Sue's Blog - Some assembly required.

Ancient Roman Grub

My archaeology course assignment this week called for ancient grub....finding out about it, cooking it, eating it and saying what we thought of it.

I researched ancient Roman food, drink and recipes.  I will admit that much of what I found appeared unappetizing.
I decided that if I was going to the trouble of cooking a dish, then it might just as well be something we would eat.
Ancient Romans did like to chow down on doormice.  Of course being a vegetarian myself and also not having seen many packets of doormice in the freezer of the supermarket, I gave these a miss.

I then found this sweet cheesecake called Libum.
Sweet cheesecake - now that sounds bloody good.  The original recipe called for large quantities of ingredients and did not seem suitable but I was fortunate in that there was a 'modern' version of the recipe available as well.

Ancient Roman Libum Recipe
"Libum to be made as follows: 2 pounds cheese well crushed in a mortar; when it is well crushed, add in 1 pound bread-wheat flour or, if you want it to be lighter, just 1/2 a pound, to be mixed with the cheese. Add one egg and mix all together well. Make a loaf of this, with the leaves under it, and cook slowly in a hot fire under a brick."
This would be way too much for us so I decided to go with this updated version.

Modern Roman Libum Recipe (serves 4)
"1 cup plain, all purpose flour
8 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
bay leaves
1/2 cup clear honey

Sift the flour into a bowl. Beat the cheese until it's soft and stir it into the flour along with the egg. Form a soft dough and divide into 4. Mold each one into a bun and place them on a greased baking tray with a fresh bay leaf underneath. Heat the oven to 425° F. Cover the cakes with your brick and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden-brown. Warm the honey and place the warm cakes in it so that they absorb it. Allow to stand 30 minutes before serving."

I was somewhat concerned about the "brick", but found out that it was an earthenware cover called a testo.   I decided that a casserole dish would have to serve as a "brick".

After shopping I assembled the ingredients.  I was expecting to have to substitute dry bay leaves for fresh ones, but was pleasantly surprised to find fresh ones in the supermarket.




I mixed the  ricotta with the egg and then added it to the flour.


The measurements in the recipe were perfect as it did form a soft dough.


I then formed the dough into 4 balls, like buns.  I was rather surprised at how light the dough seemed.  I had expected it to be denser and heavy.



Now they were on their bay leaves and ready for the oven. Pretty I thought.



Here they are ready to go in, covered by my "brick" (casserole dish).



This is what they looked like after being cooked.  They were now soaking in the honey.



We were asked to seek out beverages too.
 Having looked for them I came up with Posca.
There doesn't seem to be a definite recipe for it but it was something the soldiers and lower classes drank.  It called for red wine vinegar and water. Some versions suggested that honey was added.  This sounded a bit better than just vinegar and water so I went with that.
I didn't have red wine vinegar but some sources said any vinegar would do and I happened to have some white wine vinegar so I used that.
It was suggested to use one spoonful of vinegar to two spoonfuls of honey and top up with water.
I was not expecting this to taste good at all.



The finished articles.  The libum after it had soaked for 30 minutes in the honey and the posca.


Result.
The libum was bloody awful.  The dough, which had appeared light, cooked up heavy and solid. I thought the honey would soak in and make it moist.  I don't know whether this is a result of my poor ancient Roman cooking skills or if the ancient Romans liked very dense cakes.   I could not taste the ricotta at all, which surprised me.
The posca, which I expected to be awful, was actually quite a nice refreshing drink.
The libum finished up as possum fodder.
I was not surprised to find it uneaten this morning.
I bet that possum was calling me some names last night. Perhaps I should have tried harder to find some doormice that needed using up.

posted by Sue Banks @ 12:46 PM