[Sca-cooks] Looking for a Roman sweet

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Raffaella wrote:
>Some of my friends are putting together a Roman feast and they are 
>looking for one more recipe to round out the menu. They've already 
>got some savory biscuit/ cookies, but they are looking for small 
>sweet that could preferably be made in advance as well.

Anne-Marie replied:
>Raffaella, do you have the Roman banquet Feudal GOurmet pamphlet? 
>theres some really nice desserts in there, including a honeyed date 
>thing that is to die for...

I don't have the Roman Feudal Gourmet. But i suspect the date 
suggestion is probably for Dulcia Domestica:

DULCIA DOMESTICA
palmulas uel dactylos excepto semine, nuce uel nucleis uel pipere 
trito infercies. sale foris contingis, frigis in melle cocto, et 
inferes.

Home-made Sweet
Fresh or dried dates seeds taken out, stuff with walnuts or pine nuts 
or ground pepper. Roll in salt, fry in cooked honey, and serve.

Here is how i interpret the procedure:

Fill each pitted date with a walnut half or a couple pine nuts or a 
little ground pepper... I'd suggest trying some with one kind of nuts 
and a little pepper. Pepper was a huge luxury to the Romans.

Sprinkle dates with a little salt, or roll them in salt, depending on 
how much. Might be good with one of those regional specialty salts.

Heat a relatively shallow layer of honey in a heavy pan until it 
boils, then turn heat down.
Add dates in a single layer and cook in honey on low heat for about 5 
to 10 minutes. I haven't made this recipe, but in my experiences, 
cooking dates in honey for too long, well, the dates start to 
dissolve...

-- 
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita