Selected recipes from the text. I do not own any of the information.
Scottish salted haunch of venison:
Take the venison to be salted after it has hung in the larder for two days. Cut it into pieces the required size. See that it is clean and free from fly, but on no account wash it with water. Take 2 pounds kitchen salt, one quarter pound demerara sugar, 1 teaspoon black pepper, one half teaspoon nitre. Mix these well together. Rub pieces of venison on every side with this mixture for 2-3 days in succession. Then place them in a wooden tub, or earthenware jar, and press them well together. After 10 days the venison is ready for use.
- Margaret Fraser, A Highland Cookery Book, 1930
Greek procedure for making ham:
After buying legs of pork cut off the feet. 1/2 peck ground Roman salt per ham. Spread the salt in the base
of a vat or jar, then place a ham with the skin facing downwards. Cover completely with salt. Then place
another above it and cover in the same way. Be careful not to let meat touch meat. Cover them all in the
same way. When all are arranged, cover the top with salt so that no meat is seen, and level it off.
After standing in salt for five days, take all hams out with the salt. Put those that were above below, and so
rearrange and replace. After a total of twelve days take out the hams, clean off the salt and hang in the
fresh air for two days. On the third day clean off with a sponge, rub all over with oil, hang in smoke for two
days. On the third day take down, rub all over with a mixture of oil and vinegar and hang in the meat store.
Neither moths nor worms will attack it.
Cato, De agricultura, 2nd century BC
Roman procedure for making olives:
How green olives are conserved.
Before they turn black, they are to be broken and put into water. The water is to be changed frequently. When they have soaked sufficiently they are drained, put in vinegar, and oil is added. 1/2 pound salt to 1 peck olives. Fennel and lentisk are put up separately in vinegar. When you decide to mix them, use quickly. Pack in preserving-jars. When you wish to use, take with dry hands.
How to obtain precious purple dye:
There is a white vein with a very small amount of liquid in it: . . . Men try to catch the murex alive because it discharges its juice when it dies. They obtain the juice from the larger purple-fish by removing the shell: they crush the smaller ones together with their shell, which is the only way to make them yield their juice. . . .
The vein already mentioned is removed, and to this, salt has to be added in the proportion of about one pint for every 100 pounds. It should be left to dissolve for three days, since, the fresher the salt, the stronger it is. The mixture is then heated in a lead pot with about seven gallons of water to every fifty pounds and kept at a moderate temperature by a pipe connected to a furnace some distance away. This skims off the flesh which will have adhered to the veins, and after about nine days the cauldron is filtered and a washed fleece is dipped by way of a trial. Then the dyers heat the liquid until they feel confident of the result.
—Gaius Plinius Secundus, Pliny the Elder, Historia naturalis, first century A.D.
Roman sardines:
Sardines: In their natural state they should be fried; when done, garnish them with orange juice and a little of the frying oil and salt; they are eaten hot.
—Cuoco Napoletano, anonymous, Naples, late 1400s
Spiced baked ham:
Select a nicely cured Ham. Soak overnight in cold Water. Wipe off and put on in enough water to cover. Simmer for three Hours. Let cool in the Water it was cooked in. Take out and trim. Put into baking-pan, stick with Cloves and cover with brown Sugar. Bake in moderate Oven for two Hours. Baste with white Wine. Serve with a savoury Salad.
- undated recipe from Charlotte County, Virginia
The Egyptian practice of preservation through salting:
The most perfect process is as follows: As much as possible of the brain is removed via the nostrils with an iron hook, and what cannot be reached with the hook is washed out with drugs; next, the flank is opened with a flint knife and the whole contents of the abdomen removed; the cavity is then thoroughly cleaned and washed out, firstly with palm wine and again with an infusion of ground spices. After that, it is filled with pure myrrh, cassia and every other aromatic substance, excepting frankincense, and sewn up again, after which the body is placed in natron, covered entirely over, for seventy days—never longer. When this period is over, the body is washed and then wrapped from head to foot in linen cut into strips and smeared on the underside with gum, which is commonly used by the Egyptians instead of glue. In this condition the body is given back to the family, who have a wooden case made, shaped like a human figure, into which it is put.
- Herodotus
On eating sardines in Greece:
Take the tail of the female tuna—and I’m talking of the large female tuna whose mother city is Byzantium. Then slice it and bake all of it properly, simply sprinkling it lightly with salt and brushing with oil. Eat the slices hot, dipping them into a sharp brine. They are good if you want to eat them dry, like the immortal gods in form and stature. If you serve it sprinkled with vinegar, it will be ruined.
—Archestratus, The Life of Luxury, fourth century b.c.
Garum recipe:
The so-called liquamen is made in this manner: the intestines of fish are thrown into a vessel and salted. Small fish, either the best smelt, or small mullet, or sprats, or wolffish, or whatever is deemed to be small, are all salted together and, shaken frequently, are fermented in the sun.After it has been reduced in the heat, garum is obtained from it in this way: a large, strong basket is placed into the vessel of the aforementioned fish, and the garum streams into the basket. In this way the so-called liquamen is strained through the basket when it is taken up. The remaining refuse is allec. . . .
Next, if you wish to use the garum immediately, that is to say not ferment it in the sun, but to boil it, you do it this way. When the brine has been tested, so that an egg having been thrown in floats (if it sinks, it is not sufficiently salty), and throwing the fish into the brine in a newly-made earthenware pot and adding in some oregano, you place it on a sufficient fire until it is boiled, that is until it begins to reduce a little. Some throw in boiled-down must [unfermented wine]. Next, throwing the cooled liquid into a filter, you toss it a second and a third time through the filter until it turns out clear. After having covered it, store it away.
- Geoponica, 900 AD
Elaborate Roman molded dish:
[Place cooked] mallows, leeks, beets, or cooked cabbage sprouts, roasted thrushes and quenelles of chicken, tidbits of pork or squab, chicken, and other similar shreds of fine meats that may be available. Arrange everything in alternating layers [in a mold].
Crush pepper and lovage [a bitter herb, common as parsley in ancient Rome] with two parts old wine, one part broth [garum], one part honey and a little oil. Taste it; and when well-mixed and in due proportions put in a sauce pan and allow to heat moderately; when boiling add a pint milk in which [about eight] eggs have been dissolved; pour over [the mold and heat slowly but do not allow to boil] and when thickened serve. [The dish would usually be unmolded before serving.]
- Apicius
Fixing garum that smells bad:
If garum has contracted a bad odor, place a vessel upside down and fumigate it with laurel and cypress and before ventilating it, pour the garum in the vessel. If this does not help matters, and if the taste is too pronounced, add honey and fresh spikenard [new shoots—novem spicum] to it; that will improve it. Also new must should be likewise effective
- Apicius
Loin of pork:
Loin of pork is best eaten roasted, because it is a good food and well digested, provided that, while it is roasting, it is spread with feathers dipped in brine. If the loin of pork is rather tough when eaten, it is better to dip in pure salt. We ban the use of fish sauce from every culinary role.
—Anthimis, De obseruatione ciborum (On the Observance of Foods), circa A.D. 500
Sardines:
In their natural state they should be fried; when done, garnish them with orange juice and a little of the frying oil and salt; they are eaten hot.
—Cuoco Napoletano, anonymous, Naples, late 1400s
Porpoise:
PURPAYS YN GALENTEYN
Take purpays: do away the skyn; cut hit yn smal lechys [slices] no more than a fynger, or les. Take bred drawen wyth red wyne; put therto powder of canell [cinnamon], powder of pepyr. Boil hit; seson hit up with powder of gynger, venegre, & salt.
- English recipe from 14 or 15th century
Scottish salted haunch of venison:
Take the venison to be salted after it has hung in the larder for two days. Cut it into pieces the required size. See that it is clean and free from fly, but on no account wash it with water. Take 2 pounds kitchen salt, one quarter pound demerara sugar, 1 teaspoon black pepper, one half teaspoon nitre. Mix these well together. Rub pieces of venison on every side with this mixture for 2-3 days in succession. Then place them in a wooden tub, or earthenware jar, and press them well together. After 10 days the venison is ready for use.
- Margaret Fraser, A Highland Cookery Book, 1930
Greek procedure for making ham:
After buying legs of pork cut off the feet. 1/2 peck ground Roman salt per ham. Spread the salt in the base
of a vat or jar, then place a ham with the skin facing downwards. Cover completely with salt. Then place
another above it and cover in the same way. Be careful not to let meat touch meat. Cover them all in the
same way. When all are arranged, cover the top with salt so that no meat is seen, and level it off.
After standing in salt for five days, take all hams out with the salt. Put those that were above below, and so
rearrange and replace. After a total of twelve days take out the hams, clean off the salt and hang in the
fresh air for two days. On the third day clean off with a sponge, rub all over with oil, hang in smoke for two
days. On the third day take down, rub all over with a mixture of oil and vinegar and hang in the meat store.
Neither moths nor worms will attack it.
Cato, De agricultura, 2nd century BC
Roman procedure for making olives:
How green olives are conserved.
Before they turn black, they are to be broken and put into water. The water is to be changed frequently. When they have soaked sufficiently they are drained, put in vinegar, and oil is added. 1/2 pound salt to 1 peck olives. Fennel and lentisk are put up separately in vinegar. When you decide to mix them, use quickly. Pack in preserving-jars. When you wish to use, take with dry hands.
How to obtain precious purple dye:
The vein already mentioned is removed, and to this, salt has to be added in the proportion of about one pint for every 100 pounds. It should be left to dissolve for three days, since, the fresher the salt, the stronger it is. The mixture is then heated in a lead pot with about seven gallons of water to every fifty pounds and kept at a moderate temperature by a pipe connected to a furnace some distance away. This skims off the flesh which will have adhered to the veins, and after about nine days the cauldron is filtered and a washed fleece is dipped by way of a trial. Then the dyers heat the liquid until they feel confident of the result.
—Gaius Plinius Secundus, Pliny the Elder, Historia naturalis, first century A.D.
Roman sardines:
Sardines: In their natural state they should be fried; when done, garnish them with orange juice and a little of the frying oil and salt; they are eaten hot.
—Cuoco Napoletano, anonymous, Naples, late 1400s
Spiced baked ham:
Select a nicely cured Ham. Soak overnight in cold Water. Wipe off and put on in enough water to cover. Simmer for three Hours. Let cool in the Water it was cooked in. Take out and trim. Put into baking-pan, stick with Cloves and cover with brown Sugar. Bake in moderate Oven for two Hours. Baste with white Wine. Serve with a savoury Salad.
- undated recipe from Charlotte County, Virginia
The Egyptian practice of preservation through salting:
The most perfect process is as follows: As much as possible of the brain is removed via the nostrils with an iron hook, and what cannot be reached with the hook is washed out with drugs; next, the flank is opened with a flint knife and the whole contents of the abdomen removed; the cavity is then thoroughly cleaned and washed out, firstly with palm wine and again with an infusion of ground spices. After that, it is filled with pure myrrh, cassia and every other aromatic substance, excepting frankincense, and sewn up again, after which the body is placed in natron, covered entirely over, for seventy days—never longer. When this period is over, the body is washed and then wrapped from head to foot in linen cut into strips and smeared on the underside with gum, which is commonly used by the Egyptians instead of glue. In this condition the body is given back to the family, who have a wooden case made, shaped like a human figure, into which it is put.
- Herodotus
On eating sardines in Greece:
Take the tail of the female tuna—and I’m talking of the large female tuna whose mother city is Byzantium. Then slice it and bake all of it properly, simply sprinkling it lightly with salt and brushing with oil. Eat the slices hot, dipping them into a sharp brine. They are good if you want to eat them dry, like the immortal gods in form and stature. If you serve it sprinkled with vinegar, it will be ruined.
—Archestratus, The Life of Luxury, fourth century b.c.
Garum recipe:
The so-called liquamen is made in this manner: the intestines of fish are thrown into a vessel and salted. Small fish, either the best smelt, or small mullet, or sprats, or wolffish, or whatever is deemed to be small, are all salted together and, shaken frequently, are fermented in the sun.After it has been reduced in the heat, garum is obtained from it in this way: a large, strong basket is placed into the vessel of the aforementioned fish, and the garum streams into the basket. In this way the so-called liquamen is strained through the basket when it is taken up. The remaining refuse is allec. . . .
Next, if you wish to use the garum immediately, that is to say not ferment it in the sun, but to boil it, you do it this way. When the brine has been tested, so that an egg having been thrown in floats (if it sinks, it is not sufficiently salty), and throwing the fish into the brine in a newly-made earthenware pot and adding in some oregano, you place it on a sufficient fire until it is boiled, that is until it begins to reduce a little. Some throw in boiled-down must [unfermented wine]. Next, throwing the cooled liquid into a filter, you toss it a second and a third time through the filter until it turns out clear. After having covered it, store it away.
- Geoponica, 900 AD
Elaborate Roman molded dish:
[Place cooked] mallows, leeks, beets, or cooked cabbage sprouts, roasted thrushes and quenelles of chicken, tidbits of pork or squab, chicken, and other similar shreds of fine meats that may be available. Arrange everything in alternating layers [in a mold].
Crush pepper and lovage [a bitter herb, common as parsley in ancient Rome] with two parts old wine, one part broth [garum], one part honey and a little oil. Taste it; and when well-mixed and in due proportions put in a sauce pan and allow to heat moderately; when boiling add a pint milk in which [about eight] eggs have been dissolved; pour over [the mold and heat slowly but do not allow to boil] and when thickened serve. [The dish would usually be unmolded before serving.]
- Apicius
Fixing garum that smells bad:
If garum has contracted a bad odor, place a vessel upside down and fumigate it with laurel and cypress and before ventilating it, pour the garum in the vessel. If this does not help matters, and if the taste is too pronounced, add honey and fresh spikenard [new shoots—novem spicum] to it; that will improve it. Also new must should be likewise effective
- Apicius
Loin of pork:
Loin of pork is best eaten roasted, because it is a good food and well digested, provided that, while it is roasting, it is spread with feathers dipped in brine. If the loin of pork is rather tough when eaten, it is better to dip in pure salt. We ban the use of fish sauce from every culinary role.
—Anthimis, De obseruatione ciborum (On the Observance of Foods), circa A.D. 500
Sardines:
In their natural state they should be fried; when done, garnish them with orange juice and a little of the frying oil and salt; they are eaten hot.
—Cuoco Napoletano, anonymous, Naples, late 1400s
Porpoise:
PURPAYS YN GALENTEYN
Take purpays: do away the skyn; cut hit yn smal lechys [slices] no more than a fynger, or les. Take bred drawen wyth red wyne; put therto powder of canell [cinnamon], powder of pepyr. Boil hit; seson hit up with powder of gynger, venegre, & salt.
- English recipe from 14 or 15th century
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