PinTisana Barrica Image Used Under Creative Commons License From laurenscravings.com
Citizens! The yuletide holiday is nearly upon us – and the Praetor of Prowess, YOUR TFD! – has spent the last few evenings binging one of His favorite history reality shows: Forged in Fire! The Season 7 episode where the smiths had to recreate both a Roman pugio dagger (used in Caesar’s assassination on the Ides of March) and a legionnaire’s spatha sword was amazing. This inspired Me to go back in culinary history – VERY far back, 2,000 years – to the ancient Roman empire and a recipe nearly lost to the mists of time: tisana barrica! Today, it is My pleasure and honor to introduce TFD Nation to MY version of this comforting soup that tastes like a cross between Thai Tom Yum soup and Scotch Broth!
For your viewing pleasure, here is that very Forged in Fire episode I watched to put YOU in the proper frame of mind for what is to come – soon you will be enjoying a modern interpretation of tisana barrica that will truly delight your palate with rare flavors indeed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hcqOpV43Z8
The cuisine of ancient Rome changed a great deal over the duration of the empire’s existence. Dietary habits were affected by the political changes and Roman trading with foreigners along with the empire’s enormous expansion exposed Romans to many new foods, provincial culinary habits and cooking methods. In its beginning, dietary differences between Roman social classes were not great, but disparities developed with the empire’s growth.
Traditionally, a breakfast called ientaculum was served at dawn. At mid-day to early afternoon, Romans ate cena, the main meal of the day, and at nightfall a light supper called vesperna. With the increased importation of foreign foods, the cena grew larger in size and included a wider range of foods. Thus, it gradually shifted to the evening, while the vesperna was abandoned completely over the course of the years. The mid-day meal prandium became a light meal to hold one over until cena. Among the lower classes of the Roman society, these changes were less pronounced as the traditional routines corresponded closely to the daily rhythms of manual labour.
However, among the upper classes, who normally did not engage in manual labour, it became customary to schedule all business obligations in the morning. After the prandium, the last responsibilities would be discharged, and a visit would be made to the baths. Around 2 p.m., the cena would begin. This meal could last until late in the night, especially if guests were invited, and would often be followed by comissatio, a round of alcoholic beverages (usually wine).
In the period of the kings and the early Republic, but also in later periods (for the working classes), the cena essentially consisted of a kind of porridge, the puls. The simplest kind would be made from emmer, water, salt and fat. A more sophisticated variation was made with olive oil, and consumed with an accompaniment of assorted vegetables when available. The wealthy commonly ate their puls with eggs, cheese, and honey and it was also occasionally served with meat or fish.
Over the course of the Republican period, the cena developed into two courses: the main course and a dessert with fruit and seafood (e.g. molluscs, shrimp). By the end of the Republic, it was usual for the meal to be served in three parts: an appetiser (gustatio), main course (primae mensae), and dessert (secundae mensae).
The Roman legions’ staple ration of food was wheat. In the 4th century, most legionaries ate as well as anyone in Rome. They were supplied with rations of bread and vegetables along with meats such as beef, mutton, or pork. Rations also depended on where the legions were stationed or were campaigning. Mutton was popular in Northern Gaul and Britannia, but pork was the main meat ration of the legions.
The Roman colonies provided many foods to Rome; the city received ham from Belgium, oysters from Brittany, garum from Mauretania, wild game from Tunisia, silphium (laser) from Cyrenaica, flowers from Egypt, lettuce from Cappadocia, and fish from Pontus.
The ancient Roman diet included many items that are staples of modern Italian cooking. Pliny the Elder discussed more than 30 varieties of olive, 40 kinds of pear, figs (native and imported from Africa and the eastern provinces), and a wide variety of vegetables. Some of these vegetables are no longer present in the modern world, while others have undergone significant changes. Carrots of different colours were consumed, but not in orange. Many kinds of vegetables were cultivated and consumed – these included celery, garlic, some flower bulbs, cabbage and other brassicas (such as kale and broccoli), lettuce, endive, onion, leek, asparagus, radishes, turnips, parsnips, carrots, beets, green peas, chard, field greens, cardoons, olives, and cucumber.
However, some foods considered characteristic of modern Italian cuisine were not used. In particular, spinach and eggplant (aubergine) were introduced later from the Arab world, and tomatoes, potatoes, capsicum peppers, maize (the modern source of polenta) and beans of the Phaseolus genus Phaseolus vulgaris (green – French and runner, lima, kidney) only appeared in Europe following the discovery of the New World and the Columbian Exchange. The Romans knew of rice, but it was very rarely available to them. There were also few citrus fruits. Lemons were known in Italy from the second century AD but were not widely cultivated.
Butcher’s meat was an uncommon luxury. The most popular meat was pork, especially sausages. Beef was uncommon in ancient Rome, being more common in ancient Greece: it is not mentioned by Juvenal or Horace. Seafood, game, and poultry, including ducks and geese, were more common. For instance, on his triumph, Caesar gave a public feast to 260,000 humiliores (poorer people) which featured all three of these foods, but no butcher’s meat.
John E. Stambaugh writes that meat “was scarce except at sacrifices and the dinner parties of the rich. Cows were prized for their milk; bulls as plough and draft animals. Meat of working animals was tough and unappetizing. Veal was eaten occasionally. Apicius (more on him in a moment!) gives only four recipes for beef but the same recipes call for lamb or pork as options. There is only one recipe for beef stew and another for veal scallopini.
Dormice were eaten and considered a delicacy. It was a status symbol among wealthy Romans, and some even had dormice weighed in front of dinner guests. A sumptuary law enacted under Marcus Aemilius Scaurus forbade the eating of dormice, but failed to stop the practice.
Fish was more common than meat – aquaculture was sophisticated, with large-scale industries devoted to oyster farming. The Romans also engaged in snail farming and oak grub farming. Some fish were greatly esteemed and fetched high prices, such as mullet raised in the fishery at Cosa, and “elaborate means were invented to assure its freshness”.
Now, Apicius is a man I can truly connect with, as aptly demonstrated in this apocryphal tale: Apicius lived at Minturnae (Campania) – having heard of the boasted size and sweetness of the shrimps taken near the Libyan coast, Apicius commandeered a boat and crew. However, when he arrived, disappointed by the shrimps he was offered by the local fishermen who came alongside in their boats, and comparing them to the excellent ones he was accustomed to at his villa, he turned round and returned to Minturnae “without going ashore”!
A few more fascinating details about Apicius:
Marcus Gavius Apicius is believed to have been a Roman gourmet and lover of luxury, who lived sometime in the 1st century AD, during the reign of Tiberius. The Roman cookbook Apicius is often attributed to him, though it is impossible to prove the connection. From ancient proximal sources, the following anecdotes about Apicius survive – to what extent they form a real biography is unclear (but I want to believe they are true!).
Drusus (13 BC – 14 September AD 23), son of Tiberius, was persuaded by Apicius not to eat cymae, cabbage tops or cabbage sprouts, because they were a common food: Pliny the Elder, Natural History 19.137.
The consuls of AD 28, Junius Blaesus and Lucius Antistius Vetus, dined luxuriously at Apicius’ house: Aelian, Letters nos 113-114 Domingo-Forasté (Grocock & Grainger 2006, p. 55).
Tiberius saw a big red mullet in the market and wagered that Apicius or Publius Octavius would buy it. Both men began bidding for it and Octavius won: Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 95.42.
Apicius was “born to enjoy every extravagant luxury that could be contrived”. He advised that red mullet were at their best if, before cooking, they had been drowned in a bath of fish sauce made from red mullet: Pliny, Natural History 9:30.
Apicius advised that flamingo’s tongue was of superb flavour: Pliny, Natural History ’10:133
Based on existing methods of producing goose liver (foie gras), Apicius devised a similar method of producing pork liver. He fed his pigs with dried figs and slaughtered them with an overdose of mulsum (honeyed wine): Pliny, Natural History 8.209.
Having spent a fortune of 100 million sestertii on his kitchen, spent all the gifts he had received from the Imperial court, and thus swallowed up his income in lavish hospitality, Apicius found that he had only 10 million sestertii left. Afraid of dying in relative poverty, he poisoned himself: Seneca, Consolatio ad Helviam 10.
Throughout Roman literature Apicius is named in moralizing contexts as the typical gourmet or glutton. Seneca, for example, says that he “proclaimed the science of the cookshop” and corrupted the age with his example (Seneca, Consolatio ad Helviam 10). Around the 4th and 5th centuries, Apicius begins to be named as an author: this may be an indication that cookbooks titled Apicius were in circulation by that time. The first such reference may be that in the Scholia on Juvenal (4.22), which assert that Apicius wrote about how to arrange dinners, and about sauces.
Apicius, also known as De re culinaria or De re coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking), is a collection of Roman cookery recipes, which may have been compiled in the fifth century AD, or earlier. Its language is in many ways closer to Vulgar than to Classical Latin, with later recipes using Vulgar Latin (such as ficatum, bullire) added to earlier recipes using Classical Latin (such as iecur, fervere).
It has also been attributed to Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman gourmet who lived sometime in the 1st century AD during the reign of Tiberius. The book also may have been authored by a number of different Roman cooks from the first century AD. Many of the recipes contain the ingredient silphium, which is speculated to have become extinct in the first century AD, which supports the earlier date. However, based on textual analysis, the food scholar Bruno Laurioux believes that the surviving version dates only from the fifth century (that is, the end of the Roman Empire): “The history of De Re Coquinaria indeed belongs then to the Middle Ages“.
The Latin text is organized in ten books with Greek titles, in an arrangement similar to that of a modern cookbook:[4]
Epimeles — The Diligent
Sarcoptes — The Butcher
Cepuros — The Gardener
Pandectes — The Encyclopedia
Ospreon — Pulses & Legumes
Aeropetes — The Bird
Polyteles — The Sumptuous
Tetrapus — The Quadruped, Four-legged animals
Thalassa — The Sea, Seafood
Halieus — The Fisherman
The foods described in the book are useful for reconstructing the dietary habits of the ancient world around the Mediterranean Basin, but the recipes are geared for the wealthiest classes and a few contain what were exotic ingredients at that time (e.g., flamingo).
With that historical context now firmly in place – let us discuss the recipe at hand: tisana barrica!
As expounded on the exceptional historical cooking blog coquinaria.nl, recreating many Roman recipes in the modern era (including tisana barrica) is VERY difficult as a key Roman flavor, is well, extinct – they literally ATE this plant to death:
During antiquity, the Roman (and Greek) cuisine used some ingredients that have since fallen into disuse in European kitchens. Of these ingredients the seasoning silphium or laserpicium is the most intriguing. The plant bore some resemblance to fennel. The tastemaker was resin, produced from the roots and the stem. The silphium–herb grew in Libya in the wild, but it was never cultivated. because of excessive harvesting and abuse of the land, less and less silphium was growing. The fate of the last shoot of silphium is described by Pliny the Elder in the Historia naturalis (19:15) from 77 AD.
“For these many years past it has not been found in Cyrenaica, as the farmers of the revenue who hold the lands there on lease, have a notion that it is more profitable to depasture flocks of sheep upon them. Within the memory of the present generation, a single stalk is all that has ever been found there, and that was sent as a curiosity to the Emperor Nero. If it so happen that one of the flock, while grazing, meets with a growing shoot of it, the fact is easily ascertained by the following signs; the sheep, after eating of it, immediately falls asleep, while the goat is seized with a fit of sneezing.” (Bibliography))
When silphium became extinct, Romans began to use another plant that resembled silphium but with a less subtle taste. This was asafoetida. In Asian stores you can buy it as heeng or hing. The Dutch name of the plant is duivelsdrek, devil’s dung, and not without reason. Silphium was very expensive, as was asafoetida. Garlic was the poor man’s silphium. So, if you do not want to use devil’s dung, just use that instead.
Garum or liquamen is another ingredient of Roman cuisine that fell out of use during the Middle Ages. It is a sauce made of fish that has fermented in salt or brine. It can be substitued by modern Asian fish sauce, but the taste is not quite the same.
The original recipe: The source of the recipe-text below is the beautiful edition Apicius by Grocock and Grainger from 2006, recipe 4.4, pp 198/199 (see bibliography). I modernized the use of u/v and capitals in the Latin text. I have also used the English translation of Grocock and Grainger.
Tisanam vel sucum. Tisanam sic facies: tisanam lavando fricas quam ante diem infundes. Inpones supra ignem calidum; cum bullierit mittes olei satis et aneti modicum fasciculum, cepam siccam, sautureiam et coloefium ut ibi coquantur propter sucum. Mittes coriandrum viridem et salem simul tritum et facies ut feruerat; cum bene ferbuerit, tolles fasciculum et transferes in alterum caccabum tisanam sic ne fundum tangat propter conbusturam. Ligas et colas in caccabolo supra acronem coloefium. Teres piper, ligusticum, pulei aridi, modicum cuminum et silfi frictum; ut bene tegatur suffundis acetum defritum liquamen, refundis in caccabum, sed coloefium acronem facias ut feruerat super ignem lentum.
Barley soup or liquor. You make barley soup like this: soak barley overnight and wash and rub (it free of husk). Put it over hot coals (in a pan). When it is boiling, add sufficient oil and a small bundle of dill, dried onion, savory and a knuckle ham bone so they may cook there to produce a liquor. Put in green coriander and salt, which have been pounded together. Bring it to heat; when it is simmering well, take out the bundle and transfer the barley soup to another pan, making sure that the bottom of the pan does not touch (the coals) and so burn: you smooth it and strain it into the pan, over the top of the ham bone. Pound pepper, lovage, a little dried pennyroyal, cumin and pounded silphium; so that it is well covered, pour on vinegar, defrutum, liquamen; pour back into the pan; but bring the ham bone to heat over a slow fire.
Recreating this recipe in a modern format that would be palatable to your palate was challenging – garum was a MASSIVELY dominant flavor profile and to most modern palates would be absolutely revolting in its fishiness, I could have used Cambodian prahok mixed with Worcestershire sauce, but Westerners would assuredly gag on it. A far more palatable option is to WAY tone down that flavor profile and use top-quality fish sauce instead, using it as Thai Chefs do – as an accent. My preferred brand of fish sauce is this one. Worcestershire sauce is still in here, as it is a modern descendant of garum! It’s just used once again as an accent – go with the classic Lea and Perrins or make My own!
As tisana barrica is a kissing cousin of Scotch Broth, I have opted to use lamb as the meat of choice to make it more familiar to modern diners – you could easily substitute pork (which is authentic) or beef (which is less so). Barley is a key component of the tisana barrica recipe, so please use a really good pearl barley – this is an excellent choice. I added in a bit of beaujolais nouveau red wine, which is very close to the ancient Roman wine enjoyed by its Citizens. To replace the extinct siplhium, we are going with what the Romans chose – asafœtida. Buy the good stuff straight from India from here – please grind only when needed and store it tightly sealed. Saffron turns the soup an appetizing yellow – this is a great source for it.
Fennel pollen is My choice to add fennel’s flavor profile to the tisana barrica – grab some of exceptional quality from here. Romans did not use standard black peppercorns when they called for “pepper” – they actually used so-called “long pepper” from India which is – IMHO – superior to the standard peppercorns used today! Grab some excellent ones from here. Pennyroyal is an ancient mint rarely seen today (but VERY common in ancient recipes!) – thankfully it is available from this fine purveyor here.
Citizens of TFD Nation – this recipe for tisana barrica will add delicious and unique flavors to your next at-home feast and I hope you enjoy this modern interpretation of a long-lost dish from an empire that ruled the world during the time of Christ’s birth!
Take the whole onions and stud them with the whole cloves.
In a large pot, add ⅛ cup olive oil and sear the meat over medium-high heat.
Add the garlic marjoram paste and root vegetables to the pot. Sauté for 1 minute.
Add the onions, pearl barley, bay leaf, wine, asafœtida, cumin, coriander, saffron and enough beef stock to cover all the ingredients, plus ½ of the parsley, dill and tarragon.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for at least 90 minutes, or until the meat is tender and the barley is cooked through. If needed, add more broth as it cooks to ensure it’s staying a soup and not a porridge due to the barley absorbing the liquid.
In the last 30 minutes, add the rosemary and thyme.
In the last 5 minutes, add the remaining olive oil, fennel pollen, pennyroyal, and fish sauce.
When finished, remove the clove-studded onions, rosemary, bay leaf and thyme from the pot. Discard the cloves, rosemary, bay leaf and thyme. If you want, you can optionally throw the cooked onion into a blender, reduce to a paste and stir back into the soup (TFD preference). Or, just discard – as you see fit.
Season the soup with Worcestershire sauce and long pepper to taste.
Ladle into bowls and garnish with all the remaining fresh herbs before serving.
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