TLS: Ancient Meals and Recipes

* Meals and Recipes from Ancient Greece by Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti is divided into two parts: in the first, she offers a background to ancient eating and drinking habits, based on classical sources; in the second, the study is put to practical use, in the form of recipes. Ms Ricotti tells us that, "to begin with, in the Iliad, men sat down to eat . . . chunks of beef roasted over an open fire"; at the time of the Trojan War, she believes, no other cooking methods were known. "Black wine was served in expensive cups."
We know what expensive cups are, but what is "black wine"? Ms Ricotti states that it was "far stronger than today's wine" and that Western civilization required the development of a diluted version. Only the Scythians continued with the hard stuff, hence the direction to one's merchant: "make it like the Scythians". Being partial to a drop of both the Scythian and the non-Scythian, we wondered how it was produced, how it might have tasted, what exactly "far stronger" means. Ms Ricotti does not say.
Still, the table is laid and dinner must be served. We turned to a recipe for "Zeno's Lentil Soup", consisting of 1 lb lentils, 2 litres broth, a chopped leek, carrot and onion tossed in oil; add honey and "12 coriander seeds". It's probably delicious - in fact, we know it is because we make it all the time (using parsley instead of coriander). Zeno never enters our minds. The same goes for the Greek recipes for fried shrimp (cook in olive oil for 6-7 minutes), lobster, bream and kid goat. The last, attributed to Apicius, we are happy to pass on: "Put it in the oven, roast it and serve it". The wisdom of the ancients.
With pork, Ms Ricotti finally produces a classic: Vulva Eiectita, "the vulva of a sow that had miscarried". But she turns out to be too delicate for the delicacy, dashing our hopes of finding any sow's vulva in the local agora.
"Even if we wanted to try it, which I doubt, it would be impossible given mechanized meat-processing sytems", she writes, ignoring both the hardiness of the modern palate and the potential of organic farming. The first reader to send in a recipe for sow's vulva will receive a copy of Meals and Recipes from Ancient Greece (Getty, Pounds 15.99).