SC - Apicius and Platina

[David Dendy]

>I am in the process of interpreting recipes for the cooks guild tomorrow
>night, and have come up with two questions.  In Apicius, the recipe for
Crane
>or Duck with Turnips lists "laser foot".  It must be a spice, but I am
unable
>to find it.
>Aldyth
>
As another respondent just pointed out, "laser foot" should read "laser
root"; laser is asafetida, a very smelly resin from a plant which grows in
Iran and other countries nearby. A little of it brings up other flavours
beautifully (just don't overdo it). Don't confuse laser with silphium, as an
earlier comment did. Silphium was the resin of a related plant which  became
extinct due to overharvesting in the wild in the period of the early Roman
Empire (so, anyhow,  if you have an Apician recipe calling for silphium,
your best substitute is the closely related asafetida).

Yours spicily,
Francesco Sirene