p125  Book V. Legumes
Liber V. Osprion​1

1 List. Osprios; G.‑V. Ospreon — cookery of leguminous plants.

1 Puls — formerly a simple porridge of various kinds of cereals or legumes, eaten by the Romans before bread came into use. Puls remained in use after the introduction of bread only as a food of the poor. It was also used at sacrifices. The pultes and pulticulae given by Apicius are illustrations of the ever-present desire to improve — to glorify, as it were, a thing which once was or still is of vital importance in the daily life of humans. The nouveaux-riches of the ancient and the modern world cannot find it easy to separate themselves from their traditions nor are they wont to put up with their plainness, hence the fancy trimmings. The development of the American pie is a curious analogy in this respect. We see in this the intricate working of human culture, its eternal strife for perfection. And perfection is synonymous with decay. The fare of the Carthusian monks, professed, stern vegetarians, underwent the same tortuous evolution.

2 Named for Didius Julianus, the emperor who was a vegetarian. Of course, his majesty could not live on plain porridge, hence the Apician artistry. The pultes were popular with the many professed vegetarians though the obliging cooks mixed finely ground meat in this and other porridges.

Our various cream soups and legume purées — those most salubrious creations of modern cookery are no doubt lineal descendants from the Apician pultes. They are so scarce comparatively because they require all the ingenuity and resourcefulness of a gifted cook to be perfect.

3 Dann. remarks that this formula is wanting in List. Both Lister's first and second editions have it.

1 Tor. sentence wanting in other texts.

2 Tor. Oenogari; G.‑V. Oenococti.

3 Tor. cupedias; copadia.

1 Tac. inulam; Tor. mulam — misreading.

2 Tor.; List. apponis.

 p127  3 For practical reasons we have separated the text of ℞ Nos. 179 and 180 which appears as one in the texts.

a Thayer: This may well be similar to the previous recipe, but Vehling has fallen into a confusion. Similem, the accusative of similis, would have meant "similar"; but the text, if it does not read inulam with Tac., has similam, accusative of simila, meaning "fine sifted [flour, grain]". This is probably something like semolina gnocchi or maybe couscous.

1 Tor. pulticula tractogala.

2 List. tres orbiculos tractae; Tor. teres sorbiculos tractae.

Tractum is a piece of pastry, a round bread or roll in this case, stale, best suited for this purpose.

3 The text continues without interruption.

1 Tor. Alia pulticula.

This is a verbatim repetition of ℞ No. 178.

1 Tor. De Lenticula et Castaneis.

2 List. again: ex spongiolis sive fungulis. See notes to ℞ Nos. 115‑120 and 431.

3 Boletar — a "mushroom" dish. G.‑V. in boletari; Tac. insuper oleum uiridem mittis; Tor. involutari — unidentified.

1 Lentils are omitted in this formula; therefore see the following formula.

2 Thus G.‑V.; Tor. Chestnuts.

3 i.e. peeled and skinned. To do this easily, boil the chestnuts with the skin, whereupon the outer brown shell and the inner membrane are easily removed.

4 To make a purée of the chestnuts which strain through the colander.

184a Another way​1
Aliter lenticulam

Cook the lentils, skim them, strain, add leeks, green coriander; crush coriander seed, flea-bane, laser root, mint seed and rue seed moistened with vinegar; add honey, broth, vinegar, reduced must to taste, then oil, stirring the purée until it is done, bind with roux, add green oil, sprinkle with pepper and serve.

1 It is evident that ℞ No. 184 and the above are really one formula, the former dealing with the cooking of the maroons, the latter describing the lentils. Presumably the two purées are to be mixed, or to be served as integral parts of one dish.

1 This reminds us of Petits Pois à la Française, namely green peas (often  p129 very young ones with the pods) cooked in broth, or bouillon, with shredded bacon, lettuce, parsley, onions (or leeks, as above), fresh mint, pepper, salt and other fresh herbs such as chervil. Which is a very delectable way of preparing the tender pea. Some of its refreshing green color is sacrificed by this process, but this loss is amply offset by the savour of the dish.

1 List. Pisa farsilis; Tor. p. farsilia; Tac., G.‑V. pisam farsilem — same as fartilis, from farcio — fattened, stuffed, or crammed, or as full as it can hold, metaphorically perhaps "supreme style," "most sumptuous," etc.

2 This meat being fat enough, the oil seems superfluous.

3 isicia, formerly called Greek hysitia — any fine forcemeats, cut into or cooked in tiny dumplings.

 p130  4 Liaison wanting in Tor.

5 Tor. makes no mention of the square dish and its caul lining. Caul is the abdominal membrane.

6 petasonis pulpas; Dann. ham, which is not quite correct. The petaso is the shoulder part of the pork, either cured or fresh, generally fresh. The cooked pork shoulder here is cut into small pieces. Nothing is said about the utilization of the sow's belly mentioned at the opening of the formula. We assume that the petaso can take its place in the dish.

7 There is nothing just like this dish in the history of gastronomy, considering both the comparatively cheap materials and the refinement of the gastronomic idea which it embodies. The chartreuses of Carême are the nearest thing to it. Lister waxes enthusiastic about it.

1 Tor. pisum Indicum.

2 Tor., Tac. casei modicum; other texts, carei.

3 The texts continuesº without interruption to the next formula.

1 The texts fail to state that the whites, yolks, onions, vinegar and oil must eventually be combined into a dressing very similar to our own modern vinaigrette; for decorative and other gastronomic reasons the separate treatment of the whites and the yolks is both ingenious and excellent, and is very often practised in good kitchens today.

1 List. Pisa Vitelliana — named for Vitellius, ninth Roman emperor, notorious glutton, according to Hum. who says that V. invented this dish: ab auctore Vitellio Imperatore luxui deditissimo. But Tor. differs; his pisum vitellinum stands for peas with yolks — vitellum — yolk, (also calf) dim. vitellinum; Tac. v–am. Cf. ℞ No. 193.

2 Tor. sentence wanting in other texts.

3 lias — to make a purée by crushing and straining. Tor. laevigabis, from levigo — meaning the same.

4 If Vitellius never invented any other dish than this one, his gluttony was overrated. As a gastronomer he may be safely relegated to the vast multitude of ill-advised people whose craving for carbohydrates (which is perhaps pathological) causes them to accumulate a surplus of fat. This was fatal to Vitellius and his faithful court baker who is said to have stuck to his master to the last. The poor emperor's embonpoint proved cumbersome when he fled the infuriated mob. Had he been leaner he might have effected a "getaway." He was dragged through the streets and murdered, Dec. 21 or 22, A.D. 69.

1 G.‑V. tudiclabis; Tor. misceas.

2 cum isiciis — bits of forcemeat.

1 Parthian, from Parthia, a country of Asia.

1 Sch., Dann. crafty, i.e. not genuine. Adulteram cannot here be used in its most accepted sense, because the peas are genuine, and no attempt is made to adulterate or "fake" this dish in any way, shape or form. Never before have we applied the term "seductive" to any dish, but this is just what adultera means. "Tempting" of course is quite common.

2 Tor. sentence wanting in other texts.

3 This formula is incomplete or mutilated, the last sentence breaks off in the middle — very likely a description of the sauce or condiments belonging to the peas.

Each and every component of this (really tempting) dish must be cooked separately; they are then composed in a dish, nicely arranged, with the peas in the center, surrounded by the several morsels, with an appropriate gravy made from the natural liquor or juices of the component parts poured over the dish.

1 Named for the inventor, Emperor Vitellius; cf. notes to ℞ No. 189. Tor. Vitellianum.

2 Tor. sentence wanting in other texts.

3 Wanting in Dann.

4 Tor.

1 Tor. Concicla — conchis — conchicula — young, immature beans, string or wax, boiled in the shell or pod.

2 conchiclam cum faba — young string beans and (dry, white or kidney) beans, cooked separately of course and mixed when done, ready for service.

1 Peas in the pod are likewise called conchicla; hence perhaps any legumes cooked in the shells.

2 Tor. sentence wanting in other texts.

3 isiciola porcina.

4 pulpas — in this case no specific meat.

5 petaso; Dann. pieces of ham.

6 cepam siccam — ordinary dry onions, not shallots.

1 Thus G.‑V.; Tor. Concicla Pisorum.

2 Sch. feniculum instead of fasciculum.

3 G.‑V. de suo sibi fricabis; Tor. seorsim f.

4 G.‑V. wine wanting in Tor.

5 Brandt, referring to ℞ No. 154, suggests that the things crushed in a mortar be placed on top of the peas.

1 Hum. Named for Commodus, the emperor; List. for Commodus Antonius, son of the philosopher Marcus. [Thayer: this is the same person.]

2 Tor. sentence wanting in other texts.

1 By congealing in a mould, which is unmoulded on a heap of peas. Danneil directs to stuff the whole chicken with the pea preparation, brains, etc., and to poach it in a square pan.

1 G.‑V., Tor. Concicla farsilis.

2 Tor. here splits the formula, using the above title.

1 A repetition of Book IV, Chap. IV, Tisanam vel sucum, our ℞ No. 172.

2 [The printed edition marks a note in the text, but there is no corresponding note in the footnotes.]

3 Tor. still has difficulties with the vegetable called by Lister colocasium.  p136 He reads here colonium and colosium. G.‑V. coloefium. Cf. Note 1 to ℞ No. 172 and Note to Nos. 74, 216, 244 and 322.

1 A repetition of ℞ No. 173.

1 Beans grown in Baiae, also called bajanas or bacanas; beans without skin or pods.

1 Named for Baiae, a town of Campania, noted for its warm baths; a favorite resort of the Romans.

2 Wanting in Tor.

 p137  3 These apparently outlandish ways of cooking beans compel us to draw a modern parallel in a cookery book, specializing in Jewish dishes. To prove that Apicius is not dead "by a long shot," we shall quote from Wolf, Rebekka: Kochbuch für Israelitische Frauen, Frankfurt, 1896, 11th edition. As a matter of fact, Rebekka Wolf is outdoing Apicius in strangeness — a case of Apicium in ipso Apicio, as Lister sarcastically remarks of Torinus.

Rebekka Wolf: ℞ No. 211 — wash and boil the young beans in fat bouillon (Apicius: oleum et liquamen) adding a handful of chopped pepperwort (A.: piper, ligusticum) and later chopped parsley (A.: petroselinum) some sugar (A.: mel pavoº — little honey) and pepper. Beans later in the season are cooked with potatoes. The young beans are tied with flour dissolved in water, or with roux.

Id. ibid., ℞ No. 212, Beans Sweet-Sour. Boil in water, fat, salt, add vinegar, sugar or syrup, "English aromatics" and spices, lemon peel, and a little pepper; bind with roux.

Id. ibid., ℞ No. 213, Cut Pickled Beans (Schneidebohnen) prepare as ℞ No. 212, but if you would have them more delicious, take instead of the roux grated chocolate, sugar, cinnamon, lemon peel and lemon juice, and some claret. If not sour enough, add vinegar, but right here you must add more fat; you may lay on top of this a bouquet of sliced apples.

Id. ibid., ℞ No. 214, Beans and Pears. Take cut and pickled beans and prepare as above. To this add peeled fresh pears, cut into quarters; then sugar, lemon peel cut thin, cinnamon, "English" mixed spices, and at last the roux, thinned with broth. This dish must be sweet and very fat.

As for exotic combinations, Apicius surely survives here, is even surpassed by this Jewish cookery book where, no doubt, very ancient traditions have been stored away.

1 Tor. or fenum; G.‑V. Faenum.

1 Tor. Faseolus, the bean with a long, sabre-like pod; a phasel, kidney bean, when ripened.

1 Dann. and Goll.: "roasted" beans.

1 The original continues with the preceding formula.

2 For a salad we would add finely chopped onion, pepper, and some lemon juice.

The purpose of removing the seeds is obscure. G.‑V. reads semine cum ovis; Tac. semie; Hum. s. cum lobis. The passage may mean to sprinkle (sow) with hard boiled (and finely chopped) eggs, which is often done on a salad and other dishes.