inspired menu.

It is not just a simple matter of cooked pasta or cooked bread of cause as the structure and finished appearance of the dish rather depends on whether the layered sheets and sauce is returned to the oven and/or left in the dish. If the layering material is pre cooked it might suggest not. This recipe does not state either way but the following recipes in Apicius for an ‘every day patina’ indicates that the very same kind of structured dish is turned out of the vessel onto a ‘discum’ or platter for service (Apicius 4.2.15). Why it should be made in a bronze vessel and then turned out again without being further cooked is some what strange of cause. Another question that is not easy to answer is how is a portion is served to the guest? Is it cut like a cake or are the layers removed individually? I believe the answer to this is connected to the meaning of the ‘double layered cloak’ a most perplexing phrase. I have elsewhere published my thoughts on this issue in my edition of Apicius I came up with a number of scenario’s all of which I shall attempt to duplicate for this cookoff.

Bread for Patina a la Sally Grainger

I used a simple chapatti recipe for the bread and cook them on a metal bake stone over charcoal. An interesting phenomena associated with chapatti is the ability of the bread to puff up creating a steam pocket as if the bread was leavened. This may be the simple explanation for the double layered cloak. However as they cool they tend to deflate which is less convincing. The wonderful concept of using whatever good things are available also makes the dish very flexible. I have pheasant, chicken, lucanika sausage, king prawns and a firm fleshed fish such as monkfish or shark/tuna As to the sows udder: the ancient practise of consuming this organ either before or soon after the piglets are born is an unfortunate practise. However the majority of a sows belly around the in-active udder is in fact belly pork and this will suffice as an alternative.

I have made fish sauce myself in the last few years and used my own for this recipe. It has a salt level of c. 15% and a protein of 10% and was made from whole mackerel. Because it has a relatively low salt level I find I can use it quite liberally without the salt overpowering everything else. It is not overly fishy either with complex meaty cheesy overtones.

The Bread

This recipe makes roughly 12 chapatis like breads.

1 cup wholemeal flour
1 cup plain flour
salt to taste
water to bind
2 tablespoons olive oil

I used a preparation and cooking method derived from chapatti production.

For the Sauce:
500ml white wine
250ml stock made using the meat juices
150ml Muscat de Beaumes de Venise or similar desert wine
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 level coffee spoon roasted and ground lovage seeds
generous fresh ground pepper
4 eggs
60ml olive oil

The Filling
2 120 gm chicken fillets
1 small pheasant
300 gm belly pork strips
2 lucanika sausages or any high meat content sausage of choice
100gm large prawns
100gm monkfish

The dough is formed with sufficient water and with oil to make a firm dough which is kneaded lightly and rested. I made some bread on the hearth with a bake stone and charcoal fire while also using a heavy non stick frying pan for others. I divide the dough into 12 balls and covered the remainder while I worked with each one. The pan needs to be heated on medium heat until a small piece of flattened dough takes on a little colour when it cooks rather than staying pale or burning. Take each piece of dough, flatten it and turn it in flour then roll/stretch to a round thin disk about 15-18cm. As each one is prepared it is immediately placed on the dry pan and turned after about 2-3 mins. After turning take a clean tea towel and press gently on one side of the bread and you will find the other side will puff up nicely  After a couple of minutes only remove the bread and wrap in a tea towel so that they don’t dry out.

I decided to pre cook all the meats in advance to generate a stock so that the meat flavours will be concentrated. I also feel that this kind of dish was actually designed to use up left over pre cooked meats from previous feast. Roast the pheasant and belly pork, strip the meat and dice. Poach/roast the chicken fillets and retain the cooking liquor. Cook the sausage. Flush out all the roasting tins with the chicken cooking liquor and make up to 250 ml with water. This along with the wine, muscat, lovage, my fish sauce and plenty of pepper was heated and the diced meat put in. After a brief re-boil I added starch – I actually had some wheat starch that a friend had made according to the instruction for making amylum in Pliny HN 18.76 and also Cato 87. This requires grinding as it is in the form of hard crystals. Corn flour is obviously a suitable alternative. I added the raw fish at this point cut into small pieces so that the remaining heat could cook the prawns and monkfish without them becoming too tough. I then added the oil and eggs. I was unsure about numbers but in the end found 4 more than enough. It was gently brought back to heat though not boiled as I didn’t think a curdled mixture was desirable. It did become quite thick but not set or solid. The instructions to ladle the mixture suggest a semi liquid.

Mixed Meat Patella by Sally GraingerGrainger

There was no possibility of a bronze patella sadly but a large straight sided casserole suited. I also decided to cut the bread to fit the dish. I feel that the bread makes the dish sturdy enough to be turned out and to be free standing. Any attractive layering would not be lost if the bread was left unevenly circular. To my shame I wasn’t able to achieve perfect circles!

The first method was the simplest and involved laying bread and mixture down in alternate layers with the pine nuts and pepper until full. It then of cause becomes necessary to consider why the bronze patella was used at all if it is not to be returned to the oven, if only to keep warm or more likely to further set the egg. As it turns out I did place the dish, covered, in the oven for 20 mins at 160 °C to see what would be the result. The result was quite remarkable. The patina turned out easily and looked quite spectacular Firm to the touch and distinctly wobbly like a mouse. While still hot it could be cut into wedges but they were just too soft to be picked up.  However after half an hour to rest, the cake for that is what its looks like, could be cut and the resulting wedge were warm and the bread at the top and bottom remained dry and the fingers stayed clean. It even looked like a very elaborate many layered sandwich and the reed in the top made it almost like a club sandwich! This above all else leads me to the inevitable conclusion that the dish could have been put back in the oven and served in wedges like cake.

Mixed Meat Patella - sliced

The alternative method which has been my preferred method in the past involved dispensing with the bronze patella and layering the sauce and bread as before or in separate individual sandwiches. So you had bread, sauce,bread,bread, sauce, bread, bread, sauce, bread, bread etc. It didn’t look bad and could be cut like the other one but was also readily removed and rolled up like a wrap and eaten while staying clean. My premise has always been that, as lagana was bread, the dish had to be associated with eating with the fingers and keeping them clean. If the finished item was too soft and wet at the time of service the breads main role would have been lost.

I had 10-15 portions to dispense with so shared the finished dish with a group of friends from our village who had not eaten any Roman food before and were nervous but declared it wonderfully. I have always loved that sweet lovage/umami combination in what is a very simple and apparently untypical Roman sauce. In comparison to some Roman sauces this has quite modern and European in flavour. The additional flavour from the meat stock made all the difference and I guess if the sauce was made precisely as instructed without the concentrated caramel meat flavouring it would have been a little less flavoursome. The white fish tended to disappear into the rest of the ingredients but the prawns were distinct as was the belly pork. It’s a hearty meal and one I shall reprise again for my next Roman dinner party. I have a hankering to open my own underground Roman restaurant in my home. When and if I do I shall make sure to use the social media to announce it so watch the web.”

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Sally’s interpretations of this patella is intriguing and delicious, but, the recipe lacks so much detail (by today’s standards) that a great deal of interpretation and creativity is allowed.  For example, another way to prepare the patina would be to explore a variation on the lagane or “double cloak” idea and to lay down two layers of cut noodles or thin-pancakes cooked by different methods: for example and oven-roasted layer and a fried-layer.

We don’t know what the shape of ancient lagane were, whether they were pancake or chapati like or whether they were sheets of dough that were then cut like noodles. We do know that the Etruscans were eating them and didn’t boil them. Rather they were cooked over coals or fried. Boiled “pasta” may be a Muslim invention – the first written reference to it is at least in Arabic. Modern lagane from central and southern are broad flat noodles like wide tagliatella that are sometimes ruffled and sometimes not. They are made from durum wheat or the finer 0 wheat flour, water and salt. Ancient lagane were probably made from spelt, possibly with farina or semolina added.

Today these are enjoyed in soups with chickpeas and other legumes in Campagnia (as referenced in Horace) or in a mixed-meat ragu in Puglia which could be a descendant of the Apician recipe above (minus the layered construction and with tomatoes and a modern retinue of spices added). In some areas, lagane are cooked in goat’s milk instead of water or broth on Catholic saint’s days. Another way lagane are enjoyed today are fried and layered as a sweet preparation with nuts and sugar, reminiscent of the Central Asian “chuk-chuk”. Noodle dishes of the Silk Road indeed! (Words by Sally Grainger with introduction and commentary by Laura Kelley; photo of Roman Patina borrowed from the internet; Photographs of the Mixed-meat Patella by Sally Grainger.)

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Ancient Roman Cookoff Entry 3: Patella with Sardines and Garum by Caterina G

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Patella of Sardines and Garum

Italian abroad, webmistress of La Caffettiera Rosa and friend of Silk Road Gourmet, Caterina G, has tried her hand at an Ancient Roman recipe for the cookoff: Patella with Sardines and Garum. It is another egg-based dish that in Caterina’s hands became something like a frittata flavored with fish and the garum that I sent her from my production run here in the US.

Caterina found that actually reading Apicius and setting about cooking some of the dishes from it changed her view of what Ancient Roman food was like. She had grown up thinking that all of the dishes with complex and decadent and was happily surprised to see some straight-forward dishes like the Patella she cooked for the Ancient Roman cookoff. She writes that she found, “Some combinations are surprisingly modern, closer to Middle East cooking than Italian, with its mix of sweet and savoury.

The eggs and the fish are distinctively sweet, and the wine and garum sauce I made up, trying to recreate the elusive oenogarum, added a savoury and acidic note that stroke an amazing balance, overall. The garum tastes of fish, but not much. The aroma is so intense it is quite difficult to describe it. It is more aromatic, indeed, that the Far East equivalent I have tried so far, although I’ve yet to try a high quality one. It is also quite salty and very potent. Initially I thought the oenogarum to be too strong and salty: with the eggs, it was not.”

Check out her post to read more about Caterina’s experience cooking Ancient Roman food with garum. (Words by Laura Kelley unless indicated.  Photo of Patella with Sardines and Garum by Caterina G.)

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Ancient Roman Cookoff Entry 2: Two Sauces for Fowl and a Patina of Asparagus and Grouse by Deana Sidney

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Patina of Asparagus and Grouse by Deana Sidney

Friend of Silk Road Gourmet, Ms. Deana Sidney, of Lost Past Remembered has cooked several recipes with the garum I sent her.

From her magical kitchen come two sauces for chicken or fowl and a cold patina of asparagus and grouse (or figpecker, should you have one on hand) that use the garum I produced in the backyard last year.

Please check out her post, recipes and stories about one of Rome’s baddest Emperors – Heliogabalus. Deana writes, “the green sauces for the chicken are not unlike a more complex pesto that would become ubiquitous in Italian cuisine a milennium or so later. The Romans loved sauces and I loved the many recipes for the sauces so much, I just couldn’t stop at one so made two, both are fabulous.”

The patina which is made with eggs and not sheets or dough or “noodles” like those used in lasagne is a lot like a modern quiche.  The eggs are flavored with a mixture of wine and garum called oenogarum – with delicious results.

Also, be in awe of Deana’s beautifully composed photos like the one above – with fresh azalaea blossoms strewn across the spring table.  And lastly, look forward to more dishes using garum in the Roman cookoff in the days and weeks ahead. (Words except where indicated by Laura Kelley; adapted Roman recipe and photograph of Patina by Deana Sidney).

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Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow – The Gobi Desert

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Sand Dunes in Dunhuang, China

The Gobi Desert.  Ever since I was a little girl, those were words of wonder for me.  Back then, it was a vast, far-away place that had reluctantly yielded some of its ancient treasures - dinosaur eggs and bones - into the hands of modern scientists.  Back then, my mother would bury bones from our dinner and we would go on expeditions – finding fierce creatures in the backyard garden.  When I grew up, I resolved that I would someday go to the Gobi.

I have spent the better part of the last week or two in various parts of the desert of my childhood dreams. Some parts are hard and forbidding, others are lush with oases where ancient or modern irrigation systems bring precious ground water to the surface.  In some areas, deep but dry canals have been cut by the Spring floods from the melting mountain snows.

As to food, I’ve had yak, horse and donkey not long off the hoof in delicious dishes with mixed vegetables, spices and chillies – LOTS of chillies. I’ve eaten and endless array of noodles and had fresh Chinese elm flowers cooked with leeks and an array of wild Xinjiang mushrooms sauteed with chillies and garlic.  Did I mention the fresh pomegranate juice?  Even from last fall’s crop, the juice from a just split fruit is like remembering a lost love from one’s youth.  Apples, tiny sweet oranges and apricots are everywhere as are the best tasting and most varied raisins I’ve ever eaten.

I had a lesson in Uyghur tea culture to explain the uses for the various herbs, roots and animal parts.  Gecko or certain other reptiles if you are “cold”, antelope horn to reduce cholesterol, and potions for sleep, calm nature and overall well-being.

I’ve been in a sandstorm or two . . . or three. One of the storms swept through like an off-white wall of grit when I was taking a respite in an ancient oasis of grape vines and mulberry trees.  Another felled several fully grown willows, all in the matter of a few minutes.

I’ll be wending my way home soon and will be full of tales of singing sand dunes and flying apsaras as well as stories about the foods, peoples and cultures of the Silk Road from the Gobi, Karakorum and Tashkorgan. Its been a great trip.  (Words and Photo of Sand Dunes in Urumqi, China by Laura Kelley.)

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Ancient Roman Cookoff Entry 1: Pullus Frontonianus by Charles Perry

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First up in our Ancient Roman cookoff is an entry by noted scholar, author and food writer, Charles Perry.  Charles chose to prepare Pullus Frontonianus which is chicken prepared with a selection of delicious herbs, including dill, leeks, savory and cilantro.  To this a touch of garum is added and when cooking is complete, the dish is dressed with grape syrup (defrutum) and black pepper for a savory and sweet treat from the past.   Here’s Charles:

The recipe for Pullus Frontonianus (recipe 12, section IX of book 6), reads: “Stiffen [that is, brown], the chicken, add a mixture of liquamen and oil into which you put a bundle of dill, leek, savory and green coriander, and cook. When it is done, take it out, put it on a serving dish, sprinkle generously with defrutum and serve.”

Charles Perry

I was puzzled by a few things here. I would have added at least some oil to the pan before searing the chicken, and I got no clear idea how much liquamen to add. I understand that garum and the liquamen called for by the recipe were not identical, but Laura’s garum is much more flavorful than the Southeast Asian fish sauces I’ve used. When making this recipe in the past, I have used three tablespoons of nam pla, but here I thought one tablespoon would make the dish just about as fishy as I could possibly want. So I browned the chicken in the oil and added the liquamen afterward, and I also covered the pan while the chicken cooked to prevent burning. In fact, I also added a tablespoon of water, which had the effect of deglazing the pan.

Since I don’t have access to grape must, for the defrutum I used the Lebanese product dibs ‘inab, also known as grape molasses or mélasse de raisins. In fact I suspect defrutum was quite similar to dibs ‘inab, because recipes don’t say to boil must down fresh, so it must have had the sugar concentration of a molasses (or treacle) to prevent spoilage. Dibs ‘inab has the cooked flavor of a molasses with a pleasant note of ripe grapes.

The resulting dish had a fairly strong fish aroma, but I also thought the effect of the garum similar to that of the chicken or veal stock a modern European chef might add to a sauté. The herbs provided a piquant counterpoint, and the defrutum gave the dish an oddly archaic flavor.

Fronto

As for the name, in their edition of Apicius, Barbara Flower and Elizabeth Rosenbaum suggested that the Fronto in question was an obscure author of agricultural writings. This seems rather unlikely to me, since there was a much more famous Fronto to hand: the great orator Marcus Cornelius Fronto, whom the Romans considered second only to Cicero.

He was deadly serious about rhetoric, which, as the vehicle of great public issues, was self-evidently the only subject in the universe that truly mattered. When his pupil, the future emperor Marcus Aurelius, started studying philosophy, Fronto sent him a scolding letter: “You seem to me to have, in the fashion of the young, deserted the pursuit of eloquence and to have turned aside to philosophy, in which there is no introductory section to be elaborated and no account of the facts, bringing them together with concision, clarity and skill.”

Philosophy is a trivial pursuit, he informed young Marcus (who is of course mostly remembered today for his philosophical meditations). After a philosophical discussion, Fronto pointed out, you “go away carefree, with nothing to think over, or to write up at night, nothing to recite to your master, nothing to say by heart, no search for words, no adorning of a single synonym, no translation from Greek into our language.” Well, gosh, when you put it that way . . .

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Pullus Frontonianus
Prepared by Charles Perry

Ingredients
1 (4 ½-pound) chicken
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon garum
1 leek, cleaned and sliced crosswise
5-6 sprigs dill, minced
2-3 sprigs fresh savory, minced
4-5 sprigs green coriander, minced
4-6 tablespoons defrutum or dibs ‘inab
Freshly ground pepper

Method
Cut chicken into joints and pat dry. Put the oil in a pan and heat until quite hot, then add the chicken pieces without crowding the pan, and fry, turning often, until browned. Do in several batches if necessary.

Reduce the heat, add the garum, leek, dill, savory and green coriander, cover tightly and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Check around 15 minutes to make sure the liquid has not all boiled away.

To serve, arrange on a dish and sprinkle with defrutum and pepper to taste.    Serves 3-4.

Pullus Frontonianus by Charles Perry

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The original recipe from my version of Apicius (translated by Joseph Dommers Vehling) reads:

A HALF-COOKED CHICKEN MARINADED IN A PICKLE OF BROTH, MIXED WITH OIL, TO WHICH IS ADDED A BUNCH OF DILL, LEEKS, SATURY AND GREEN CORIANDER. FINISH IT IN THIS BROTH. WHEN DONE, TAKE THE CHICKEN OUT DRESS IT NICELY ON A DISH, POUR OVER THE REDUCED MUST, SPRINKLE WITH PEPPER AND SERVE.

You can see that Charles was faithful to the original recipe without much adaptation, so for those of you who think that most historical dishes are difficult to prepare, this is one to sink your teeth into.  There is also a suckling pig à la Fronto, which I have prepared using pork tenderloin and it is also delicious.

As to Fronto, as Charles points out he was a famous orator who was important enough to scold a future Roman Emperor about his studies.  But he was also a wealthy citizen who after coming to Rome during the reign of Hadrian amassed a large fortune, erected magnificent buildings and purchased the famous Gardens of Maecenas with its terraces and libraries near the Palatine Hil.

So, he is another famous person from the past exploited for advertising the cookbook named after Apicius.  As a wealthy man, Fronto undoubtedly held lavish dinners and banquets and using his name on a couple of dishes in a book written several centuries later helped gain audience and increase interest.  Sort of like someone today calling a dish William Jennings Bryan Chicken or Lamb à la Lincoln without historical sources to verify the links.

In regards to the garum, there are three observations that Charles makes that I find interesting, 1.) Garum is much more flavorful than the nam pla he usually uses to prepare the dish, and 2.) There was a strong fish aroma to the dish, but not a strong fish flavor, and 3.) The effect of the garum was to make the dish richer and add depth, sort of like the addition of lamb or veal stock by a modern chef might be.

A Roman Banquet

I do have one interpretation that differs from Charles, and with respect, I’d like to discuss it a bit here.  I think that there are no instructions for making defrutum in the Apician recipe, because it is just something that most Roman kitchens made in bulk and would have on hand.  Defrutum and must of other juices and wines was a fairly common ingredient in many Roman dishes.  If you don’t have access to a Persian or Mediterranean market of any flavor, you can make your own defrutum fairly easily.  It is easy, but time consuming.  Simply heat juice or wine to a near boil and then reduce to a low flame and cook gently until reduced to a syrup – stirring occasionally.  One simply has to be careful not to burn or scorch to juice, or this flavor will carry through to the syrup or molasses.  This is best done when working with 100 percent unsweetened juice or wine, and you need a lot of juice to make a small amount of syrup.  For example, one large bottle of unsweetened pomegranate juice makes about 1/3 cup of pomegranate syrup.  It keeps for a long time once refrigerated.

Well, thanks for Charles for his fantastic kickoff to our Ancient Roman cookoff!  A great meal to be enjoyed anytime or for a bit of extra authenticity, crack a volume of Graves or watch I Claudius reruns while cooking and preparing the table.

I am eagerly looking forward to the dishes and presentations by the other participants as well, including a Roman patina by Sally Grainger.  With Easter coming up, I am cooking a leg-of-lamb marinated in yogurt and spices Saudi style and an rice dish for tomorrow.  Then I am on the road to Kashgar and other places in NW China for a couple of weeks.  I will cook my entry for the cookoff when I return.  (Words and recipe by Charles Perry; fore-and after matter by Laura Kelley. Photo of Charles Perry borrowed from LA Weekly Blogs; Photo of Pullus Frontonianus by Charles Perry)

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Cookoff Challenge # 2 – Ancient Rome

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During the month of April, I will be holding an Ancient Roman Cookoff to use the garum that I made last year and to consider the effects it has on flavor and the perception of taste. Since this cookoff involves the use of an ingredient of limited quantity, I have invited a few colleagues and friends to join us in this effort. Exploring Ancient Roman food with me will be:

  • Charles Perry: Former food correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and writer for Rolling Stone, co-author of Medieval Arab Cookery, and editor of the fantastic Baghdad Cookery Book;
  • Deana Sidney: The talented cook and food stylist from Lost Past Remembered.
  • Caterina G: The talented cook from La Caffettiera Rosa.
  • Sally Grainger: Noted ancient food scholar, co-author of the Classical Cookbook, and author of Cooking Apicius: Roman Recipes for Today;
  •  Ken Albala: Professor of History at the University of the Pacific and author af many books, including Eating Right in the Renaissance and Food in Early Modern Europe. (Ken Albala’s Food Rant);
  • Paolo Magnanimi: Talented Chef and Host at Hostaria Antica Roma, a great restaurant in Rome on the old Via Appia with a special Ancient Roman menu; and
  • Yours truly, Laura Kelley from The Silk Road Gourmet.

Kitchen in Pompejanum – Schaffenburg

Please stay tuned as we cook Roman recipes from Apicius to The Geoponica and sources in between and write about the food with particular notice of the garum used in the recipes.  One of the dishes promised so far includes, Chicken a la Fronto in which chicken is marinated in a pickled broth flavored with dill, leeks and cilantro (sounds a bit similar to Persian sabzi dishes without the citrus) and later dressed in a sauce of garum flavored with wine must and black pepper.  Another dish promised is one featuring a Sow’s Womb cooked with a vinegar-flavored broth, black pepper, and the extinct plant Silphium (what will be used – asafoetida?) with some possible additions including mint, celery seed and honey.

Join us as we explore some of the dishes that graced the Ancient Roman table and take a closer culinary look at garum. (Words by Laura Kelley; Photograph of Kitchen-in-Pompejanum-–-Aschaffenburg by Stefan Plogmann.)

(For a look at the delicious Mesopotamian dishes cooked in last year’s cookoff – click here)

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Making a Silk Purse from a Sow’s Ear

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The phrase, “You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear,” was coined by Johnathan Swift’s punster Mr. Neverout in A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation In Several Dialogues published in 1738. When quill touched cotton, the phrase was used to refer to the strange character of Sir John. Mr. Neverout uses it to proclaim that Sir John, being of low birth, is not a proper Duke and deftly goes on to disparage his character. Although this turn of the phrase is still in play, it has over the years also been used to discourage ingenuity and inventiveness or to encourage people to accept things as they are – in other words, to not rock the boat.

This month’s 5-Star Foodie Makeover Challenge was Junk Food. Specifically, we were asked to use junk food or a favorite snack in a real dish of our choosing. I really hated this idea at first and didn’t want to do it, I thought of telling the group organizers that I was unable to participate due to illness, overwork or travel – something – some excuse NOT to participate.

Having selected my junk food and prepared my dish, I think it was a great challenge and although I am new to the group, I hope that future challenges will be so . . . well I’m not sure whether thought provoking or emotion inspiring is the right phrase, but there it is. I used bar snacks: Beer Nuts, 5-Alarm Chili Peanuts and Planter’s Creamy Peanut Butter to make delicious Malaysian Chicken Satay that we all loved – even the kids. What’s not to like about that.

I suppose the there was a bit of artful dodgerness in the selection of junk food – its not really junky. I mean, come on, its not a Twinkie right! That said, I never use processed or flavored peanuts in my satay sauce, and despite the millions of recipes on the web for peanut sauce from peanut butter, I have never used it before the challenge for that purpose. So the challenge forced me to abandon my habits and preconceived notions and to try something outside of my food box – which, covering the continent of Asia, is generally pretty big.

Junk Food used in Challenge

This recipe is a wonderful example of how meat is eaten all across the Indo-Malay archipelago. It is marinated for hours in a sweet and spicy paste, then barbequed on a grill and drizzeled with a rich and flavorful peanut-based sauce. Feel free to substitute beef or shrimp for the chicken and adjust the cooking times, or make a mix of all three meats and allow diners to mix and match flavors.

Grilled Chicken with Peanut Sauce (Satay)

1 lb, chicken, chilled and cut into thin slices

Marinade
8 shallots
2 teaspoons garlic, peeled and diced
2 stalks lemon grass, sliced
2 tablespoons ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 cup water (more as needed)
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt

In a food processor, or blender, make a smooth paste out of the shallots, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, turmeric and water (using water ½ cup at a time). Set aside.

In a wok, dry roast coriander seeds over medium heat until they become fragrant, 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and empty into food processor or grinder and blend into a fine powder. Mix dark soy sauce and salt with the ground coriander and then add to the lemongrass paste.

Rub paste mixture into both sides of the chicken. Sprinkle the cumin powder over the chicken and marinate for at least 2 hours at room temperature. If you wish to marinate overnight – cover and refrigerate.

When almost ready to cook, prepare the peanut sauce (see below) below and set aside. Thread seasoned meat on to fine metal or soaked bamboo skewers. Grill over charcoal or gas fire or under hot grill 3 minutes per side.

Chicken and Beef Satay

Spicy Peanut Sauce (Satay)
5 shallots
2 teaspoons garlic, peeled and diced
2 stalks lemon grass, thinly sliced
¼ cup lime juice
Water (as needed to make a thick sauce)
2/3 cup beer nuts
1/3 cup Planter’s five-alarm chili peanuts
2 tablespoons Planter’s creamy peanut butter
6 dried red chili peppers, diced
1 tablespoon grated ginger
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar

In a blender, grind shallots, garlic, lemongrass and lime juice into a fine paste – adding water as necessary. Add ground peanuts and peanut butter and grind until blended. The key to this recipe is not to add too much water too soon, so use a gentle hand.

Heat oil in wok or saucepan and stir fry peanut paste for 3-5 minutes. Lower heat and cook covered for another 5-10 minutes until lemongrass softens.

Add chili peppers, ginger, salt, and sugar and cook over a low heat for 5-10 minutes till sugar is dissolved, stirring constantly. The sauce will darken considerably as it cooks.  Cool peanut sauce and serve with barbecued meat.

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Even made with junk food, this recipe is a winner.  Unlike a lot of satay sauces it balances the peanut flavor with the flavors offered by the other ingredients.  What I like most about this recipe is the strong gingery flavor that the marinade and sauce combined offer to diners.  The recipe for the sauce makes a lot, so either cook a lot of meat or do as I do – save the sauce for later use.  It can be reheated and used on meats and vegetables or used cold as a dip for veggies.

Sows Ear Purse

In closing I’d like to attest that it is possible to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear – both figuratively AND literally. In the first sense, it is possible to use salty snacks that one would pop back while watching TV or enjoying a drink to create a great chicken satay. In the latter sense, well . . . I think you all understand what literally means.

It seems that in 1921, Massachusetts industrialist Arthur D. Little was tired of hearing Mr. Neverout’s discouraging phrase, and set out to prove him wrong. He instructed the scientists and engineers working for him to make a silk purse out of “pork by-products”. From a meat-packer they obtained a form of glue made from the skin and gristle of sows’ ears. Taking an amount roughly equivalent to one sow’s ear, he had it filtered and forced through a spinneret into a mixture of formaldehyde and acetone. This glue emerged as 16 fine, colorless streams that hardened and then combined to form a single composite fiber. Little soaked the fiber in dyed glycerin. Then he wove the resulting thread into cloth on a handloom-and fashioned the cloth into the elegant purse shown here, the kind of item carried by Medieval ladies.

Silk Purse Made from a Sow's Ear

If you would like to know more about this interesting tidbit from the History of Science, click on Suki’s snout on the picture above for a full period description of the effort. I think its ingenious and charming and I absolutely adore the subtitle: A Contribution to Philosophy. To all who encounter a Mr. Neverout from time to time. Take a look at this every time you start to feel discouraged. It won’t last long.

(Words by Laura Kelley, Photo of Chicken and Beef Satay by Btktan @ Dreamstime.com; Photo of purse and pamphlet on creation of a Silk Purse from a Sow’s Ear from MIT Archives and Special Collections; 5-Star Foodie Challenge Hosted by 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro Cooks!)

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Umami in a Bottle: Homemade Garum

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Homemade Garum

Here it is, the real deal! Amber-colored culinary gold! The first results from last summer’s backyard garum making!  As some of you may remember, back in June of last year I started making garum in my backyard with fresh mackerel and lots of sea salt.  I also wrote the “garum diaries” until mid-September which described the first 90 days or so of the initial enzymatic digestion of the fish.  I noted the surprising lack of odor despite the process of digestion and blow by blow described the changes in color and consistency in the garum-making vessel.

For the uninitiated, garum is the substance that was produced by the Carthaginians (and likely before by the same people in the Phoenician homelands of the Eastern Mediterranean) It was made from fish and salt and used to add a savory flavor to many foods that was otherwise lacking.  it was used on everything from meat and vegetables to desserts and wine depending on how it was prepared and mixed.  The Romans took over the lucrative garum production facilities from Carthage after conquest, and much of what we now about garum production comes from them.

Basket of Fish for Garum Making

I’ve learned a lot over the months and frankly found that a great deal of what is available on the internet on the production of garum is packed with contradictions.  Part of this is because scholarly work on garum is still in progress and people who study this issue for a living are still making up their minds about what garum is and isnt.

The most recent understanding of the terminology (provided to me by Sally Grainger) is that:  Liquamen refers to the whole-fish sauce made with all the viscera intact and sometimes extra viscera [presumably to speed the digestion process];  The enzymes in the viscera dissolve the fish into a thick sauce which yields a translucent, highly nutritious sauce when it is filtered or diluted.  It can be gathered by skimming the top of the ferment, or by letting it drip out of the paste that has been put in a colander.  It is extremely fishy, oily, and salty and packs a wallop of flavor.   Allec is the solid paste that is left after the liquamen is removed.  The Romans would pick this clean of bones, skin, fins and other fishy solids and use it as a paste on bread or as a condiment.  Given the taste of the allec I produced, I think it would have probably been mixed with olive oil, butter or animal fat to make it more palatable.  By personal choice, I would use butter.  I think then it would taste like country caviar – fresh sweet butter on a hunk of brown bread spread with fresh caviar – or allec. The Romans, however, might have used olive oil.

Muria is the sauce made when the fish are gutted and headed and the liquor that emerges is weak in protein and pale in colour. This probably corresponds best with the modern colatura di alici.  Lastly, there is haimation which is the liquid that is produced from just from blood and viscera.  This is garon haimation in Greek and garum or garum sociorum in Latin. It is black and bloody according to Galen.  .

Garum amphora

Another thing that my experience making garum taught me that varied from much of the historical information available was the quantity of garum produced and the spped at which it can be harvested.  Many of the early writings about garum speak of a basket being dipped into the ferment and the garum flowing into the basket.  Or if a barrel or container were used, directions are to puncture the barrel near the base and let the garum flow off.  This may be true for large-scale production such as those in vats, but it is not true for the casual backyard producer of garum.  With 15 pounds of mackerel and almost nine pounds of salt to start, nothing flows or gushes, it is harvested drip by excruciating drip and then filtered multiple times at the same glacial rate.  It takes patience and persistence – but it is worth it.

The slow speed of my garum harvest may be because of the rather high quantity of salt to fish I wound up using as well.  Its difficult to say with n=1 production experience.

After having produced garum, I am convinced that the few so-called quick recipes for “garum” in the ether cannot possibly produce the product that took nine months to create in my backyard.  These recipes call for the fish and salt to be cooked on the stove top or in a yogurt maker.  I’m not sure what these recipes produce – I suspect it is ordinary fish oil – but do I know that a few hours of heat cannot replace nine months of digestion. Because these authors describe the taste as, “not very fishy”, I know it cannot be garum.  The garum produced by digestion is fishy, salty, and quite oily and only a few drops (vice teaspoons or tablespoons) would be needed to flavor a dish. Even if adapted from historical (usually Byzantine) sources, these quick recipes produce a product that looks like garum, but doesn’t taste like it.  You can’t rush perfection.

Although the production of garum is not smelly, harvesting garum can be, unless steps are taken to minimize the smell.  You must cover containers that are used to harvest and filter the garum, wear old clothes and be prepared to do lots of dishes.  For the sensitive, I suggest surgical gloves – the odor permeates everything and is very hard to get rid of.  Lastly if you share your home with four-legged creatures, you will want to put them out or at least keep them away from the garum – they will be curious, and noisy.

So, what does it look like?  Interestingly, my garum is roughly the same color as its last living relative in the west – colatura di alici – the modern Italian fish sauce made from anchovies.  The garum is a bit more amber in color (as opposed to the colatura’s reddish brown color) even after five filtrations, but the color is much more similar than that of nuoc mam which comes in a variety of shades of dark brown.  The garum is also a bit more viscous than either of the two modern sauces – possibly due to the introduction of water in the modern production process, or possibly due to the different species of fish used.  If you are curious about the possible west-to-east flow of fish-sauce production technology in the ancient world, please see this essay.

So, what does it taste like?  It is saltier, way more fishy and a bit oiler than either the colatura di alici or the nuoc mam.  Garum from mackerel is more powerful as it hits the tongue, has a longer crest of flavor and remains stronger for a longer period of time as it fades. One can taste it in more places in the mouth than the colatura or nuoc mam as well. No matter where you place the garum – the flavor explodes in your mouth.  There is also a slight bitterness to the garum that is absent from the colatura or the nuoc mam.  Interestingly, the nuoc mam has fructose and hydrolyzed vegetable protein listed as ingredients.  These certainly affect the flavor of the sauce – especially the fructose. In short, the colatura and the nuoc mam taste more like each other than like the garum.  The nuoc mam has a more complex flavor than the colatura, but since both are made from anchovies, that probably is because of the added ingredients listed above.  The colatura claims only anchovies and salt as ingredients.  Garum is, without a doubt, umami in a bottle.

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Glutamic Acid Formula

A word about umami.  Most of us were raised on the ancient Greek notion of four tastes: sweet, salty, sour and bitter.  I vividly remember “mapping” these tastes on our tongues in elementary school but placing different substances on different areas of the tongue with a cotton swab.  A combination of modern science and some talented tongues have turned this notion on its head, and research conducted largely in the 20th Century has explained umami for us.  Sort of like a sixth sense, umami is the “fifth taste” and represents savoriness. It is carried in a number of molecules – most notably in glutamic acid that most of us experience in the form of sodium glutamate.  Many foods are rich in glutamic acid – notably ripe tomatoes, celery, cheese, asparagus, meat, fish, and shellfish etc.  Of course, cooks and chefs have been combining these ingredients for years to create savory dishes.  Most notably the renowned western chef Escoffier used an instinctive knowledge of these ingredients for many of his dishes.

Kombu (kelp)

Kikunae Ikeda, the Japanese chemist who “discovered” umami worked with kombu a type of seaweed that Japanese cuisine uses in many dishes either as a vegetable or dried and dissolved in broth form with bonito fish flakes as dashi.  Ikeda coined the word “umami” from the Japanese “umai” which means delicious, nice or palatable as well as brothy, meaty or savory.  Both sets of meanings, as you can see, represent important aspects of umami taste perception.

What I find fascinating about umami is how little we truly understand it.  We know it has a flavor of its own – which changes depending how the molecule of glutamic acid is charged - but we suspect that it also changes other flavors to enhance them in a synergistic way.  Additionally, it also add a “mouthfullness” to food that adds to the positive perception of food flavor in the mouth.

__________

Getting back to production, we digested the mackerel in salt in the backyard for nine months.  In the initial stages, we stirred the batch at least once a week, but as the fall and winter passed, the stirring decreased to only a couple of times a month.  To harvest the garum, first skim off any that rests on the top of the vat.  I did this with a teaspoon with the same technique as which I use to clarify butter or remove excess fat from the top of a stew or curry.

Next, fill a small colander with ferment pick out the large solids like bones and fins etc.  Wipe the outside surface of the colander and place above a receiving vessel.  Cover the colander with a plate to reduce odor and set in a place where it will not be disturbed.  I suggest placing in a garage or cellar, if left out of doors, local animals will easily remove the plate and make a mess of the ferment.

Every day a little more haimation will drip out of the ferment.  Collect this and set aside.  There is no need to refrigerate – garum is so salty it will keep at room temperature nearly indefinitely.  Next comes the filtration.  The first filtration I did with commercial grade cheesecloth that was folded over into four layers.  This will remove the crude solids.  Then I switched to a funnel and commercial coffee filter and filtered the mixture four more times, each time after a period of rest to allow the solids to collect on the surface of the garum.

A word about garum being “clear”.  On the internet, the quick recipes for “garum” all mention that the product should be “clear”.  This concern is based on the concept of turbidity and is a caution against growing microorganisms instead of facillitating the enzymatic digestion of fish.  With the quick production method, this may be an issue, but it is not if you go about it over a series of months.  Garum isn’t clear and will never be clear with manual filtration.  Even after four passes with coffee filters, if the garum is allowed to sit, a thin layer of scum forms on the top of it.  If this is disturbed, the whole solution will become cloudy, only to settle out when left to rest for several hours or overnight.  The best that garum will ever be is a beautifully translucent amber.  Greater clarity could be achieved with a centrifuge, but that is out of reach for most people, and certainly never occurred to the Carthaginians, Greeks or Romans.

Where do we go from here?  We keep on harvesting the garum.  First by letting the liquid drip out of the raw ferment and then by performing dilutions with water of the allec that remains from the first harvest.  Then comes the fun part.  We start making the various mixtures that have been handed down to us from the Romans – using sweet and dry wine must, water, honey and olive oil and a variety of different spices.  Then, well then, comes the cooking.  So stay tuned.  There will be much more to learn about garum in coming months.  (Words by Laura Kelley; Photo of Homemade Garum by Laura Kelley; Other images from Wikimedia).

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Additional:  I will be hosting an ancient Roman cookoff during the month of April to explore the many uses of garum.  In this effort, I will be joined by Charles Perry, Ken Albala, Sally Grainger, Napa winemaker David Mahaffey, Roman Restaranteur Paolo Magnanimi and the lovely polymath, Deana Sidney from Lost Past Remembered.

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