SC - RE: Meat -- Roman roasted meat

[Nick Sasso (fra niccolo)]

> >>You roll it copiously in salt and herbs to form a crust.
>
> Any suggested as to which herbs?

Sadly, I remembered parts of two recipes on the same page.   The Apicius
herb roasted meat on  page 88-89  recommends 6 scruples each of
parsley,  siphilium [Greek name for laser],  ginger, siphilium root,
oregano, cyperus & celery seeds; 3 scruples of pyrethrum, 5 bay berries,
a bit of costusroot, 12 scruples of pepper, and suffiicient garum and
oil. (1)

Due to scarcity of several of the ingredients, the author recommends
this marinade: 2 Tbs total fresh minced parsley, oregano, mint, and
chervil; 1 1/2 tsp ginger; 5 coarsely crushed bay berries;1 1/2 tsp
celery seeds; 1 Tbs pepper; 3 garlic loves, pressed for their juice; 1
Tbs garum; 2 Tbs olive oil.  Mix well and brush onto meat intended to
roast.  Let stand 2 hours.  She gives directions for use as a baste as
well.

I recommend using a variant on the fried creamed wheat on page 159 as an
accompaniment starch (1).  I made the dish into a savory one by (using
cream of wheat as the base) halving the sugar, replacing half the milk
with water, and adding black pepper to taste and about 2 Tbs fresh
grated parmesean.  Bread and fry as recommended, but leave off the
powdered sugar.  They are a good laugh when you say you're serving fried
cream of wheat, but worth high praise when served with well spiced
roasted meats.  The recipe as written is suggested for serving with
fried meats, but seemed to need a small change for the spiced roast.
Our Gracious Lord of culinary gifts is well aware that we need more
variety of starches to serve with our feasts; rice and buttered noodles
are fine, but they do get rather..... mundane, if you will.


- --
In Humble Service to God and Crown;

fra nicolo difrancesco
(mka nick sasso)


(1) Giacosa, I.  _A taste of ancient rome_.  Chicago:  University of
Chicago Press.  1986.
                  ISBN 0-226-29032-8


PS I would recommend adding black pepper, garlic, oregano, mint and
parsley for the salt crust if you were to vary it.  I really don't know
what proportions would work.....I think I'll get a cheap hunk o' beast
flesh and experiment!