Roman Libum

I decided to try an ancient dish for my next attempt at historical cooking. The Roman sacrificial cake Libum proved a perfect choice as it corresponds to my A2 Classical Civilisation topic of religion! This simple cake was used as an offering, often by slaves or the lower classes, to household spirits or gods in Rome’s early history. The text below comes directly from the Roman consul Cato’s agricultural writings in which he includes simple recipes for farmers, including Libum.

‘Libum hoc modo facito. Casei P. II bene disterat in mortario. Ubi bene distriverit, farinae siligineae libram aut, si voles tenerius esse, selibram similaginis eodem indito permiscetoque cum caseo bene. Ovum unum addito et una permisceto bene. Inde panem facito, folia subdito, in foco caldo sub testu coquito leniter.’

– translation: ‘Make libum by this method. Break up two pounds of cheese well in a mortar. When they will have been well broken up, put in a pound of wheat flour or, if you wish it to be more delicate, half a pound of fine flour and mix it well together with the cheese. Add one egg and mix together well. Then make into bread, places leaves beneath, and cook slowly on a hot hearth under an earthen pot.’

(sourced from: https://www.romanobritain.org/2-arl_food/arl_roman_recipes-libum.php)

Ingredients (serves 4)

125g ricotta cheese (Italian of course!)

125g plain flour

1 egg

4 bay leaves

200g honey

Method

Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius. Cream the ricotta in a bowl till smooth and sift in the flower, stirring together to a breadcrumb like consistency.

Beat an egg together and mix it into the ricotta and flour mixture, forming a sticky dough ball.

Separate the mixture into four, shape into flat balls and place on top of bay leaves. Score the top for decoration if desired.

To replicate the Roman technique of cooking in terracotta pots, cover the baking tray with a shallow pan and cook in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

Whilst still hot, melt the honey in a pan and cover the libums so they absorb the liquid.

Dedicate to your favourite god (I choose Venus) and enjoy, remembering to remove the bay leaf!

 

This is a very simple and quick recipe to make. Its very enjoyable to make it following the ancient recipe, but understandably it is suited to Roman lower class taste buds. It is very bland, although the texture is pleasant – resembling an unleavened scone. Adding a pinch of salt to the mixture would not be historically inaccurate, but it tastes better when served with jam – Cato wouldn’t approve I’m sure!

Rating:5/10

Medieval Lombard Slices

I decided to try out this recipe from the British Museum’s The Medieval Cookbook by Maggie Black, simply because it used some of the same ingredients as the cherry pottage recipe. The recipe book suggests that Lombard was a very popular dish, despite its strange ingredients and method!

Ingredients (serves 6) – note I made a half batch

12 hard-boiled egg yolks

8tbsp honey

175g fine white breadcrumbs

Pinch of ground black pepper

For the Syrup:

225ml red wine

Good pinch of ground cinnamon and ground cloves

5tbsp honey

Method

Make breadcrumbs with a food processor and set to the side.

Hard boil the eggs, cool them down and peel. Separate the cooked egg whites from the yolks then pass yolks through a sieve (not pictured).

Bring the honey to a boil in a pan.

Then proceed to simmer the honey for 2 minutes.

Remove the honey pan from the heat. Gradually add in the sieved hard-boiled egg yolks into the honey mixture – whisking rapidly.

Gradually add in the breadcrumbs to the honey/egg mixture to thicken it, it should be thick enough to shape.

Shape the mixture into a brick and leave it to cool until it is completely firm.

To create the syrup reduce the wine, honey, cinnamon and ginger mixture in a shallow pan – stirring constantly.

It should be thick and sticky enough that you can draw a line through the mixture (as shown) without it running together again.

Thinly slice the Lombard and drizzle with the red wine glaze just before serving.

Lombard is definitely not suited to modern tastes! It is unlike anything I have either made or tasted before … and not in a good way. Whilst it is edible, I would definitely not make it again as it does not have a very pleasant taste or texture and it takes a long time to make considering. However, the glaze is both tasty and easy, I’m sure it could be used on other things such as ice cream. To conclude, whilst unsavoury, I am glad I made this recipe as it was interesting to see how medieval and modern tastes are sometimes very very different.

Rating: 4/10

Medieval Cherry Pottage

As cherries are currently in season, I decided to make cherry pottage  from the British Museum’s The Medieval Cookbook by Maggie Black.

“Any young hostess, married or not, would enjoy showing off this pretty dish.”

Ingredients (serves 6) – note I made a half batch

900g cherries

350ml red wine

175g white sugar

50g unsalted butter

225g soft white bread crumbs

Pinch of salt

Method

Remove the stems and stones from all the cherries.

Add in the roughly torn up white bread into a blender to create breadcrumbs. Set the breadcrumbs aside for later use.

Into the blender add all the cherries, half the wine and half the sugar.

Blend the ingredients together until a smooth puree is formed.

Melt the butter in a large pan or saucepan.

Add all the puree, the restr of the wine, the rest of the sugar and the salt into the pan. Gradually add in the breadcrumbs. Simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring often until the mixture thickens to a poridge-like consistency.

Pour the mixture into serving bowls, cover, and leave to cool down completely. Serve with a cherry (as shown), edible flowers or gilded cloves!

This was a very easy recipe to make and disregarding the pitting of the cherries, was quite quick to make. The taste of this dish really relies on the quality of the cherries, and as my Dad said “You can’t go wrong with cherries and wine!”. Whilst this pottage is a bit abnormal for the modern taste, it was still pleasant and flavourful – resembling a very fruity porridge.

Rating: 6/10

 

Medieval Fried Fig Pasties

After the success of my last historical recipe trial, I decided to try another dessert recipe from the same book : the British Museum’s The Medieval Cookbook by Maggie Black.

Ingredients (serves 6) – note I made a half batch

450g dried figs, soaked, drained and minced (reserve the soaking liquid)

Powder dirt mixture made with 1/8 teaspoon each of goring ginger and cloves, and a pinch of pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried saffron strands moistened with the fig soaking liquid

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 egg yolk, 2 egg whites

7-10 sheets of filo pastry

Oil for frying

222ml of honey (optional)

Method

First, rehydrate the figs by submerging them in boiling water and covering with cling film. Should take roughly 15-20 minutes.

Make the powder dirt mixture by combing the spices.

Roughly dice the moistened figs, reserve the soaking liquid.

Moisten the saffron strands with a bit of the fig soaking liquid.

Combine the fig pieces, powder fort mixture, salt, saffron strands (not liquid) and egg yolk in a food processor.

The mixture should look like this, it should be a paste like consistency with some textured pieces.

Cut the filo sheets into three along the short side. Then brush the piece with lightly beaten egg white before spooning in the mixture.

Place roughly a teaspoon of mixture on one end of the pastry sheet. Then like a Swiss roll, roll the mixture up and once the whole pastry strip has been used, pinch both sides to keep the mixture in.

This is what my rolls look like, repeat the same process until all the mixture has been used up. If you’re making a large portion, perhaps cover the already made pastries with a damp tea towel to prevent the pastry from drying out.

Use as much oil as you like to fry the pastries either shallowly or deeply, I recommend using a neutrally tasting oil. Fry a few pastries at a time, they should not take long.

Watch the pastries and check often how the side in the oil is cooking. Flip once golden and try to fry off all sides of the pastry. Once cooked, remove to a plate.

And Voila! This is the final result. (Note that I only made half of the recipe)

These pastries were surprising delicious and moreish! The mixture is very simple and quick to make, however the process of rolling up the pastry is very time consuming, fiddly and messy. The frying is quite volatile but quick, make sure to check the pastries frequently to prevent over cooking.

We originally tasted the pastries with some double cream, but honey is far far superior. Instead of melting the honey however, I just squeezed/spread some on top of each roll, or used it as a dip. All in all, these pastries were very tasty and I shall be making them again, they reminded me a bit of modern donuts.

Rating: 7.5/10

Medieval Cream Custard Tart

I decided this recipe, taken from The British Museum’s ‘The Medieval Cookbook’ by Maggie Black, would be a perfect introduction into the realm of cooking. This is because it is very similar to modern popular desserts we have today, especially the Portuguese pastel de nata which is a favourite of mine, so was (hopefully) sure to be a hit. In this post I will take you through the ingredients, method and reviews of this dish.

Ingredients (to serve 6)

For the pastry:

225g of plain flour

105g cold butter (recipe calls for 40g of this to be lard)

A little cold milk

For the filling:

A pinch of dried saffron strands pulverised

6 egg yolks

350ml of double cream

125ml of milk (I used semi-skimmed)

65g white sugar

pinch of salt

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius whilst you prepare the pastry. For best results, use a 5 cm deep, 20cm diameter pie dish or loose-bottomed cake tin.

Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add in the (cold!) butter chopped into small cubes. Crumble together.

Once crumbled, add in a little milk at a time and knead until it forms into a dough.

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface (I used a cold wine bottle for this to maintain the low temperature) and lay it in the pie dish. Cut off the edges and crimp them if desired. Bake blind with a parchment paper and baking beans for 20 minutes.

Remove the beans and paper and lower the temperature of the oven to 160 degrees celsius and cook for a further 7-9 minutes.

Whilst the pastry is cooking, prepare the filling for the tart.

Grind up a pinch of saffron with a pestle and mortar and add in 2 tbsp of warmish water.

Separate 6 egg yolks from the white into a large mixing bowl. Whisk them together.

Add in the milk, cream, sugar, salt and saffron water to the beaten eggs.

Simply pour the cream custard mixture into the pre-cooked pastry base and cook for 45-50 minutes or until just firm in the centre.

Take the tart out of the oven and voila! Serve whilst warm.

Whilst this recipe was time consuming, it was easy to make and went down a treat. My Dad commented that it was delicious with the dominate egg taste combined with the sugar. He said you could tell it was different to a modern recipe due to the lack of cinnamon and how prominent the egg taste was. He also noted that the texture was very delicate, the pastry was nice and short and the tart had a lovely wobbliness to it.

In a three person household, this whole dish was eaten within 24 hours which is a real testament to how utterly delicious it was! I am inspired to make more historical recipes, and will definitely continue using the same recipe book.

Rating: 9/10