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Spelt Cake
#16
Quote:I've been slowly and irregularly going through Cato's recipes. I really liked savillium:

Quote:Recipe for the savillum: Take 1/2 pound of flour, 2 1/2 pounds of cheese, and mix together as for the libum; add 1/4 pound of honey and 1 egg. Grease an earthenware dish with oil. When you have mixed thoroughly, pour into a dish and cover with a crock. See that you bake the centre thoroughly, for it is deepest there. When it is done, remove the dish, cover with honey, sprinkle with poppy-seed, place back under the crock for a while, then remove from the fire. Serve in the dish, with a spoon.

Cato, On Agriculture, 84

This sounds really good. I'm going to try it and let you all know how it went. Luckily, cooking is not always an exact science, so we shall see! I wonder how this will turn out, since I'll be baking it in a modern oven as opposed to in a cooking fire. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Bellatrix

a.k.a. Lisa Gail

Nil illegitimi carborundum...Don\'t let the ba*tards get you down.

Luctor et emergo...I struggle and I arise.
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#17
Quote:I love their recipes. What kind of cheese? Cream cheese? Ricotta? Cheddar? Swiss? Mozzarella? Any might work, but all would be utterly different. I have puzzled over it when they say, "add a little **** to taste", or stir in "a small handful of ****"

I think ricotta might be most authentic, according to Food Network. It was on TV, so it must be true! :lol:
Bellatrix

a.k.a. Lisa Gail

Nil illegitimi carborundum...Don\'t let the ba*tards get you down.

Luctor et emergo...I struggle and I arise.
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#18
Quote:It was on TV, so it must be true!
Thus spake Garfield the Cat.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)

Saepe veritas est dura.
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#19
Quote: Nor can I get doormice in sufficient numbers... :wink:

I think you mean dormice! (Sorry to be a pedant Confusedhock: )

@bellatrix - good luck with the spelt cake. I use spelt flour every day to make bread (it has a lower gluten content than the unnaturally high levels found in durum wheat, which is what is in most commercial breads). You'll find that it's a really 'heavy' flour to cook with, producing dense loaves, and I suspect cakes, that do not rise nearly as much as you might expect with 'normal' flour. But then Roman loaves were much flatter than ours today anyway, so it shouldn't matter!
Ben Kane, bestselling author of the Eagles of Rome, Spartacus and Hannibal novels.

Eagles in the Storm released in UK on March 23, 2017.
Aguilas en la tormenta saldra en 2017.


www.benkane.net
Twitter: @benkaneauthor
Facebook: facebook.com/benkanebooks
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