[Sca-cooks] Greco-Roman Feast, Intro

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Since Jadwiga is longing for on-topic conversation, i'll post the 
recipes i used for the Greco-Roman feast i served in early September.

I was originally expecting to serve around 72. It was already clear 
to me that i would more likely be serving 80. Then before the feast 
the Autocrat called and said it was sold out, and more people wanted 
to attend, could i feed 100. Of course, i said, "Yes." All i did was 
buy more chicken and more salad. It just meant that folks would have 
to take smaller servings. Since there were about 26 dishes, i knew 
i'd have enough food.

I used a wide range of sources. I included this bibliography in the 
feast menu booklet

Apicius, The Roman Cookery Book. Translated by Barbara Flower & 
Elizabeth Rosenbaum. Peter Nevill, Ltd, London & New York: 1958.

Andrew Dalby. Siren Feasts, A History of Food and Gastronomy in 
Greece. Routledge, London & New York: 1996.

Andrew Dalby. Empire of Pleasures, Luxury and Indulgence in the Roman 
World. Routledge, London & New York: 2000.

Andrew Dalby. Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices. University of 
California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles: 2000.

Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger. The Classical Cookbook. British 
Museum Press, London: revised edition 2000.

Patrick Faas. Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient 
Rome. Translated by Shaun Whiteside. Palgrave Macmillan, New York and 
Hampshire UK: 1994, 2003.

Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa. A Taste of Ancient Rome. Translated by Anna 
Herklotz. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London: 1992.

I bought a copy of Mark Grant's "Roman Cookery" in early October at 
the Known World Costume Symposium from Devra who brought Poison Pen 
Press - heck, she was one of the reasons i went to Denver!

I had several issues to deal with in planning and executing the feast.

While a traditional Greek or Roman feast would have three courses, 
the Autocrat wanted six. It was a bardic competition and there was a 
round of competition between each course. I just doubled each course.

Prince Dimitriy keeps kinda Kosher, so
(a) i made Lucanicae of lamb, served in a course with ham
(b) for any dish that contained dairy, we made a dish without for 
him, except for things like cheese and cheesecake

Princess Jimena is deathly allergic to all tree nuts except pine nuts, so
(a) i eliminated from the menu several dishes i had wanted to make 
that contained almonds, walnuts, and hazelnuts
(b) i made a nut-and-mustard sauce, making it with the pine nuts - 
setting aside a dish for the princess - then adding the ground 
almonds so there would be no cross-contamination

Princess Jimena is also deathly allergic to raw honey, so i made sure 
to only use honey that had been heated - i personally use raw honey 
and have bought it for feasts, but this time i just got "Sue Bee"
There was a moment in the kitchen when i had used up all 10 lb of 
honey and needed more and one of the cooks who lived nearby brought 
in a 5 lb bottle of raw, so i had to nix it

I used less fish sauce than my taste prefers, because folks seemed squeamish

Because we have close to 10 per cent of diners vegetarian - and in 
this case included 2 or 3 diners allergic to fish - i substituted soy 
sauce in dishes for them.

To acheive this easily, we made all the food without fish sauce, then 
when finishing the dishes, i set aside 10 per cent (one serving 
platter) to which we added soy sauce, and put fish sauce in the rest. 
Because i know that vegetarians are friends with meat eaters, i had 
one server dedicated to serving them - she wandered the hall bringing 
servings to them, whereas the other servers each served whole tables.

Because i wanted a display/sotiltie type dish, and i never got around 
to making a fake pig out of which to pull the hams, we made very 
non-Greco-Roman faux peach pits, served in sugar paste Roman chariots.

Additionally, September is generally the hottest month here, so we 
made two fruit ices and served them as "palate cleansers" between 
some rather "savory" courses.

I made feast booklets for every diner. There was a title page (Ab Ovo 
Ad Malum), then one page for each course, and the back page was the 
bibliography. I did not include recipes, but each dish - named in 
Latin or Greek and in English (or in Italian for the ices) - included 
a complete list of ingredients as well as its historic source(s).

Because there were some empty spaces in the booklet following shorter 
courses, i included stories about spices from Herodotus and other 
Greek and Roman writers, since i had taught a course on early spice 
routes back in late July or early August.

Here is the menu:

----- Promulsis - Hors d'Oeuvre -----
- Panis : Fresh Bread
- Caseum : Fresh Aged Cheese
- Epityrum  :  Chopped Seasoned Olive Relish [Cato the Censor, de 
Agricultura, 119]
- Ius cum Ovis Hapalis : Boiled Eggs in Pine Nut Sauce [Apicius, Book 
VII, Chapter XIX, Recipe 3]


----- Gustatio - Appetizers -----
- Fresh Bread
- Moretum : Garlic, Herb, and Cheese Spread [The Ploughman's Lunch, 
anonymous Latin poet]
- Aliter Carduos : Herb Marinated Artichokes [Apicius, Book III, 
Chapter XIX, Recipe 2]
- Ius in Cordulla Assa : Grilled Tuna with Date Sauce [Apicius, Book 
IX, Chapter X, Recipe 5]


----- Intermezzo -----
- Granita di Limone - Lemon Ice


----- Primera Mensa, Cena Prima - First Course, First Table -----
- Ius cum Pullo:  Chicken with Plum Sauce [Apicius, Book VI, Chanpter 
V, Recipe 1]
- Acetaria: Mixed Greens Salad
- Hypotrimma: Cheese Sauce [Apicius, Book I, Chapter XIX]
- Boletos: Another Mushroom Dish [Apicius, Book VII, Chapter XIII, Recipe 6]
- Erebinthoi Knakosymmigeis: Saffron Chickpeas [Piloxenus, The 
Dinner, quoted in Anthenaeus (circa AD170-239), The Partying 
Professors]


----- Intermezzo
- Granita di Melograno - Pomegranate Ice


----- Primera Mensa, Cena Secunda - First Course, Second Table -----
- Pernam : Ham with Figs in Pastry [Apicius, Book VII, Chapter IX, Recipe 1]
- Lucanicae : Smokey Sausages of Lamb [Apicius, Book II, Chapter IV]
- Sinapim : Mustard Sauce with Nuts [Columella 12, 57]
- Cuminatum in Patina de Persicis : Peaches in Cumin Sauce [Patina: 
Apicius, Book IV, Chapter II, Recipe 34;
- Cabbage in the Style of Athens [Mnesitheus (4th c. BCE), quoted by 
Oribasius, in Medical Collections, Book IV, Chapter 4, part 1 (4th c. 
CE); another version in Cato (c. 234-149 BCE) and quoted by Pliny the 
Elder (24-79 CE)]
- Pulentium : Barley Polenta [Pliny, Naturalis Historia, 18, 73]


----- Seconda Mensa, Cena Prima - Second Course, First Table -----
- Conditum Paradoxi Compositio : Spiced White Grape Juice Surprise 
[Apicius, Book I, Chapter I, Recipe 1]
- Patina Versatilis : Pine Nut Patina - [Apicius, Book IV, Chapter 
II, Recipe 2]
- Mustei : Sweet Must Cakes [Cato the Censor, de Agricultura, 121]


----- Seconda Mensa, Cena Seconda - Second Course, Second Table -----
- Savillum : Roman cheese cake [Cato the Censor, de Agricultura, 84]
- Almond Paste Peach Pits in Sugar Plate Chariots
- Fresh Fruit