XIII
HOME-MADE SWEET DISHES AND HONEY SWEET-MEATS DULCIA DOMESTICA [1] ET MELCÆ
[294] HOME-MADE SWEETS DULCIA DOMESTICA
LITTLE HOME CONFECTIONS (WHICH ARE CALLED DULCIARIA) ARE MADE THUS: [2] LITTLE PALMS OR (AS THEY ARE ORDINARILY CALLED) [3] DATES ARE STUFFED—AFTER THE SEEDS HAVE BEEN REMOVED—WITH A NUT OR WITH NUTS AND GROUND PEPPER, SPRINKLED WITH SALT ON THE OUTSIDE AND ARE CANDIED IN HONEY AND SERVED [4].
[1] Dulcia, sweetmeats, cakes; hence dulciarius, a pastry cook or confectioner.
The fact that here attention is drawn to home-made sweet dishes may clear up the absence of regular baking and dessert formulæ in Apicius. The trade of the dulciarius was so highly developed at that time that the professional bakers and confectioners supplied the entire home market with their wares, making it convenient and unprofitable for the domestic cook to compete with their organized business, a condition which largely exists in our modern highly civilized centers of population today. Cf. “[Cooks].”
[2 + 3] Tor.
[4] Still being done today in the same manner.
[295] ANOTHER SWEETMEAT ALITER DULCIA
GRATE [scrape, peel] SOME VERY BEST FRESH APHROS [1] AND IMMERSE IN MILK. WHEN SATURATED PLACE IN THE OVEN TO HEAT BUT NOT TO DRY OUT; WHEN THOROUGHLY HOT RETIRE FROM OVEN, POUR OVER SOME HONEY, STIPPLE [the fruit] SO THAT THE HONEY MAY PENETRATE, SPRINKLE WITH PEPPER [2] AND SERVE.