Master invited another one of his many friends, and a cook named Pomponius came along too. Pomponius proceeded to cook some sea urchins that his master had ordered him to bring to my master's house. He taught me how to cook it:
Take a new earthen pot, a little oil, broth, sweet wine, ground pepper, and set it to heat; when boiling put the urchins in singly. Shake them well, let them stew, and when done sprinkle with pepper and serve.
Pomponius's master gracefully rewarded us with some leftovers for our hard work. I was quite excited for I have never tasted these strange looking creatures of the sea. When Pomponius saw how confused I looked as I tried to figure out how to eat the beasts, he cracked a few wise jokes on me, which became rather annoying after his 8th joke. I now realized exactly how my master's guests must have felt when my master made similar jokes to them regarding exotic food. To my delight, Romanus stuffed one entirely with pepper and encouraged it into Pomponius's bowl. Pomponius could not see me heartily patting Romanus on the back for his vision was obscured with tears as he was half-choking.
A good night overall, I must say.
Tuesday
Flamin' Flamingo
My master finally managed to get a flamingo from a merchant who came to town from a far away place called Antalya. He was in the mood for some hot food today, and he was inspired by the bright red feathers of the flamingo to have it cooked spicy. I obliged.
Phoenicoptero
Scald the flamingo, wash and dress it, put it in a pot, add water, salt, dill, and a little vinegar, to be parboiled. Finish cooking with a bunch of leeks and coriander, and add some reduced must to give it color. In the mortar crush pepper, cumin, coriander, laser root, mint, rue, moisten with vinegar, add dates, and the fond of the braised bird, thicken, strain, cover the bird with the sauce and serve. Parrot is prepared in the same manner.
I almost forgot to scald the bird before removing the feathers. Fine feathers should be singed. For spicy oomph, and to indulge the mistress' love of pepper, I added 5 times the recommended amount of pepper. Tears flowed freely from my eyes, but the Mussel Man really loved it. He asked me to cook the tongue separately, and he shared it with the mistress.
Phoenicoptero
Scald the flamingo, wash and dress it, put it in a pot, add water, salt, dill, and a little vinegar, to be parboiled. Finish cooking with a bunch of leeks and coriander, and add some reduced must to give it color. In the mortar crush pepper, cumin, coriander, laser root, mint, rue, moisten with vinegar, add dates, and the fond of the braised bird, thicken, strain, cover the bird with the sauce and serve. Parrot is prepared in the same manner.
I almost forgot to scald the bird before removing the feathers. Fine feathers should be singed. For spicy oomph, and to indulge the mistress' love of pepper, I added 5 times the recommended amount of pepper. Tears flowed freely from my eyes, but the Mussel Man really loved it. He asked me to cook the tongue separately, and he shared it with the mistress.
Mussel Man
Before Rufus left, he taught me a simple seafood dish as a gustatio:
Mussels in Sweet Wine Sauce
Mix liquamen, chopped leek, cumin, savory and sweet wine, dilute with water and cook the mussels in it.
Master loved it. So did the mistress. They loved it so much that they dispatched one of the servants to the coast to hire a fisherman to gather mussels exclusively for them. The first batch came in this morning, and the master was in a very good spirit for the entire day. "Mussel man," we call him in the kitchen now.
Mussels in Sweet Wine Sauce
Mix liquamen, chopped leek, cumin, savory and sweet wine, dilute with water and cook the mussels in it.
Master loved it. So did the mistress. They loved it so much that they dispatched one of the servants to the coast to hire a fisherman to gather mussels exclusively for them. The first batch came in this morning, and the master was in a very good spirit for the entire day. "Mussel man," we call him in the kitchen now.
Privileged, still a slave nonetheless
Today was a big day. Septimius, the brother of Emperor Claudius, has graced my master with his presence at dinner. The entire household has been preparing for his arrival since last month actually. My master has copiously reminded me the importance of his guest of honor and, as such, much responsibility has been placed on my shoulders. This was one of his shining moments to remind others of his prominence, and the food was to be impeccable. I have been scouring the market for ingredients for weeks. The cooking for the convivia began a week ago.
The dinner lasted for the entire night. Thankfully, Septimius brought along his own cook, Rufus. Rufus told me quite frankly that Septimius is under the impression that no other cooks can satisfy his oh-so-sensitive palate, but I was glad to be relieved from preparing Septimius's meal anyways. After all the guests had eaten until unconscious, Rufus and I had some of the leftovers by the kitchen fire. He began to tell me stories of unfortunate events that befell on some of his acquaintances, who were(!) also cooks. One cook in Metapontum received 100 lashes for not using enough salt to season the fish. Yet another in Apuleius hung himself to avoid his master's punishment after a dog finished an expensive ham of a stag.
I know for certain that I will not have to fear such repercussions for my master is a good man. In fact, before he retired for the night, my master bestowed a hefty praise on me with a silver cup despite the fact that some of the dishes could have been better. As much as I sincerely appreciate my master's kindness, I am reminded of the fact that my life is at the mercy of someone else whether I hear about an unfortunate end of a fellow cook or receive a gift from my master. Oh, how I wish to be a free man! Once Romanus is ready to take my place, I shall ask my master for my freedom. I have an inkling that my master knows and has already acquiesced to my wish. The other day, I caught a glimpse of my master looking over while I was teaching Romanus how to cook master's favorite dish, steamed lamb. Once it was served for dinner, he gave me a knowing nod as to approve Romanus preparing his favorite dish from then on.
For now, though, still a privileged slave.
The dinner lasted for the entire night. Thankfully, Septimius brought along his own cook, Rufus. Rufus told me quite frankly that Septimius is under the impression that no other cooks can satisfy his oh-so-sensitive palate, but I was glad to be relieved from preparing Septimius's meal anyways. After all the guests had eaten until unconscious, Rufus and I had some of the leftovers by the kitchen fire. He began to tell me stories of unfortunate events that befell on some of his acquaintances, who were(!) also cooks. One cook in Metapontum received 100 lashes for not using enough salt to season the fish. Yet another in Apuleius hung himself to avoid his master's punishment after a dog finished an expensive ham of a stag.
I know for certain that I will not have to fear such repercussions for my master is a good man. In fact, before he retired for the night, my master bestowed a hefty praise on me with a silver cup despite the fact that some of the dishes could have been better. As much as I sincerely appreciate my master's kindness, I am reminded of the fact that my life is at the mercy of someone else whether I hear about an unfortunate end of a fellow cook or receive a gift from my master. Oh, how I wish to be a free man! Once Romanus is ready to take my place, I shall ask my master for my freedom. I have an inkling that my master knows and has already acquiesced to my wish. The other day, I caught a glimpse of my master looking over while I was teaching Romanus how to cook master's favorite dish, steamed lamb. Once it was served for dinner, he gave me a knowing nod as to approve Romanus preparing his favorite dish from then on.
For now, though, still a privileged slave.
Monday
Some common ingredients
Romanus, the boy whom I am teaching how to cook, mentioned with great difficulty that he sometimes does not know what certain ingredients are called. Although he has been cooking some very simple dishes with those ingredients, he has been doing so without really knowing their names. So for the benefit of my dear Romanus and others, here are four very common 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.
Liquamen: 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.
Better late than never.
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.
Liquamen: 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.
Better late than never.
Desserts
The mistress, who recently became pregnant, had a pretty powerful, scary sugar/nut craving today, so I set out to make some desserts.
Here is my own recipe: DULCIA DOMESTICA
Take the stones out of the dates and fill them with nuts or stone-pine kernels. Sprinkle a bit of salt on the filled dates and stew them in honey or honey-sweetened red wine. The dates have to be cooked in on low heat until their paring starts to come off (approximately 5-10 minutes).
I usually fill some of the dates with pepper because that is the way the mistress likes, but judging from her voracious desire for sweetness, I filled the dates with nuts and honey this time.
Amazingly, after finishing more than 50 dates, the mistress still wanted more sweet food. I obliged.
ALITER DULCIA
Mesh pepper, pine kernels, honey, rue, and Passum with milk and eggs, and boil the dough. Serve topped with honey and sprinkle with pepper.
Once again, I used very little pepper and substituted honey instead. I need to remember to buy more honey tomorrow for I have used almost all the honey in the kitchen.
Here is my own recipe: DULCIA DOMESTICA
Take the stones out of the dates and fill them with nuts or stone-pine kernels. Sprinkle a bit of salt on the filled dates and stew them in honey or honey-sweetened red wine. The dates have to be cooked in on low heat until their paring starts to come off (approximately 5-10 minutes).
I usually fill some of the dates with pepper because that is the way the mistress likes, but judging from her voracious desire for sweetness, I filled the dates with nuts and honey this time.
Amazingly, after finishing more than 50 dates, the mistress still wanted more sweet food. I obliged.
ALITER DULCIA
Mesh pepper, pine kernels, honey, rue, and Passum with milk and eggs, and boil the dough. Serve topped with honey and sprinkle with pepper.
Once again, I used very little pepper and substituted honey instead. I need to remember to buy more honey tomorrow for I have used almost all the honey in the kitchen.
Boiled Eggs
The pine-nut sauce keeps this gustum interesting. I send out eggs when I know that my main dish will take a while to cook, as they help to stave off the guests' hunger for just long enough.
Sauce: Pepper and soaked pine nuts. Add honey and vinegar and mix with garum.
Eggs are a favorite gustum in the house, and only second to dormice. They are such a central food. Horace's quite brilliant phrase, "From the egg to the apples," sums up the perfect typical Roman meal. I laughed quite a bit when I first heard the phrase from snatches of dinner conversation.
Sauce: Pepper and soaked pine nuts. Add honey and vinegar and mix with garum.
Eggs are a favorite gustum in the house, and only second to dormice. They are such a central food. Horace's quite brilliant phrase, "From the egg to the apples," sums up the perfect typical Roman meal. I laughed quite a bit when I first heard the phrase from snatches of dinner conversation.
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