The Hitchhiker's Guide to Ancient Cookery

First Pass

Naturally, I want to do Roman. So, I went straight to "A Taste of Ancient Rome," which is, unfortunately a tertiary source. It is Anna Herklotz' translation (from the Italian) of Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa's translation (from the Latin) of Apicius' De re coquinaria. I'll be doing my own redactions, of course, but it's still English by way of Italian from Latin. On the other hand, the Latin is pretty straightforward in most cases, so I'm willing to work with it.

The first thing I learned is that I'll be serving as archimagirus for the feast - it's nice to have a good title.

The next step was to make a quick pass through the cookbook looking for good recipes. I decided early on that I was looking at three courses: gustum, mensa prima and mensa secunda. I also knew a couple of things I wanted to do out the gate: savillum, a Roman style cheesecake, and faux dormice as a sort of soteltie.

Further perusal turned up a number of interesting looking recipes.

• Patina de asparagis frigida - which looks like a sort of omelet with asparagus and figpecker (although I'd probably use chicken), served cold.
• Aliter sala cattabia - which looks like a cheesy, bready, spready thing. I'll want to try this out, but it might work as a gustum, maybe in interesting shapes.
• Iecur coques - straight up liver pate.
• Pepones et melones - melon with a vinaigrettish sauce. This is probably a go.
• Aliter assaturas - an herb selection for roast meat. The previous entry (Assaturam) was pretty straightforward - roast meat with salt and serve with honey, so I've got some options for meaty bits.
• Vitulinam sive bubulam ... - the book calls this a stew, I'm not competely convinced, but it looks like it could be good.
• Pernam, (etc.) - a ham in pastry dish.
• Haedus sive agnus crudus - a simple way to do lamb or kid with coriander. Looks promising, if lamb is in the budget.
• Pullum Frontonianum - Chicken Fronto. A pretty simple chicken dish with a coating of defrutum, reduced must.
• Aliter avem - another way to do birds, this time with olives.
• Ius album in assum leporem - rabbit with stuff. Might be a nice value added for head table.
• Ius in pisce elixo - a sealed dish whole fish. Presents some practical difficulties but might work.
• Betas elixas - beets or beet greens with a mustard sauce.
• Cucumeres rasos - sliced cucumbers with light dressing.
• Porros maturos fieri - boiled leeks. Mmm. I like leeks.
• Faseoli virides et cicer - green beans and chick peas.
• Tiropatinam - a custard thing, sweetened with honey
• Ova sfongia ex lacte - egg sponge with milk. Kind of a sweet omelet or frittata, could present some technical difficulties if I have to roll it out for 160 people. But not out of the running.
• Patina de piris - Pear patina, again a kind of omelety thing.
• Savillum - a kind of cheesecake
• Lucanicae, Farcimina - sausages. Probably used mostly to make my faux dormice.

So, there you have it! Plenty of good recipes. Now it's just a question of trimming them down to a reasonable number and getting them in order for a good feast.

One practical consideration, of course, is figuring out which dishes can be pre-cooked and which can or should be served cold. That'll be where I start next time.