[Sca-cooks] Greco-Roman Feast, Courses 5 & 6

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

These were the final two courses. Roman meals often had both sweets 
and savories in the final course. While none of these dishes was 
savory, some of them were not very sweet.

NOTE: All recipes serve 80 to 100

Anahita

---------------------

Secunda Mensa, Cena Prima
Second Course, First Table

Conditum - Spiced White Wine/Grape Juice
Pine Nut Patina
Sweet Must Cakes

Secunda Mensa, Cena Secunda
Second Course, Second Table

Savillum - Roman cheese cake
Almond Paste Peach Pits in Sugar Plate Chariots
Mixed Fresh Fruit Salad

---------------------

CONDITUM - Spiced White Grape Juice

Original:
Contium Paradoxum Compositum:
Spiced Wine Surprise is made as follows: 15 lb. of honey are put in a 
metal vessel into which you have previously put 2 pints of wine, so 
as to boil down the wine while cooking the honey. It is heated over a 
slow fire of dry wood, stirring all the while with a stick; when it 
begins to boil over it is checked by adding [cold] wine; it also 
sinks when removed from the fire. When cool it is heated once more. 
This must be done a second and third time, and only then is it 
removed from the fire, and skimmed on the following day. Then take 4 
oz. pepper, 3 scruples of pounded mastic, a handful each of aromatic 
leaf [tejpat/malabathron] and saffron, 5 roasted date-stones, the 
dates softened in wine, having previously been soaked in wine of the 
right kind and quality, so as to produce a soft mash. These 
preparations completed, pour over 18 pints of sweet wine. In the end 
add coals, if it is too bitter.
[ ----- Apicius, Book I, Chapter I, Recipe 1]

This should have been made with wine. However, SCA rules do not allow 
the purchase of wine or other alcohol for serving as beverages. 
Therefore i substituted white grape juice, spiked with Middle Eastern 
sour white grape juice so it wouldn't be too cloying.

5-1/3 cans White Grape Juice Concentrate
Water, enough to make 2 gallons of juice
10 fresh Dates, soaked in juice
3 lb. Honey
1/2 cup White Wine Vinegar
1/2 cup Verjus/Sour White Grape Juice
1-1/2 Tb. ground Black Pepper
10 Tejpat/Malabathron Leaf/Bay Leaves
3/4 tsp. Saffron
3/4 tsp. Gum Mastic

Reconstitute juice.
Soak dates in a small amount of juice until soft.
Mix 6 cups of juice with honey and bring to boil.
Add seasonings and cook on medium-low heat for a few minutes.
Then cool.
Add remainder of juice, then stir in vinegar and verjus to taste.
Let stand overnight.
Strain/decant.
Serve.
Can be diluted to taste with water.

NOTE: This was a surprise hit. Several folks who said they very much 
disliked grape juice asked me for the recipe.


PINE NUT PATINA

Original:
An Inverted Patina as Dessert:
Pine nuts, peeled and chopped nuts, are roasted, grind with honey, 
pepper, fish sauce, milk, eggs, a little undiluted wine and oil. 
Turn into a plate.
[ ----- Apicius, Book IV, Chapter II, Recipe 16]

Modern recipe courtesy of Cordelia Toser, who cooked them all for the feast.

50 large Eggs (4 doz. + 2 eggs)
5 cups ground Pine Nuts
5 cups Clover Honey
2-1/2 tsp Black Pepper
5 tsp Salt
2 Tb. and 1-1/2 tsp White Wine
2 Tb. Olive Oil
30 cups Whole Milk

Butter a 1-1/2 quart glass casserole.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In large bowl, beat eggs until uniform.
Add other ingredients and blend until smooth.
Place casserole in large baking pan that is about 2 inches deep.
Pour egg mixture into casserole and add warm water into baking pan. 
Try to get the water level about the same as the egg mixture.
Gently place pan in center oven.
Bake until the edges of the custard should be brown and the center is 
no longer liquid.  That should be about 35 to 40 minutes.
Remove casserole from oven and cool on wire rack until it reaches 
room temperature.

It may be served warm or cold.  Leftovers must be refrigerated.

NOTE: I figure this is not very much like the actual Roman version. 
But Cordelia's recipe is scrumptious and super yummy and it was a big 
hit. Some diners ate five helpings.


SWEET MUST CAKES

Original:
Must cakes to be made thus:
two gallons of bread-wheat flour to be moistened with must; add to 
this anise, cumin, 2 lb. lard, 1 lb. cheese, and grate in the park of 
a bay twig; when you have shaped them, put bay leaves under them 
while you cook them.
[ ----- Cato the Censor, De Agricultura, 121]

4 lb unbleached white wheat flour
1 cup must
  - - - or - scant 1/2 cup red wine - plus - scant 1/2 cup red grape 
juice concentrate
  - - - or - soak 1/4 to 1/2 cup dark raisins in 1-1/2 cups warm water 
until soft and plump.
Strain out, squeezing liquid out of raisins. There should be about 1 
cup of liquid
1 lb. butter alone or mixed with sesame oil
1-1/4 lb. farmer or pot cheese, or *real* cream cheese without gums 
(i.e., NOT Philadelphia brand or those like it)
3 Tb. lightly toasted anise seeds
3 Tb. roasted cumin seeds
80 bay leaves

1. Toast cumin and anise seeds separately.
2. Mix butter and soft cheese.
3. Work butter and soft cheese into flour by hand.
4. Mix in whole toasted seeds.
5. Mix in must or wine-and-grape juice or raisin juice.
6. Cover 2 jelly roll/sheet pans with a single layer of bay leaves.
7. Divide dough into two equal balls.
8. Pat each dough ball down a bit.
9. Lay one ball over the bay leaves on one sheet, and pat out until 
it covers the baking sheet completely. Repeat with other ball.
10. Bake 350 degrees F. for 15 min or until golden.
11. Score thoroughly into 50 bars per pan while still warm.
12. Cool in pan.
13. Break out bars to serve.

NOTES:
To be perfectly honest, i didn't really have or use a recipe for 
these. I just winged it. I hauled the ingredients to the site 
kitchen, and with a some guidance from Euriol - since it has been a 
very long time since i baked cookie like things - i just faked it. So 
the recipe above is not really quite what i used or what i did. But 
since i just improvised, you can take this info and improv your own.

I used a tad over 1 cup of must as that was all the container had. It 
was expensive. Next time i will use homemade raisin juice and add 
more.

I left out the cumin seeds at the feast.

This could have taken some additional sweetener.

The resulting bars were somewhat crunchy on top, and soft and chewy 
on the bottom. I found them very pleasing. I guess others did too, as 
there were none left over. And I'd like to make them again!


SAVILLUM - Roman cheese cake

Original:
Make a savillum thus:
Mix 1/2 libra of flour and 2 1/2 librae of cheese, as is done for 
libum. Add 1/4 libra of honey and 1 egg. Grease an earthenware bowl 
with oil. When you have mixed the ingredients well, pour into the 
bowl and cover the bowl with an earthenware testo. See that you cook 
it well in the middle where it is highest. When it is cooked, remove 
the bowl, spread with honey, sprinkle with poppy, put it back 
underneath the testo for a moment, and then remove. Serve it thus 
with a plate and spoon.
[ ----- Cato the Censor, de Agricultura (84)]

Prior to Feast

Butter
1 lb Flour
5 lb Ricotta Cheese
1/2 lb Honey
3 Eggs
(pinch of Salt might be good)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter baking dishes (a Pyrex bowl for each table would be nice... dream on...)
Mixed flour, cheese, honey, and eggs well.
Pour into baking dishes, cover with foil.
Bake until set (not dry) in the middle, about 30 minutes (test with 
toothpick or knife).

On Site

additional Honey
Black Poppy Seeds

Spread honey on top of cheese cakes and sprinkle with poppy seeds.
Put under the broiler briefly to melt honey.

NOTE: This was rather thin and dry. I think it was cooked too long. 
The original implies that it isn't a thoroughly dry dish. Needs 
further experimentation to perfect. It was mostly all eaten, anyway.


Almond Paste "Peach Pits" in Sugar Plate Chariots

These are not at all authentically Roman, but they were for show. 
They CANNOT be served to the Princess who is deathly allergic to 
almonds.

Gianetta experimented with sugar paste to make the chariots.

Faux Peach Pits

I must thank Mistress Rose de la Mans who very generously taught me 
and Gianetta del Bene how to make the peach pits and loaned us the 
molds she had made.

Original:
Huessos de duraznos -- Peach pits
Take half a pound of almonds, and blanch them, and grind them, and 
take a pound of sugar, ground and sifted, knead it with the almond 
until it is well kneaded, and if it does not stay very firm, cast in 
a little more almond, and take an ounce of very fine cinnamon, and 
two adarmes of red sanders, all very well ground and sifted, cast it 
in the paste, and knead everything very well, until it takes on a 
good color, and the dough being well-tempered, which is not soft, 
sprinkle it on top with sifted sugar, so that it doesn't stick, and 
make pieces, and in each one put an almond, or a half, and sprinkle 
them with sugar, and put them in your molds and remove them, and set 
them to dry.
[ ----- Diego Granado, Libro del Arte de Cozina (Spanish, 1599), 
Trans. Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)]

almond paste
whole almonds
red saunders
true cinnamon

Powder the red saunders in an electric coffee grinder or tiny blender jar.
Knead almond paste with hands.
When the right consistency, add the powdered red saunders and the 
true cinnamon powder.
Work with the hands a bit
If using home ground almonds - may need to add a few drops of almond 
flavor or almond oil depending on freshness of almonds...

NOTE: So we cheated again. I bought almond paste (NOT marzipan) at 
The Berkeley Bowl, since previous attempts with blanched almonds 
ended in failure, as the nuts and sugar just weren't moist enough. 
The marzipan they sell is very white, very finely ground, and quite 
sweet, whereas the almond paste is very pale tan, has more texture 
(isn't chunky, just not as fine), and is a bit less sweet.

NOTE: Rose used some kind of polymer clay to make the molds from 
genuine peach pits. She loaned them to us. Gianetta make at least 80 
of these things herself. Whew!


FRESH FRUIT

Traditionally a Roman banquet ended with fresh fruit. I figured we 
wouldn't need much, since folks ought to be pretty full. I also felt 
that a bowl of whole fruits on the table wouldn't go over that well, 
so i took various fruits the Romans ate and turned them into a simple 
fruit salad. I added sugar and flower waters. This is not authentic.

red grapes
black grapes
1 ripe yellow melon (not cantaloupe)
1 ripe green melon
2 ripe pomegranates
a few each pears and apples
a little white sugar
rose water
orange flower water

Wash fruit.
Peel and/or cut up fruit, as necessary. For pomegranate, slit skin 
and carefully peel away from seeds. Release juicy seeds from pith.
Mix together.
Toss with a little sugar, rose water, and orange flower water.
Let stand from at least 15 min. to macerate.