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Book VII

This webpage reproduces a Book of the
De Re Coquinaria
of
Apicius
published by Walter M. Hill, 1936

The text is in the public domain.

This text has not yet been proofread.
If you find a mistake though,
please let me know!

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Book IX

Apicius
De Re Coquinaria

 p183  Book VIII. Quadrupeds
Liber VIII. Tetrapus

Chap. I Wild Boar.
Chap. II Venison.
Chap. III Chamois, Gazelle.
Chap. IV Wild Sheep.
Chap. V Beef and Veal.
Chap. VI Kid and Lamb.
Chap. VII Pig.
Chap. VIII Hare.
Chap. IX Dormouse.

I

329 Wild Boar is Prepared thus
Aper ita conditur

It is cleaned; sprinkled with salt and crushed cumin and thus left. The next day it is put into the oven; when done season with crushed pepper. A sauce for boar: honey⁠1 broth, reduced wine, raisin wine.

1 Lan., Tor. vel instead of mel.

330 Another Way to Prepare Boar
Aliter in apro

You boil the boar in sea water with sprigs of laurel; when done nice and soft, remove the skin, serve with salt, mustard, vinegar.

 p184  331 Another Way to Cook Sauce for Boar
Aliter in apro

Crush pepper, lovage, origany, seedless myrtle berries, coriander, onions; add honey, wine, broth and a little oil; heat and tie with roux. The boar, roasted in the oven, is masked with this sauce, which you may use for any kind of roast game.⁠1

1 Tor. continues without interruption.

332 Make a Hot Sauce for Roast Boar thus
Jura ferventia in aprum assum facies sic⁠1

Crush pepper, cumin, celery seed, mint, thyme, satury, saffron, toasted nuts, or toasted almonds, honey, wine, broth, vinegar and a little oil.

1 Tor. In aprum uerò assum, indicating, perhaps, that ordinary pork also was prepared "boar style." Cf. ℞ No. 352.

333 Another Hot Sauce for Boar
Aliter in aprum assum iure ferventia

Pepper, lovage, celery seed, mint, thyme, toasted nuts, wine, vinegar, broth, and a little oil. When the simple broth⁠1 is boiling incorporate the crushed things and stir with an aromatic bouquet of onions and rue. If you desire to make this a richer sauce, tie it with whites of egg, stirring the liquid egg in gently. Sprinkle with a little pepper and serve.

1 Presumably the broth or stock in which the meat was roasted or braised.

334 Sauce for Boiled Boar
Ius in aprum elixum

Real sauce for boiled boar is composed in this manner.⁠1 Pepper, lovage, cumin, silphium, origany, nuts, figdates, mustard, vinegar, broth and oil.

1 Tor. sentence wanting in other texts.

335 Cold Sauce for Boiled Boar⁠1
Ius frigidum in aprum elixum

Pepper, cumin, lovage, crushed coriander seed,  p185 dill seed, celery seed, thyme, origany, little onion, honey, vinegar, mustard, broth and oil.

1 ℞ No. 336 precedes this formula in Tor.

336 Another Cold Sauce for Boiled Boar
Aliter ius frigidum in aprum elixum

Pepper, lovage, cumin, dill seed, thyme, origany, little silphium, rather more mustard seed, add pure wine, some green herbs, a little onion, crushed nuts from the Pontus, or almonds, dates, honey, vinegar, some more pure wine, color with reduced must and add broth and oil.⁠1

1 Strongly resembling our vinaigrette.

337 Another Sauce for Boar
Aliter ius in apro

Crush pepper, lovage, origany, celery seed, laser root, cumin, fennel seed, rue, broth, wine, raisin wine; heat, when done tie with roux; cover the meat with this sauce so as to penetrate the meat and serve.

338 Shoulder of Boar is Stuffed in this Manner
Perna apruna ita impletur⁠1

Loosen the meat from the bones by means of a wooden stick in order to fill the cavity left by the bones with a dressing which is introduced through a funnel. The dressing season with crushed pepper, laurel berries and rue; if you like, add laser, the best kind of broth, reduced must and sprinkle with fresh oil. When the filling is done, tie the parts thus stuffed in linen, place them in the stock pot in which they are to be cooked and boil them in sea water, with a sprig of laurel and dill.⁠2

1 G.‑V. Terentina, referring to a place in the campus Martius, where the ludi seculares were celebrated. Tor. recentia, fresh.

2 The dressing consisted principally of pork or veal pounded fine, seasoned as directed above, and tied with eggs, as if often prescribed by Apicius.

To verify how little high class cookery methods have changed consult one of the foremost of modern authorities, Auguste Escoffier, of the Carlton and Ritz  p186 hotels, London and Paris, who in his "Guide Culinaire" presents this dish under its ancient Italian name of Zampino.

II
Venison [Stag]
In cervo

339 Sauce for Stag
Ius in cervum

Crush pepper, lovage, caraway,⁠1 origany, celery seed, laser root, fennel seed, moisten with broth, wine,⁠2 raisin wine and a little oil. When boiling bind with roux; the cooked meat immerse in this sauce braise to penetrate and to soften, and serve. For broad horn deer as well as for other venison follow similar methods and use the same condiments.

1 Tor. carenum; Hum. legendum: careum.

2 Wanting in Tor.

340 Another Way⁠1
Aliter

Parboil and braise the venison. Crush pepper, lovage, caraway, celery seed, moisten with honey, vinegar, broth and oil; heat, bind with roux and pour over the roast.

1 Tor. Another little sauce for venison.

341 Venison Sauce
Ius in cervo

Mix pepper, lovage, onion, origany, nuts, figdates, honey, broth, mustard, vinegar, oil.⁠1

1 Resembling a vinaigrette, except for the nuts and dates.

342 Preparation of Venison
Cervinae conditura

Pepper, cumin, condiments, parsley, onion, rue, honey, broth, mint raisin wine, reduced wine, and a little oil; bind with roux when boiling.

343 Hot Sauce for Venison
Iura ferventia in cervo

Pepper, lovage, parsley, cumin, toasted nuts or almonds, honey, vinegar, wine, a little oil; add broth and stir well.

 p187  344 Marinade for Roast Venison
Embamma⁠1 in cervinam assam

Pepper, nard leaves, celery seed, dry onions, green rue, honey, vinegar, broth, add dates, raisins and oil.

1 Tor. Intinctus, same; a marinade, a pickle or sauce in which to preserve or to flavor raw meat or fish.

345 Another Hot Sauce for Venison
Aliter in cervum assum iura ferventia

Pepper, lovage, parsley, stewed Damascus prunes, wine, honey, vinegar, broth, a little oil; stir with a fagot of leeks and satury.⁠1

1 A fagot of herbs; regarding this method of flavoring, Cf. notes to ℞ No. 277 seq.

A sauce resembling our Cumberland, very popular with venison which is sweetened with currant jelly instead of the above prunes.

III
Chamois, Gazelle
In caprea

346 Sauce for Wild Goat
Ius in caprea

Pepper, lovage, caraway, cumin, parsley, rue seed, honey, mustard, vinegar, broth and oil.

347 Sauce for Roast Wild Goat
Ius in caprea assa

Pepper, herbs, rue, onion, honey, broth, raisin wine, a little oil, bind with roux.

347a Still Another
Aliter

As above is made with parsley and marjoram.⁠1

1 Wanting in G.‑V.

347b Another Sauce for Wild Goat
Aliter ius in caprea

Pepper, spices, parsley, a little origany, rue, broth, honey, raisin wine, and a little oil; bind with roux.⁠1

1 Wanting in Tor.

 p188  IV
Wild Sheep
In ovifero (hoc est ovis silvatica)⁠1

348 Sauce for Mountain Sheep
Ius in ovifero fervens

That is, (roast the meat, prepare a sauce of⁠1 pepper, lovage, cumin, dry mint,⁠2 thyme, silphium, moisten with wine, add stewed Damascus prunes, honey, wine, broth, vinegar, raisin wine, — enough to color — and stir with a whip of origany and dry mint.⁠3

1 G.‑V., List. in ovi fero; Dann. "wild eggs," i.e., eggs of game birds, and he comes to the conclusion that game birds themselves are meant to be used in this formula, as no reference to "eggs" is made.

There can be no doubt but what this formula deals with the preparation of sheep; Torinus says expressly: oviferum, hoc est, carnem ovis sylvestris — the meat of sheep from the woods, mountain sheep. Ferum is "wild," "game," but it also means "pregnant." For this double sense the formula may be interpreted as dealing with either wild sheep, or with pregnant sheep, or, more probably, with unborn baby lamb, which in antiquity as today is often killed principally for its skin.

2 Tor.

3 Mint is still associated with lamb; the above sauce appears to be merely an elaborate Roman ancestor of our modern mint sauce, served with lamb, the chief ingredients of which are mint, vinegar and sugar, served both hot and cold.

349 Sauce for all Kinds of Game, Boiled or Roast
Ius in venationibus omnibus elixis et assis⁠1

8 scruples of pepper, rue, lovage, celery seed, juniper, thyme, dry mint, 6 scruples in weight each 3 scruples of flea-bane; reduce all this to the finest powder, put it together in a vessel with sufficient honey and use it with vinegar and garum.

1 Tor. Jusculum Omni Venationi competens.

350 Cold Sauce for Wild Sheep
Ius frigidum in ovifero⁠1

Pepper, lovage, thyme, cumin, crushed toasted  p189 nuts, honey, vinegar, broth, and oil; sprinkle with pepper.

1 List. Omni fero; which Dann. interprets, "All kind of game." Cf. note 1 to ℞ No. 348.

V
Beef or Veal
Bubula sive vitellina

351 Veal Steak
Vitellina fricta⁠1

For a sauce with fried beef or veal take⁠2 pepper, lovage, celery seed, cumin, origany, dry onion, raisins, honey, vinegar, wine, broth, oil, and reduced must.

1 Evidently a beef or veal steak sauté. Beef did not figure very heavily on the dietary of the ancients in contrast to present modes which make beef the most important meat, culinarily speaking. The above sauce, save for the raisins and honey, resembles the modern Bordelaise, often served with beef steaks sauté, in contrast to the grilled steaks which are served with maître d'hôtel butter.

2 [There is a marker for this note, but no actual note.]

352 Veal or Beef with Leeks
Vitulinam⁠1 sive bubulam cum porris

or with quinces⁠2 or with onions, or with dasheens⁠3 use broth, pepper, laser and a little oil.

1 G.‑V. same as vitellinam.

2 Tor. Cydoniis; List. Succidaneis.

3 Cf. ℞ No. 332 et al.

353 Fricassée of Veal
In vitulinam elixam

Crush pepper, lovage, caraway, celery seed, moisten with honey, vinegar, broth and oil; heat, bind with roux and cover the meat.

354 Another Veal Fricassée
Aliter in vitulina elixa

Pepper, lovage, fennel seed, origany, nuts, fig-dates, honey, vinegar, broth, mustard and oil.

VI
Kid or Lamb
In haedo vel agno

355 Dainty dishes of kid or of lamb
Copadia haedina sive agnina

Cook with pepper and broth, also with various  p190 ordinary beans⁠1 broth, pepper and laser, cumin, dumplings⁠2 and a little oil.⁠3

1 cum faseolis, green string beans.

2 Tor. imbrato; G.‑V. inbracto, broken bread, regular dumplings.

3 Lamb and beans is a favorite combination, as in the French haricot, made with white beans, or boiled lamb with fresh string beans, quite a modern dish. Torinus omits the cumin, which is quite characteristic.

356 Another Lamb Stew
Aliter haedinam sive agninam excaldatam

Put pieces of kid or lamb in the stew pot with chopped onion and coriander. Crush pepper, lovage, cumin, and cook with broth oil and wine. Put in a dish and tie with roux.⁠1

1 It appears that the binding should be done before the stew is dished out; but this sentence illustrates the consummate art of Apicius. The good cook carefully separates the meat (as it is cooked) from the sauce, eliminates impurities, binds and strains it and puts the meat back into the finished sauce. This is the ideal way of making a stew which evidently was known to Apicius

357 Another Lamb Stew
Aliter haedinam sive agninam excaldatam

Add to the parboiled meat the raw herbs that have been crushed in the mortar and cook it. Goat meat is cooked likewise.

358 Broiled Kid or Lamb Steak
Haedum sive agnum assum

Kid after being cooked in broth and oil is sliced and marinated⁠1 with crushed pepper, laser, broth and a little oil. It is then grilled on the broiler and served with gravy. Sprinkle with pepper and serve up.

1 The marinade was used to make the gravy.

359 Roast Kid or Lamb
Aliter haedum sive agnum assum

Let us roast the kid or lamb, adding⁠1 half an ounce of pepper, 6 scruples of foalbit⁠2 a little  p191 ginger, 6 scruples of parsley, a little laser, a pint of best broth and a spoonful oil.⁠3

1 Tor.

2 Asarum; Tor. aseros; List. asareos — the herb foalbit, foalfoot, wild spikenard.

3 Tor. continues without interruption.

360 Stuffed Boned Kid or Lamb
Haedus sive agnus syringiatus⁠1

Milk-fed⁠2 kid or lamb is carefully boned through the throat so as to create a paunch or bag; the intestines are preserved whole in a manner that one can blow or inflate them at the head in order to expel the excrements at the other end; the body is washed carefully and is filled with a liquid dressing. Thereupon tie it carefully at the shoulders, put it into the roasting pan, baste well. When done, boil the gravy with milk and pepper, previously crushed, and broth, reduced wine, a little reduced must and also oil; and to the boiling gravy add roux. To play safe put the roast in a netting, bag or little basket and carefully tie together, add a little salt to the boiling gravy. After this has boiled well three times, take the meat out, boil the broth over again to reduce it incorporate with the above described liquor, adding the necessary seasoning.⁠3º

1 "Hollowed out like a pipe."

2 G.‑V. syringiatus (id est mammotestus). Tor. mammocestis. We are guessing.

3 We would call this a Galatine of lamb if such a dish were made of lamb today.

This article, like the following appears to be a contraction of two different formulae.

361 Stuffed Kid or Lamb Another Way
Aliter haedus sive agnus syringiatus

Kid or lamb is thus prepared and seasoned: take⁠1 1 pint milk, 4 ounces honey, 1 ounce pepper, a little salt, a little laser, gravy of the lamb, 8 ounces crushed dates, a spoonful oil, a little broth, a  p192 spoonful honey⁠2 a pint of good wine and a little roux.

1 Tor.

2 G.‑V.

362 The Raw Kid or Lamb⁠1
Haedus sive agnus crudus

Is rubbed with oil and pepper and sprinkled with plenty of clean salt and coriander seed, placed in the oven, served roast.

1 It is quite evident that this sentence belongs to the preceding formula; but all the texts make a distinct separation.

363 Kid or Lamb à la Tarpeius⁠1
Haedus sive agnum Tarpeianum

Before cooking the lamb truss it properly and marinate it in pepper, rue, satury, onions, and a little thyme and broth. Place the roast in a pan with oil, baste well while in the oven, when cooked thoroughly, fill the pan with crushed satury, onions, rue, dates, broth, wine, reduced wine, and oil; when this gravy is well cooked strain put it up in a dish, sprinkle with pepper and serve.

1 Tor. Tatarpeianum.º Tarpeius, family name of Romans. Humelberg thinks this dish is named for the people who dwelled on Mount Tarpeius. This was the Tarpeian Rock from which malefactors were thrown.

Thayer's Note: There was, once, a gens Tarpeia: it is very unlikely to have survived to a time such that it would have given its name to this recipe. "Mount Tarpeius" — Latin Tarpeius mons — a topographical feature in the city of Rome, is usually rendered in English as "Tarpeian Rock"; its site is not certainly known, but the term probably refers to an outcrop of the more cliff-like southwestern area of the Capitoline Hill; for its location, see the references in the article Tarpeius Mons of Platner and Ashby's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome.

Whether people lived on the Tarpeian Rock is even more problematic; see the same dictionary's article Capitolinus.

364 Kid or Lamb Parthian Style
Haedus sive agnum Parthicum

Put the roast in the oven; crush pepper, rue, onion, satury, stoned Damascus plums, a little laser, wine, broth and oil. Hot wine is served on the side and taken with vinegar.

365 Creamed Kid Flavored with Laurel⁠1
Haedum laureatum ex lacte

The kid dress and prepare, bone, remove the intestines with the rennet and wash. Put in the mortar pepper, lovage, laser root, 2 laurel berries, a little chamomile and 2 or 3 brains, all of which crush. Moisten with broth and season  p193 with salt. Over this mixture strain 2 pints⁠2 of milk, 2 little spoons of honey. With this forcemeat stuff the intestines and wrap them around the kid. Cover the roast with caul and parchment paper tightened with skewers, and place it in the roasting pan, adding broth, oil and wine. When half done, crush pepper, lovage, moisten with the roast's own gravy and a little reduced must; put this back into the pan and when the roast id done completely garnish it and bind the gravy with roux and serve.

1 Dan. thinks laureatus stands for the best, the prize-winning meat, but the laurel may refer to the flavor used.

List. remarks that cow's milk was very scarce in Italy; likewise was goat's and sheep's milk; hence it is possible that the kid was cooked with its mother's own milk.

2 pints — Sextarii.

VII
Pig
In porcello

366 Suckling Pig Stuffed Two Ways
Porcellum farsilem duobus generibus

Prepare, remove the entrails by the throat before the carcass hardens immediately after killing. Make an opening under the ear, fill an ox bladder with Tarentine⁠1 sausage meat and attach a tube such as the bird keeper uses to the neck of the bladder and squeeze the dressing into the ear as much as it will take to fill the body. Then seal the opening with parchment, close securely with skewers and prepare the roast for the oven.

1 Tor. impensam Tarentinam; G.‑V. Terentinam.

The birdkeeper's tube may be an instrument for the cramming of fowl.

366a The other Dressing is made thus:

Crush pepper, lovage, origany, laser root, moisten with a little broth, add cooked brains, raw eggs, cooked spelt, gravy of the pig, small birds (if any) nuts, whole pepper, and season with broth. Stuff the pig, close the opening with parchment and skewers and put it in the oven. When done,  p194 dress and garnish very nicely, glaze the body and serve.

367 Another Suckling Pig
Aliter porcellum

Salt, cumin, laser; add sausage meat. Dilute with broth⁠1 remove the womb of the pig so that no part of it remains inside. Crush pepper, lovage, origany, moisten with broth, add wine⁠2 brains, mix in 2 eggs, fill the previously parboiled pig with this forcemeat, close tight, place in a basket and immerse in the boiling stock pot. When done remove the skewers but in a manner that the gravy remains inside. Sprinkle with pepper, serve.

1 G.‑V. treats the following as a separate article under the heading of porcellum liquaminatum.

2 G.‑V. unum (one brain) instead of uinum.

368 Stuffed Boiled Suckling Pig
Porcellum elixum farsilem

Remove the womb of the pig. Parboil. Crush pepper, lovage, origany, moisten with broth. Add cooked brains, as much as is needed⁠1 likewise dissolve eggs, add broth to taste, make a sausage of this forcemeat fill the pig which has been parboiled and rinsed with broth. Tie the pig securely in a basket, immerse in the boiling stock pot. Remove when done, wipe clean carefully, serve without pepper.

1 To have a forcemeat of the right consistency.

369 Roast Suckling Pig with Honey
Porcellum assum tractomelinum⁠1

Empty the pig by the neck, clean and dry, crush one ounce pepper, honey and wine, place this in a sauce pan and heat; next break dry toast⁠2 and mix with the things in the sauce pan; stir with a whip of fresh laurel twigs⁠3 so that the paste is nice and smooth until sufficiently cooked. This dressing fill into the pig, wrap in parchment, place in the oven roast slowly, when done, glaze with honey garnish nicely and serve.

1 treated with honey.

 p195  2 Tor. tactam siccatam for tractam.

3 Again this very subtle method of flavoring, so often referred to. This time it is a laurel whip. Cf. ℞ Nos. 277 seq., 345, 369, 385.

370 Milk-fed Pig, Cold, Apician Sauce
Porcellum lacte pastum elixum calidum iure frigido crudo Apiciano

Serve boiled milk-fed pig either hot or cold with this sauce⁠1 in a mortar put pepper, lovage, coriander seed, mint, rue, and crush it. Moisten with broth. Add honey, wine and broth. The boiled pig is wiped off hot with a clean towel, cooled off covered with the sauce and served.⁠2

1 Tor.

2 This sentence wanting in Tor.

371 Suckling Pig à la Vitellius⁠1
Porcellum Vitellianum

Suckling pig called Vitellian style is prepared thus:⁠2 garnish the pig like wild boar⁠3 sprinkle with salt, roast in oven. In the mortar put pepper, lovage, moisten with broth, wine and raisin wine to taste, put this in a sauce pan, adding very little oil, heat; the roasting pig baste with this in a manner so that the aroma will penetrate the skin.

1 Named for Vitellius, Roman emperor.

Thayer's Note: There is no firm reason to say this, the name Vitellius not being uncommon; although it seems to be true that that emperor, who ruled only a few months, was known for his fondness for food — if hostile sources are to be believed (Suet. Vit. 7.1).

2 Tor. sentence wanting in other texts.

3 i.e. marinated with raw vegetables, wine, spices, etc. Cf. ℞ Nos. 329‑30.

372 Suckling Pig à la Flaccus
Porcellum Flaccianum⁠1

The pig is garnished like wild boar.⁠2 Sprinkle with salt, place in the oven. While being done put in the mortar pepper, lovage, caraway, celery seed, laser root, green rue, and crush it, moisten with broth, wine and raisin wine to taste, put this in a sauce pan, adding a little oil, heat, bind with roux. The roast pig, free from bones, sprinkle with powdered celery seed and serve.

1 List. named for Flaccus Hordeonius, (puto). Flaccus was a rather common Roman family name.

 p196  2 Cf. note 3 to ℞ No. 371 , also ℞ Nos. 329‑30. Lister is thoroughly puzzled by this procedure, but the problem is very simple: just treat the pig like wild boar.

373 Suckling Pig, Laurel Flavor
Porcellum laureatum

The pig is boned and garnished with a little wine sauce⁠1 parboil with green laurel in the center⁠2 and place it in the oven to be roasted sufficiently. Meanwhile put in the mortar pepper, lovage, caraway, celery seed, laser root, and laurel berries, crush them, moisten with broth, wine and raisin wine to taste. Put this in a sauce pan and heat bind with roux; untie the pig remove the laurel leaves; incorporate the juice of the bones from which a gravy has been made in the meantime and serve.

1 Marinate in the ordinary way with oenogarum as the dominant flavor.

2 It is presumed that the boned pig is rolled and tied, with the leaves in the center.

374 Suckling Pig à la Fronto⁠1
Porcellum Frontinianum

Bone the pig, parboil, garnish; in a sauce pan. Add broth, wine, bind. When half done, add a bunch of leeks and dill, some reduced must. When cooked wipe the pig clean, let it drip off; sprinkle with pepper, serve.

1 List. Probably named for Julius Fronto, praetor urbanus under Vitellius. Cornelius Fronto was an orator and author at the time of emperor Hadrian. Cf. ℞ No. 246. G.‑V. Frontinianus.

375 Suckling Pig Stewed in Wine
Porcellum Oenococtum⁠1

Scald [parboil] the pig and marinate,⁠2 place in a sauce pan with oil, broth, wine and water, tie a bunch of leeks and coriander; cook (in the oven) when half done color with reduced must. In the mortar put pepper, lovage, caraway, origany, celery seed, laser root and crush them, moisten with broth, add the pig's own gravy and raisin wine to taste. Add this to the meat in the sauce pan and  p197 let it boil. When boiling bind with roux. The pig, placed on a platter, mask with the sauce sprinkle with pepper and serve.

1 Tor. vino elixatus; G.‑V. aenococtum.

2 It is presumed that the pig is prepared for coction as in the foregoing, namely cleaned, washed, boned, etc. This also applies to the succeeding recipes of pig.

376 Pig à la Celsinus⁠1
Porcellum Celsinianum

Prepare as above inject the following dressing made of pepper, rue, onions, satury, the pig's own gravy and eggs through the ear⁠2 and of pepper, broth and a little wine make a sauce which is served in the sauce boat;⁠3 and enjoy it.

1 Tor. Caesianus; Tac. cesinianum; G.‑V. Celsinianum. Lister goes far out of his way to prove that the man for whom this dish was named was Celsinus. He cites a very amusing bit of ancient humor⁠a by Petrus Lambecius, given below.

"The Porker's Last Will and Testament"
by Petrus Lambecius

(V. Barnab. Brissonium de Formulis lib. VII, p677) [ex Lister, 1705, p196; Lister, 1709, p236].

"I, M. Grunter Corocotta Porker, do hereby make my last will and testament. Incapable of writing in my own hand, I have dictated what is to be set down:

"The Chief Cook sayeth: 'Come here, you — who has upset this house, you nuissance,º you porker! I'll deprive you of your life this day!'

"Corocotta Porker sayeth: 'What, perchance, have I done? In what way, please, have I sinned? Have I with my feet perhaps smashed your crockery? I beg of you, Mr. Cook, I entreat you, if such be the case, kindly grant the supplicant a reprieve.'

"The Chief Cook sayeth: 'Go over there, boy! Fetch me from the kitchen that slaughtering-knife. I'm just itching to give this porker a blood-bath!'

"Mr. Porker, realizing that this is the season when cabbage sprouts are abundant, and visualizing himself potted and peppered, and furthermore seeing that death is inevitable, asks for time and begs of the cook whether it was possible to make a will. This granted, he calls out with a loud voice to his parents to save for them the food that was to have been his own in the future, to wit:

 p198  "To my father, Mr. Genuine Bacon-Fat, appointed by me in my last will I give and bequeath: thirty measures of acorns; and to my mother, Mrs. Old-Timer Sow, appointed by me in my last will, I give and bequeath: forty measures of Spartan wheat; and to my sister, Cry-Baby, appointed by me in my last will, whose wedding, alas! I cannot attend, I give and bequeath: thirty measures of barley; and of my nobler parts and property I give and bequeath, to the cobbler, my bristles; to the brawlers, my jaw-bones; to the deaf, my ears; to the shyster lawyers, my tongue; to the cow-herds, my intestines; to the sausage makers, my thighs; to the ladies, my tenderloins; to the boys, my bladder; to the girls, my little pig's tail; to the dancers, my muscles; to the runners and hunters, my knuckles; to the hired man, my hoofs; and to the cook — though not to be named — I give and bequeath and transmit my belly and appendage which I have dragged with me from the rotten oak bottoms to the pig's sty, for him to tie around his neck and to hang himself with.

"I wish to erect a monument to myself, inscribed with golden letters: 'M. Grunter Corocotta Porker lived nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine years, and had he lived another half year, a thousand years would have been nearly completed.'

"I ask of you who love me best, you who live like me, I ask you: will not my name remain to be eulogized in all eternity? if you only will prepare my body properly and flavor it well with good condiments, nuts, pepper and honey!

"My master and my relatives, all of you who have witnessed this execution of my last will and testament, you are requested to sign.

"(Signed) Hard Sausage
Match Maker
Fat Bacon
Celsinus
Meat Ball
Sprout Cabbage."

Thus far the story by Petrus Lambecius. The fifth of the signatories of the Porker's Testament is Celsinus; and since the other names are fictitious it is quite possible that Lambecius had a special purpose in pointing out the man for whom the dish, Porcellus Celsinianus, — Suckling Pig à la Celsinus — was named. Celsinus was counsellor for Aurelianus, the emperor [Hist. Aug. Aurelian 44.3].

2 Really a dressing in a liquid state when raw, a custard syringed into the carcass, which congeals during coction. Eggs must be in proper proportion to the other liquids. The pig thus filled is either steamed, roasted or baked, well protected by buttered or oiled paper — all of which the ancient author failed to state, as a matter of course.

3 acetabulum.

377 Roast Pig
Porcellum assum

Crush pepper, rue, satury, onions, hard yolks of egg, broth, wine, oil, spices; boil these ingredients, pour over the roast pig in the sauce pan and serve.

378 Pig à la Jardinière
Porcellum hortolanum⁠1

The pig is boned through the throat and filled with quenelles of chicken forcemeat, finely cut  p199 roast thrushes, fig-peckers, little sausage cakes, made of the pig's meat, Lucanian sausage, stoned dates, edible bulbs [glazed onions] snails taken out of the shell and poached mallows, leeks, beets, celery, cooked sprouts, coriander, whole pepper, nuts, 15 eggs poured over, broth, which is spiced with pepper, and diluted with 3 eggs; thereupon sew it tight, stiffen, and roast in the oven. When done, open the back of the pig and pour over the following sauce: crushed pepper, rue, broth, raisin wine, honey and a little oil, which when boiling is tied with roux.⁠2

1 Tor. Hortulanus; Gardener's style, the French equivalent Jardinière, a very common name for all dishes containing young vegetables. However, in the above rich formula there is very little to remind us of the gardener's style, excepting the last part of the formula, enumerating a number of fresh vegetables. It is unthinkable for any gourmet to incorporate these with the rich dressing. The vegetables should be used as a garnish for the finished roast. This leads us to believe that the above is really two distinct formulae, or that the vegetables were intended for garniture.

2 This extraordinary and rich dressing, perfectly feasible and admirable when compared with our own "Toulouse," "Financière," "Chipolata," can be palatable only when each component part is cooked separately before being put into the pig. The eggs must be whipped and diluted with broth and poured over the filling to serve as binder. The pig must be parboiled before filling, and the final cooking or roasting must be done very slowly and carefully — procedure not stated by the original which it takes for granted.

379 Cold Sauce for Boiled Suckling Pig
Jus porro⁠1 frigidum in porcellum elixum

Crush pepper, caraway, dill, little origany, pine nuts, moisten with vinegar, broth,⁠2 date wine, honey, prepared mustard; sprinkle with a little oil, pepper, and serve.

1 Tor. only; porrò indicating that the sauce may also be served with the foregoing. Wanting in List. et al.

2 Wanting in Tor.

380 Smoked Pig à la Trajanus
Porcellum Traianum⁠1

Make thus: bone the pig, treat it as for stewing  p200 in wine [℞ No. 375, i.e. marinate for some time in spices, herbs and wine] thereupon hang it in the smoke house⁠2 next boil it in salt water and serve thus⁠3 on a large platter.⁠4

1 Tor. and Tac. traganum.

2 ad fumum suspendes G.‑V. et adpendeas, et quantum adpendeas, tantum salis in ollam mittes — passage wanting in other texts, meaning, probably, that the more pigs are used for smoking the more salt must be used for pickling which is a matter of course, or, the heavier the pig, . . .

3 Tor. atque ita in lance efferes; Tac. & sic eum . . .; G.‑V. et siccum in lance inferes.

4 Hum. salso recente, with fresh salt pork. Tor. cum salsamento istoc renecti and Tor. continues without interruption, indicating, perhaps, that the following formula is to be served, or treated (boiled) like the above.

381 Milk-fed Pig
In porcello lactante⁠1

One ounce of pepper, a pint of wine, a rather large glass of the best oil, a glass of broth,⁠2 and rather less than a glass of vinegar.⁠3

1 G.‑V. lactans, suckling, milk-fed; other texts: lactente: Dann. wild boar

2 wanting in Tac. and Tor.

3 a variant of the foregoing, a mild pickling solution for extremely young suckling pigs, prior to their smoking or boiling, or both, which the original does not state.

Schuch and his disciple Danneil, have inserted here seven more pork formulae (Sch. p179, ℞ Nos. 388‑394) taken from the Excerpts of Vinidarius, found at the conclusion of the Apicius formulae.

VIII
Hare
Leporemº

382 Braised Hare
Leporem madidum

Is parboiled a little in water, thereupon place it on a roasting pan with oil, to be roasted in the oven. And when properly done, with a change of oil, immerse it in the following gravy: crush pepper, satury, onion, rue, celery seed; moisten with broth, laser, wine, and a little oil. While the roasting of the hare is being completed it is several times basted with the gravy.

Wanting in Goll. A difference in the literary style from the foregoing is quite noticeable.

 p201  383 The same, with a Different Dressing
Item alia ad eum impensam

The hare must be properly kept (i.e. aged for a few days after killing). Crush pepper, dates, laser, raisins, reduced wine, broth and oil; deposit the hare in this preparation to be cooked when done, sprinkle with pepper and serve.

Wanting in Goll. Tor. continuing without interruption.

384 Stuffed Hare
Leporem farsum

Whole pine nuts, almonds, chopped nuts or beechnuts, whole pepper are mixed with the forcemeat of hare thickened with eggs and wrapped in pig's caul to be roasted in the oven.⁠1 Another forcemeat is made with rue, plenty of pepper, onion, satury, dates, broth, reduced wine, or spiced wine. This is reduced to the proper consistency and is laid under; but the hare remains in the broth flavored with laser.

1 Reminding of the popular meat loaf, made of remnants: Falscher Hase, "Imitation Hare," as it is known on the Continent.

The ancients probably used the trimmings of hare and other meat for this forcemeat, or meat loaf, either to stuff the hare with, or to make a meal of the preparation itself, as indicated above.

We also recall that the ancients had ingenious baking moulds of metal in the shape of hares and other animals. These moulds, no doubt, were used for baking or the serving of preparations of this sort. the absence of table forks and cutlery as is used today made such preparations very appropriate and convenient in leisurely dining.

385 White Sauce for Hare
Ius album in assum leporem

Pepper, lovage, cumin, celery seed, hard boiled yolks, properly pounded, made into a paste. In a sauce pan boil broth, wine, oil, a little vinegar and chopped onions. While boiling add the paste of spices, stirring with a fagot of origany or satury⁠1 and when the work is done, bind it with roux.

1 Fagots, or whips made of different herbs and brushes are often employed by Apicius, a very subtle device to impart faint flavors to sauces. the custom  p202 has been in use for ages. With the return of mixed drinks in America it was revived by the use of cinnamon sticks with which to stir the drinks. The above hare formulae are wanting in Goll.

386 Lights of Hare⁠1
Aliter in leporem⁠2

A fine hash of hare's blood, liver and lungs. Put into a sauce pan broth and oil, and let it boil with finely chopped leeks and coriander; now add the livers and lungs, and, when done, crush pepper, cumin, coriander, laser root, mint, rue, flea-bane, moistened with vinegar.⁠3

1 Wanting in Goll.

2 Tor. Condimentum ex visceribus leporinis.

3 The various texts combine the above and the following formula; but we are of the opinion that they are two distinct preparations.

387 Lights of Hare, Another Way
Aliter

To the hare's liver add the blood and pound it with honey and some of the hare's own gravy; add vinegar to taste and put in a sauce pan, add the lungs chopped fine, make it boil: when done bind with roux, sprinkle with pepper and serve.

This and the preceding formula resemble closely our purées or forcemeats of livers of game and fowl, which are spread on croutons to accompany the roast.

388 Hare in its own Broth⁠1
Aliter leporem ex suo iure

Prepare the hare, bone it, garnish⁠2 put it in a stew pot⁠3 and when half done add a small bunch of leeks, coriander, dill; while this is being done, put in the mortar pepper, lovage, cumin, coriander seed, laser root, dry onion, mint, rue, celery seed; crush, moisten with broth, add honey, the hare's own gravy, reduced must and vinegar to tate; let it boil, tie with roux, dress, garnish the roast on a platter, underlay the sauce, sprinkle and serve.

1 Cf. Goll. ℞ No. 381.

2 with vegetables for braising, possibly larding.

3 braisière, for this is plainly a "potroast" of hare. The boned carcass should  p203 be tied; this is perhaps meant by or is included in ornas — garnish, i.e. getting ready for braising.

389 Hare à la Passenianus⁠1
Leporem Passenianum

The hare is dressed, boned, the body spread out⁠2 garnished with pickling herbs and spices and hung into the smoke stack.⁠3 When it has taken on color, cook it half done, wash it, sprinkle with salt and immerse it in wine sauce. In the mortar put pepper, lovage, and crush: moisten with broth, wine and a little oil, heat; when boiling, bind with roux. Now detach the saddle of the roast hare, sprinkle with pepper and serve.

1 This personage, Passenius, or Passenianus, is not identified.

2 To bone the carcass, it usually is opened in the back, flattened out and all the bones are easily removed. In that state it is easily pickled and thoroughly smoked.

3 Lan., Tac., and Tor. suspendes ad furnum; Hum., List., and G.‑V. . . . ad fumum. We accept the latter reading, "in the smoke," assuming that furnum is a typographical error in Lan. and his successors, Tac. and Tor. Still, roasts have for ages been "hung on chains close to or above the open fire"; Torinus may not be wrong, after all, in this essential direction. However, a boned and flattened-out hare would be better broiled on the grill than hung up over the open fire.

390 Kromeskis of Hare
Leporem isiciatum

The hare is cooked and flavored in the same above manner; small bits of meat are mixed with soaked nuts; this salpicon⁠1 is wrapped in caul or parchment, the ends being closed by means of skewers and fried.

1 We call this preparation a salpicon because it closely resembles to our modern salpicons — a fine mince of meats, mushrooms, etc., although the ancient formula fails to state the binder of this mince — either eggs or a thickened sauce, or both.

391 Stuffed Hare
Leporem farsilem

Dress the hare as usual garnish [marinate] it, place in a square pan.⁠1 In the mortar put pepper, lovage, origany, moisten with broth, add chicken livers sauté cooked brains, finely cut meat⁠2 3  p204 raw eggs, broth to taste. Wrap it in caul or parchment, fasten with skewers. Half roast on a slow fire. Meanwhile put in the mortar pepper, lovage: crush and moisten with broth, wine, season, make it hot, when boiling bind with roux; the half-done hare immerse finish cooking in this broth sprinkle with pepper and serve.

1 Quadratum imponis, which is plain enough. The hare is to be roast therein. Dann. Cut in dice; Goll. Spread it out. Cf. illustration of square roast pan.

2 Presumably the trimmings of the hare or of pork. This forcemeat is supposed to be used for the stuffing of the hare; it, being boned, is rolled up, the forcemeat inside, the outside covered with caul or paper, fastened with skewers. Danneil's interpretation suggests the thought that the raw hare's meat is cut into squares which are filled with forcemeat, rolled, wrapped, and roast — a roulade of hare in the regular term.

392 Boiled Hare
Aliter leporem elixum

Dress the hare; boil it. In a flat sauce pan pour oil, broth, vinegar, raisin wine, sliced onion, green rue and chopped thyme a sauce which is served on the side and so serve it.

Tor. continuing without interruption.

393 Spiced Sauce for Hare
Leporis conditura

Crush pepper, rue, onions, the hare's liver, broth, reduced wine, raisin wine, a little oil; bind with roux when boiling.

Tor. id.

394 Sprinkled Hare
Leporem (pipere) sicco sparsum⁠1

Dress the hare as for kid à la Tarpeius [℞ No. 363]. Before cooking decorate it nicely.⁠2 Season with pepper, rue, satury, onion, little thyme, moisten with broth, roast in the oven; and all over sprinkle with half an ounce of pepper, rue, onions, satury, 4 dates, and raisins. The gravy is given plenty of color over the open fire, and is seasoned with wine, oil, broth, reduced wine, frequently stirring it basting the hare so that it may absorb all the  p205 flavor. After that serve it in a round dish with dry pepper.

1 Tac., Tor. succo sparsum.

2 We have no proof that the ancients used the larding needle as we do (or did) in our days. "Decorate" may, therefore, also mean "garnish," i.e. marinate the meat in a generous variety of spices, herbs, roots and wine. It is noteworthy that this term, "garnish," used here and in the preceding formulae has survived in the terminology of the kitchen to this day, in that very sense.

395 Spiced Hare
Aliter leporem conditum

The well-prepared hare cook in wine, broth, water, with a little mustard seed, dill and leeks with the roots. When all is done, season with pepper, satury, round onions, Damascus plums, wine, broth, reduced wine and a little oil; tie with roux, let boil a little longer baste so that the hare is penetrated by the flavor, and serve it on a platter masked with sauce.

IX
Dormice
Glires

396 Stuffed Dormouse⁠1
Glires

Is stuffed with a forcemeat of pork and small pieces of dormouse meat trimmings, all pounded with pepper, nuts, laser, broth. Put the dormouse thus stuffed in an earthen casserole, roast it in the oven, or boil it in the stock pot.

1 Glis, dormouse, a special favorite of the ancients, has nothing to do with mice. The fat dormouse of the South of Europe is the size of a rat, arboreal rodent, living in trees.

Galen, III, de Alim.; Plinius, VIII.57/82; Varro, III, describing the glirarium, place where the dormouse was raised for the table.

Petronius, Cap. 31, describes another way of preparing dormouse. Nonnus, Diaeteticon, p194/5, says that Fulvius⁠b Hirpinus was the first man to raise dormouse in the glirarium.⁠c

Dormouse, as an article of diet, should not astonish Americans who relish squirrel, opossum, muskrat, "coon," etc.

End of Book VIII
Explicit Apicii tetrapus Liber octavus [Tac.]

Thayer's Notes:

a Lest the unwary be misled, "ancient" is very relative here. Petrus Lambecius is the 17c German scholar Peter Lambeck.

❦

b Vehling writes "Fluvius Hirpinus"; a mistake (repeated in Book VIII) that I'd usually just correct and mark with one of my little bullets,º were it not that endless webpages have picked it up and repeated it: junk blogs, put online as a sort of decoration, can hardly be bothered with going back to the original and getting things right . . . .

The man's name was Fulvius or just maybe Flavius (less likely because it only became common much later in Rome's history): both are common man's names and both mean "blond". The word fluvius is not a personal name, and means "river".

As for his last name, the manuscripts disagree. Saglio (Daremberg & Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines, s.v. Glirarium) gives Lupinus as a possibility; Mayhoff, the editor of Pliny, believes Lippinus to be the correct reading: H. N. IX.173; the man is mentioned again in a similar connection at VIII.211.

❦

c For details (and woodcuts) of gliraria, with further citations, see the article Glirarium in Daremberg & Saglio's Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines.

Page updated: 17 Aug 24

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