29 replies to this topic

[deuce]

Here's one for JMR and Decius Caecillius Metellus. The Romans were very fond of well-cooked dormice. For those of us who just don't know where to find a good dormouse nowadays, you can substitute chicken. I got this from a site titled Ancient Roman Recipes.

"You don't have to prepare and cook a Giraffe or a Flamingo to have an Ancient Roman meal, try something smaller ~ like a dormouse. But with chicken! Let's face it, dormice are hard to come by these days.

You can use chicken wings in any recipe which calls for quails, and replace dormice with chicken drumsticks.

Apicius directs that the dormouse meat be pounded with pepper, and placed in an earthenware bowl with caraway, cumin, bay leaves, dates, honey, vinegar, wine, liquamen and olive oil, then roasted in the oven. Like all Roman recipes, no measurement of any ingredient is offered and no cooking time stated. Fortunately, we know how to cook chicken.


Chicken substitute Let's coat some chicken drumsticks in a mixture of flour, caraway seed, 2 tsps cumin seeds, crushed in a mortar and pestle, 2 tsps sweet paprika and 2 bay leaves. Toss the drumsticks in the mixture (in a plastic bag), add oil, toss again and leave for the flavours to mingle for a least two hours, or overnight.

Make a bed of the marinade in a roasting pan, place the chicken on top and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer pushed into the thickest part releases only clear juice."

Enjoy.

Hey Pilgrim! A good (and cheap, used) intro to ancient Roman (and Greek and Chinese) cuisine is The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines. Apicius gets mentioned a lot.

Personally, for those with access, I think quail would make an excellent substitute (rabbit wouldn't be bad either).

I can't see using paprika (one of the many, many agricultural gifts of the "New World" and its original inhabitants). Perhaps adding a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg (and upping the pepper) would suffice.

[crossplain pilgrim]

Hey, deuce. This one I actually intend to try. Sounds relatively easy.

Recipe : Globuli
Curd cheese, 500 g or about 1lb
A cup of semolina
honey
olive oil

"Press curd cheese through sieve or let it hang in cheese cloth until it's drained well. Mix with the semolina into a loose dough. Let it sit for a few hours. (Have a sip of the Caroenum while you wait).

With wet hands form the mixture into dumplings. Quickly fry them in olive oil for a few minutes. Drain and roll in honey."

Great for snacking while watching gladiatorial combats on TV (remember the that Star Trek episode?).

[timeless]

Hey Kortoso, ever have rattlesnake chili? It's good. People who really like the taste of rattlesnake try not to spice it too much. To me it has its own form of 'gaminess' that, to me, is best diluted with some heat...pepper and garlic, etc.




Pemmican is interesting. Dried jerky alone doesn?t provide near as much energy. Rendered fat adds about two and a half more energy than carbs (starch.) It?s compact, which is great for someone on the move (too much in your stomach makes you sluggish.) Also, pemmican digests slowly and the fat provides energy for a longer time than sugar and carbs. In civilization, we have difficulty avoided fats?in the wilderness we would die without it. If you had a ten pound supply of lean meat, say rabbit (or cases of Slim Jims,) on a daily basis and no fat, you wouldn?t make it. If you had a big jug of oil you?d be just fine.

The most important thing is to separate the fat from the meat. That way the meat won?t spoil. You cut it in long thin slices and hang it in the sun to dry. Or if it?s a little humid, you can hang it sort of close to a green smoky fire (not too close?you don?t want to cook it) which will also keep the flies away.
After grinding or pulverizing the dried meat, the rendered fat is mixed (2:1 ratio meat/fat) and worked into balls and stored in something as airtight as possible. You can spice it up or add some dried fruit, though that?s not the way the Western tribes did it.

I?ve only had it made with venison and lean beef. It?s powerful stuff?you couldn?t live on it for too long, it?d be really tough on your liver.

I like cactus, stems and pears. And I've eaten beaver (don't even THINK it, we're not going there .) The tail is fatty and a little rubber; I've had it in a stew. A guy I worked with caught a couple of burrowing owls once and roasted them like squab. It seemed way too little meat for the trouble.

In the Amazon and Southeast Asia tarantulas are eaten. They do something with the egg sacks, then just roast the entire spider and crack it open like a crab. (And they're welcome to it, I'll stick with my pemmican.)

[Ironhand]

Here's something that Conan might have cooked up while languishing in some random prison while plotting his escape.

http://www.thesneeze...at-it-vol-8.php

(Warning: It contains some foul language and a little bit of blasphemy.)

[Landsknecht]

http://foodsofthewor...net/forums.html

[Kortoso]

Hey, Timeless, I forgot about this thread. I made pemmican once. White folk add berries to it, very nice that way. I reckon the Indians boil in into a soup if they need a hot meal.

Landskencht, thanks for the link. My new sweetie is from Thailand and I am just now exploring that incredible cuisine. This will help!

[witchfire]

nothing beats the winter cold like poutine (the french canadian national dish)
it's filling, tasty & quite easy (& quick to make)

1 bowl of piping hot french fries
top with some cheese curdles
cover with boiling gravy (you can replace the gravy with your favorite sauces)

for more on poutine :
http://archives.cbc....ood/clips/8372/

[Landsknecht]

Hey, Timeless, I forgot about this thread. I made pemmican once. White folk add berries to it, very nice that way. I reckon the Indians boil in into a soup if they need a hot meal.

Landskencht, thanks for the link. My new sweetie is from Thailand and I am just now exploring that incredible cuisine. This will help!

You have a girlfriend from Thailand...... Hiring a personal Thai chef is on my list of things to do after winning a lottery. Maybe with alternating days off for the Indian chef.

[MisfitPanda]

Otik's Spiced Fried Potatoes

by Black Robe



Entrees



Ingredients

• 3-5 Med to Large Potatos (depending on how many are to be served)
• 1 Stick of Butter
• 1 Medium Onion cut in large pieces
• 2 Cloves of Garlic crushed
• 1-2 Teaspoons Ground Cayenne Pepper
• 1-2 Teaspoons Ground Black Pepper
• Salt to taste

Directions

Scrub potatoes, and remove any eyes. Chop into 1/2-inch cubes with skins. Microwave until they start to soften while you prepare other ingredients.
Melt butter in frying pan (traditionally an iron skillet), and heat until sizzling. Add cayenne and black peppers to butter and stir.
Add onion and garlic to pan and cook until onions are starting to turn clear.
Add the potatoes and stir to coat them in the butter, then salt to taste. Cook until potatoes are nice and crisp.
Serves 3-4 commoners or 1 hungry warrior.
Note - For the full effect, serve in the pan with a large hunk of bread and cheese and a big tankard of strong ale.

[THE KID]

Tropical Rum Punch

A 2 Quart blender
One 8 oz can of limeade
Grenadene
Dark Jamican Bacardi Rum
Pineapple Juice
Ice

Empty 8 oz can frozen limeade in blender
fill 8 oz can with Rum and pour in blender
pour in 1 oz of grenadene
pour in 8 oz of of pineapple juice
Lots of ice to top
Mix until like an icy/slushee

Cheers!