Wheat and Honey

almond

This is an ancient Roman dish.

Makes 2 servings.

½ cup farina (if you can't find plain farina, use unflavored cream of wheat or malt-o-meal) 1 cup water 1 Tbsp pine nuts 2 Tbsp blanched almonds 2 Tbsp raisins ¼ cup prune juice or grape juice dates figs extra nuts of desired variety

Simmer the juice over low heat until it is reduced to half. Set aside.

Over low heat, whisk together the farina and water. Add the pine nuts and almonds. Cook, stirring, until it reaches desired thickness. (I like it really thick and solid, some want it thinner.)

Stir the raisins and juice into the farina.

Mince the dates and figs, and crush the nuts. Serve in bowls with the fruit and nuts on top.

I got together with a friend to do some experimental Roman cooking.

The recipe we used interpreted apothermum as a pudding. I found a second recipe that considers it a sauce for meat. However, in the original text, apothermum is in the minced dishes chapter, not the sauce chapter. The two different translations are interesting. One recipe comes up with forcemeats, the other says nuts and fruit. (Latin is weird because isn't it all, “We're pretty sure this word means this” because there are no original speakers?)

Here are the recipes:

Pudding recipe

Spelt or Farina Pudding Apothermum

Boil spelt with Tor. pignolia nuts and peeled almonds1 [G.‑V. and] immersed in boiling water and washed with white clay so that they appear perfectly white, add raisins, flavor with condensed wine or raisin wine and serve it in a round dish with crushed2 nuts, fruit, bread or cake crumbs sprinkled over it.3

1 V. We peel almonds in the same manner; the white clay treatment is new to us.
G.‑V.: and — which is confusing.
2 The original: confractum — crushed, but what? G.‑V. pepper, for which there is neither authority nor reason. A wine sauce would go well with it or crushed fruit. List. and Goll. Breadcrumbs.
3 This is a perfectly good pudding — one of the very few desserts in Apicius. With a little sweetening (supplied probably by the condensed wine) and some grated lemon for flavor it is quite acceptable as a dessert.

For clarification, the blue text in the first recipe are extrapolations added to the recipe by the translator. The footnotes are also by the translator, and some refer to the text of a different translation.

Sauce recipe
To make Apothermum: Boil spelt with small nuts and blanched almonds. The almonds should previously been have been soaked in water with the chalk used as polish, so that they are perfectly white. To this add raisins and defritum or raisin wine. Sprinkle with ground pepper and serve in a bowl [with prepared forcemeats].

 Latin text:
10. Apothermum sic facies: alicam elixa nucleis et amygdalis depilatis et in aqua infusis et lotis ex creta argentaria, ut ad candorem pariter perducantur. cui ammiscebis uvam passam, caroenum vel passum, desuper ‹piper› confractum asparges et in boletari inferes.

As you see, the first recipe says that it's spelt or farina. Not sure where they're getting the farina bit, but, in my opinion, that would provide a way better texture than the boiled spelt berries that we tried the first time.

I looked up raisin wine to determine exactly what I needed to try for (because I don't use alcohol), and it's a sweet dessert wine. Defritum is a sweet syrup made by reducing grape juice (hence the translation into “condensed wine”).

I like that the second recipe says small nuts, which may not need to be pine nuts. Is “small nuts” the actual ancient Roman name for pine nuts? The translator for the first recipe seems obsessed with pine nuts because he specifies them pretty much anytime nuts are mentioned.

The nuts, fruit, bread or cake crumbs bit from the first recipe is hypothesized by the translator; so apparently no one really knows what the crushed stuff is that goes on the dish. I like the nuts/fruit idea.

I liked it. It is like eating fancied-up cream of wheat, which is basically exactly what it is.

#almond #breakfast #dairyfree #date #farina #fig #fruitjuice #grapejuice #historical #nuts #pinenut #prunejuice #pudding #raisin #vegan

12 oz plums 2 Tbsp arrowroot powder 1 cup flour ½ cup almond meal 2 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt ½ cup applesauce 1 egg ½ cup milk or nut milk ½ cup honey ¼ tsp almond extract ¼ cup chopped almonds

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Grease and flour a 9-inch cake pan.

Remove the pits and roughly chop the plums. Combine them with the arrowroot powder in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, almond meal, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, combine the applesauce, egg, milk, honey, and almond extract. Whisk to blend thoroughly.

Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and whisk until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Gently place the plum mixture evenly over the entire top of the batter. Since the plums will displace the batter, it is important to make an even layer as you put it down. Put the plums all the way to the edge. Sprinkle the chopped almonds on top.

Bake the cake for 45-50 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

#almond #almondextract #almondmeal #applesauce #arrowroot #bakingpowder #cake #dessert #egg #honey #milk #nutmilk #plum #salt #vegetarian #wheatflour

3 egg whites 2/3 cup sugar ½ tsp vanilla extract 1/8 tsp almond extract ¼ cup corn starch 1 1/3 cup finely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 300° F. Warm egg whites over hot water. Combine egg whites, vanilla, and almond extract, and beat until soft peaks form. Slowly pour the sugar in while beating at high speed. Beat until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, mix together corn starch and nuts. Beat into the egg whites at low speed. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. They don't spread, so you can place them close together on the sheet. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and cool on a wire rack.

#almond #cookie #cornstarch #dairyfree #dessert #eggwhite #glutenfree #nuts #sugar #vanilla #vegetarian

Pastry for double-crust 9-inch pie ¼ cup sliced almonds 3 Tbsp arrowroot powder ¼ tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp ginger ¼ tsp allspice ¼ cup honey 3 cups cherries, a mixture of different varieties, with pits removed. If using canned, drain syrup

Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare the pie crust in the baking tin. Line the bottom of the crust with a layer of sliced almonds.

Mix arrowroot and spices in large mixing bowl. Stir in cherries and honey. Pour into the pie crust. Cover with the top crust.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble.

#allspice #almond #arrowroot #cherry #cinnamon #dairyfree #dessert #ginger #glutenfree #honey #pie #vegetarian

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