Roman Eggs by THL Dagonell The original recipes: Apicius 328 Ova elixa: liquamine, oleo, mero vel ex liquamine, pipere, lasere. Boiled eggs: garum, oil, and pure wine; or with garum, pepper and silphium. Apicius 329 In ovis apalis: piper, ligusticum, nucleos infusos. Suffundis mel, acetum, liquamine temperabis. For medium boiled eggs: pepper, lovage, and soaked pine nuts. Pour on honey and vinegar; mix with garum. Commentary: Marcus Gavius Apicius was a highly eccentric first-century Roman gourmand. He cooked and served flamingo tongues, camel heels, roasted ostrich and stuffed sow's womb. He once outfitted a merchant ship and set sail for what is now modern-day Libya because he heard the shrimp were larger and sweeter there. Pliny the Elder credits him with inventing pate de fois gras. Translations by Giacosa, not me. Garum is a Roman condiment that they used more frequently than we use ketchup today. Basically, you fill a barrel with alternate layers of herring and salt, seal the barrel and leave it in the sun until everything liquifies. Garum was once entered in Ice Dragon. It tastes like worcestershire sauce. Not surprising, considering the chief ingredient in the expensive brands of worcestershire sauce is anchovies. Silphium is an extinct herb related to fennel. Giacosa recommends substituting garlic. I added a little ground fennel as well. Anyone who can tell lovage from celery leaves in a blind taste test should be working as a professional chef. Like most SCA chefs, I have a wide variety of vinegars. I used an herbal vinegar for these recipes. White vinegar? I keep it with the other cleaning supplies. Why do you ask? The redactions: Brown Sauce (328) 2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce 1 inch of anchovy paste :) 3 teaspoons garlic juice 1/2 teaspoon ground fennel 4 tablespoons olive oil generous pinch of fresh ground pepper I poured off the juice from a jar of minced garlic rather than use the minced garlic itself. I squeezed out anchovy paste until I had an inch long piece. It's probably as accurate a measurement as anything else. Stir everything together and refrigerate overnight. Hard boil and slice four eggs and pour sauce over them and serve. Visually, it doesn't look appealing. The olive oil and worcestershire sauce separate out. Taste however, is a different story. I expected it to be overly fishy. It wasn't. It was quite good. A slight tart taste. Green Sauce (329) 2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce 1/2 inch of anchovy paste :) 3-1/2 ounces pine nuts 4 Tablespoons herbal vinegar 2 teaspoons honey (from the hive!) 1 cup celery leaves generous pinch of fresh ground pepper Soak the pine nuts in vinegar for at least two hours. Finely dice the celery leaves. Stir all the remaining ingredients in and give it to one of your servants to blend well. My servant's name is Vita-Mix 5000. :) Refrigerate overnight. Hard boil and slice four eggs and spread sauce over them and serve. Visually, it was much more attractive than the brown sauce. Ideally, it should be a little thinner so it could be poured instead of spread with a knife like soft butter. Taste was also quite good, sweet by comparison to the brown sauce, but not excessively so. Bibliography _A Taste of Rome_ by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa