Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1904-03-26
ANCIENT ROMAN SEASONING.
The Commands Took Medicine ana
Foods Together.

OF recent years several men VINO
have INDUCED freely their taste OF high
living have died as result OF 100
hearty meal or because some one OF
the dishes failed to agree with them.
In this decidedly practical age, while
the physical part of man Is neglecteo
in the mental stress Of the times, at
the same time, strangely enough, much
attention is being given TO our physlcai
welfare. One is the result of the other,
OF course. A boxer undergoes a care
full medical examination before he en-
tiers the ring.
In these days Of luxurious feasts,
where the digestion is severely taxed
as the palate is pleased, it is not un'
Iikely that the services of a physician
may play a not unimportant part. Ihls
will not be an innovation, however, for
the custom Is older than the Christian
era. but 1t is unlikely that, like the
Romans, we will ever mix medicines
with the food, so that they may serve
at the same time as seasoning ana
remedy.
In a preparation Of a Roman feast
the doctor made out the menu and
gave it to the head cook or puryeyor'
who obtained the articles mentioned IN
IT, The Romans seasoned their meat
with rue parsley seed, cumin, marsh
mallows and nettles and distributed
freely throughout their meals pepper,
honey. salt, vinegar, raisins, mustard,
oil. rue, mastic and cardamoms. Nege'
tables were prepared with inter 10
make them look green, practlce not
entirely unknown in modern umeS'
The following is one of the singular
recipes that have come down through
the dark ages: "Bruise in a mortar
parsley seed, dried pennyroyal, drled
mint. ginger. coriander, stoned ralslns,
with honey, vinegar oil and wine. Put
in q stewpan with three crusts OF
bread the flesh Of a pullet vestlne
cheese. pine kernels, small onions'
minced fine, and cucumbers. Pour
soup over the mixture and serve In
stewpan, garnished with snow" 1t Is
presumed that the ingredients required
in If had been previously cooked.
The quantities of food served were
something astonishing. Julius Caesar,
when he gave his triumphal feast, had
three tons of lampreys served at his Ia
BILE. and when Hortensius passed away
TO q world where gormandiZing Is un-
known he left behind as being incon-
yenient to take along with him l0,ooo
pipes of those strong wines, seasoned
with asafetida and other denominations,
n single glass of which would drive
modern wine drinker crazy.
Among the Roman emperors noted
for the indulgence Of their appetltes
were Vitellius, Commodus, Didius, Ju-
lianus and Heliogabalus, the last or
whom made sausages of shrimps,
, crabs. oysters and Holsters that might
have been excellent If the seasoning
, was simple and appropriate.
, The shellfsh thus served might have
, resembled a salad of the same mate
rials as 1t appears on modern tables II
q certain ingredients were omitted. Dur
r ing this period Of luxury wealthy
/, citizen had a supper made OF tongues
7 of birds that could speak, which seems
1 impossible when we consider the scale
Z on which meals were then served ana
s the comparative scarcity of the feath'
{ cred species in question.
. These extravagances in eating and
Q drinking continued in milder form for
b some hundreds Of years, while the EN-
). pire was steadily declining, or until
Y the Goths and vandals overran Eu
Y rope and taught the effeminate Romans
8 that the best sauce to meat was good
t appetite engendered by the fatigue ol
s long marches, rough living and an oc
casional period of fasting thrown H.
Kansas City Star.