BOILED OSTRICHNow for a fun dish. Few of my fellow slaves even get the chance to see such a bird, let alone clean, kill, pluck, and prepare it! Is this really a privilege? I consider it one. Well, mostly when I'm seeing it boiling in a pot after I've struggled and scratched with it for eons.
My master has not yet been able to secure a flamingo like the one depicted in this mosaic, but I must say I am quite curious as to see how lively they are and how they will taste. I hear their stink is quite intolerable, but it is no matter because the rich usually eat only the tongues anyway.
I prepare ostrich only for the most special occasions. I usually can delegate the task of buying and carrying the ostrich to another slave, as my master desires that I rest well before I cook this important dish.
For boiled ostrich: pepper, mint, roast cumin, celery seed, honey, vinegar, passum, garum, a little oil. Put these in the pot and bring to a boil. Bind with amulum, pour over the pieces of ostrich in a serving dish and sprinkle with pepper. To cook the ostrich in the sauce, add alica.
When deciding whether or not to add alica, I ask a server to gauge how a feast is going and report back to me. If the guests are gorged on previous dishes, I will do without it. If they are eagerly awaiting this centerpiece I opt for the heavier sauce and add the alica.
STEAMED LAMB
Put cutlets into pot, together with diced onion and spices. Add Liquamen, oil and wine. Be sure to cover meat with sauce before serving.
This is a quick and simple dish to prepare. It can be made with leftover lamb from a feast day, which is fortunate for I am usually quite worn out from cooking without stop for feasts.
GUSTUM OF APRICOTS
Clean hard-skinned early fruit, remove the stones. Put them with water, ground pepper, and dried mint. Add liquamen, honey, passum, wine and vinegar. Heat with oil in a pan. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.
This is easy to make and the children enjoy it. It is a useful dish at times when the family is too impatient to wait for fruit to ripen, but also desires that it be sweet. Perhaps this recipe was first created by some harried cook doing his best to solve this problem and avoid having his hands cut off or being thrown into the furnace. Honey and passum can fix anything, really.
