Haedus sive Agnus Parthicus

Apicius's kid or lamb Parthian style: a roast served with a sauce of pepper, rue, onion, savory, stoned damsons, a little laser, wine, broth, and oil

Origin: Rome, Roman Empire

From the journey of Asafoetida.

Haedum sive agnum Parthicum, kid or lamb in the Parthian manner, is one of the shortest recipes in the cookery book attributed to Apicius. In Joseph Vehling's translation it reads, in full: 'Put [the roast] in the oven; crush pepper, rue, onion, satury, stoned Damascus plums, a little laser, wine, broth and oil. Hot wine is served on the side and taken with vinegar.' The roast is plain; everything is in the sauce, which is sweet and sour from the plums, sharp from the rue and pepper, and savoury from the laser. The Damascus plum is the damson, which takes its name from the city. The laser by the time the collection was compiled was the Persian resin, generally identified as asafoetida, which had replaced the lost silphion of Cyrene. Why Apicius calls the dish Parthian he does not say. Parthia was the Iranian empire on Rome's eastern frontier, the source of that laser, and several other recipes in the book carry the same name, but the word may describe a style of seasoning rather than any single ingredient. Rue is an acquired taste, bitter and musky, and a strong one; the Romans used it constantly, and a single small sprig is enough. It should be avoided in pregnancy. Savory, the herb Vehling calls 'satury', can be replaced with thyme.

Ingredients

Roast

  • 1.4 kg leg of lamb, bone in, or a shoulder of kid
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp sea salt

Sauce

  • 1 tsp black peppercorns
  • 1 small sprig of fresh rue (optional; see notes)
  • 1 small onion, very finely chopped
  • 1 tsp dried savory, or dried thyme
  • 200 g damsons, stoned, or 120 g prunes soaked in hot water for 20 minutes
  • 0.25 tsp pure asafoetida powder, or 0.5 tsp compounded asafoetida
  • 150 ml red wine
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce (the Roman liquamen)
  • 150 ml lamb or chicken stock
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Rub the lamb with the olive oil and salt, set it in a roasting tin, and roast for about 1 hour 20 minutes for meat that is just pink at the bone, or longer if you like it well done.
  2. While the meat roasts, crush the peppercorns in a mortar, add the rue leaves, the onion, and the savory, and pound to a rough paste.
  3. Add the damsons or drained prunes and pound them into the paste. Dissolve the asafoetida in a little of the wine and work it in.
  4. Scrape the paste into a small pan with the rest of the wine, the fish sauce, the stock, and the oil. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring, until the onion is soft and the sauce has thickened. Push it through a sieve if you want it smooth.
  5. Rest the roast for 15 minutes, pour its juices into the sauce, carve, and serve with the sauce spooned over.

Notes

Rue is bitter and potent, can irritate the skin when handled in quantity, and should be avoided in pregnancy. The sauce is still recognisably Roman without it. Apicius ends with 'hot wine is served on the side and taken with vinegar': a cup of warmed red wine, sharpened with a dash of vinegar, offered alongside. Compounded asafoetida usually contains wheat flour; use pure resin if the dish must be gluten-free.

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