[Sca-cooks] Roman Cookery - Pear Patina (Pre-period OT)

[Susan Laing]

Hi Everyone - Here's another of the recipes I made for my recent "Let's eat
Roman" dinner party...

As before I followed the authors redacted version (I wanted to see how their
version turns out versus how I would then make it myself - as to date I
haven't yet remade this cause of a few niggling questions)

I've found that Ilaria Gozzina Giacosa - author of "A Taste of Ancient Rome"
seems to have a positive dislike of Garum (Liquamen) and constanly omits it
from her recipes - I substituted the pear Liquamen (from Mark Grant's "Roman
Cookery") instead of a fish based one cause I had it to hand, so I'm not
sure if I've altered the final taste of the dish but it really was Tre
nummy!

The questions I need to ask are - why would the author of TAR add in the
milk? - is this to make it more of a "pudding" type dessert?  (I had extra
goat milk left from my "Roman Bread making experiment" [more of that in a
later post] so used it instead of cows milk)

And...  does anyone know what is the dish supposed to end up like? - I
cooked it a little past the specified time and the result was that it was
slightly set around the edges of the dish but still gloopy in the middle.
We ate it as it was and it was devine (being anachromistic we added cream
with it YUMM!).  Does anyone know if a traditional "Patina" is a set desert
or a goopy one??

Mari
(planning on remaking it possibly next week if I can rat up some more
tasters :-p)

***********
Pear Patina (Apicius #162)
 A Taste of Ancient Rome by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa, Anna Herklotz
(Translator)
    University of Chicago Press ISBN:0226290328 Reprint edition (March 1994)

Patina de piris: Pira elixa et purgata e medio teres com pipere, cumino,
melle, passo, liquamine, oleo modico, Ovis missis patinam facies, piper
super aspargis et inferes.

A pear Patina: Grind boiled and cored pears with pepper, cumin, honey,
passum, garum, and a bit of oil.  When the eggs have been added, make a
patina, sprinkle pepper over, and serve.

Serves 4
4 pears
water or white wine (in which to cook the pears)
1 Tbsp honey
pinch each of pepper and cumin
½ cup passum (see recipe below)
1 tbsp garum (see recipe for liquamen ex Piris below)
3 eggs
1 ½ cups milk (optional) [I used goats milk]
1 tbsp olive oil

Poach the whole pears in water or white wine. When they are done, peel and
core them, then crush them into a puree, mixing in the honey, pepper, cumin,
and passum. (the author of the book recommends to omit the garum but I used
the sweet garum instead).

Beat the eggs, adding the milk if desired. Then blend this into the pear
mixture with the olive oil. Pour into a casserole dish and bake for around
20 minutes at 350F.

********************************
Passum (unsweetened version is Sapa)
*author of "Taste of Ancient Rome" suggests using Raisin wine here.  Sapa
recipe from "Roman Cookery: Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens" by Mark
Grant.
Sweetened version of Passum from "The Roman Basics" page by John David of
"The Foody UK & Ireland" ? URL ? http://thefoody.com/hsoup/roman.html

1 litre Red grape juice
Honey

Vigorously boil the grape juice until liquid is reduced by 1/3rd.
Add honey to sweeten taste.
Leave to cool and store in a sterilised bottle.

*****************************
*to make Liquamen ex Piris (Piquant pear Sauce)
(from: Roman Cookery: Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens by Mark Grant
Interlink Pub Group  ISBN:1897959397 (July 2000)