on the observance of foods

[ursula]

This weekend, I did some test cooking from the sixth-century dietary manual De observatione ciborum (Anthimus). I skipped the pennyroyal because you don't use an herb traditionally employed to induce uterine contractions unless all the potential diners are on board for that experiment, I skipped the spikenard because our probably-American stock is so old it's tasteless and true Nepali spikenard is endangered, and we were out of a couple of other odd ingredients. But I did buy a costmary plant:



This herb smells lemony and tastes bitter; you can use it fresh or dried.

One of the longest recipes in Anthimus is for a beef dish:

Beef which has been steamed can be used both roasted in a dish and also braised in a sauce, provided that, as soon as it starts to smell, you put the meat in some water. Boil it in as much fresh water as suits the size of the portion of meat; you should not have to add any more water during the boiling. When the meat is cooked, put in a casserole about half a cup of sharp vinegar, some leeks and a little pennyroyal, some celery and fennel, and let those simmer for one hour. Then add half the quantity of honey to vinegar, or as much honey as you wish for sweetness. Cook over a low heat, shaking the pot frequently with one's hands so that the sauce cooks the meat sufficiently. Then grind the following: 50 pepper corns, 2 grams each of costmary and spikenard, and 1.5 grams of cloves. Carefully grind all these spices together in an earthenware mortar with the addition of a little wine. When well ground, add them to the casserole and stir well, so that before they are taken from the heat, they may warm up and release their flavor into the sauce.

I decided that, as analogies to modern recipes go, this was closest to pot roast. Here's what I did:

Place a large chuck roast (I bought one that was a bit over 4 pounds) in a casserole with 2 cups of water. (Next time, I would use a bit less water.) Cover and let it bubble gently for 2 hours, turning occasionally. Meanwhile, chop the whites of three fat leeks and a small fennel bulb, as well as the leaves and stems of about five stalks of celery. Add them to the pot with half a cup of champagne vinegar and a big pinch of salt, and simmer for another hour, still turning the meat occasionally. Stir in a quarter-cup of honey. Stir in a few finely chopped costmary leaves (or use dried costmary), a quarter-teaspoon of ground cloves, plus ground pepper, spikenard, and a spoonful of wine if you have those things. Stir again and serve.

Here's the meat after adding the vegetables:



And here's the final version. You can see that it's a bit wetter than it should be, and also that the meat is delectably falling off the bone.



I also made lentils. This one seems fairly self-explanatory:

Lentils are good when washed and carefully boiled in fresh water. Make sure that the first lot of water is poured away, and a second lot of hot water added as required, but not too much, and then boil the lentils slowly on the hearth. When they are cooked, add for flavor a little vinegar, together with the addition of that spice that is called Syrian sumac. Sprinkle a spoonful of this spice over the lentils while they are still on the fire, and stir in well. Take the lentils off the fire and serve. You can for flavoring add a good spoonful of oil from unripe olives to the second lot of water while the lentils are still cooking, as well as one or two spoonfuls of coriander including the roots--not ground but whole--and a pinch of salt for seasoning.

I used two cups of green lentils, and big eating-spoon-fuls of sumac and nice olive oil. The coriander here is clearly supposed to be a whole cilantro plant, gone to seed; I used grocery-store cilantro, including some of the chopped stems.

Anthimus also describes a melon salad:

If melons are well ripened, their flesh is particularly recommended mixed with their own seeds, and this is better than if they are eaten on their own. If, as people do, they are eaten like this with diluted vinegar and a sprinkling of pennyroyal, they are good for healthy people.

We went for cubed watermelon with a spoonful of balsamic vinegar. I think mint would be a good substitute for pennyroyal here; I considered the costmary but decided it was too bitter.

Here's what an assembled dinner plate looked like, including focaccia to sop up all the juices:

Comments

[thistleingrey]

Looks and sounds really tasty! Interesting about lentil + sumac--that's nearly a mujaddra variant, minus fried onion topping.

[havocthecat]

I wouldn't even know where you'd get spikenard and costmary. Do you have to raise them yourselves? Not to mention pennyroyal, which I only ever purchase in essential oil form for pest control and only use very carefully due to its potential toxicity when it's in such concentrated form.

[ursula]

I got the costmary plant on Etsy! I think I also saw somebody selling it in dry form (as a tea?) but I decided I trusted a living plant somewhat more than a bunch of dry stuff from an unknown tea-seller.

Etsy also has spikenard. If you search for the name used in India, which I now know is jatamansi, you can also find it in powdered form on Amazon (and possibly in your local Indian grocery store?) But the one Amazon review says that it doesn't taste like much. Since we're talking about a famous perfume ingredient, I suspect that means it's heavily adulterated with something cheaper, though it might just be horrendously stale.

[hrj]

I was always appalled by the idea of 50 peppercorns in that sauce and always added far fewer. I grew my own costmary for a while (this was back at my previous house) but was never satisfied that I'd correctly identified which item by the name of spikenard I should be looking for.

[blackswanseer]

That looks delicious! Thanks for providing the ‘original’ recipe and modifications - very interesting to read. I have a book that’s doing similar with Ancient Greek and Roman recipes, but have yet to attempt preparing any of them. Some modifications definitely needed….I think one recipe calls for dolphin.

I was also wondering where the costmary came from as I don’t think I’ve ever seen any for sale - in any form! Seeing it came from Etsy…neat! I had no idea people were selling living plants on Etsy.