Wheat and Honey

raisin

2 cups chopped tomatoes ½ cup candied ginger, minced ¼ cup balsamic vinegar ¼ cup apple cider or juice 2 Tbsp raisins or other small dried fruit ½ tsp ground black pepper ½ tsp ground coriander ½ tsp fennel seed ½ tsp cinnamon ½ tsp ground nutmeg ½ tsp rosemary ½ tsp salt 1 Tbsp honey 1 tsp arrowroot powder

Combine all ingredients in a pan. Let sit for 5 minutes. Put over medium heat and simmer for a few minutes until thick. Let it cool completely to continue to thicken.

#applejuice #arrowroot #candiedginger #cinnamon #condiment #coriander #dairyfree #driedfruit #fennel #glutenfree #honey #nutmeg #pepper #raisin #rosemary #salt #tomato #vegan #vinegar

2 ¾ cup flour 4 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp ground nutmeg 6 Tbsp butter 2 Tbsp honey 1 ¼ cup milk 2 Tbsp raisins 2 Tbsp minced candied ginger Nutmeg Poppyseeds

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, and nutmeg. Cut the butter into small cubes, then cut into the flour until it's crumbly. Stir in the honey and milk. Stir in the raisins and ginger.

Line a baking sheet with parchment and dump the dough onto it. With wet hands, form the dough into a large circle. Sprinkle the top with nutmeg and poppy seeds. Cut the circle into eighths.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

#bakingpowder #butter #candiedginger #honey #milk #nutmeg #poppyseed #raisin #scone #snack #vegetarian #wheatflour

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

A classic and old-fashioned frosting that's thick and marshmallowy.

½ cup sugar ¼ cup corn syrup 2 Tbsp water 2 egg whites 1 tsp vanilla

Mix sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan. Cover, heat to a rolling boil over medium heat. Uncover and keep boiling rapidly until it reaches 242 on a candy thermometer, or it forms a firm ball which holds its shape until pressed when dropped in cold water.

As mixture boils, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Pour the hot syrup very slowly in a thin stream into the egg whites, beating constantly on medium speed. Add vanilla, beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. Variations

Cherry Nut: Stir in ¼ cup candied cherries and ½ cup chopped nuts.

Chocolate Revel: Stir in ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips or 1 ounce of baking chocolate, coarsely grated.

Cocoa: sift ¼ cup cocoa over finished frosting and fold in.

Fruity: Use any fruit juice instead of water.

Honey: Use honey instead of corn syrup.

Lemon: Substitute 1 Tbsp lemon juice for the vanilla and beat in ¼ tsp lemon zest.

Maple Pecan: Stir ¼ tsp maple flavoring and ½ cup chopped pecans into Satiny Beige frosting (below).

Peppermint: stir in 1/3 cup coarsely crushed peppermint candy, or ½ tsp peppermint extract.

Pineapple: Substitute 1 tsp lemon vest for the vanilla, and stir in 1 can (8 ounces) of crushed pineapple, drained.

Pink Mountain: Use maraschino cherry juice instead of water.

Raisin Nut: Stir in ¼ cup chopped raisins and ¼ cup finely chopped nuts.

Satiny Beige: Use packed brown sugar instead of of white sugar and use ½ tsp vanilla instead of 1 tsp

Tea: Use any kind of strongly brewed tea instead of water.

Tutti Frutti: Fold in chopped nuts and dried and candied fruits equal to ¼-½ cup.

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