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(ROMAN) From the TUCKAHOE MIDDLE SCHOOL FOREIGN LANGUAGE WEEK COOKBOOK 1974 |
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The food of the early Romans was a kind of porridge which was baked into a cake or wafer on a griddle. Eventually this was replaced by bread, and bread, wine, and vegetables became the basic diet. Fruits, fish, and poultry, and sometimes meat, were added for special occasions. Vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry, and meat were bought at a central market (macellum); the staples, bread and wine, were sold at neighborhood shops.
The Romans ate many more varieties of fish and fowl than we do. They knew 150 kinds of edible fish; and they ate small songbirds, such as thrushes, as well as (on the tables of the wealthy) such exotic dishes as parrot and ostrich. On the other hand, they did not have rice, pasta, tomatoes, potatoes, sugar, corn, oranges, bananas, strawberries, raspberries, chocolate, coffee, tea, or distilled spirits. They did not use butter, preferring olive oil in their cooking; in the absence of sugar they used honey for sweetening. For lasagna-type dishes they used thin pancakes, since they had no pasta. They drank a great variety of wines, however, from all over the Roman world, nearly always mixing it with some proportion of water; drinking straight wine was not respectable.
We know a great deal about Roman cooking, since their chief cookbook has come down to us. The Roman cuisine was one of sauces, added to dishes cooked simply by boiling, broiling, or sautÈing. These sauces were often highly spiced, and have strange (to us) combinations of sweet and salty or sour elements. Ubiquitous in their cuisine was the highly prized fish sauce called garum or liquamen, which came at different prices depending on how long it had matured. It was made from the heads, bones, and entrails of fish, allowed to decompose in a strong brine, and tasted like anchovy paste or Chinese oyster sauce.
At dinner parties the presentation of food was as important as its taste. One curious feature of the more elaborate dinners was the attempt on the part of the cooks to show their skill by making one food resemble another, such as a pig disguised as chicken, or cakes made to look like boiled eggs. Sometimes the dishes were prepared so elaborately that no one dared to ask for a portion without the hostís lead. When this was not forthcoming, the same dish might appear untouched at a series of dinners.
The Romans ate three meals a day. Breakfast (ientaculum) was very light and usually consisted of bread moistened with olive oil or wine, sometimes accompanied by fruit or cheese. Lunch (prandium) was also light, usually cold, and often composed of leftovers from the evening before. Dinner (cena) was the substantial meal of the day. Because artificial lighting was poor, a dinner party might begin as early as 3:00 PM. A dinner had three parts. It began with an appetizer course (gustatio) of eggs, shellfish, salad, and the like, accompanied by mulsum, wine flavored with honey. The main part of the meal (fercula) was made up of an odd number of courses of fish, poultry, and occasionally meat, the chief dish of the meal being the middle one of the series. The meal ended with a dessert course (secunda mensa or secundae mensae) of fruits and sometimes pastry. Wine was drunk during the fercula and the secunda mensa. If the host was serving some especially prized wine, it accompanied the dessert. Between these two courses there was a pause during which offerings of food or incense were made to the household gods.
The Romans reclined at meals, resting on the left elbow. Normally there were nine diners on three couches, but each person might have a small couch, or all might share one large semicircular couch at a round table. On arrival, each guest sat on his couch until a slave had removed his shoes and washed and dried his feet; this was considered the most degrading task a slave could do. Other slaves served from the open side of the table, often removing the entire table top and replacing it with another when courses were changed. Spoons were used for boiled eggs, soups, and stews, but there were no knives or forks at the table. Instead, a specially trained slave carved the food into bite-sized pieces, to be eaten with the fingers.
BUTRYRI
CRUSTULA
(Butter Cookies)
2 cups flour
2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
Combine and press out on a cookie sheet (Should be covering whole sheet of regular size - they're very thin.) Cook in a 375° oven until golden brown. Cut as soon as removed from oven into thin, long rectangles.
Oil
Lemoned pepper
Wine vinegar
Dried mustard
Parmesan cheese
Seasoned salt
Lemon
Mix well to your taste. Use for dip or spread.
BAGNA
CAUDA COLIA
(Sauce served with raw vegetables)
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 large cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup butter
6-8 anchovy fillets, minced
Gently heat oil and butter. Mash minced garlic and add. Cook slowly so neither butter nor garlic browns. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 minutes. Add anchovies and stir over low heat until anchovies melt into sauce. Serve in small chafing dish as a dip for carrots, turnips, celery, scallions, cucumbers, cauliflower, zucchini and green peppers.
2/3 tbsp. olive oil
Bouquet garni *
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 two-lb. chickens, disjointed
1 cup dry white wine
Heat oil in wide casserole with cover. Simmer onion, carrot, celery until soft, not brown. Add chicken, bouquet garni, two teaspoons salt, one-half teaspoon pepper, wine and water to cover. Simmer chicken covered until tender (40 minutes). Strain off broth, reserve 1 1/2 cups. Keep chicken warm and make sauce.
* To make a bouquet garni, tie in a piece of cheesecloth: 2 leeks, 4 sprigs parsley, 4 crushed coriander seeds, 4 pepper-corns, 1/2 tsp. summer savory.
SAUCE:
2 tbsp. pine nuts, pounded to a pastePound pine nuts and add to 1 1/2 cups reserved broth. Heat butter and add flour, stir two minutes. Add broth mixture and stir over low heat until smooth and thickened. Simmer l5 minutes over very low heat. Beat yolks into cream. Gradually add some hot sauce, stir constantly. Return to pan and stir until very hot. Add lemon juice. Season to taste. Add sherry just before serving.
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp. dry sherry
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 envelope dry yeast
Pinch of sugar
2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 tbsp. caraway seeds
4-5 cups sifted flour
Butter, as needed
4 tsp. soda
Coarse salt for sprinkling
Caraway seeds for sprinkling
Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water, then stir in one cup water and sugar. Set in warm place for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Pour yeast mixture into bowl and stir in salt and caraway seeds. Gradually beat in enough flour to make a stiff dough.
Turn out onto a floured board and knead vigorously for 8-10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Place in buttered bowl and spread a little butter on top of dough. Cover lightly with towel and set in warm place to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in bulk. Shape pretzels into sticks or twists, rolling pieces of dough between hands. Roll into one-half thickness desired for finished pretzels.
Bring 4 cups water to boil with soda. Drop 2 or 3 shaped pretzels at a time into the water and boil for one minute. After they float to the surface, remove carefully with slotted spoon, Drain and place on buttered cookie sheet. When all pretzels are on the sheet, sprinkle with salt and caraway seeds. Bake in preheated oven (475°) until golden brown (12 minutes). Remove from baking sheet and cool on a rack. Pretzels will keep for weeks in an airtight container. Recipe makes 12 large twisted pretzels or 36 eight-inch pretzel sticks. Serve plain or split and sandwiched together with butter.
1/2 recipe of short pastry (below)
1 lb. cream cheese at room temp.
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp. powdered nutmeg
3 egg yolks, well beaten
2 tbsp. toasted ground sesame seeds
3 egg whites, stiffly beaten
1/3 cup sugar
Short Pastry
2-1/2 cups flour, siftedResift flour and salt into a bowl. Using knives or a pastry blender, cut in butter and fat until it looks like coarse meal. Add ice water by the tablespoon until pastry just holds together. Makes enough for top and bottom crusts of one 9-inch pie or 16 tarts.
1/2 cup butter
5 tbsp. ice water, or as needed
1tsp. salt
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
Roll out pastry to one-eighth inch thickness. Line a l0-inch buttered pie plate and make a standing one-half inch fluted edge. Chill while preparing filling. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Mix with the cream. Add the honey and sugar mixed with the nutmeg.
1 five-lb. precooked ham
1-1/2 bay leaves, crushed
5 crushed peppercorns
1 lb. dried figs
1 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup honey Cloves
Place ham and all remaining ingredients with exception of honey and cloves in a roasting pan. Add water to barely cover figs. Bake in preheated 350° oven for one hour. Remove skin from ham. Score fat in diamond pattern. Spread with honey, stud with cloves and bake in preheated 4000 oven for one-half hour. Add a little water or wine so figs don't burn. Serves 6-7.
1 bunch broccoli
Salt
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
6 thin slices prosciutto ham, cut into julienne
strips
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
Wash broccoli and remove woody part of stems. Cut through remaining thick stems for even cooking. Par-boil in salted water for five to eight minutes. Drain and reserve broccoli. Heat two tablespoons butter and one tablespoon olive oil and fry the garlic, When golden, remove and discard. SautÈ the ham. Add the broccoli and cook covered until the stems are tender, turning occasionally. Add butter if necessary. Remove broccoli and ham to a heated platter. Heat remaining butter and oil and fry bread crumbs until golden. Sprinkle over broccoli. Serves four.
TIROPATINAM
(A Kind of SoufflÈe)
2 cups milk
6 eggs
3 tbsp. honey
a little bit of ground pepper
Sweeten milk with honey, add eggs and mix together until smooth. Cook on low heat until stiff, sprinkle pepper on it and serve.
PULLUS
FRONTONIANUM
(Grape Chicken in Fish Sauce)
1 litre grape juice
4 chicken legs
olive oil
2dl water
Nuoc Mam
dill, leek, savory and green coriander
pepper
Fry the chicken legs in olive oil. Bring grape juice to a boil and reduce the juice to approx. 50% - 30% of it's original volume. Add HYPERLINK \l "nuocmam" Nuoc mam and water to the chicken legs. Tie the herbs in a cheesecloth, add to the chicken legs, and let it cook for approximately 20 min. When done, put it on a dish and pour the reduced grape juice on it. Pour pepper generously on the chicken legs.
*Nuoc Mam - This is the Vietnamese name for a salty liquid made from fish. It is known as Nam Pla in Thailand, Patis in the Phillipines. The ancient Romans used a similar sauce known as garum. You or your guests might be horrified at the thought, but after putting aside prejudices and tasting it, I am confident that you will grow to love the stuff. There are various grades; invest a little extra for a decent bottle on your first try. I highly reccomend "Phu Quoc" out of Thailand, and I see that it is made now in smaller bottles if you are unsure. I know that our first bottle lasted nearly a year; the second six months, and the third was gone in two months or less! Trust me, you will develop a taste for it. Our children love it straight on rice if they don't care for what we are having.CARDUOS
(Artichokes with minced eggs)
2 eggs
8 artichokes hearts
4 tbsp. Nuoc Mam
(see above)
4 tbsp. olive oil
Boil eggs 10 minutes, cool, and mince. Boil
the artichokes for 10 minutes. Mix the Nuoc Mam
and olive oil like for a salad dressing.
Put the artichoke hearts on a dish, place minced eggs in it, pour the sauce
and serve.
100 g semolina flour
100 g soft white cheese
Olive oil
Liquid honey
Poppy seeds and/or sesame seeds
Mix together the flour and cheese and allow to rest for approx. 10 min. If the mixture is too thick add a little bit of milk. Make small bowls out of the mixture (approx. 2 cm). Put in a frying pan and roast the bowls; turn frequently. Put the honey in a small plate; heat the honey if not liquid enough. Put the roasted bowls in the honey. Spread seeds over the bowls.