“For, while my slave Neandros was negociating with merchants on the quay, loading the hollow ship with cheeses, and wheat (the marrow of men), and the flesh of bulls and swine, with herbs and dainty birds, and jars of oil and wine and beer, and casks of sweet water, I, with long-robed Helen, landed privately to view the city. For I had heard that Romans were occupying holy Eyboia at that time, the island of rich vines, whence Elephenor son of Khalkodon led the proud long-haired Abantes in forty black ships to the siege of windy Ilion. And, neither in the future from which (for a religious reason) I had come, nor in the past from which also I had come, had I ever seen the conquering Romans in their togas as they lived, excepting once by chance in Khem. For which cause I determined to use this opportunity of informing my inquisitive mind.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
[79] ANOTHER WAY, MASHED _CUCURBITAS FRICTAS TRITAS_ FRIED [1] PUMPKIN, SEASONED WITH PEPPER, LOVAGE, CUMIN, ORIGANY, ONION, WINE BROTH AND OIL: STEW THE PUMPKIN [in this] IN A BAKING DISH, TIE THE LIQUID WITH ROUX [mash] AND SERVE IN THE DISH. [1] V. Baking the fruit reduces the water contents, renders the purée more substantial. G.-V. _Tritas_--mashed. Tor. connects _tritas_ up with pepper, hence it is doubtful whether this dish of pumpkin is mashed pumpkin.
Sources: The passage is from Frederick Rolfe, The weird of the wanderer : $b Being the papyrus records of some incid, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Apicius, Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — forest cloth, cheese stamp.