Moretum

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Moretum in the mortar

Moretum describes a simple dish of the ancient Roman cuisine , a kind of pesto , consisting of (sheep) cheese (or alternatively grated walnuts), olive oil , salt, garlic (Allium), celery green (Apium, German Eppich), rue (Ruta) and coriander . It was eaten with freshly baked bread.

Your name has the cheese paste from the mortar, the mortarium in which it was produced (see picture).

The recipe for Moretum was passed down through a Latin poem ascribed to Virgil and measuring 122 hexameters under the title Moretum in the so-called Appendix Vergiliana . As a parody of the exaggerated praise of rural life, it depicts how a simple farmer begins his day's work; The core of this is the preparation of Moretum for breakfast. Moretum is also mentioned in Columella 's De re rustica (XII 59, 1-4). Columella mentions a variant in which grated walnuts are used instead of the cheese (2a), as well as alternatives with roasted sesame (2b), with pine or almond nuts (3), as well as mixtures with dried herbs (4).

literature

  • Andrew Dalby , Sally Grainger: Kitchen Secrets of Antiquity. Culinary discoveries and recipes . Flechsig, Würzburg 1996, ISBN 3-88189-204-4 (Original title: The classical cookbook . Translated by Roland Vocke).
  • Marcus Junkelmann : From the cornucopia of Rome. 34 original recipes from Roman cuisine . Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2686-6 .
  • Marcus Junkelmann : Panis Militaris. The food of the Roman soldier or the raw material of power . Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-2332-8 .

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