Another Sweet - An Experiment

Excerpt from analysis of recipe at https://athenaeum.baronyofmadrone.net/exhibits/ciarf/

The author first tried a redaction for this rrecipe called “Rich Sweet Cakes,” from John Edward’s, Roman Cookery. But the recipe called for baking powder and there were quite a few transcription errors, so the author set out to find a better redaction.

Original Recipe

Aliter Dulcia: piper, nucleos, mel, rutam et passum teres, cum lacte et tracta coques. coagulum coque cum modicis ovis. perfusum melle, aspersum [ ] inferes.

Translations and Redactions

Vehling – 1936
Another Sweet: Crush pepper, nuts, honey, rue, and raisin wine with milk and cook the mixture[3] with a few eggs well worked in, cover with honey, sprinkle with [crushed nuts, etc] and serve.

[1] Tractam, probably with a starch added, or else it is a nut custard, practically a repetition of recipe ℞ Nos. 129 and 143.
Vehling, 2012, Book VII, Chapter XIII, v (298)

The addition of crushed nuts, noted using square brackets, is Vehling’s own addition rather than sourced from another text. He also notes that the recipe, without tracta is almost identical to another recipe 143, which he refers to as a nut custard. Except that other recipe, when translated by anyone else, is actually a patina.

The author says, There is a great deal of discussion over the use of Vehling as a reference as his Latin translation is incorrect and relies heavily on a 1541 text written by Albanus Torinus. Torinus claimed to have found a unique copy of De Re Conquinara, since lost, and added a great deal of personal opinion to the text. For a complete timeline of early manuscript production, I recommend the research done by Flower and Rosenbaum (2012, 9-18).

Flower and Rosenbaum – (1958) 2012

Another Sweet: Pound pepper, pine-kernels, honey, rue, and passum; cook in milk and pastry. Thicken with a few eggs. Pour honey over, sprinkle with pepper, and serve.
Flower and Rosenbaum, 2012, 171

Edwards – 1984

Another Sweet: Mix pepper, [chopped] nuts, honey, rue and raisin wine. Cook in milk and pastry. Thicken with a little egg and bake. Pour honey on top, sprinkle [with filberts], and serve.
Edwards, 1984, 174

Giacosa – 1992

Another sweet dish: Grind pepper, pine nuts, honey, rue, and passum; cook with milk and tracta. Cook to thicken with a few eggs. Pour honey over, sprinkle [with pepper].
Giacosa, 1992, 160

Giacosa wrote that the recipe was more like a hot egg pudding, re-titled it from ‘Another Sweet’, and modified it to a creme pâtissière, a thick custard, while omitting the rue completely.

Translating the recipe without modification for modern English sentence structure:

Aliter Dulcia: piper, nucleos, mel, rutam et passum teres, cum lacte et tracta coques. coagulum coque cum modicis ovis. perfusum melle, aspersum [ ] inferes.

Another sweet: Pepper, kernels, honey, rue and passum minced, cook with milk and pastry. Cook with egg to coagulate. Suffuse with honey, sprinkle [ ], serve.

Nucleos refers to the seed inside a fruit and is generally considered a reference to pine nuts. Several other recipes specifically list nucleos pineos, which directly translates to pine kernels. The discrepancy could indicate that any small seeds or nuts were acceptable or could have been shorthand as the text was written entirely by hand. Other types of nut available in Rome include almond, chestnut, hazelnut, pistachio, and walnut (Faas, 2005, 239). Several recipes refer to nuces or nuces fractas, for nuts or chopped nuts, type unspecified, and are used in several other dessert recipes (Edwards, 1984, 63) (Flowers and Rosenbaum, 2012, 95) (Vehling, 2012, (129)).

Rue was a bitter herb favored in many of the recipes in Apicius. Modernly, rue is avoided for being an abortifacient and is also known to cause significant gastro-intestinal issues. Sold as a homeopathic and also a tea, a limit for safe consumption has not been established. Most modern redactions substitute a small amount of ground rosemary or bay. When a recipe use an herb, it is assumed to be dried unless it says, for example, green coriander, which indicates fresh (Kaufman, 2006, 131).

Tractum does not have a clear definition and may have meant loaf or pastry during the writing of De Re Conquinaria. No recipe for tracta survives in the copies available today but an early form can be found in Cato’s De Agricultura. Grain and flour quality improved significantly between the two texts and the early recipe is presumed to be more course in quality. The surviving recipe uses both spelt grains and flour and includes instructions for making several forms including biscuits, long thin loaves, and wide flat sheets. The use of the sheet form as pastry is referenced in several patina recipes found in De Re Conquinaria (Faas, 2005, 182-183). Faas mentions a sauce for roast lamb that uses crushed tracta. Giacosa states that tracta, as dry dough or crumbled bread, was used as a thickener for sauces (1992, 27). This is the only mention of dried dough, which would make the use similar to amulum, a powder produced by soaking grains until the starch is released into the water and then this mixture is filtered and dried.

Experiment – Putting it all together

An experimental recipe was designed after reviewing the original recipe, translations, and other uses of tracta in the De Re Conquinaria. Of important note is the instruction to mince together the nuts, spices, and tracta. Instead of a cake or an egg pudding, I believe it was more likely a bread pudding.

Aliter Dulica – Another Sweet

0.5g black pepper, ground (1/2 teaspoon)
60g chopped hazelnuts
1/4 cup clover honey with extra for topping
1 pinch rosemary, ground
1/4 cup Moscato
375 ml whole milk (1.5 cups)
220g spelt tracta, roughly chopped into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
1 large egg, ~45g

Optional toppings may include more chopped nuts or pepper

Combine the pepper, nuts, honey, rosemary, wine, and milk into a cast iron pot and stir gently while heating to a simmer. The milk will curdle; just keep stirring gently and everything will incorporate.

Keep the heat at gentle simmer and allow the bread pieces to soften and absorb the liquid. This takes between 30 minutes and an hour depending on the denseness of the bread.

Once the bread pieces are soft and most of the liquid has been absorbed, temper the beaten egg with some of the liquid from the pan. Add the tempered egg into the pan and stir to thoroughly combine. Continue to heat, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking until desired thickness is reached, approximately 5 minutes.

Move to a serving dish and immediately drizzle honey over the top while the dessert cools to room temperature. Once at room temperature, sprinkle with additional pepper or chopped nuts to taste and serve.

The final result is a rich, spicy-sweet custard-based bread pudding. The finished dessert is quite sweet and that intensity is then increased with the additional honey drizzle. Decreasing the honey in the base recipe and allowing the individual to increase the overall sweetness by adjusting the honey drizzle that is infused during the cooling process provides more flexibility. A non-ingredient based factor would be a more authentic cooking process using a pipkin or other pottery. The dish would benefit as the pottery over coals will both simmer the dish and also bake the bottom, creating a more cohesive texture.