[Sca-cooks] ancient Roman cookery

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

Salve, Aurelia!
	I am not an ancient Romano-Brit, but I have been teaching a living history
class for the last year and a half, one third of which is Roman Britain.  I
am currently the tutor for 7 6-9 year olds (last year it was teenagers), and
we are living in the villa Trevithick, near Isca and Exeter.  It is the year
305AD. We study culture, daily life, art, technology & architecture, toys
and games, clothing, the Roman military and more.  The last clas of the
session is a Roman Banquet.  Last Spring's will be hard to beat, but I'm
looking forward to it again.  I made a fish sauce starting with an anchovy
paste base (I think, I might have mashed up some anchovies as well), garlic,
herbs, etc., I believe we also added some thai fish sauce to it.  While
quite strong, it was very tasty.  The father of one of my students last year
is a latin and medieval history professor, and he and his wife attended the
banquet.  He loved everything, and was brave enough to try the garum on some
melon slices, which he said was not bad.  He even read a passage from "Cato:
On Agriculture" during the banquet.  I thought it was cool.
	Anyway, I'll be doing the banquet class again on November 3rd, so I'll be
gearing up for it in a week or so.  I'll pull my menu out and share it here,
then refine it for this time around.
	Glad you asked, it will get a fire lit under me :)
	Christianna


Greetings all!
I decided it really was about time for me to officially speak up on this
list! I am Aurelia Coritana in Ansteorra, a 1st c. Roman-Brit.
My culinary interests are ancient Roman recipes (with fresh ingredients, of
course, har har.) Does anyone else out there experiment with ancient
cookery? If you've ever made anything with garum, I'd love to hear from you.
Aurelia Coritana
qui et Aurelia filia Volisii