The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1904-03-30
ANCIENT ROMAN SEASONING.
The Commands Took Medicine aud
Foods Together.

The Commands Took Medicine aud
Foods Together,
or recent years several men who
have INDUCED freely their taste of high
living have died as result of too
hearty meal or because some one Of
the dishes failed 10 agree with them.
Ia this decidedly practical age. while
the physical part of man is neglected
In the mental stress Of the times, ut
the saue time, strangely enough. much
attention is being given to our physical
welfare. One is the result of the other,
OF course. \ boxer undergoes care.
full medical examination before he en-
tiers the ring.
In these days of luxurious feasts.
where the digestion is severely taxed
rs the palate is pleased, it is not un-
likely that the services Of physician
may play a not unimportant part This
will not he an innovation. however. for
the custom is older than the Christian
era, but it is unlikely that, like the
Romans. we viii ever mix medicines
with the food. so that they may serve
at the same time as seasoning and a
remedy.
the doctor made out the menu and
gave Ii 10 the head cook or purveyor,
who obtained the articles mentioned in
1t. The Romans seasoned their meat
with rue. parsley seed, cumin, marsh
malows and nettleS and distributed
freely throughout their meals pepper.
honey, salt. vinegar, raisns, mustard,
Oil, rue. mastic and cardamoms Nege-
tables were prepared With inter to
make them look green, a practice not
entirely unknown in modern times.
The following is one Of the singular
recipes that have come down through
the dark ages: "Bruise in mortar
parsley seed, dried pennyroyal dried
mint, ginger coriander, stoned raisins.
with honey, vinegar, oil and Wine. Put
/ in stewpan with three crusts of
bread the flesh of pullet, yestine
cheese, pine kernels, small onions,
minced fine. and cueumbers, Pour
soup over the mixture and serve in u
stewpun, garnished with snow" II is
presumed that the ingredients required
In it had been previously cooked.
The quantities of food served We're
something astonishing, Julius Caesar,
when he gave his triumphal feast, had
three tons of lampreys served at his ta-
bic, and when Hortensius passed away
to world where gorunndlZing Is I'M
known he left behind as being incon-
yenient to take along with him 10000
pipes OF those strong wines, seasoned
with asafetlda and other denominations,
u single glass of which would drive n
modern Wine drinker crazy.
Among the Roman emperors noted
for the Indulgence of their appetites
We're Nitellius. Commodus, nidius. Jul
llanus and Heliogabalus, the last of
whom made sausageS Of shrimps.
crabs. oysters and Holsters that might
have been excellent ii the seasoning
was simple and appropriate.
The shellfish thus served might have
rcsemblel q salad of the same mate
rails as il appears on modern tables IL
certain ingredients were omitted Dur
ing this period of luxury wealthy
citizen had Il supper made of tongues
Ct birds that could speak. which seems
Impossible when we consider the scale
on which meals were then served and
the comparative scarcity of the fcath-
cred species In question.
These cxtrayagances in eating and
drinking continued In mlder form for
some hundreds Of years, while the EN-.
pire was steadily declining, or until
the Goths and Nandals overran Eu.
rope and taught the eifeminate Romans
that the best sauce to meat was good
appetite cngendercd by the fatigue of
long marches rough living and an oc-
casional period OF fasting thrown in.--
Kansas City star