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Rosatum
"Apicius gives us the recipe for Rosatum: 'Put,' says he, 'some rose leaves into a clean linen cloth; sew it up, and leave it seven days in the wine; take out the roses and put in fresh ones; repeat the operation three times, and then strain the wine. Add some honey at the time of drinking. The roses must be fresh, and free from dew. 'Violetum is made in the same manner, by using violets instead of roses.' " Ohio: Carnation-since the nation as a whole still lacks an official flower, we propose adopting Ohio's carnation, for two good reasons; 1st, it blooms around the Fourth of July, and 2nd, it smells so much like cloves, the national breath. Indeed, because of these very features the early English called the carnation Clove and Clove-July.
It is made into a heady wine and also a spring-scented syrup. This syrup calls for the addition of real cloves, at least a dozen to a pound of carnation petal tips; you cut off the white part and throw it away and then bruise the petals a little to start the juice flowing. After that, drown them in a quart of water in a tight, covered crock which you stand on the stove in a pan of cold water, bring to the boiling point, and boil for half a day, adding hot water as needed. Strain through cheese cloth and squeeze to get out every drop of the juice. Finally put a pound of sugar to each pint of carnation essence, cool, bottle and cork tight.
A popular seventeenth century snack consisted of pickled rosebuds (see New York) and other flowers in a "sallet" dressed with this carnation syrup.
The carnation was also called Bee-Flower because it was the last fall flower for bees to feed upon. And carnation honey retains that old clove flavor.
Oklahoma: Mistletoe-some outdoor enthusiasts subsist on cheese and kisses. Oregon: Grape-Al fresco feeders in vinous countries fancy a soup made of fresh picked grape buds and tender grapevine tendrils. They're tied in bunches, blanched and cooked with garlic, turnip and carrot. Meat stock is added as needed and at the finish croutons and fresh grape buds are thrown in.
Pennsylvania: since Pennsylvanians have no official State flower-let 'em eat cake. Or scrapple. (What about Mountain Laurel? Ed.) Rhode Island: Violet-
Two workable preparations sit inside this page: the Apicius rose wine and a carnation syrup. Both are infusions, and both depend entirely on the quality of the petals.
- "Rose leaves" means petalsIn older English the petals of a flower were routinely called its leaves. Use only the petals, and for a full-flavoured infusion pick fragrant old garden or damask types rather than modern florist hybrids, which are bred for shipping and have little scent.
- Unsprayed flowers onlyCut roses and carnations sold for the vase are treated with systemic pesticides and are not food. Pick from a garden you control, or buy petals sold explicitly for culinary use.
- The timing adds up to three weeksThe timing runs to three weeks or more -- seven days per infusion, and the text's "repeat the operation three times" can be read as three infusions in all (about twenty-one days) or as three further changes after the first (about twenty-eight). Keep it cool and the petals completely covered by the liquid.
- The linen bag is the hingeSewing the petals into cloth is what keeps the wine clear and makes each change of petals a clean lift rather than a straining job. Muslin or a doubled cheesecloth tied firmly does the same work; weight it so it stays submerged.
- "Free from dew"Apicius does not say why, but surface moisture can carry yeasts and mould spores into the jar. Pick when the flowers are dry and use the petals at once rather than washing them.
- Honey at the table, not in the jarApicius is explicit that the sweetening goes in at drinking. Added early it may restart fermentation in the vessel; added to the glass it also lets each drinker set the sweetness.
- Carnation petals: trim and bruiseThe white heel at the base of each petal is bitter and is discarded, which means a pound of trimmed petal tips represents a great many flowers. Bruising with the back of a spoon or a light pounding starts the juice, as the text says.
- Half a day of boiling is far too longThe crock stands in a water bath, so the temperature is gentle, but modern practice would hold a covered petal infusion at a bare simmer for thirty to sixty minutes at most. Beyond that the fresh clove-and-flower aroma cooks off and the syrup turns flat and jammy.
- Syrup proportions and keepingA pound of sugar to each pint of strained essence gives a fairly thick syrup; dissolve it over low heat without boiling hard. Bottled and corked it is not shelf-stable in the modern sense, so keep it refrigerated and use within a few weeks.
- MistletoeThe line about cheese and kisses is a joke. Mistletoe berries and leaves are toxic and belong nowhere in food.
Rosatum and violetum are among the flower wines described in the collection of Latin recipes handed down under the name of Apicius, generally dated in its surviving form to the fourth or fifth century and drawing on earlier Roman cookery. Scented and spiced wines were everyday Roman drinking rather than curiosities, and the repeated-infusion method here is the same logic a perfumer uses: fresh material three times over, because petals give up their volatile oils quickly and then contribute nothing but vegetal flavour. The carnation notes that follow reflect a much later English tradition, in which the clove-scented gillyflower or clove-July flower was candied, pickled, dressed into "sallets" and turned into cordial syrups through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. That the two sit side by side in a modern outdoor-cooking book says something about how persistently flower cookery has been treated as a proof of good living, from imperial Rome to a mid-century American state-flower list.