I have this crazy dream of trying all the recipes in Apicius. It's an especially crazy dream because I., there are an awful lot of recipes in Apicius, II., some of them are fragmentary and/or garbled, III., there are plenty of foodstuffs that are difficult to find here in the US, IV., actually some of them are extinct, and V., some of the ingredients I simply refuse to eat (e. g., brains).
I wasn't entirely sure where to start with this goal; I've been wanting to get a good overview of Roman cooking, and pecking around at random wasn't really doing that. So I picked one type of dish and decided I'd do the recipes in order, hoping that will help me get a feel for them. A lot of the recipes do follow one from the other, with only one or two ingredients that differ, and I thought it would be interesting to highlight those differences. There do seem to be certain 'types' of recipes in Apicius.
I picked the chicken dishes to start with, as that's certainly an easy ingredient to come by. And the first one is (text and translation from Grocock and Grainger, as ever):
[6.8.1] elixo ius crudum: adicies in mortarium aneti semen mentam siccam laseris radicem; suffundis acetum, adicies careotam, refundis liquamen senapis modicum et oleum, defrito temperas et sic mittis.
6.8.1. Uncooked sauce for boiled chicken: put dill seed, dried mint, and laser root into a mortar, pour on vinegar, add date, pour on liquamen, a little mustard and oil, flavour with defrutum and use as it is.
This recipe is unusual, not just because the sauce isn't cooked, but because there's neither pepper nor lovage in it, which is pretty much mandatory for the chicken dishes. It seemed to me that the main flavors in this dish ought to be the dill and the vinegar, since those two pair well and the dill was a bit uncommon for Apicius; and since there wasn't much liquid in it otherwise it seemed it would have to use a decent amount of vinegar. Though to be fair, the Romans probably were able to use their liquamen, fermented fish sauce, rather more liberally; I'm using Thai fish sauce, which is made by a similar process, but is much, much saltier, so you can't use too much. I ended up adding a little of the cooking liquid to make up for that. And as usual I used asafoetida for the extinct laser (silphium) root, though it was the powdered resin/sap, not the root part of the plant.
My attempt:
1 chicken breast
2 teaspoons dill seed
1/2 teaspoon dried mint
scant 1/4 teaspoon powdered asafoetida
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped date
1 teaspoon Thai fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon powdered mustard
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon defrutum
Plunk the chicken breast in a saucepan with water to cover; bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer until cooked through; depending on the size something like 20 or 30 minutes should do it.
While that cooks, grind the dill seeds in a mortar (or use a spice grinder); when they're fine enough (that will be up to your tastes and how tired your arm is), add the mint and grind that too. Add the powdered asafoetida, then the vinegar and date. Squish that all up until you get a fairly smooth paste, then add the remaining ingredients. Add a teaspoon or two of the cooking liquid if you think it needs it‑it should be a little thinner than barbecue sauce, but not too thin.
Drizzle the sauce over the cooked chicken when done, or shred the chicken and use as a dipping sauce.
When I tried the sauce by itself in order to try and balance the flavors, I was worried it might be too heavy on the vinegar; however once paired with the chicken the flavor of the chicken itself balanced it out. A lot of times I think I get the sauces too thick (again, that might be because of the difference in salt between Roman liquamen and modern Thai fish sauce), but this time I think it was about right. I only used one date, but since I had Medjool dates it was very large (which is why I gave the amount for chopped), and it may have made the sauce a bit too sweet. Also I think I'd like to have been able to taste the dill more. It was still quite good, though, and I think just needs a little tweaking. Also I wonder if grinding the dill seed, and then soaking it in the vinegar (say the night before), would help to draw out the taste a bit. I know there's all kinds of herb-flavored vinegars out there that use that principle.
I used the usual supermarket boneless skinless chicken breast; and while I kept an eye on it as it simmered it was still a bit dry and bland. Perhaps thighs would be better; I know when I make chicken and dumplings I use boneless skinless thighs and they end up melty and lovely and still quite moist. At any rate this was just a test, a single serving. I would like to someday try all these recipes again using whole chickens, like the Romans did.
Overall though I am pleased with this, so I'll put it in the keeper pile now on the Recipes page.
