Wheat and Honey

Breakfast

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

1 cup flour ¾ tsp baking powder ¾ tsp baking soda ½ tsp ground allspice ½ tsp ground cardamom 1/8 tsp salt ¼ cup butter 1 egg ¾ cup plain yogurt, or sour cream, or a mixture 1 Tbsp honey 2 cups apples, core removed, diced small about ½ cup honey

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Stir together the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter. In a separate bowl, beat the egg, yogurt/sour cream, and honey. Gently stir the wet mixture and apple pieces into the dry mixture.

Grease a muffin tin. Spoon 1-2 tsp of honey into each cup. Spoon the batter into each cup, dividing evenly.

Bake for 15 minutes.

#allspice #apple #bakingpowder #bakingsoda #biscuit #breakfast #butter #cardamom #egg #honey #muffin #salt #sourcream #vegetarian #wheatflour #yogurt

¾ cup cold buttermilk ¼ cup brown sugar 1 egg 2 cups flour ½ tsp salt 3 Tbsp cold butter ¾ cup oats cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375°. Combine the first three ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk until the egg is beaten.

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in the oats. Add milk mixture, stirring just until moist.

Place dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly until the dough is all together. Place on a baking sheet that is either greased, or lined with parchment. Form dough into an approximately ¾” thick, 9” circle. Cut dough into 12 wedges all the way through. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.

Bake until golden, 18-20 minutes. Serve warm.

#biscuit #breakfast #brownsugar #butter #buttermilk #cinnamon #egg #oats #salt #scone #snack #vegetarian #wheatflour

This is not a traditional Welsh laverbread recipe, but it is similar.

1 cup prepared laver, or nori sheets torn up and soaked in water until soft (drain off excess water) ¼ cup rolled oats ¼ cup corn meal or oat flour vegetable oil salt pepper malt vinegar

Stir together the laver/nori, oats, and corn meal. It should make a dough that holds together, and is not runny or extremely sticky.

Warm the oil in a pan for frying. Form the dough into thin patties about 2” across. Fry them for a few minutes on each side, until golden and crisp. Place on a wire rack over paper towels to drain off excess oil.

Serve sprinkled with salt, pepper, and vinegar.

Makes about 9 patties.

Where I live, it's a lot easier to find nori, seaweed that has been toasted and rolled flat in a sheet. It is the same species of the seaweed used in Wales, but it's been prepared differently. As stated in the recipe, you can just soak it in water to soften (only takes a minute or so) for good results.

#breakfast #cornmeal #dairyfree #glutenfree #oatflour #oats #oil #pepper #salt #seaweed #side #snack #vegan #vinegar

1 Tbsp butter 6 eggs ½ cup milk ½ tsp ground pepper ½ cup grated cheese

Put the butter in a skillet over low heat. As it melts, beat the milk, eggs, and pepper together until mostly homogeneous. Stir in the cheese.

Increase heat to medium high. Pour the eggs into the skillet and let sit for about a minute. Gently scrape along the bottom of the skillet with the flat edge of a spatula. Let sit again for about 30 seconds, then scrape again. As it loses liquid, stir it more frequently until it is all cooked.

For larger clumps and a stronger egg flavor, reduce milk to ¼ cup.

#breakfast #butter #cheese #egg #glutenfree #main #milk #pepper #vegetarian

2 eggs 1 cup flour 1 cup water or milk 1 ½ Tbsp baking powder 2 Tbsp butter 2 Tbsp honey or sugar ½ tsp ground nutmeg (optional)

In a small bowl, beat the eggs until smooth. In a medium bowl, combine flour, butter, baking powder, and nutmeg. Cut the butter in with a pastry cutter until it is small chunks. Add the eggs and the rest of the ingredients, stirring until there is no dry flour.

Use ¼ cup of batter per pancake. Cook on a lightly greased skillet over medium heat.

#bakingpowder #breakfast #butter #egg #honey #milk #nutmeg #pancake #sugar #vegetarian #wheatflour

4 eggs ½ cup flour ½ cup milk or orange juice 2 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 425° F. Put the butter in a cake pan (8”×8” for a thick pancake, bigger for a thinner one) and put in the oven to melt.

Beat eggs until light. Add flour and milk and mix until smooth.

Pour the batter into the cake pan with the melted butter, and bake for 20-25 min. until brown.

Serve immediately. Top with what you prefer, such as maple syrup, powdered sugar, jelly/jam, warm applesauce with cinnamon, any kind of fruit topping, whipped cream, etc.

#breakfast #butter #egg #milk #orangejuice #pancake #vegetarian #wheatflour

2 cups flour ½ cup oats 4 tsp baking powder ½ cup honey ¼ cup apple sauce 1 ¼ cup milk ¾ cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 400° F. Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the wet ingredients, excluding the peanut butter, and stir until just mixed. Let the batter sit for a minute or so, so the baking powder can start working it, then stir in the peanut butter. Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes. Makes 12.

The peanut flavor is not overpowering, nor is it grossly sweet. The texture is light and fluffy, and perfectly moist. They kept the moisture for a number of days after baking them (store in an airtight container).

Variations:

Add 2 Tbsp cocoa powder. Use any kind of nut butter you want. Use flavored apple sauce. Use a fruit butter instead of applesauce.

#applesauce #bakingpowder #breakfast #honey #milk #muffin #nutbutter #oats #peanutbutter #vegetarian #wheatflour

#Bagel #Biscuit #Bread #Breakfast #Cake #Candy #Canning #Casserole #Cheese #Cobbler #Condiment #Cookie #Curry #DairyFree #Dessert #Drink #FairyFeast #Frosting #Frozen #GlutenFree #Historical #Main #Muffin #Note #Pancake #Pie #Pudding #Quickbread #Roll #Salad #Sauce #Scone #Side #SlowCooker #Snack #Soup #Vegan #Vegetarian