2 cups orange juice
1 cup sugar
½ Tbsp unflavored gelatin powder
2 Tbsp cold water
½ cup hot water
½ cup cold water
Combine orange juice with sugar over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved.
In a large bowl, stir together the gelatin with 2 Tbsp cold water. When it seems smooth, add in the hot water and stir until it's dissolved. Then stir in the ½ cup cold water. Stir the orange mixture into the gelatin mixture until homogeneous. Cover and chill in the fridge or freezer until totally cold.
Churn in an ice cream machine for 20 minutes. It will have a slushy texture. Transfer to a lidded container and freeze until desired hardness.
1 cup sugar
¾ cup flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
½ cup powdered sugar
¾ tsp salt
2 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp water or fruit juice
½ tsp almond extract
Optional: ½ cup mix-ins (chocolate chips, fruit, nuts, marshmallows, etc)
Preheat oven to 325° F. Line an 8” cake pan with baking parchment and spray the parchment with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, stir together all ingredients until mixed. It is a very thick batter. Pour the batter into the baking pan and spread it out with a spatula.
Bake for 30 minutes if your pan is a little larger. For smaller pans (thicker brownies) go up to 40-45 minutes. If a toothpick comes out mostly clean, it is done. It's better to take them out of the oven sooner than later, as they will repose and firm further in the hot pan.
2 cups apple juice
¼ cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp honey
½ cup milk
½ cup cream
I prefer to make apple juice with my juicer, but store-bought is fine. Stir together all ingredients. Chill in the fridge until it is completely cold. Churn in ice cream machine for 20 minutes, then transfer to a container and freeze until hard.
6 ounces (½ can) frozen orange juice concentrate
1 cup milk
1 cup water
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Ice cubes, as many as needed for desired consistency
Combine all the ingredients except the ice cubes in a blender and process until smooth and frothy. Add the ice cubes and blend until smooth.
Variation
You can use whatever frozen juice concentrate you want. Omit powdered sugar if the juice has added sugar.
½ cup cream
½ cup butter
6 Tbsp honey
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground mace
1 Tbsp caraway seeds
3 eggs
¼ cup fruit juice
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ cup raspberries
Put the cream in a small pan over med-high heat. Stir it every 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat when it reaches a boil, turn the heat to med-low, and return the cream to heat. Stir gently but constantly until it scrapes clean from the bottom of the pan and is thickened—about 15 minutes from the start. Remove from heat and let cool.
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Cream together the butter, honey, and cream. Stir in the spices and seeds. Add the eggs and cordial, beating to combine. Gently break the raspberries into several pieces, and coat them all with flour. Add the 2 cups flour gradually to the batter, mixing it in completely before adding more. Add the baking powder with the flour. Then gently stir in the raspberries. The batter will be very thick.
Line a bread pan with buttered baking paper. Pour in the batter and spread to smooth. Bake it for 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cake:
½ cup honey
2 Tbsp butter
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
½ cup milk or nut milk
¾ cup cherries, pits removed
¾ cup chopped damson plums, pits removed
½ cup nuts, roughly chopped
Sauce:
1 cup cherry juice—I got cherry juice from pitting the cherries (add some water if you can't get a full cup)
2 tsp honey
1 Tbsp corn starch
1 Tbsp butter
½ tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 325° degrees. Grease a square 9×9” baking dish.
Beat honey and butter until smooth. Add egg and mix well. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt, then add to mixing bowl alternatively with milk. Stir in cherries, plums, and chopped nuts. Pour batter into buttered pan and smooth out the surface. Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden brown and solid.
Make the sauce by combining cherry juice and honey in a small saucepan. In a small bowl, mix the corn starch with a bit of water to make a smooth liquid, then pour into the pan while stirring. Boil for 8-10 minutes, or until thick. Remove from heat and stir in 1 Tbsp butter and vanilla extract.
Pour the sauce over the baked cake and let sit while it cools, to soak in the sauce.
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?)
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 crushed2nuts, fruit, bread or cake crumbs sprinkled over it.3
1V. 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.
1 pound beet roots
½ cup apple juice, or other fruit juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp minced chives
1 Tbsp minced mint
1 Tbsp minced thyme
½ tsp salt
2 cups, packed, chopped lettuce and beet greens
Scrub the beets and grate with a large-holed grater. Toss with the lettuce and greens. Combine the juice, olive oil, and salt to taste. Toss with the beets and greens.
½ cup flour
½ cup rolled oats
½ tsp salt
¼ cup cold butter, cubed
2 Tbsp cold water
Preheat oven to 400° F.
Mix flour, oats, and salt. Cut in the butter until it's crumbly. Stir in the ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, then press together into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze to make it harder.
Roll out the crust between two pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper. Press into a pie or tart pan. Prick bottom with a fork. Bake for 5 minutes, then let cool completely.
Filling:
¼ cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp fruit juice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3 cups of pears, cored and sliced thinly
Reduce oven to 350° F.
Combine flour, sugar, sour cream, fruit juice, and cloves. Mix well and spread most of it into the cooled crust, reserving about 1/3 cup. Lay pear slices over the cream, then spread the remaining cream on top. Bake for 30-40 minutes until crust is brown and cream is bubbling. Serve warm or cool.
2 eggs, separated
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup butter
¼ cup cream cheese
2 cups plums, pitted and quartered
1 cup flour
½ tsp salt
Warm the egg whites in a double boiler with a bit of the brown sugar, whisking. When they are warm, remove from heat and beat until stiff peaks form.
Beat egg yolks and a bit of the brown sugar. Cream in the rest of the sugar, cream cheese, and butter. Stir in plums. Fold in the egg whites.
Fold flour and salt into plum mixture. Pour into a well-greased 1-quart mold or bowl, and tie waxed paper loosely over the mold, or cover with foil scrunched around the edges. This is to prevent water from dripping onto the pudding when it condenses on the lid of the steamer. Place mold in steamer and steam for 1 hour or until pudding tests done.
If you don't have a steamer, you can place the mold in a large pot with water. The pot needs to be large enough that the pudding mold doesn't stick out the top. If it floats, that's fine, if not, use something underneath to stabilize it and keep it off the bottom of the pot. Place a well-fitting lid on top of the pot.
When done, remove from steamer and let cool slightly. Loosen the edges of the pudding by running a knife between the pudding and the bowl. Turn out onto the serving plate.
Sauce:
½ cup water
¼ cup honey
2 Tbsp fruit juice (or other sweet, non-dairy drink)
2 tsp arrowroot powder
2 tsp water
Mix ½ cup water and honey in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil. Boil steadily for 5 minutes. Add fruit juice to taste. Reduce heat. In a cup, mix the arrowroot with 2 tsp water until smooth. Stir into the hot liquid. Increase heat to medium-high. Heat gently for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly as the sauce thickens. Remove from heat reaches a boil.
