Farmer’s Cheese

Easy homemade cheese, perfect base for lots of yummy seasonings, like moretum and hypotrimma. I got this recipe from Vrouw Lijsbet de Kuekere, who got it from this pdf about 14th-15th c cheese making.

You will need:
1 gallon whole milk
1 pint heavy cream
1/3 c. apple cider vinegar
cheesecloth

1. Combine milk and cream in a large pot. Stir pretty much constantly while waiting for it to heat up on the stove. You want this mixture to come juuuuuuust to a boil.
2. Once it starts to boil, turn off the heat and slowly add the vinegar. Stir only a few times to distribute evenly, then leave it alone for 5-10 minutes.
3. Line a colander with the cheesecloth (you will want a lot of overhang). Pour the milk mixture into the colander. The curds will get caught in the cheesecloth.
4. Once cool enough to handle, tie up the ends of the cheesecloth and hang (I’ve hung it off the sink faucet, and I’ve also hung it off a hanger that was on a hook over the sink). The extra whey will drain. Leave this here for at least 1-2 hours.
5. Take cheese out of cheesecloth and empty into a bowl. If it is cool enough to handle, this is a good time to add seasoning. The cheese gets a little harder when you put it in the fridge, so to mix evenly, room temp is best.

Moretum (Garlic & Herb Cheese)

Came across a recipe for Cheese Round With Herbs in “A Taste of Ancient Rome” (I. Giacosa, p. 54). It is attributed as being part of the poem “Moretum” by Virgil. I have not read the poem, so I do not have any context for the quote below.

Quattuor alia, apius, ruta, coriandrum, salis micas, caseus
Four garlic cloves, celery, rue, coriander, salt grains, and cheese.

Giacosa suggests using a soft cheese or farmers cheese, but gives no measurements for any of the ingredients. I decided not to use any rue, because I have read in several places that it’s not exactly healthy for you. I’m honestly not sure exactly *how* bad is for you, because the Romans used it a lot in their cooking. Maybe the rue of today is different than the rue of the ancients? I don’t know, but better safe than have a lawsuit on my hands.  I wound up using celery seed and dried parsley because I didn’t have any fresh celery at the time.

I started off using ricotta, as I have heard it is similar to a soft farmers cheese, and added small amounts of each ingredient until I liked the flavor.

Moretum
1 c. soft cheese (ricotta or fresh farmer’s cheese)
1/2 T Minced garlic
1/2 t Celery Seed
1 T Dried Parsley
1/2 t Ground coriander
1/4 t Salt

Mix all together, except cheese. I use a mortar & pestle to get it all mixed well. Then add cheese and mix thoroughly. When using fresh farmers cheese, I usually drizzle in some olive oil to soften is up some more. When making a lot of moretum, I forego the mortar & pestle and just put everything in a food processor.

 

Forcemeat Faggots (aka Meatballs)

“Forcemeat Faggots: you pound chopped meat with fresh white breadcrumbs soaked in wine, with pepper and liquamen; if you wish, you pound crushed myrtle berries with them. You shape the faggots with pine nuts and pepper placed inside. Wrap them in caul fat and roast them with Caroenum” Apicius, 2.1.7

I first read this and thought it sounded similar to meatloaf, mostly because of the ground meat and bread crumbs. I wasn’t sure what caul fat was, and after asking a few people I determined that it’s kind of like lacey sausage casing. Sally Grainger has a modern recipe for this in her book “Cooking Apicius”. She suggests making them more of a burger size. Considering that I knew I had to feed around 300 people, I decided to go with a smaller meatball size and to skip the caul fat. I wound up having to make several substitutions.  I could not find myrtle berries, but Grainer suggests juniper berries as a substitute. Liquamen is similar to garum, which is a fish sauce. I know there are a lot of fish allergies, so I just used sea salt instead. Apicius also calls for white wine, but again I know there are several people allergic to wine, so I used white grape juice as a substitute.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Ground beef (or lamb)

2 cups Bread Crumbs

¼ cup White Grape juice (or use white wine)

½ tbsp. Sea Salt (or 2 tbsp fish sauce)

1 tbsp whole black peppercorns

6 Juniper Berries (or 10 myrtle berries)

Pine nuts (1-2 per meatball)

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 400
2. Combine mix bread crumbs with grape juice. Combine with ground beef. Mix thoroughly until mixture is pretty smooth
3. Combine peppercorns and juniper berries in a morter until well ground. Add salt and grind some more.
4. Add peppercorn/juniperberries/salt mixture to ground beef mixture, and mix thoroughly.
5. Take 1-2 tbsp of mixture and form into a ball. Press 1-2 pine nuts deep into the meatball (If you leave the pine nuts on top, they will fall off during baking). Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Continue making meatballs until mixture is gone.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes or until meatballs are no longer pink inside.

Posca

Posca is an Ancient Roman drink very similar to sekanjabin, frequently mentioned as something soldiers drank, and as an ingredient in cooking. Soldiers would carry Posca with them, and add it to water when they found it. The vinegar would act as a disinfectant, making the water safer to drink. In its most basic form, it consists of vinegar (most likely red wine vinegar), and water, though honey and herbs and spices were sometimes added.

I experimented quite a bit with the ratios of vinegar and water, but my sweet tooth was not happy until I added the honey. Lots of honey. I added the mint and coriander to make the drink even more refreshing on a hot summer day.

Ingredients (makes enough for 4-5 gallons of water)

1.5 c Honey
.5   c Vinegar (Red wine vinegar, White wine vinegar, or Apple Cider vinegar)
1 T Ground Corriander
Mint to taste

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients into sauce pan, and bring to a boil.
2. Remove from heat and let cool
3. Store mixture in glass bottle or other sealed container.
4. For one glass:
   Add 1-2 T to 12-16oz of water and stir.For 5-gallon water cooler
   Fill water cooler with 4-5 gallons of water. Pour in entire Posca mixture (2 c.).
   Make sure lid is sealed on cooler, and shake cooler to mix.

Honeyed Dormice

“The dishes for the first course included… some small iron frames shaped like bridges supporting dormice sprinkled with honey and poppy seed.” – Petronius, Trimalchio’s Feast, The Satyricon

I have seen and heard many references to Romans eating dormice. And I have seen many different recipes online for this, some of them getting quite complicated. I decided to make mine super simple. Brushing the chicken with olive oil before baking gives the chicken skin a wonderful golden brown color when cooked, and makes the skin a little crispy.

Ingredients

Chicken thighs and drumsticks
Olive Oil
Honey
Poppy Seeds

Directions

1. Preheat Oven to 350
2. Leave skin on chicken pieces. Rinse and pat dry.
3. Place chicken pieces on greased baking sheet or baking dish
4. Brush chicken pieces with Olive Oil
5. Bake chicken until skin is crispy and juices run clear (about 40 minutes)
6. While chicken is baking, warm honey in small pan, until it is thin and runny (do not boil)
7. When chicken is done, brush each piece with honey and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

Menu – Fall Crown Tournament – Dayboard (October 11, 2014)

Since this was Crown Tournament, and I know that frequently people do not want to stop watching all the action to come get food, I thought it would be a good idea to have the food come to the populace. So, every 10-15 minutes, there were servers wandering through the populace with trays of deliciousness.

Menu

GRAPES
APPLES
LUCANIAN SAUSAGE
MEATBALLS
MUSHROOM PATINA
SPINACH/CHEESE PATINA
OLIVES STUFFED WITH GARLIC
PICKLED VEGGIES
MORETUM
BREAD

Menu – Fall Crown Tournament of Titus and Anna Leigh – Feast (October 11, 2014)

Originally, there was only going to be a dayboard at Crown Tournament. However, King Titus and Queen Anna Leigh had other ideas, and next thing you know I was signed up to cook my first feast. I learned that it was His Majesty’s birthday weekend, so I asked him what he would like to eat. He said chicken BBQ. So it was my task to come up with something period appropriate, while still tasting like a modern chicken BBQ. After quite some time debating, I decided to just do both – Ancient Chicken BBQ and Modern Chicken BBQ.

ANCIENT – inspired by Syracusa, Sicily, c. 14CE
GRILLED CHICKEN WITH SWEET DILL MUSTARD SAUCE
OSTIAN PORK
BAKED BEANS WITH HONEY MUSTARD
CABBAGE WITH CUMIN
BOILED TURNIPS WITH OIL & VINEGAR
FLAT BREAD
ROMAN PLACENTA PASTRY

MODERN – inspired by Syracuse, NY, c. 2014CE
DINOSAUR™ BBQ CHICKEN
LUPO’S™ PORK SPIEDIES
GRANDMA BROWN’S™ BAKED BEANS
UTICA GREENS
SALT POTATOES
ITALIAN BREAD
CUPCAKES

Menu – Tournament of the Windmill: Countess 50 Year – Lunch Basket Auction (June 28, 2014)

At Tournament of the Windmill: Countess 50 Year, in addition to the light dayboard, there was a lunch basket auction to help raise funds for the Barony. The autocrat called on the Delftwood Cooks Guild to donate baskets with a period lunch to feed 2 or 4 people. There were several wonderful baskets representing many different cultures. Of course the two that I donated were Roman!

Basket #1: Bread & Circuses
Homemade White Bread
Moretum
Epityrum
Beets with Mustard
Ostian Pork Cubes
Melon with Mint

Basket #2: Eggs to Apples
Homemade White Bread
Moretum
Hard Boiled Eggs
Spinach Patina
Carrots in Cumin-Honey Glaze
Black Olives
Apples

Menu – Coronation of Magnus Tindal and Etain (April 12, 2013)

When I heard that Sir Murdoch was cooking for Coronation, I offered to let him borrow the books I have on Ancient Roman Cooking. By the end of the conversation, he had asked if I would be willing to cook the dayboard. Of course I said yes, even though I was very nervous about it. Here was someone who was known for his excellent cooking, asking me, who’s only cooked once before, to cook the dayboard at an event as important as Coronation. I knew I could not screw it up.

Coronation Dayboard menu was inspired by Writing Tablet 302, found at VINDOLANDA, a 1st century Roman fort in Northern Britannia

“… BRUISED BEANS, TWO MODII, CHICKENS, TWENTY, A HUNDRED APPLES, IF YOU CAN FIND NICE ONES, A HUNDRED OR TWO HUNDRED EGGS, IF THEY ARE FOR SALE THERE AT A FAIR PRICE. … 8 SEXTARII OF FISH-SAUCE … A MODIUS OF OLIVES … (BACK) TO … SLAVE (?) OF VERECUNDUS.”

Menu for Dayboard

Millet and Vegetable Soup
Beans with Mustard
Asparagus Patina
Honeyed Dormice
Moretum
Farmers Cheese with Honey
Epityrum
Pickled Veggies
Posca

Menu – Tournament of the Windmill: For the Glory of Rome (August 16-18, 2013)

This is the menu from my first time cooking in the SCA, which is what inspired the creation of this blog. Eventually, I will have all recipes posted and linked.

The dayboard was inspired by what Roman Citizens would eat throughout the day – a simple breakfast, an afternoon snack from the tavern (or leftovers from the previous night’s dinner), and dinner at a patron’s that could last hours.

Ientaculum (breakfast dayboard)
Libum (cheese bread)
Bread
Moretum (herbed goat cheese)
Grapes
Dates
Honey

Prandium (lunch)
Various Breads
Pickled Cheese
Cheese Round with Herbs
Vegetables in a Salt Brine
Cabbage Salad
Ostian Pork Cubes
Epityrum (Olive relish)
Olives
Grapes
Honey
Posca

Cena (dinner)
Various Breads
Sweet Wine Biscuits
Hypotrimma (fruited cheese)
Beetroots with Mustard
Broccoli with Cumin Sauce
Green Salad with Vinaigrette
Roast Chicken with Three Sauces
Dill and Leek Sauce
Cold Sauce for Fowl
Cold Sauce for Goose
Epityrum (Olive Relish)
Olives
Dates
Honey
Posca

Mensa Secunda (dessert)
“Snow” with Defrutum (crushed ice with grape/date sauce)
Melon with Mint
Rice Pudding
Honey