Ancient cuisine recipe

[Beefy187]

Hey all. Recently in history class, I heard about a dish called Trojan Pig which wealthy Romans used to eat. Im wondering if any of you guys know the recipe of Trojan Pig. Or recipe of any other fantastic, bizarre ancient cuisine?

Cheers!

[desert]

A Trojan Pig is a roasted pig stuffed with fruits and sausages. So when it was served, they would cut the underbelly and all the stuff inside would come out. I'm guessing it's for when everyone had to vomit before the next course, and someone was having some trouble.

[Beefy187]

Do you know the ingredients I need for the traditional Trojan pigs?

One I found on google was modernized Aussie version

[desert]

It would probably be simpler to just roast a pig and put some fruit and sausages in it.

This might be it: pgs. 97-8

http://books.google.com/books?id=KVb...esult#PPA98,M1


Serieosly tho...cooked brains with ox bladder and small birds?

[Beefy187]

Awesome thanks!

I shall enjoy reading these crazy cuisines!

[The Persian Cataphract]

For an excellent source for cuisine in antiquity, you will simply have to read Apicius' De Re Coquinaria and Agricultura. Here's a translated page with Parthian examples:

http://www.parthia.com/parthia_cuisine.htm

[Ibrahim]

Hey all. Recently in history class, I heard about a dish called Trojan Pig which wealthy Romans used to eat. Im wondering if any of you guys know the recipe of Trojan Pig. Or recipe of any other fantastic, bizarre ancient cuisine?

Cheers!

there is also some recipe involving ground beef, pine seeds (they're called sanawbar in arabic), and a wierd sticky wine. the whole thing reminds me of a Burger for some reason..

IIRC , its roman.

[Ibrahim]

For an excellent source for cuisine in antiquity, you will simply have to read Apicius' De Re Coquinaria and Agricultura. Here's a translated page with Parthian examples:

http://www.parthia.com/parthia_cuisine.htm

darn it-most got wine in 'em

is there any wine substitute-a.k.a no alchohol?

[desert]

Grape juice.

[Sarcasm]

darn it-most got wine in 'em

is there any wine substitute-a.k.a no alchohol?

Alcohol evaporates when you cook, mate. It's volatile.

[MerlinusCDXX]

@ Ibrahim, also, if you want to make sure there is no alcohol left in the finished product, you can "flame off" the alcohol by igniting it when the wine comes to a boil, 2 or 3 seconds later, when the flame goes out, that's your indicator that there is no more alcohol present.

[Nabaati]

@ Ibrahim, also, if you want to make sure there is no alcohol left in the finished product, you can "flame off" the alcohol by igniting it when the wine comes to a boil, 2 or 3 seconds later, when the flame goes out, that's your indicator that there is no more alcohol present.

No matter what you do, you can't get rid of all the ethanol from a water-ethanol mixture. You can get rid of most of it, but not all. The question is whether the alcohol itself is objectionable or the intoxicating properties. If it's the latter, you couldn't eat enough food to get anywhere near intoxicated from a dish with wine in it that's been cooked for something like a minute. If the alcohol itself is objectionable, then you'll have to go with grape juice.

[Codyos Vladimiros]

For an excellent source for cuisine in antiquity, you will simply have to read Apicius' De Re Coquinaria and Agricultura. Here's a translated page with Parthian examples:

http://www.parthia.com/parthia_cuisine.htm

Oooh. I think i'll have to make that Parthian Chicken the next time I have a date.

Or on second thought, just for kicks. It looks pretty tasty. I'd do the lamb, but that's ridiculously hard to get.

[The Persian Cataphract]

Wine is only present as a means of accurately reconstructing proper preparation and cooking of the dishes, due to contemporary issues with water and contamination of the fluid. It was not as if the ancients had fresh tap-water that could be used per convenience; in fact multiple classical sources do for instance attest of infamously contaminated water in the Tigris and the Euphrates. This may be corroborated by Strabo (Maybe it was Isidore of Charax, can't remember for the moment) who mention certain cities in the Iranian-speaking realm being "well-watered", including Antioch in Margiana/Merv.

Therefore the suggested usage of wine; it will bring a noticeable change to the flavour, in comparison to water, but it's not like any of these recipes were universally true. They may have had local "modification" depending on the access of raw materials, ingredients, and access to fresh water. You're not going to suffer any supposed loss of "historicity" if you decide to use water. You can even replace the damn chicken with a duck or a goose, or replace the lamb with a suckling pig/suckling boar or veal if you prefer it. What you can not replace, ever, ever, ever, are the spices and novelty ingredients. You can't use salt for instance. It would equal blasphemy.

One note though, the ancient Iranians did not practice the principles of halal or kosher. Local Jewish communities may have practiced kosher on the dishes, but halal is a later concept.

[Tellos Athenaios]

@TPC: with the exception of the Roman (or similar) sweetners of course. The use of wine or rather first fermentation products cannot be substituted with water here: if you've ever tasted Federweißer you'll know why.

[The Persian Cataphract]

Yes, the Romans did make healthy use of honey and vinegar whenever there was convenient use for them; the question on what may have been used to prepare and boil the food ultimately comes down to location and the local customs and culinary traditions. For nomads, where water must have been a sparse commodity for instance, other materials had to be used. Mare's milk would have been a common occurence. It's not an issue arbitrarily labeled in black-and-white, but one which would have been geographically, culturally and religiously context-sensitive.