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THE LATEST PROGRAMME |
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Using contemporary accounts from all levels of society, from the chattering classes to humble foot-soldiers, from senators to slaves, The Roman Way explores different aspects of everyday life, two millennia ago.
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Marcus Gavius Apicius(1st century A.D.)was a notorious gourmet during the reign of Tiberius, M. Gavius Apicius lived luxoriously at the resort of Minturnae. Pliny tells us that he invented dishes of flamingos' tongues and mullets' livers, and pioneered a form of pâté de foie gras.
He reportedly spent 100 million sesterces on his lavish dinners, which eventually exhausted his fortunes. Unable to indulge his lavish appetites anymore, Apicius chose to commit suicide rather than eat like a peasant. His name later became synonymous with gluttons, and at least two other men called Apicius are known for their cooking
Roman Ingredients Explained
- Caroenum: new wine or must (grape juice before fermentation) boiled until it is only half the amount you started with.
- Defritum: Either thick fig syrup, or must that's boiled until you have only a third of the amount with which you started.
- Liebstoeckl: in Latin it's called 'levisticum officinale'. It's an umbelliferous plant with yellowish flowers. Its dried roots are used as spice. It seems to be a kind of celery.
- Liquamen: a salty fish sauce. Most of the time you can replace it by salt.
- Passum: Very sweet wine sauce, made by boiling the must to thicken it. (maybe add honey?)
- Poleiminze: A kind of mint. Just replace it by ordinary mint.
- Saturei: in Latin it's called 'satureia hortensis'. It's a violet or white flowered kind of labiate plants which grows mainly in Southern Europe. It's used as a spice plant, especially for bean dishes.
- Silphium: its other names are 'Laser' or 'ferula asa foetida'. Note it's also called 'hing' in the Indian cuisine. It is an onion and garlic substitute and should be used rather sparingly because of its very strong taste and smell.
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