Birthday Recipe

A common request which I am usually hopelessly ill-equipped to answer is “What authentic ancient food can I cook for a party?” Usually Roman food isn’t something you’d offer to a friend, at least not if you want to keep them as a friend. A measure of how pleasant Roman food was is that they loved to cover it in garum, a sauce made from rotten fish guts. However today is a special day because there is an appropriate meal. Today we pay homage to our cephalopod overlords by eating them.

Cuttlefish. Photo (cc) Pear Biter.

Here’s a Recipe from Apicius
In sepia farsili: piper, ligusticum, apii semen, careum, mel, liquamen, vinum, condimenta coctiva. calefacies, et sic aperies sepiam et perfundes.

Sic farcies eam sepiam coctam: cerebella elixa enerviata teres cum piper, cui commisces ova cruda quod satis erit, piper integrum, isicia minuta, et sic consues et in bullientem ollam mittes ita ut coire impensa possit.

Roughly translated with Bill Thayer’s page as a guide:
Take pepper, lovage, celery seed, caraway, honey, broth, wine and basic condiments. Heat all this in water.

Prepare the stuffing. You will need boiled brains with the strings and skin removed. Pound with pepper and mix in raw eggs.

Throw in the cuttlefish. When it is done, split then stuff the cuttlefish. Tie the filled dish into little bundles and immerse in the boiling stock pot until the stuffing is properly cooked.

Personally I’d stick with a cake. Happy Birthday PZ!