Mixed beets with beet leaves © Michelle Mattern Beets are a root vegetable whose tubers are round with a high sugar content. Typically, one thought of beets as red, inside and out, and round. Now there are varieties that are tapered, white, yellow and even striped, such as the new chiogga beet. Sugar beets, which…
Roman
Cinnamon
Ground Cinnamon © Denzil Green Cinnamon is the inner bark of branches from a tree that is a member of the laurel family (just as Bay Leaves and Avocados are.) The outer bark is peeled away and discarded. Cinnamon from Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is considered the best; Indonesian Cinnamon (Cinnamomum loureirii) is considered the second…
Laganum
Laganum (plural lagana) was a thin Roman unleavened flat bread. Some think it was soft like a wheat flour tortilla; others think it was crispy. But it wasn’t a dried bread. It was made from wheat flour, and baked or fried on a hot flat surface. Some recipes added lettuce juice to the dough. It’s…
Lettuce
L to R: Butterhead type, Looseleaf type, Crisphead type. © Denzil Green Lettuces are related to Dandelions. Almost all Lettuces except Iceberg have both red and green varieties. Lettuce leaves vary from very tender (in the Butterhead group) to very crisp (Crisphead group.) There are at least four main types of Lettuce. Some Lettuces, such…
Libum Recipe
This is a Roman recipe, often pointed to as an early example of cheesecake.
Maldon Salt
Maldon Salt © Denzil Green Maldon Salt is an English sea-salt. It comes in large, thin, uneven, crunchy salt flakes that have a very clean, pure salt taste. It is meant to be a finishing salt, used at the table in small amounts, rather than in cooking. You might be tempted to want to put…
Radishes
Radishes © Paula Trites Radishes are a branch of the cabbage family that we are more interested in for their roots (as is also the case for turnip.) There are three main varieties of radish in North American and in UK stores. (If you are a home gardener, there are actually 150 varieties available to…
Roman Apple-Berry Tart Recipe
The Romans called this type of pie a crostata. The Romans did not have nice round pie tins like we do, so they had to turn up the edges of their dough to make a free form tart.
Roman Barley Water Recipe
This is how the Romans made their barley water.
Roman Honey Cakes Recipe
If ever you were itching for a chance to use spelt flour, here you go. It’s more authentic in this recipe: it’s what the Romans would have used.
Salt
Salt may be the only food item that doesn’t need an expiry date. It doesn’t lose its taste, and doesn’t go bad. And our relationship to it is complicated: we need a little of it, but too much is bad for us, and without it, many things won’t cook properly, and things often just don’t taste right.
Terminalia
Terminalia was a Roman festival held on the 23rd of February to honour Terminus, the god of boundaries. Neighbouring farmers would meet at the boundaries between their farms to feast with their friends and families.