{"id":1358,"date":"2002-11-02T14:39:50","date_gmt":"2002-11-02T13:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coquinaria.nl\/?p=1358\/"},"modified":"2019-11-24T20:44:48","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T19:44:48","slug":"roman-mussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coquinaria.nl\/en\/roman-mussels\/","title":{"rendered":"Mussels in antiquity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Straight to the recipe<\/small><\/a><\/p>\n

As the Romans liked to eat them<\/h2>\n

\"AThe months around Thanksgiving and Christmas are filled with good wining and dining. Give yourself a break from stuffed turkeys and roasted gammon, and have some humble shellfish. The mussel has been eaten ever since the stone age. The historical recipe on this page is for mussels as they were eaten in Rome under the reign of the emperor Tiberius. It is taken from the Roman cookery book\u00a0De re coquinaria<\/em>\u00a0or Apicius<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Who was Apicius?<\/h3>\n

In the first century A.D. there was a very rich Roman citizen,\u00a0 Marcus Gavius Apicius. This man seemed to be a likely candidate for the epinomous cookbook. He was a famous gourmet, who killed himself when his fortune was down to ten million seserties. Since he couldn’t afford the meals he was accustomed to anymore (think the Roman equivalents of caviar, truffles and Premier Grand Cr\u00fb wine), he poisoned himself. Another possible author was Caelius Apicius, for centuries the supposed author, but he has probably never even existed. The first editors misunderstood the abbreviations on the title page of one of the ninth-century manuscripts, and Apitius Caelius was named as the author (Phyllis Pray Bober,\u00a0Art, Culture & Cuisine<\/em>, p.149), see bibliography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

De Re Coquinaria<\/em><\/h3>\n

There are no contemporary copies of\u00a0De re coquinaria<\/em>. The only copies that have survived the centuries are two ninth-century manuscripts, plus some slightly older fragments and excerpts. The recipes are from the time of the Roman empire at its height, but the language and composition of the cookbook date from the fourth century A.D. Medieval copiists who made transcripts of\u00a0De re coquinaria<\/em>\u00a0did not plan to use it as a cookbook. It was a latin text, and therefore worthwile to transcribe.
\nThere is a parallel between the fate of cookbooks and stageplays during the Middle Ages. The classical plays (drama’s and comedies) were transcribed, but not acted out on a stage, just like the Roman cookbook was transcribed, but no recipe was ever prepared from it. It is as though around the twelfth century, after centuries of silence, plays and cookbooks are invented anew from scratch. From this it is clear that medieval culinary texts have absolutely no relation to the classical Roman culinary traditions.<\/p>\n

In the fifteenth century\u00a0De re coquinaria<\/em>\u00a0was rediscovered as a cookbook. Italian humanists were curious about everything Roman, including what the Romans ate. De re coquinaria<\/em>\u00a0was printed for the first time in 1498. Since then, it has been published again and again over the centuries, and nowadays it easy to find the text on the internet (often taken from obsolete, nineteenth-century editions).
\nOther recipes from\u00a0De re coquinaria<\/em>\u00a0on this site:\u00a0Asparagus patina with quail<\/a>,\u00a0Roman apricots<\/a>,\u00a0Roman broccoli<\/a>,\u00a0Broad beans \u00e0 la Vitellius<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I am not going to write about mussels here. If you want to know more about them, you can consult wikipedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The original recipe<\/h2>\n

The text was originally taken from\u00a0De re coquinaria,\u00a0<\/em>edited by Barbara Flower en Elizabeth Rosenbaum,\u00a0The roman cookery book. A critical translation of “The art of cooking” by Apicius, for use in the study and kitchen.<\/em>\u00a0 (see bibliography<\/a>). In 2006, Christopher Grocock and Sally Grainger published a new, critical edition of\u00a0De re coquinaria<\/em>. The Latin text is now from that edition.
\nThe book of P.C.P. Faas,\u00a0Around the table of the Romans: Food and feasting in ancient Rome<\/em>\u00a0(see bibliography<\/a>) contains an excellent portrait of Roman life in relation to food. It also has more than 150 recipes, mainly taken from Apicius.<\/p>\n

Liber IX, Thalassa
\nIX. in metulis: liquamen porrum concisum cuminum passum satureiam, uinum; mixtum facies aquatius et ibi mitulos quoques.<\/em><\/div>
Book 9, From the sea.
\n9. Mussels:\u00a0liquamen<\/a>, chopped leeks,\u00a0passum<\/a>, savory, wine. Dilute the mixture with water, and boil the mussels in it.<\/div>\n
VI. in ostreis: piper ligusticum oui uitellum acetum liquamen oleum et uinum. si uolueris et mel addes.<\/em><\/div>
6. (Sauce) for oysters: pepper,\u00a0lovage<\/a>, yolk of egg, vinegar, liquamen, oil and wine. If you wish, add honey.<\/div>\n
VII. in omne genus conciliorum: piper ligusticum petroselinum mentam siccam cuminum plusculum mel liquamen. si uoles folium et malabatrum addes.<\/em><\/div>
7. (Sauce) for all kinds of shellfish: pepper, lovage, parsley, dried mint, lots of cumin, honey, vinegar, liquamen. If you wish, add a bayleef and\u00a0folium indicum<\/a>.<\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n

<\/a>Modern adaptation of the recipe<\/h2>\n

First course<\/span> for 4 persons<\/span>; preparation in advance<\/em>\u00a020\u00a0minutes<\/span><\/span>; preparation<\/em>\u00a010 minutes<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"Roman<\/p>\n

2 kilo (4 pounds) mussels<\/span>
\nCooking liquid<\/em>
\n150 gr (1\u2154 cup) young leeks<\/span> in small rings
\n1 dl (\u00bd cup) each of dry white wine<\/span>,\u00a0passum<\/a>\u00a0and water
\n\u00bd dl\u00a0fish sauce<\/span><\/a>
\n\u00bd tsp ground cumin<\/span>
\n2 or 3 sprigs satureia (or 1 tsp dried)<\/p>\n

Lovage sauce<\/em>
\n1 Tbsp chopped\u00a0lovage leafs<\/span><\/a>
\nlots of freshly ground white pepper
\n1 raw egg yolk<\/span>
\n1 Tbsp white wine vinegar<\/span>
\n\u00bd Tbsp white wine
\n1 tsp\u00a0fish sauce
\n1 tsp honey<\/span>
\n1 dl (\u00bd cup) olive oil<\/span><\/p>\n

Cumin sauce<\/em>
\n2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
\n2 Tbsp fish sauce
\n1 tsp honey
\n1 tsp ground cumin<\/span>
\n1 tsp dried mint<\/span>
\n\u00bd tsp chopped lovage
\n1 Tbsp chopped parsley<\/span><\/p>\n

Preparation in advance<\/h3>\n

Prepare the\u00a0lovage sauce<\/b>\u00a0in the same way as you prepare a mayonnaise: mix egg yolk with vinegar, pepper and honey, add the olive oil in a small trickle while whisking well. When the sauce has the thickness of mayonnaise, stop adding oil. You may need more or less the given amount of oil.
\nPrepare the\u00a0cumin sauce<\/b>\u00a0by mixing all the ingredients together. The vinegar is not mentioned in the original recipe, Flower and Rosenbaum added it because of a German study from 1927\u00a0(E. Brandt,\u00a0Untersuchungen zum r\u00f6mischen Kochbuche<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Preparation<\/h3>\n

Wash and clean\u00a0the mussels<\/b>\u00a0as you are accustomed to do. Put everything for the cooking liquid in a pan big enough to hold all the mussels (even after they all have opend up!). Bring to the boil, add the mussels, and cook until the mussels are steamed open.<\/p>\n

To serve<\/h3>\n

You can place the cooking pan with the mussels on the table for a rustic meal. Place the two sauces alongside the pan. Dip the deshelled mussels in one of the sauces. If you like, you can serve some of the modern sauces (mustard sauce, remoulade sauce, cocktail sauce) together with the Roman ones.
\nServe the mussels with bread, for example ciabatta. Or bake a\u00a0roman bread<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/h2>\n

All descriptions of ingredients<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>Fish sauce<\/h4>\n

Or\u00a0<\/a>liquamen or garum: a clear liquid made of small fermented fish with much salt and sometimes alsoe several kinds of dried herbs. The Romans used liquamen or garum in the same way we use salt. There is however a difference: salt dehydrates food, liquamen adds liquid to a dish. It was produced in factories and sold in amforas. There were many qualities of garum, from cheap to very expensive. Apicius would no doubt only have used the very best quality. Nowadays in the Far East a kind of fish sauce is still in use in much the same way as the Romans used garum. You can use these sauces as a substitute for garum: Vietnamese nuoc-nam, or Thai nam-pla. You can also try to make your own garum, as the Romans made it at home when they were out of stock (recipe<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/a>Passum<\/h4>\n

Sweet white wine. The wine is sweet because of the partly dried grapes that were used for it. They have a higher sugar content then fresh grapes. In Italy passum-type wines are still being produced, for example\u00a0Vino Santo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Lovage<\/h4>\n

Levisticum officinale<\/em>. An umbelliferous plant (like wild celery and parsley) that was popular in the classic Roman kitchen, and still used in the Middle Ages. You can grow it in your garden. When flowering, it can grow as tall as 2 meters. The taste is rather overbearing, use it in small amounts. It is very nice in stock.<\/p>\n

\"Folium
\n<\/a>Folium indicum<\/h4>\n

Aromatic leaf of a special kind of cinnamon tree, Cinnamomum tamala. It is still used in the indian cuisine, in some pulaos and byriani. Since it is optional in the original recipe, you can leave it out.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Bibliography<\/h2>\n

The editions below were used by me. Links refer to available editions.<\/p>\n