Ancient Romans ate sweets at breakfast, as Martial reported, but also in many social occasions. Usually, they were served at the end of the dinner with the other courses of the secundae mensae, fresh and dried fruit, and wine. Typical ingredients were cheese, honey, spices, dried fruit, and cereals. Many recipes survive thanks to Cato’s agronomy book and De Re Coquinaria, the cookbook attributed to Apicius. There were many kinds of sweets: cheesecakes and other pastries, fritters, stuffed fruit, and pultes (cereals reduced to cream and mixed with other ingredients). In the past, we prepared dates stuffed with nuts and covered with honey. Today we are making a sort of porridge from Apicius’ book, prepared with spelt, honey, and nuts. The author calls his sweet recipes dulcia domestica, homemade sweets, in contrast with the sweets prepared by the pistores, the bakers. Below, you will find a note about the method and the ingredients, the original text of the recipe, and the translation into English. Enjoy!
If you want to know more about the use of cereals throughout history, read our book Early Italian Recipes. Cereals, bread, pasta, and pies, where you will find historical information about cereals and their preparations from the Antiquity to the end of the Renaissance, with 114 recipes for pasta, bread, pizza, pies, and more, newly translated and explained. For more information about ancient cuisine, read our book Ancient Roman Cooking. Ingredients, Recipes, Sources. Moreover, the full translation of De Re Coquinaria is available on Patreon, with further translations and articles on ancient and medieval cooking. To learn about the transition between ancient and medieval cooking, check out our translation, commentary, and glossary of a beautiful 6th-century source, De Observatione Ciborum, written by the physician Anthimus to the king of the Franks Theuderic; if you are interested in late-medieval cuisine, we recommend Libro de la Cocina. Medieval Tuscan Recipes and Registrum Coquine. A medieval cookbook. If you are interested in recipes for vegetables from the Antiquity to the beginning of the Modern Era in Early Italian Recipes. Vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers available in English and Italian. To support our work, you can buy us a beer or purchase our merchandise.Ingredients spelt pine nuts walnuts hazelnuts dry white wine raisin wine garum or salt honey black pepper rue
Method Overcook the spelt using a good amount of water, then strain and let it cool for a while. The cooking time depends on the kind of spelt you are using. Toast and peel the hazelnut, then crush them slightly in the mortar. Mince the rue. Add in the mortar a little quantity of black pepper pounding it with pine nuts, walnuts, and rue. Now, pound the spelt in another mortar without mashing it completely, then add the other ingredients: the ground nuts, pepper, rue, honey, a bit of garum, raisin wine, and white wine. Mix all together to allow the spelt to absorb the liquids, creating a smooth and creamy consistency. Let the cream rest for a while, then plate sprinkling it with hazelnuts.
Note about the method and the ingredients Apicius’ recipes are usually quick annotations of ingredients, with scarce information about the method. This is true in particular in the case of this recipe, as you will see reading the original text. The most important element to interpret this recipe is noticing that he writes that the hazelnuts have to be slightly crushed before being sprinkled on the plated dish. This means probably that the other ingredients have to be pounded in the same way they are used in other similar recipes. Pounding all together, indeed, allows the spelt and the nuts to absorb the liquid ingredients that, otherwise, would stay separated. The word Apicius uses for the cereal is alica, a term that could mean the cereal grains, a preparation of crushed grains (Pliny), or a kind of beer (Martial). In this case, the author specifies to use the boiled cereal. Identifying exactly the ancient variety is not simple. It should be a cereal such as spelt, emmer, or einkorn. In Italian, we use the word farro that includes many varieties similar in taste and appearance, and maybe alica is a generic term used in the same way. Rue was one of the most used aromatic herbs in ancient Roman cooking. It grows wild in many Italian regions and it is still used to flavor a kind of grappa. Here is hard to buy in grocery stores and we cultivate a few plants in our aromatic garden. If you don’t have it, you can substitute it with another aromatic herb instead, for example, mint. Apicius uses for this recipe a sauce called piperatum. In other parts of his book, he calls it liquamen piperatum and suggests that it may be substituted with a mixture of black pepper and garum. In this case, garum gives sapidity to a plate that, otherwise, would be unbalanced in the direction of sweetness, in the same way we use today salt to prepare sweets. Remember that balance is a keyword for ancient Roman cooking, and for this recipe you have to use a very little quantity. You can substitute it with a pinch of salt without a substantial change in the outcome. Garum was a fermented fish sauce widely used by many ancient Mediterranean populations, in particular by Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans. The historical sources survived describe in detail its production. It was made with fish and salt, sometimes adding aromatic herbs ad spices. Today there are a few producers of garum. If you do not have it, you can use a South-East Asian fish sauce instead, produced in the same way as some types of garum. The word Apicius uses here for wine is merum. It means that we have to use an expensive, excellent wine. Falernian, Nomentan, Apian and other varieties were considered among the best ancient Roman varieties.
Original text Aliter dulcia [domestica]: piperato mittis mel, merum, passum, rutam. Eo mittis nucleos, nuces, alicam elixatam. Concisas nuces Abellanas tostas adicies, et inferes.
Translation Another [homemade] sweet: add honey, excellent wine, raisin wine, and rue to piperatum. Add pine nuts, walnuts, and boiled spelt. Sprinkle with toasted and crushed hazelnuts, then serve.
Buy me a coffee Patreon Ancient Roman Recipes Playlist Ancient Greek Recipes Playlist Medieval Recipes Playlist YouTube Channel Merchandise Books Early Italian Recipes. Cereals, bread, pasta, and pies Libro de la Cocina by Anonimo Toscano. Medieval Tuscan Recipes Early Italian Recipes. Vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers De Observatione Ciborum by Anthimus. Early-medieval recipes at the court of the Franks. Registrum Coquine by Johannes Bockenheim. A medieval cookbook Ancient Roman Cooking. Ingredients, Sources, Recipes Translations of Historical Sources De Agri Cultura by Cato – first part (2nd century BCE) De Re Coquinaria by Apicius (Ancient Rome) Apicii Excerpta by Vinidarius (5th or 6th century) De Observatione Ciborum by Anthimus (6th century) Appendicula de Condituris Variis by Johannes Damascenus (8th or 9th century) De Flore Dietarum (11th century) Tractatus de Modo Preparandi et Condiendi Omnia Cibaria (13th or 14th century) Liber de Coquina – first part (14th century) Enseignemenz (14th century) Opusculum de Saporibus by Mainus de Maineris (14th century) Libro de la Cocina by Anonimo Toscano (14th century) Anonimo Veneziano (14th century) Registrum Coquine by Johannes von Bockenheim (15th century) Libro de Arte Coquinaria by Maestro Martino – parts 1-4 (15th century) Recipes Plebeian Mushrooms Beef Skewers Stuffed Chard Shrimp Frittata with Peas – Conchicla Commodiana Tuna Pork Stew with Red Wine Chicken with Green Sauce Pork Chops – Ofellae Chicken with Dill – Pullus Anethatus Religious Offering to Mars Silvanus Rabbit Gourds – Gustum de Cucurbitis Roast Pheasant Tyropatina – Honey Pudding Pork Shank with Apician Sauce The Diet of the Legionaries – Soup with Mutton and Beans Chicken with Dill Beef Roast with Quinces Chard with Mustard Religious Offering to Carna – Puls Fabacia Pork Stuffed with Pasta – Porcellus Tractomelinus Gilt-Head Sea Bream Moretum – A Religious Offering to Cybele Patina Versatilis Aristophanes’ Roasted Birds Pork Roast with Myrtle Berries Cabbage Rolls Pork Collar Chicken with Taro Honey and Millet Libum Ham in Crust Encytum The diet of the ancient Germans The diet of the Franks Kandaulos Wild Boar Hypotrimma Oysters and Clams Peas Ancient Sicilian Sea Bass Pork Roast and Lentils with Sumac Scampi Cuttlefish and Eggs Gustum de Praecoquis – Appetizer with Apricots Octopus and Cucumber Salad Copadia Agnina – Lamb Stew Apothermum – Spelt Cakes Pullus Parthicus – Roast Chicken Tisana Barrica – Barley Soup Beef Roast and Shallots Staitites – Ancient Greek Sweet Chicken Meatballs and Mashed Peas Sweet Fritters – Dulcia Domestica Columella’s Moretum and Hapalos Artos Ancient Roman Frittata A Saturnalia Recipe – Roast with Saffron Sauce Muria – Ancestor of Colatura di Alici Globi – Ancient Roman Sweet The Diet of the Roman Legionaries – Buccellatum, Lardum, and Posca How to make garum Fig Sweet Ancient Roman Gourd and Eggs Ofella – Ancient Roman Steak Fruit salads – Melon and Peaches Isicia Marina – Shrimp Cakes and Cucumber Salad Sala Cattabia – Snow and Posca Copadia – Beef Stew Puls Punica – Phoenician Dessert Farcimina – Spelt and Meat Sausages Ova Spongia ex Lacte – Sweet Omelettes Flatbread and Chickpea Soup Chicken stew Salted Fish with Arugula Sauce Savillum – Cheesecake Pasta and Meatballs – Minutal Terentinum Venison Stew with Spelt Puls Veal with Allec Sauce – Ius in Elixam Allecatum Isicia Omentata – Meatballs Wrapped in Caul Fat Placenta – Honey Cheesecake Pork Laureate – Porcellum Laureatum Mashed Chestnuts Poppy Seed Bread with Ancient Dry Yeast Cured Olives and Epityrum
Historical Italian Cooking 