Morning Gruel: Apothermum

The results of the Apothermum recipe. If you missed the tweet, here’s the recipe in 140:

boil spelt grains w/pine nuts & bleached almonds into a pudding; add raisins & sweet wine, sprinkle nuts over, dust w/white pepper

I used 3 TB spelt flour, a half cup each of pine nuts and almonds. I ground the nuts and mixed them and the flour with about 2 cups water, which turned out to be a little too much. Stirred over a low flame at a simmer for about a half hour, then mixed in a cup of raisins and 1/3 cup sweet cooking wine. Stirred and simmered a while longer, adding a little more flour, until it was an acceptable porridge. Spooned into bowl, garnished with raisins and a dusting of white pepper.

Serves 2 Romans, or 4 who only feel snacky.

My sweet tooth wants to drizzle honey over it. If a Roman couldn’t reasonably pour fermented fish sauce over a dish, honey was often the next choice, so I think that’s acceptable. (I paired it with a refreshing cup of posca—water and wine vinegar. I opted out of the option to add honey and coriander to taste and went with the simpler soldier’s version.)

This is far too simple a dish for Cook in Knife of Narcissus to serve. She’d send master Bassus into the kitchen to make it himself.