According to Pliny, before the introduction of bread, Italic populations fed on a thick porridge called puls, from which comes the word pulmentaria: the filling for the puls. While polenta (made with milled barley, sometimes adding other cereals and seeds) was originally Greek, puls was typically Italic and prepared with spelt, wheat, and millet. The main difference between polenta and puls is the way the cereals are cooked: in the case of polenta, they are milled and cooked in water until they thicken; puls instead is prepared overcooking the whole grains until they break, adding then other ingredients. You find in this article the method to prepare polenta and the original recipe by Pliny. There are a few recipes of puls survived, thanks to Apicius, Cato, and Pliny. We prepared a different kind of puls a few months ago, a sweet made with overcooked spelt. You find here the recipe. Today we prepare a puls with spelt following the method described by Cato in his De Agri Cultura to accompany a great venison stew from the cookbook attributed to Apicius, in a similar way as in Italy we usually pair venison with polenta still today. You can pair this puls also with other meat dishes, for example pork stew, lucanica or isicia omentata. Game meat appears in many Apicius’ recipes, mainly venison (eight recipes) and wild boar (ten). Ancient Romans not only hunted, but also bred wild animals in their leporaria, according to Varro and Pliny, a term that derives from lepus (hare): enclosures in which they kept many other animals, for example wild boar, deer, fallow deer, rabbit, and dormouse. Below, you will find the original recipes, a note about the method and ingredients, and the video of the recipe with captions in English and Italian. 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.VENISON STEW
Ingredients 500 gr venison 1 onion pine nuts 1-2 dates ancient Roman mustard honey olive oil garum long pepper lovage oregano
Method Grind in the mortar long pepper and lovage, then add the pine nuts. Pit one or two dates and mince them with the onion. Pound them in the mortar adding the oregano. Add a bit of mustard, honey, vinegar, garum, and olive oil, mixing all the ingredients together. Cook the sauce diluted with water until it boils. Stew the venison in the sauce for a couple of hours, adding a little water if it thickens too much.
Note about method and ingredients Apicius, in this case, does not specify how to cook the venison. We chose to prepare a stew basing on other recipes presented in a similar way, in which the copadia (meat cut in little pieces) is cooked with its sauce. Different methods the author suggests for other venison recipes are parboiling and roasting, or just simmering the meat coating it with the sauce before serving. Mustard was a very common sauce in ancient Rome. Cooks usually bought it already prepared. We find a few recipes in Palladius and Columella’s agricultural books. For this recipe, we used Palladius’ method, described here with Columella’s. This mustard is sweet, so we used a little quantity of honey for the sauce and just one date. If you choose Columella’s recipe, add a little more honey or a couple of dates to balance well the sauce. According to Pliny and Dioscorides, Romans and Greeks imported from India white, black, and long pepper. Apicius does not specify which kind of pepper to use, so we suggest choosing the one you prefer. Garum was a fish sauce widely used by ancient Mediterranean populations, prepared with fish fermented with salt, sometimes adding aromatic herbs and spices. We wrote something more about its production process in this article. The basic recipes are identical to the method still today used to produce South-East Asian fish sauces. If you do not have garum, you can substitute it with a fish sauce or just a couple of pinches of salt. We used dry oregano, but you can use it also fresh.
Original text Ius in cervo: piper, ligusticum, cepulam, origanum, nucleos, caryotas, mel, liquamen, sinape, acetum, oleum.
Translation Sauce for venison: pepper, lovage, onion, oregano, pine nuts, dates, honey, garum, mustard, vinegar, olive oil.
SPELT PULS
Ingredients 200 gr spelt 600 ml milk coarse sea salt
Method Boil the spelt in abundant water for at least one hour, adding two pinches of salt. The grains have to start breaking. Add the hot milk a little at a time stirring frequently, and continue to add milk any time the puls begin to dry. Cook for about 45 minutes, then plate and serve with the venison stew.
Note about the ingredients You can prepare this recipe with both spelt and wheat, the cereal suggested by Cato. Both these cereals were widely used to prepare pultes, but spelt seems to be more common, as reported by Pliny. There are many recipes of spelt puls in Apicius’ cookbook. In any case, for a good outcome of the recipe, the cereal needs to be overcooked. The more you cook it, the better will be the puls. The recipe is very simple, but it is important paying attention to stir frequently to prevent the spelt from sticking to the pot and burn.
Original text Graneam triticeam sic facito. Selibram tritici puri in mortarium purum indat, lavet bene corticemque deterat bene eluatque bene. Postea in aulam indat et aquam puram cocatque. Ubi coctum erit, lacte addat paulatim usque adeo, donec cremor crassus erit factus.
Translation Prepare in this way a wheat puls. Put half a pound of clean wheat in a clean mortar, wash well and remove the husks, cleaning well. Then pour in a pot and boil with clean water. Once it is cooked, add milk a little at a time until it thickens in a cream.
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 