Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome Part 9

VII

[10] TO KEEP MEATS FRESH WITHOUT SALT FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME _UT CARNES SINE SALE QUOVIS TEMPORE RECENTES SINT_

COVER FRESH MEAT WITH HONEY, SUSPEND IT IN A VESSEL. USE AS NEEDED; IN WINTER IT WILL KEEP BUT IN SUMMER IT WILL LAST ONLY A FEW DAYS. COOKED MEAT MAY BE TREATED LIKEWISE.

[11] TO KEEP COOKED SIDES OF PORK OR BEEF OR TENDERLOINS _CALLUM PORCINUM VEL BUBULUM ET UNGUELLae COCTae UT DIU DURENT_

PLACE THEM IN A PICKLE OF MUSTARD, VINEGAR, SALT AND HONEY, COVERING MEAT ENTIRELY, AND WHEN READY TO USE YOU'LL BE SURPRISED.

V. Method still popular today for pickling raw meats.

The originals treat of cooked meats (Tor. _nucula elixa_; G.-V. _unguellae coctae_; Tac. _nucella cocta_).

Dispensing with the honey, we use more spices, whole pepper, cloves, bay leaves, also onions and root vegetables. Sometimes a little sugar and wine is added to this preparation which the French call _marinade_ and the Germans _Sauerbraten-Einlage_.

VIII

[12] TO MAKE SALT MEAT SWEET _UT CARNEM SALSAM DULCEM FACIAS_

YOU CAN MAKE SALT MEATS SWEET BY FIRST BOILING THEM IN MILK AND THEN FINISHING THEM IN WATER.

V. Method still in practice today. Salt mackerel, finnan haddie, etc., are parboiled in milk prior to being boiled in water or broiled or fried.

IX

[13] TO KEEP FRIED FISH _UT PISCES FRICTI DIU DURENT_

IMMEDIATELY AFTER THEY ARE FRIED POUR HOT VINEGAR OVER THEM.

Dann. Exactly as we today with fried herring and river lamprey.

[14] TO KEEP OYSTERS _OSTREA UT DIU DURENT_

FUMIGATE A VINEGAR BARREL WITH PITCH [1], WASH IT OUT WITH VINEGAR AND STACK THE OYSTERS IN IT [2]

[1] Tor. _vas ascernum_, corrected on margin, _ab aceto_. List. _vas ab aceto_, which is correct. G.-V.

_lavas ab aceto_; V. the oysters? unthinkable! Besides it would do no good.

[2] Goll. Take oysters out of the sh.e.l.l, place in vinegar barrel, sprinkle with laurel berries, fine salt, close tight. V. Goll's authority for this version is not found in our originals.

V. There is no way to keep live oysters fresh except in their natural habitat--salt water. Today we pack them in barrels, feed them with oatmeal, put weights on them--of no avail. The only way English oysters could have arrived fresh in Imperial Rome was in specially constructed bottoms of the galleys.

X

[15] MAKING A LITTLE LASER GO A LONG WAY _UT NUCIA _[1]_ LASERIS TOTO TEMPORE UTARIS_

PUT THE LASER [2] IN A s.p.a.cIOUS GLa.s.s VESSEL; IMMERSE ABOUT 20 PINE KERNELS [pignolia nuts]

IF YOU NEED LASER FLAVOR, TAKE SOME NUTS, CRUSH THEM; THEY WILL IMPART TO YOUR DISH AN ADMIRABLE FLAVOR. REPLACE THE USED NUTS WITH A LIKE NUMBER OF FRESH ONES [3]

[1] List. and G.-V. _uncia_--ounce. Making an ounce of laser go a long way. Tor. _nucea_; Tac. _nucia_. Lister, fond of hair-splitting, is irreconcilably opposed to Tor., and berates Caspar Barthius for defending Tor.

List. _Quam futilis sit in multis labor C. Barthii ut menda Torini pa.s.sim sustineat, vel ex hoc loco intelligere licet: Et enim lege modo uncia pro nucea c.u.m Humelbergio, & ista omnia glossemata vana sunt._

V. both readings, _uncia_ or _nucia_ are permissible, and make very little difference. We side with Tor. and Tac. because it takes more than an ounce of laser to carry out this experiment.

[2] _Laser_, _laserpitium_, cf. dictionary.

[3] V. This article ill.u.s.trates how sparingly the ancients used the strong and pungent laser flavor [by some believed to be _asa foetida_] because it was very expensive, but princ.i.p.ally because the Roman cooks worked economically and knew how to treat spices and flavors judiciously. This article alone should disperse for all time all stories of ancient Rome's extravagance in flavoring and seasoning dishes. It reminds of the methods used by European cooks to get the utmost use out of the expensive vanilla bean: they bury the bean in a can of powdered sugar. They will use the sugar only which has soon acquired a delicate vanilla perfume, and will replace the used sugar by a fresh supply. This is by far a superior method to using the often rank and adulterated "vanilla extract" readily bottled. It is more gastronomical and more economical. Most commercial extracts are synthetic, some injurious. To believe that any of them impart to the dishes the true flavor desired is of course ridiculous. The enormous consumption of such extracts however, is characteristic of our industrialized barbarism which is so utterly indifferent to the fine points in food. Today it is indeed hard for the public to obtain a real vanilla bean.

Cf. also notes regarding flavoring to Nos. 276-7, 345 and 385.

XI

[16] TO MAKE HONEY CAKES LAST _UT DULCIA DE MELLE DIU DURENT_

TO MAKE HONEY CAKES THAT WILL KEEP TAKE WHAT THE GREEKS CALL YEAST [1]

AND MIX IT WITH THE FLOUR AND THE HONEY AT THE TIME WHEN MAKING THE COOKY DOUGH.

[1] Tor. and Tac. _nechon_; G.-V. _cnecon_; Dann.

_penion_.

[17] SPOILED HONEY MADE GOOD _UT MEL MALUM BONUM FACIAS_

HOW BAD HONEY MAY BE TURNED INTO A SALEABLE ARTICLE IS TO MIX ONE PART OF THE SPOILED HONEY WITH TWO PARTS OF GOOD HONEY.

List. _indigna fraus_! V. We all agree with Lister that this is contemptible business. This casts another light on the ancients' methods of food adulteration.

[18] TO TEST SPOILED HONEY _MEL CORRUPTUM UT PROBES_

IMMERSE ELENCAMPANE IN HONEY AND LIGHT IT; IF GOOD, IT WILL BURN BRIGHTLY.