This a recipe from Roman antiquity. It is from
the cookbook that inspired the title of this site: De
Re Coquinaria. You can read more about this book in the recipe for Roman
Mussels, I will not repeat all that here.
This Roman dish is called: Patina. In modern
English it means the film of green oxidation on copper or bronze, or any fine
layer on a surface. In Latin it meant a dish, either broad and shallow and meant
to serve food on, or a multifunctional dish, in which food could also be
prepared. That one was round or oval, made of earthenware or bronze, with
straight upstanding sides.
Food that was prepared in the patina was also named patina. They were
egg-dishes, comparable to the modern tortilla or omelet. There is a whole
chapter devoted to these dishes in De Re Coquinaria
(Liber IV "Pandecter" or "many ingredients", chapter II
"Patinae piscium holerum pomorum" or "patinae with fish,
vegetables and fruit, in the edition of Flower en Rozenbaum pp.92/111).
The basic, everyday patina (patina cotidiana) that opens the chapter is
made with poundedn, boiled brains. The second recipe is probably more to the
taste of the modern public: it is an omelette with pine nuts, other nuts and
honey. There are patina with elderberries, horse-parsley (and brains), rose
petals (and brains), with anchovy, with vegetable marrows, a very opulent patina
with pine nuts, sea-urchins, vegetables, several kinds of sausages, cheese,
oysters and jellyfish (and brains of course!) which is simply called
"patina with milk" (patinam ex lacte), another opulent patina "à
la Apicius" ("Patinam Apicianam sic facies", in which stuffing is
layered with pancakes) with sow's udder, breasts of turtle-dove, fillets of
fish, and "whatever other good things you can think of" ("et queacumque optima fuerint"),
there are several patinae with fish, with sorb-apples (and brains), with pears,
peaches, stinging nettles, quinces. Of all these I have chosen one of the two
patinae with asparagus.
The season for asparagus is short: from mid-April
to the 24th of June (Saint John's) the white stalks that are harvested have
grown outdoors. Asparagus is not white by its own choice. If you leave them
alone the stalks will peep out above the soil and turn green in the
sunlight.
Nowadays you can buy green asparagus all year round. In my opinion you can't
exchange white asparagus for green and vice versa in whatever recipe you want to
prepare, they each have their own flavour. It is not impossible to use green or
white asparagus for the same recipe, but the finished dish will be quite
different. In the recipe below you can use both white or green asparagus,
depending on availability and preference. Just remember: canned asparagus are
NOT an option!
The recipe on this page is titled: Cold asparagus
patina with quails. Originally other birds were used in this recipe, small
songbirds called "ficedulae" or "fig-peckers". These are
very small, about the size of a robin. And when you imagine them plucked of
their feathers they are even smaller. Translated to the fishworld you might say:
size anchovy. In most parts of Europe we let the cute little songbirds live in
peace -at least with regards to cooking. The smallest bird to end up on our
dinnerplates is the quail. Not a songbird, but very tasty. That is why I have
replaced the ficedulae in my adaptation with quails (to return to the comparison
of sizes: sardine instead of anchovy). By the way, on the picture above you see
guinea fowl, not quails.
The original recipe, taken from De Re Coquinaria (more
about this cookbook), in the edition of The roman cookery book. A critical
translation of "The art of cooking" by Apicius, for use in the
study and kitchen. Barbara Flower and Elizabeth Rosenbaum (London,
1980, reprint of edition from 1958), pp.96/97.
Aliter patina de asparagis frigida:
Accipies asparagos purgatos, in mortario fricabis, aqua suffundes, perfricabis,
per colum colabis. Et mittes <in caccabum> ficedulas curatas. Teres in
mortario piperis scripulos VI, adiecies liquamen, fricabis, <postea
adicies> vini cyathum unum, passi cyathum unum. Mittes in caccabum olei
uncias III. Illic ferveant. Perunges patinam, in ea ova VI cum oenogaro misces,
cum suco asparagi impones cineri calido, mittes impensam supra scriptam. Tunc
ficedulas compones. Coques, piper asperges et inferes.
Another cold asparagus patina.
Take cleaned asparagus, pound in the mortar, add water, beat thoroughly and pass
through a sieve. Next put in a saucepan fig-peckers which you have prepared for
cooking. Pound in the portar 6 scruples of
pepper, moisten with
liquamen, grind well, add one cyathus
of wine and one cyathus
passum. Put in a saucepan 3 oz. oil. Bring the mixture to
the boil. Grease a patina pan, and mix in it 6 eggs
with oenogarum, put it with the sparagus purée in the
hot ashes, pour on the mixture described above, and arrange the birds on top.
Cook it, [let it cool], sprinkle with pepper, and serve.
The modern adaptation of the recipe. In his book Around the Table of the Romans Faas provides us with the
other recipe for patina with asparagus, and he remarks that it is almost the
same as this recipe. So: simply put quails in the patina with green asparagus,
and you have made this one.
In my opinion these two recipes are not interchangeable. Because in the recipe
for the "aliter patina de asparagis" green asparagus are explicitly
mentioned, I take it that in the "patina frigida de asparagis" white
asparagus are used. Moreover, in the "aliter" green herbs are added
(lovage, coriandre leaves, satureia), and an onion, and passum is not mentioned
(although that could simply have been forgotten).
List of ingredients:
500 gram (3 cups) white asparagus
1/4 decilitre (1 cup) white wine
1/4 decilitre (1 cup) Vino Santo (see note for passum)
freshly ground pepper to taste (but please use less than the original recipe,
because that is half a tablespoon full)
fish sauce to taste (this is the "salt". Use Eastern fish sauce, or
home made), 1 tsp. to 1 Tbsp.
1/2 decilitre (1/4 cup) olive oil
4 eggs
2 or 4 quails
Preparation in advance:
Soak the asparagus in cold water for an hour before peeling them. Then peel the
asparagus, and cut off the wooden ends of the stalks. Cut off the asparagus
heads (5cm/3 inches) and keep them apart. Boil the asparagus stalks in salted
water for about ten minutes (very thick ones fifteen) (when you add the
asparaguspeel you'll end up with an excellent base for asparagus soup). Take the
stalks out of the water, boil the heads in the same liquid for five minutes.
Green asparagus do not have to be peeled, you can either boil them a few
minutes, or fry them in olive oil.
Purée the asparagus stalks. It is very important that you have removed ALL the
peel from the stalks, because any leftover peel will remain in the purée as
hard, disagreeable strings.
Fry the quails in olive oil for twenty minutes (or poach them, or roast them).
Leave them whole or cut them in two.
Temper white wine with Vino Santo and fish sauce (this is called oenogarum).
Add pepper and olive oil. According to the original recipe you should bring this
to the boil and then mix it with the eggs. This would cause the eggs to curdle.
It is best to add the oenogarum in small quantities at the time, stirring the
eggs all the while. When this is done, add the asparagus purée.
Preparation:
Preheat an oven to 200EC (392EF). Grease a round or oval dish with olive oil
and pour in the egg-mixture. Divide the saved asparagus heads over the eggs
(they will probably sink into the eggs), and the quails. Cover the dish with
aluminium foil, and place it in the middle of the oven for 20 to 30 minutes.
Remove the foil after 10 to 15 minutes.
If you prepare this dish in latrger quantities you'll have to leave the dish in
the oven longer (and use a larger dish).
To serve:
The patina is served in the dish in which it is prepared. According to the title
of the recipe it must be served cold (that is, at room temperature), but when
you are hungry and do not want to wait it is also very tasty when hot.
So
you can judge for yourself: text and picture of the recipe for "the
other patina":
As you can see on the picture on the right,
this patina looks different: it is green. No wonder, with green asparagus
instead of white ones, and green herbs.
The taste is also different, coriandre leaves and lovage are quite
distinctive.
To me, this patina is less subtle and refined than the patina with white
asparagus, but it tastes good nevertheless.
Aliter patina de aparagis:
Adiecies in mortario asparagorum praecisuras, quae proiciuntur, teres,
suffundes vinum, colas. Teres piper, ligusticum, coriandrum viride,
satureiam, cepam, vinum, liquamen et oleum. Sucum transferes in patellam
perunctam, et, si volueris, ova dissolves ad ignem, ut obliget. Piper
minutum asperges <et inferes>.
Asparagus Patina, another
method.
Put in the mortar asparagus tips, pound, add wine, pass through the sieve.
Pound pepper, lovage, fresh coriander, savory, onion, wine, liquamen, and
oil. Put purée and spices into a greased patina, and if you wish break
eggs over it when it is on the fire, so that the mixture sets.Sprinkle
finely ground pepper over it and serve.
Notes
Caccabus:
Small kettle Cyathus: 1/2
decilitre or 1/4 cup
Liquamen (or
garum): A clear liquid made of small fermented fish with
much salt and sometimes alsoe sevreal kinds of dried herbs. The romans used
liquamen or garum in the same way we use salt. There is however a difference:
salt dehydrates food, liquamen adds liquid to a dish. It was produced in
factories and sold in amforas. There were several qualities of garum, from cheap
to very expensive. Apicius would no doubt only have used the very best quality.
Nowadays in the far east a kind of fishsauce is still in use in much the same
way as the romans used garum. You can use these sauces as a substitute for
garum: vietnamese nuoc-nam, or thai nam-pla. You can also try to make your own
garum, as the romans made it at home when they were out of stock (recipe). Oenogarum:
Wine tempered with fish-sauce. Passum: Sweet white wine. The wine is sweet because of the partly
dried grapes that were used for it. The have a higher sugarcontent then fresh
grapes. In Italy passum-type wines are still being produced, for example the
Vino Santo. Patina:
Round or oval dish with upright sides for in the oven or on the fire. Scrupulum:
1.137 gram, a little less than a quarter teaspoon Uncia: Roman
ounce, 27.3 gram (about 1 ounce)
Bibliography The editions mentioned are the
ones in my possession. The links are to available editions.
P.C.P. Faas, Rond de tafel der Romeinen (Diemen,
1994). English edition: Around the
Table of the Romans: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome(Palgrave McMillan 2002) Not only the
recipe for the patina with green asparagus can be found here, but also the for
patinae with stinging nettles, and with dentex, gold-bream and grey mullet.
The roman cookery book. A critical
translation of "The art of cooking" by Apicius, for use in the
study and kitchen. Barbara Flower and Elizabeth Rosenbaum (London,
1980, reprint edition 1958)
, for use in the
study and kitchen. Barbara Flower and Elizabeth Rosenbaum (London,
1980, reprint edition 1958)