Friday, May 22, 2015

Recipe from Cookery and Dining in Ancient Rome

I know that since reading about the Romans' habit of eating stuffed dormice a few years ago y'all have all been dying to try it for yourselves. Well, today I came across an authentic Roman recipe.

STUFFED DORMOUSE

IS STUFFED WITH A FORCEMEAT OF PORK AND SMALL PIECES OF DORMOUSE MEAT TRIMMINGS, ALL POUNDED WITH PEPPER, NUTS, LASER, BROTH. PUT THE DORMOUSE THUS STUFFED IN AN EARTHEN CASSEROLE, ROAST IT IN THE OVEN, OR BOIL IT IN THE STOCK POT.

From the aforementioned cookbook by Apicius, Book VIII, Chapter IX.

The translator adds this helpful note:

Glis, dormouse, a special favorite of the ancients, has nothing to do with mice. The fat dormouse of the South of Europe is the size of a rat, arboreal rodent, living in trees.
Galen, III, de Alim.; Plinius, VIII, 57/82; Varro, III, describing the glirarium, place where the dormouse was raised for the table.
Petronius, Cap. 31, describes another way of preparing dormouse. Nonnus, DiƦteticon, p. 194/5, says that Fluvius Hirpinus was the first man to raise dormouse in the glirarium.
Dormouse, as an article of diet, should not astonish Americans who relish squirrel, opossum, muskrat, “coon,” etc.

You're welcome.

:-D


5 comments :

  1. Replies
    1. Oh, dahling, we meant to, but Cook broke the gliarium and all the dormice got away! It's so hard to find reliable help these days.

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    2. Ha! I think you just won an award for Best Blog Comment Reply EVER. :)

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    3. ha ha ha ha... I hope it will one day show up in one of the cooking shows we watch, as the secret ingredient.

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  2. Apparently the dormice of southern Europe are considerably larger (rat-sized?!) than their English cousins, which appear in photos to be about the size of a very small fieldmouse. I always wondered how one could possibly stuff a tiny dormouse, and whether one ate them bones and all. But if they are rat-sized in Italy, that makes more sense.

    And I love love love your comment about Cook breaking the gliarium.

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