Ancient Roman Meat and Seafood Recipes

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ANCIENT ROMAN MEAT AND SEAFOOD RECIPES


Numidian chicken

Marcus Gabius Apicus, a rich first century Roman gourmet, merchant and cookbook writer, reportedly invented foie gras and made "green cheesecake" using lettuce. His recipe for roast duck and hazelnuts and other fowl goes: 1) mix pepper, parsley, lovage, dried mint, safflower, and moisten with wine; 2) add roasted hazelnuts or almonds, a little honey; 3) blend with wine and vinegar and fish sauce; 4) add oil to the mixture in the saucepan; 5) heat, stir with fresh celery and calamint; 6) make incisions [in the birds] and pour the sauce over them."

A recipe for dormice went: Stuff the dormice with minced pork or the meat of other dormice chopped up with herbs, pepper and pine nuts. Sew up the dormice and cook in a small oven. Apicus' recipe for boiled ostrich is as follows: “1) blend pepper, leeks, celery seeds, dates, honey, vinegar, raisin wine, broth and a little oil; 2) boil this in a stock kettle with ostrich, removing the bird when done and straining the liquid; 3) thicken with roux; 4) add the ostrich meat cut in convenient-sized pieces, sprinkle with pepper. If you wish it more seasoned or tasty add garlic." [Source: Apicus, Cooking and Dining in Imperial Rome by Joseph Vehling]

Websites on Ancient Rome: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; Lacus Curtius penelope.uchicago.edu; The Internet Classics Archive classics.mit.edu ; Bryn Mawr Classical Review bmcr.brynmawr.edu; Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources web.archive.org; Ancient Rome resources for students from the Courtenay Middle School Library web.archive.org ; History of ancient Rome OpenCourseWare from the University of Notre Dame web.archive.org ; United Nations of Roma Victrix (UNRV) History unrv.com

Books: “A Taste of Ancient Rome” by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa and “The Classical Cookbook” by Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger (J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996).

Ingredients and Measurements for Roman Recipes

The following recipes are taken from an old Roman cookbook “De re Coquinaria” by Marcus Gavius Apicius, a rich A.D. 1st century Roman gourmet, merchant and cookbook writer. All of the recipes are calculated for 4 servings. Unfortunately the exact cooking temperatures and times often were not included in the recipes and therefore are matters of conjecture and edcuated guesses. [Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome]

Common native Roman ingredients:
Caroenum: Boiled must (you have to boil the new wine or grape juice until it is only half the amount you started with).
Defritum: Either thick fIg syrup, or must that's boiled until you have only a third of the amount with which you started.
Liebstoeckl: I didn't find an English translation. In Latin it's called 'levisticum officinale'. It's an umbelliferous plant with yellowish flowers. Its dried roots are used as spice. It seems to be a kind of celery.


factory making fish sauce

Liquamen (garum: a salty fish sauce. Most of the time you can replace it by salt.
Passum: Very sweet wine sauce, made by boiling the must (new wine or grape juice) to thicken it. (maybe add honey? - just my guess)
Poleiminze: A kind of mint that's growing in inundated areas. Just replace it by ordinary mint.
Saturei: I didn't find an English translation. In Latin it's called 'satureia hortensis'. It's a violet or white flowered kind of labiate plants which grows mainly in Southern Europe. It's used as a spice plant, especially for bean dishes.
Silphium: Its other names are 'Laser' or 'ferula asa foetida'. I've noticed that it's also called 'hing' in the Indian cuisine. It is an onion and garlic substitute and should be used rather sparingly because of its very strong taste and smell.

And here are some useful conversions,
ml= 1 tsp
15ml = 1 tblsp
28.3g = 1 ounce (100g = 3.5 ounces )
454g = 1 pound (1kg = 2.2 pound )
250ml = 1 cup
1 l= 4 cups
180 deg C = 350 deg F
220 deg C = 425 deg F

Stuffed Kidneys


Parthian chicken and chickpears with date paste and red wine

Ingredients:
8 lambs kidneys.
2 heaped tspn fennel seed (dry roasted in pan).
1 heaped tspn whole pepper corns.
4 oz pine nuts.
1 large handful fresh coriander.
2 tbspn olive oil.
2 tbspn fish sauce.
4 oz pigs caul or large sausage skins.
[Source: Sally Grainger, BBC, March 29, 2011, Grainger is co-author of The Classical Cookbook, published by British Museum Press |::|]

Instructions: “Skin the kidney, split in half and remove the fat and fibres. In a mortar, pound the fennel seed with the pepper to a coarse powder. Add this to a food processor with the pine nuts. Add the washed and chopped coriander and process to a uniform consistency. Divide the mixture into 8 and place in the centre of each kidney and close them up. If you have caul use it to wrap the kidneys up to prevent the stuffing coming out. Similarly stuff the kidney inside the sausage skin. Heat the oil and seal the kidneys in a frying pan. Transfer to an oven dish and add the fish sauce. Finish cooking in a medium oven. Serve as a starter or light snack with crusty bread and a little of the juice.” |::|

Lucanian Sausages

Carla Raimer wrote for PBS.org: “This sausage was brought back to Rome by soldiers who had served in Lucania, located in the heel of southern Italy, probably around 200 B.C. Peppery, spicy, smoked sausages are still made in many parts of the world, from Palestine to Brazil, under names that can be traced back to Lucania. In Brazil, for example, these types of sausage are today called linguica. [Source: Carla Raimer PBS.org ***]

Ancient Roman Lucanian Sausage Recipe:Pepper is ground with cumin, savory, rue, parsley, condiments, bay berries, and garum. Finely ground meat is mixed in, then ground again together with the other ground ingredients. Mix with garum, peppercorns, and plenty of fat, and pine nuts; fill a casing stretched extremely thin, and thus it is hung in smoke. ***


Roman-style sausage

Modern Lucanian Sausage Recipe (serves six)
Ingredients:
1 pound belly pork, minced
2 tablespoons pine kernels
20 black peppercorns
1 teaspoon chopped fresh or dried rue
2 teaspoons dried savory
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
30 bayberries (if available)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons fish sauce
sausage skins ***

Instructions: Combine all the filling ingredients and mix well. Use a food processor if available. “If you have fresh sausage skins, they will be preserved in salt and need to be washed.
You will need about six 12-inch lengths. Tie a knot in the end of each one.
Put a 1/2 inch plain tube in a piping bag and 1/2 fill with the mixture; do not put too much in at one time or it will be difficult to squeeze. Take the open end of the skin, pull it over the tube and push down repeatedly until the majority of the skin sits like a collar half way down the tube. Grip this with your finger and thumb and slowly release the skin as you squeeze the bag.
Stop squeezing well before the skin runs out, leaving 2-3 inches of skin to allow for shrinkage. It will take some practice before you get this procedure right.
When you have used up all the meat, twist each length of sausage into 4 even or similar segments.
If you are able to smoke the sausages, drape them over a coat hanger or similar item and suspend in smoke. You can still give them a smoky flavor before grilling them. If you have an open fireplace, suspend them from the mantelpiece for a few hours while you burn wood. You can use your barbecue: Sprinkle wood chips over the coals and suspend the sausage at least 12 inches above the fire for an hour or so. Otherwise, cut them into individual sausages and grill them under a medium heat.” ***

Vitellina Fricta (Fried Veal)


fried veal

Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” 8, 5, 1
[Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome]

Ingredients:
800g - 1kg veal
300gdried raisins (sultanas)
1 tblsp honey
2 tblsp vinegar
200ml wine
100ml oil
100ml Defritum
100ml Liquamen (or 1tsp salt)
pepper, celery seeds, Liebstoeckl, cumin, oregano, dried onion to taste

Instructions: Fry veal in olive oil until well done. Mix raisins, wine, vinegar, honey, oil, Liquamen and spices together in an extra pan, shortly boil the sauce. Pour over the veal, then leave the meat for 10 minutes in the sauce and cook on low heat. Serve.

In Vitulinam Elixam (Boiled Veal)

Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” 8, 5, 3
[Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome] Ingredients:
800g - 1kg veal
pepper, Liebstoeckl, cumin, celery seeds to taste
2 tblsp honey
2 tblsp vinegar
100ml oil
100ml Liquamen (or 100ml white wine + 1 tsp salt)
a little bit of cornstarch

Instructions: Cook the veal for about 1 1/2 hour until well done. Mix together honey, vinegar, oil, ligamen and spices in an extra pan. Boil the sauce only shortly and thicken it with cornstarch. Then pour sauce over the veal and let boil on low heat for another 10 minutes. Serve.

Aliter Baedinam Sive Agninam Excaldatam (Steamed Lamb)

Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” 8, 6, 2
[Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome]

Ingredients:
10 lamb cutlets
1 l white wine
100mloil
2big onions, diced
2 tblsp ground coriander
1 tspground pepper
1 tblsp Liebstoeckl
1 tspground cumin
200mlLiquamen (or 2 tsp salt)

Instructions: Put cutlets into pot, together with diced onion and spices. Add Liquamen, oil and wine. Cook 45-60 minutes. Pour sauce into a pan and thicken it with starch. Serve cutlets together with the sauce.

Isicia Omentata (A kind of Roman Burger)


poultry with white sauce and honeyed mushrooms

Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” 2, 1, 7
[Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome]

Ingredients:
500g minced meat
1 french roll, soaked in white wine
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
50ml Liquamen (can be replaced by 1/2 tsp salt + a little white wine)
some stone-pine kernels and green peppercorns
a little Caroenum
Baking foil

Instructions: Mix minced meat with the soaked french roll. Ground spices and mix into the meat. Form small burgers and put pine kernels and peppercorns into them. Put them into baking foil and grill them together with Caroenum.

Pullum Frontonianum (Chicken a La Fronto)

Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” 6, 9, 13
[Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome]

Ingredients:
1 fresh chicken (approx. 1-1.5kg)
100ml oil
200ml Liquamen, or 200ml wine + 2 tsp salt
1 branch of leek
fresh dill, Saturei, coriander, pepper to taste
a little bit of Defritum

Instructions: Start to fry chicken and season with a mixture of Liquamen and oil, together with bunches of dill, leek, Saturei and fresh coriander. Then cook approximately 1 hour with 220 deg C in the oven. When the chicken is done, moisten a plate with Defritum, put chicken on it, sprinkle pepper on it, and serve.

Pullus Fusilis (Chicken with Liquid Filling)


preparing pountry with hazelnut sauce

Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” 6, 9, 15
[Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome]

Ingredients:
1 fresh chicken (approx. 1-1.5kg)
300g minced meat (half beef, half pork)
100g groats (of oat)
2eggs
250mlwhite wine
1 tblsp oil
1 tblsp Liebstoeckl
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 tspgreen peppercorns
50g stone-pine kernels
Liquamen or salt to taste

Instructions: Ground pepper, Liebstoeckl, ginger, minced meat and cooked groats. Add eggs and mix until you have a smooth mass. Season with Liquamen, add oil, whole peppercorns and stone-pine kernels. Fill this dough into the chicken. Cook approximately 1 hour with 220 deg C in the oven.

Garum Fish Sauce


ruins of fish sauce factory

Carla Raimer wrote for PBS.org: “As they are with modern Romans, sauces and marinades were an essential element in ancient Roman cuisine. One of the most popular was garum, a salty, aromatic, fish-based sauce. Like so many other Roman treasures, it was borrowed from the ancient Greeks. Apicius used it in all his recipes, and the poet Martial wrote of it: “Accept this exquisite garum, a precious gift made with the first blood spilled from a living mackerel.” We won’t recommend you try the ancient version (see below). Instead, try the easier modern recipe. [Source: Carla Raimer PBS.org ***]

Ancient Garum Recipe: Use fatty fish, for example, sardines, and a well-sealed (pitched) container with a 26-35 quart capacity. Add dried, aromatic herbs possessing a strong flavor, such as dill, coriander, fennel, celery, mint, oregano, and others, making a layer on the bottom of the container; then put down a layer of fish (if small, leave them whole, if large, use pieces) and over this, add a layer of salt two fingers high. Repeat these layers until the container is filled. Let it rest for seven days in the sun. Then mix the sauce daily for 20 days. After that, it becomes a liquid. ***

Modern Garum Recipe: Cook a quart of grape juice, reducing it to one-tenth its original volume. Dilute two tablespoons of anchovy paste in the concentrated juice and mix in a pinch of oregano. ***

In Mitulis (Sea Mussels)

Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” 9, 9
[Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome]


moray eel on a mosiac fragment

Ingredients:
1kgfresh sea mussels
100ml Liquamen
1 branch of leek, finely minced
1 tsp cumin
200ml Passum
1 tblspminced Saturei
500ml white wine
ca. 500ml water

Instructions: First water mussels, and clean them. Mix together Liquamen, wine, water, Passum and spices. Boil the broth for about 20 minutes, then add mussels. Boil additional 10 minutes. Serve.

Seasoned Mussels

Carla Raimer wrote for PBS.org: With an empire that spanned both sides of the the Mediterranean Sea, Romans often feasted on seafood. Romans might salt, smoke, or pickle their fish, or even preserve it with honey. This recipe for seasoned mussels, though, calls for just a simple cooking before they are eaten. [Source: Carla Raimer PBS.org ***]

Ancient Roman Seasoned Mussels Recipe: For mussels: Garum, chopped leek, cumin, passum, savory, and wine. Dilute this mixture with water and cook the mussels in it. ***

Modern Seasoned Mussels Recipe (serves 4)
Ingredients:
40-50 mussels
2 tablespoons garum fish sauce
1/2 cup wine
1/2 cup passum (a modern version of this raisin wine is the Italian dessert wine Vin Santo)
1 leek, chopped
1 handful of fresh cumin and savory, minced ***

Instructions: Wash the mussels thoroughly to remove the sand, then boil them in sufficient water to cover, along with the remaining ingredients. ***

Scillas (Big Shrimps)

Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” exc. 17
[Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome]


Ingredients:
500g cooked and prepared big shrimps
1 tsp green pepper
1 tblspLiebstoeckl
1/2 tspground celery seeds
2-3 tblsp vinegar
100ml Liquamen (or 1/2 tsp salt)
4-5hacked hard-boiled egg yolks

Instructions: Cook shrimps. Then ground pepper, celery seeds and Liebstoeckl. Pour vinegar, Liquamen and egg yolks over it and mix thoroughly. Pour the mixture over the shrimps and serve.

Patina De Pisciculis (Soufflee of Small Fishes)

Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” 4, 2, 30
[Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome]

Ingredients:
500g boiled fillet of small fishes or whole sardelles
150g dried raisins (sultanas)
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tblsp Liebstoeckl
1 tblsp oregano
2 small diced onions
200ml oil
50ml Liquamen, or 1/2 tsp salt
some cornstarch

Instructions: Mix raisins, pepper, Liebstoeckl, oregano, onion, wine, Liquamen and oil together and put in a casserole. Cook until done. Then put small boiled fish fillets or boiled small whole fishes into it. Thicken with a bit of cornstarch and serve.

Minutal Marinum (Seafood Fricassee)


garum fish sauce remains

Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” 4, 3, 1
[Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome]

Ingredients:
500g fish fillet (e.g. salmon)
250ml white wine
500ml beef broth
3 leek branches (I hope branch is the correct expression...)
100ml oil
Liquamen or salt, coriander, pepper, Liebstoeckl, Oregano to taste
a little bit of starch or flour to thicken the sauce

Instructions: Put the fish in a pan, add Liquamen, oil, wine and broth. Chop leek branches and coriander. Chop fillets into a kind of fish goulash.bszRC Cook approximately 30 minutes on small to moderate heat. When well done ground coriander, Liebstoeckl and oregano and add to the fish fricassee. Boil again shortly. Then thicken sauce with starch, sprinkle pepper on the fricasse and serve.

Sarda Ita Fit (Tuna)

Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” 9, 10, 2
[Source: Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” (A.D. 4th Century),Ancient Roman Recipes, translated by Micaela Pantke of Duisburg University and Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University, Ancient Roman Recipes cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/ancient-rome]

Ingredients:
500g cooked tuna fillet
1/2 tspground pepper
1/2 tspLiebstoeckl
1/2 tspthyme
1/2 tsporegano
1/2 tsprue
150g dates (without stones)
1 tblsphoney
4 hard boiled eggs (in quarters)
50ml white wine
2 tblspwine vinegar
50ml Defritum
2-3 tblsp green olive oil

Instructions: Cook tuna fillet. Mesh fillet together with dates, honey, wine, vinegar, Defritum and oil. Put mass into a bowl and garnish with egg quarters. Serve.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated November 2024


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