SPQR Blues Chapters I-V

Saturnalia cookery: Placenta (altar cake)

on December 24, 2015

Posted In: comic

The kitchen smells nice tonight. In addition to the sweet honey altar cake, I also tried the recipe for Roman-style deviled eggs again (Ofellae sine Isicia) and was much more successful the second time. I’m not sure how successful I was making placenta, but here’s a transcript of the live-tweeting over the three-plus hours it took to make a small version of the industrial-size version described by Cato in his book on agriculture (and on appeasing the gods of nature with large quantities of sweets).

Placenta • Honeyed Altar Cake

I am happy to report there’s no fermented fish sauce in the honey cake recipe. Sadly, no wine either. pic.twitter.com/dWiNkysGdC
1:00 PM – 23 Dec 2015

I have limited ingredients so reduced from 8 lbs flour in the ancient original to 2 cups. It will be a teeny cake. pic.twitter.com/i73QUngc3N
1:08 PM – 23 Dec 2015

Actually, this turned out to be a fairly large cake. I didn’t realise just how enormous the cake in the original recipe was.

Kneading tracta (stiff dough used a lot of ancient Roman recipes), getting flour all over my phone… pic.twitter.com/QTLquOduUB
1:28 PM – 23 Dec 2015

For altar cake fill, tracta spread out to dry. Just like great great great great great great great gram used to make pic.twitter.com/4miqlc0JgO
1:50 PM – 23 Dec 2015

I was able to use some of the leftover tracta in the ofellae recipe later.

And now itty bitty bit of dough for teeny tiny crust. Debating whether original recipe justifies adding dollop oil. pic.twitter.com/ikRYfljZJp
2:05 PM – 23 Dec 2015

It did. (The original recipe basically just tells you to moisten the flour.) And that bit of oil helped a lot.

pan ready for the dough, dough ready for the filling. pic.twitter.com/jdMkQOUax6
2:42 PM – 23 Dec 2015

soft goat cheese and top-quality honey for the filling. Must not waste a drop. pic.twitter.com/9Qw1irTcWy
2:49 PM – 23 Dec 2015

Ancient Roman altar cakes: a layer of tracta, a layer of honeyed cheese, a layer of tracta, and so on. pic.twitter.com/i64oYjPDTb
3:01 PM – 23 Dec 2015

not quite enough dough to wrap the cake in its girdle. I’ll just have to make a bit more. pic.twitter.com/VaKjIRNpKU
3:11 PM – 23 Dec 2015

top patched, and hoping for the best as I put it in the oven on a low heat. pic.twitter.com/fYukMplaLd
3:17 PM – 23 Dec 2015

pretty sure made layers too thick but it’s already in the oven like a jiffy-pop cake so…so be it pic.twitter.com/pjZOWqj6Lo
3:34 PM – 23 Dec 2015

I’ll dutifully check it 3 times over hour to hour-&-half baking as instructed by the venerated Cato in his farming book.
3:55 PM – 23 Dec 2015

Roman honey altar cake (Placenta) – baked for an hour. pic.twitter.com/CeeAHuJB4d

Once honey is drizzled over it, it’s ever so slightly reminiscent of baklava. Ever so slightly.

My observations: goat cheese is too sour; the layers of filling should be very thin; the bay leaves should be oiled; and Roman deities definitely had a sweet tooth.

└ Tags: cookery, historical tidbits, Saturnalia

7 Comments

Saturnalia cookery: Aliter Dulcia (fruit pudding)

on December 23, 2015

Posted In: comic

Aliter Dulcia • Fruit Pudding

1/2 lb. fresh, green angelica stalks, or 1 large fennel bulb, or 4 apples
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup honey
ample ginger or cinnamon for sprinkling

To prepare angelica: Bring a large pot of water to a boil then cook the stems over a medium heat until tender (about 5 minutes). Drain, rinse in cold water, and drain again. Peel off the skin and long stringy parts on the outside of the stalks.

Alternatively: Try this recipe with a fennel bulb or apples.

Grate the main ingredient and spoon into a baking dish or loaf pan. Pour milk over it. When it is completely saturated, place in the oven at 350°F/170°C for an hour until baked but not dried out—it should be creamy, but not soupy.

Remove from the oven and pour honey over the pudding, poking it so the honey sinks in.

Sprinkle with ginger or cinnamon and serve.

Makes 2-3 servings

All right, fennel. It’s you against me now. (I’ve named it Wilson.)

The grated fennel for this dulcia (dessert) did me in. I had to call in a kitchen servant. I call him Cuisinart.

The fennel I’ve grown in my garden has been much more tasty & aromatic than store-bought. But I soldier on.

The dessert recipes tend to take longer to prepare than the main dishes. No wonder ancient Romans usually just picked them up at the local pub.

This dessert was mild in flavour but delicious, and I enjoyed the texture. I found myself craving more the next day, but the leftovers had mysteriously disappeared from the refrigerator. I’d definitely make it again, and will try it with apples. Someday I’ll try it with angelica too, which is what might have been intended in the original recipe, but fennel is a plausible ancient substitute, and ancient cooks would have had many variations on recipes depending on available ingredients.

└ Tags: cookery, historical tidbits, Saturnalia

Comments Off

Saturnalia cookery: Dulcia (sweet nutty fry bread)

on December 22, 2015

Posted In: blog

The original tweet: Roman fried dough, to be drizzled w/honey & sprinkled w rare cinnamon. Is this how it’s meant to look? I do not know pic.twitter.com/F2iLqSZnLR

Dulcia

1 cup mixed spelt and oat flour
1 cup almonds
1 cup pine nuts
2 eggs
1/4 cup sweet raisin wine (or grape juice concentrate)
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp rosemary, minced
1/2 tsp cinnamon
olive oil for frying
honey for drizzling
more cinnamon for sprinkling

Grind together 1/2 tsp cinnamon, the almond and pine nuts, and the minced rosemary. Mix with wine (or grape juice concentrate). Whisk the eggs and mix them well with the flour to form a porridge.

Scald (but do not boil) the milk over a moderate flame; remove from heat and allow to cool a minute. Mix the milk into the batter, then spread batter out in a flat, lightly oiled pan. When cool, spoon out bite-size pieces and pan-fry them in high-quality oil (the oil should be hot enough that the dough immediately begins to fry when dropped into the pan, but should not be allowed to smoke/burn). Fry to a dark golden brown. Drain the excess oil off by placing each fried piece on a cloth (or paper towel). Drizzle with plenty of honey, sprinkle with lots of cinnamon, and serve warm.

Makes about a dozen.