Sauces for Shellfish

Recipes for shellfish in Apicius Book 9, From The Sea (Barbara Flower and Elizabeth Rosenbaum’s The Roman cookery book: A critical translation of “The art of cooking” by Apicius, for use in the study and kitchen (1958))

1. Mussels

From Barbara Flower and Elizabeth Rosenbaum’s The Roman cookery book:

– Liber IX, Thalassa IX. in metulis: liquamen porrum concisum cuminum passum satureiam, uinum; mixtum facies aquatius et ibi mitulos quoques.

– Mussels: liquamen, chopped leeks, passum, savory, wine. Dilute the mixture with water, and boil the mussels in it (Apicius 9.9.1)

As translated by Vehling:

418 Mussels
In mitulis
Best​¹ broth, finely cut leeks, cumin, raisin wine, must​² and add water to make a mixture in which to cook the mussels.

1 Variously spelled Mytilus, Mitylus, mutulus, an edible mussel.
Tor. and List. merula, merling, whiting, Fr. merlan. Merula also is a blackbird, which is out of place here. The Vat. MS. reads in metulis.
2 Tor.
3 Tor. vinum mustum; List. v. mixtum.

Ancient Roman Seasoned Mussels Recipe
from https://www.pbs.org/

For mussels: Garum, chopped leek, cumin, passum, savory, and wine. Dilute this mixture with water and cook the mussels in it.

Modern Seasoned Mussels Recipe (serves 4)

40-50 mussels
2 tablespoons garum fish sauce
1/2 cup wine
1/2 cup passum (a modern version of this raisin wine is the Italian dessert wine Vin Santo)
1 leek, chopped
1 handful of fresh cumin and savory, minced

Wash the mussels thoroughly to remove the sand, then boil them in sufficient water to cover, along with the remaining ingredients.

2. Oysters

From Barbara Flower and Elizabeth Rosenbaum’s The Roman cookery book:

– VI. in ostreis: piper ligusticum oui uitellum acetum liquamen oleum et uinum. si uolueris et mel addes.

– (Sauce) for oysters: pepper, lovage, yolk of egg, vinegar, liquamen, oil and wine. If you wish, add honey. (Apicius 9.6.1)

As translated by Vehling:

410 Oysters​¹
In ostreis
To oysters which want to be well seasoned add​² pepper, lovage, yolks, vinegar, broth, oil, and wine; if you wish also add honey.​³

1 Wanting in the Vat. MS.
2 Tor. sentence wanting in the other texts
3 Cf. No. 15 for the keeping of oysters. It is not likely that the oysters brought from Great Britain to Rome were in a condition to be enjoyed from the shell — raw.
The above formula appears to be a sort of oyster stew.

3. All Kinds of Bivalves

From Barbara Flower and Elizabeth Rosenbaum’s The Roman cookery book:

– VII. in omne genus conciliorum: piper ligusticum petroselinum mentam siccam cuminum plusculum mel liquamen. si uoles folium et malabatrum addes.

– (Sauce) for all kinds of shellfish: pepper, lovage, parsley, dried mint, lots of cumin, honey, vinegar, liquamen. If you wish, add a bay leaf and folium indicum. (Apicius 9.7.1)

Folium Indicum is a leaf from a close relative of the same tree that gives us cinnamon bark. Its taste is reminscent of cloves and mint; the fragrance is somewhat like pepper. It is used in Indian cooking, as Europeans would use bay leaves.

As translated by Vehling:

411 All Kinds of Bivalves
In omne genus conchyliorum​¹
For all kinds of shellfish use pepper, lovage, parsley, dry mint, a little more of cumin, honey, and broth; if you wish, add bay leaves and malobathron.​²

1 Wanting in the Vat. MS.
2 Cf. note to ℞ No. 399. Malabathrum, aromatic leaves of an Indian tree; according to Plinius the laurus cassia — wild cinnamon.
The shellfish is cooked or steamed with the above ingredients.

Interesting Interpretation of the 3 recipes:

From https://coquinaria.nl/en/roman-mussels/. Interestingly, the author viewed the recipe for oysters as a sort of mayonnaise.

First course for 4 persons; preparation in advance 20 minutes; preparation 10 minutes.

Mussels:

Descriptions of ingredients

Fish sauce
Or 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).

Passum
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 Vino Santo.

Lovage
Levisticum officinale. 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.

Folium indicum
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.