#libum

Questa ricetta proviene dal De agri cultura di Catone il Censore (II sec. a.C.), prima opera latina in prosa a noi conosciuta, che tratta appunto della conduzione di un’azienda agricola, ma contiene anche alcune ricette. Queste sono tutte ricette semplici (molto diverse da quelle di Apicio), basate sui prodotti della terra e che rimandano a una società rurale, come era la Roma delle origini.…

Ancient Food… Part 1

In thinking about a post-apocalyptic world I spent quite a lot of time thinking about food. Nothing new then! Food and the enjoyment of food, as I have observed before, is a universal human trait. What sort of food might people in such an England enjoy? One thing is for certain; that mass produced, packaged food would be off the menu. Home cooking and simple fare based on locally available…

LA RICETTA DEL LIBUM, LO SNACK DEGLI ANTICHI ROMANI

Dopo il budino degli antichi romani, che abbiamo proposto qui, siete pronti per una nuova ricetta vecchia di duemila anni? Niente paura, anche questa non è affatto difficile, né per gli ingredienti, né per la preparazione. Si tratta del libum.

Molti identificano il libum come una sorta di pane antico, quando in realtà non è proprio così. I romani avevano molti tipi di pane, con farine e cotture…

Baking two quadruple recipes of Ancient Roman ceremonial bread for the Ides event today. I feel like this is a wtf Classical Studies major moment.

This recipe is from the PBS website, where they've posted some modern adaptations of Roman recipes from A Taste of Ancient Rome by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa and The Classical Cookbook by Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger. Libum is described as a "sacrificial cake" made for household gods using the following method: 

Libum to be made as follows: 2 pounds cheese well crushed in a mortar; when it is well crushed, add in 1 pound bread-wheat flour or, if you want it to be lighter, just 1/2 a pound, to be mixed with the cheese. Add one egg and mix all together well. Make a loaf of this, with the leaves under it, and cook slowly in a hot fire under a brick.

And the modernized version:

1 cup plain, all purpose flour

8 ounces ricotta cheese

1 egg, beaten

bay leaves

1/2 cup clear honey

Sift the flour into a bowl. Beat the cheese until it's soft and stir it into the flour along with the egg. Form a soft dough and divide into 4. Mold each one into a bun and place them on a greased baking tray with a fresh bay leaf underneath. Heat the oven to 425° F. Cover the cakes with your brick* and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden-brown. Warm the honey and place the warm cakes in it so that they absorb it. Allow to stand 30 minutes before serving.

*The Romans often covered their food while it was cooking with a domed earthenware cover called a testo. You can use an overturned, shallow clay pot, a metal bowl, or casserole dish as a brick.

The modern version is much more clear and detailed than all the recipes I've made so far, so you may be ready to assume that I actually followed the instructions this time. But no! I used dried instead of fresh bay leaves and I drizzled the honey over the cakes instead of soaking them, just to maintain my consistency in taking liberties with source material. 

Here is my dough. Having only three ingredients, it wasn't too difficult to make. 

Here are my liba, each covering a bay leaf. As a testo I used another one of these aluminum pans. 

And here is a baked and honeyed libum, sitting on top of the Game of Thrones board game (or, The Board Game of Thrones). 

The cakes were densely doughy and would have been very bland without the honey. Though the bay leaves added a nice aroma, they didn't have a noticeable affect on the taste. Despite these shortcomings, I'd say libum is the most agreeable Ancient Roman food I've tried so far - nicely uncomplicated, with no unfamiliar flavor combinations. 

Musical Accompaniment