The Hitchhiker's Guide to Ancient Cookery

with your host
Alexandre Lerot d'Avigné
aka
Jeff Berry
(Number 37 in the Series, September 2005)

The Rest of the Recipes

How time flies! Two days away from the feast and there are still recipes you haven't seen yet. I've seen them, never fear! And here they are.

Sauce for the chicken:

Piper, ligusticum, apii semen, mentam, mirtae bacas vel uvam passam, mel, vinum, acetum,liquamen et oleum. Uteris frigido.

Or:
Pepper, lovage, celery seeds, mint, myrtle berries or rasins, honey, wine, vinegar, garum and oil. Use cold.

Roughly two parts wine and two parts vinegar to one part honey and 1/2 part oil. The rest of the spicing to taste. This will make a nice sharp sauce. It's going out with cold chicken.

Marinated mushrooms

In fungis farnies: Piper, carenum,acetum et oleum.

Or:
For ash tree mushrooms: Pepper, caroenum, vinegar and oil.

Caroenum is reduced wine; so reduce your wine by perhaps 1/3. Then make a marinade with roughly equal parts parts vinegar and oil, and perhaps 1/2 as much. Put in a reasonable quantity of pepper.

Betas Elixas

Betas elixas: Ex sinapi, oleo modico et aceto bene inferuntur.

Or:
Boiled beets: With mustard, some oil and vinegar, these are served well.

I will serve these cold, with a sauce made of prepared mustard (for ease when working with large numbers of diners) mixed about half and half with olive oil and diluted with sufficient vinegar to give it a tang. That works out to almost as much vinegar as anything else.

There is some speculation about whether this recipe intends beets or beet greens. I don't know enough to judge and have gone with beets.

Carrots with cumin sauce
Aliter: Carotas elixatas concicas in cumninato oleo modico coques et inferes. Cuminatum conciliorum facies.

Or:
Another way: Boil carrots, cook in cumin sauce and a little oil, and serve. Make cumin sauce for shellfish

Not even a gloss needed here. Sauce is below.

Cuminatum conciliorum

Cuminatum in ostrea et concilia: Piper, ligusticum, petroselinum, mentam siccam, folium, malabatrum, cuminum plusculum, mel, acetum et liquamen.

Or:
Cumin sauce for oysters and shellfish: Pepper, lovage, parsely, dried mint, aromatic leaf, malabathrum, ample cumin, honey, vinegar and garum.

Pretty straightforward here, too. Mostly vinegar, perhaps four times as much as there is honey, maybe more. I will use a little water just to dilute it some since Im using salt rather than garum. Then spice to taste, making sure that the cumin is dominant.

Pisces Oenoteganon

Friges pisces, teres piper, ligusticum, rutam, condimenta viridia, cepam siccam. adices oleum, liquamen et inferes.

Or:
Fry fish, crush pepper,lovage rue, green herbs, dry onion. Add oil, garum and serve.

Pretty straightforward here as well. Oeno is wine, so that should be assumed in this recipe I think. (A couple of other translations of the recipe translate Oenoteganon as something like "stewed in wine.) For this feast, as with many of the recipes, lovage, rue and green herbs are being neglected. The fish is dusted with pepper and fried in a small amount of olive oil. The onion is added on top, then a little more oil, some salt and wine. The result is cooked just until the fish is done, a matter of moments. Then served.

The first time I did this I used fresh onion and the result was a little overpowering. The second time I used onion powder for the "dry onion" (the first time I didn't have any) and it was better. If I can find dried minced onion, I'll use that by preference.

Patina de piris

Patina de piris: Pira elixa et purgata e medio teres cum pipere, cumino, melle, passo, liquamine, oleo modico. Ovis missis patinam facies, pipe super aspargis et inferes.

Or:
Patina of pears: Boiled and cored pears with pepper, cumin, honey, passum, garum and a little oil. Add eggs and make a patina, sprinkle pepper on top and serve.

For one patina use three pears boiled until just underdone. Cut them small and add a few grinds of a pepper mill, a pinch of cumin, two tablespoons of honey, a pinch of salt (instead of garum) and a scant teaspoon of olive oil. If you dont have passum, sherry works ok. Five eggs is about the right number. Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes until it tests done.

Posca

The recipe is courtesy of Her Excellency Mistress Merlynia of Rivenoak

1 part Red Grape juice
1 part water
enough good wine vinegar to give it a tang
If you use half a gallon red grape juice, that's another half of water, and about 1/2 cup vinegar.

And .... we're out. Those are the recipes, I hope you enjoyed the warts and all presentation. At some point I'll try to get an "Aftermath" article up.

ALd'A


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Comments are welcome.
Alexandre Lerot d'Avigné, Jeff Berry, nexus@panix.com

Copyright Jeff Berry
Originally webbed 22 September 2005
Last modified :22 September 2005