Recipe

Ancient Roman Mussels With Two Sauces Recipe

	Jencathen / All my dishes 1 year, 5 months ago The text is taken from De re coquinaria, edited by Barbara Flower en Elizabeth Rosenbaum, The roman cookery book. A critical translation of "The art of cooking" by Apicius, for use in the study and kitchen. (London, 1980, reprint from 1958). Prep:15m Cook:20m Servings:4	Jencathen
	mussels roman wine

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Ingredients

Mussels:

2 kilo mussels

cooking liquid:

150 gram young leeks in small rings

1 decilitre each of dry white wine, passum (sweet white wine i.e. Vino Santo) and water

1/2 decilitre liquamen or fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 or 3 sprigs satureia (or 1 teaspoon dried)

Lovage sauce:

1 tablespoon chopped lovage leafs

lots of freshly ground white pepper

1 raw egg yolk

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1/2 tablespoon white wine

1 teaspoon liquamen or fish sauce

1 teaspoon honey

1 decilitre olive oil

Cumin sauce:

1/4 decilitre white wine vinegar

1/4 decilitre liquamen or fish sauce

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried mint

1/2 teaspoon chopped lovage

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Directions

Preparation in advance:

Prepare the lovage sauce in the same way as you prepare a mayonnaise: mix egg yolk with vinegar, pepper and honey, add the olive oil in a small trickle while whisking well. When the sauce has the thickness of mayonnaise, stop adding oil. You may need more or less the given amount of oil.

Prepare the cumin sauce by mixing all the ingredients together.

Preparation:

Wash and clean the mussels as you are accustomed to do. Put everything for the cooking liquid in a pan big enough to hold all the mussels (even after they all have opened up!). Bring to the boil, add the mussels, and cook until the mussels are steamed open.

To serve:

You can place the cooking pan with the mussels on the table for a rustic meal. Place the two sauces alongside the pan. Dip the deshelled mussels in one of the sauces. If you like, you can serve some of the modern sauces (mustard sauce, remoulade sauce, cocktail sauce) together with the Roman ones.

Serve the mussels with bread, for example ciabatta. Or bake a roman bread.

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Comments

mrgresch 1 year, 4 months ago said:
Cool recipe. I reviewed this book a few years ago and it was quite interesting. Apicius used to feed the geese figs to fatten up their livers, so much for foie gras being French, lol

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