Straight to the recipe High in carbohydrates, low-fat, gluten free EdibleĀ chestnutsĀ were probably introduced in the Netherlands by theĀ Romans. Dutch summers do not always yield ripe chestnuts, but usually enough chestnuts can be gathered under a tame chestnut tree for a nice meal. The picture on the right shows two ancient tame chestnut trees in the…
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Lucanian sausages
Straight to the recipe An ancient Roman delicacy In June 2012 I gave a talk aboutĀ RomanĀ Food at theĀ Roman FestivalĀ in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. This inspired me to try my hand at preparing Lucanicae, one of the recipes forĀ sausagesĀ in the Roman cookery bookĀ De re coquinaria. I have written more on this book in my notes on other…
Mulahwaja
Straight to the recipe A recipe from 1001 nights There are few Europeans who can read and understand Arabic, let alone medieval Arabic, and I am not one of them. That is why the translation in English of the tenth centuryĀ KitÄb al-Å¢abÄ«khĀ of al-WarrÄq from Nawal Nasrallah is so valuable (also literally, the book is quite…
Arabian meatballs
Straight to the recipe Tasty tidbits The recipe on this page was prepared, together with Arabian pasties,Ā clareit and medieval wafers, for the opening of an exhibition in the Utrecht University Museum on the medieval text Sidrac. The focus was on the Middle Dutch translation, Sidrac. There is also a late-medieval translation of this text, Sidrak…
Beef Stock
Back to the list with recipes for stock and soup You’ll never get a good beefĀ stockĀ without meat and bones. In some supermarkets in the Netherlands you can buy soup packages to make your own stock, but what they provide is a miserable quantity, barely enough for one cup of soup. That’s why so many recipes…
Roman broccoli
A recipe for broccoli fromĀ De re coquinaria, a Roman cookbook with recipes from the 1st to 4th centuries. If a vegetable like broccoli already existed, it was probably something that looked likeĀ Brassica rapa var. Cymosa, also known asĀ Cima di rapaĀ orĀ rapiniĀ (broccoli raab): thin stalks with leaves and small flowerbuds. Where I live (the Netherlands), Cima di…