Mustacei

Roman grape must cakes from Cato's De Agricultura: among the oldest written recipes in Western history

Origin: Rome, Roman Empire

From the journey of Grapes.

Mustacei are one of the oldest documented recipes in the Western tradition. They appear in Cato the Elder's De Agricultura (c. 160 BCE) (one of the earliest works of Latin prose and a comprehensive manual of Roman farm management) making them among the first recipes to be written down in European history. Cato describes them with characteristic Roman practicality: grape must cakes made with wheat flour, fresh must, oil, lard, anise, cumin, and bay leaves, baked flat during the harvest. The recipe has survived 2,200 years. The defining technique of mustacei is the use of fresh grape must in place of water, eggs, or other liquids. The must serves three functions simultaneously: it sweetens the dough with concentrated grape sugar; it provides a degree of natural leavening from the wild yeasts present in the fermenting juice; and it contributes the distinctive flavour of concentrated grape: a quality somewhere between raisin, wine, and fresh fruit that no other ingredient can replicate. Mustacei are harvest cakes in the most literal sense: they can only be made when the harvest is underway and the must is flowing from the press. The spice combination; anise and cumin; is characteristic of ancient Mediterranean baking, appearing in Roman, Greek, and Egyptian recipes with a frequency that reflects the ancient world's understanding of these spices as both flavouring agents and digestive aids. The Roman digestive system was a significant preoccupation of Roman medicine, and cumin in particular was considered essential for the proper digestion of heavy wheat-based foods. The combination of grape sugar and caraway-adjacent spices produces a flavour that is unexpectedly complex; simultaneously sweet, savoury, fragrant, and ancient in a way that is immediately recognisable as belonging to a culinary tradition entirely unlike the modern one. Baking on bay leaves is the detail that elevates mustacei from a simple dough to something more considered. The bay leaves are not merely decorative: their volatile oils, linalool, eucalyptol, and alpha-pinene, are released by the oven heat and penetrate the underside of each cake during baking, adding a distinctly resinous, herbal fragrance that perfumes the base without being present in the dough itself. This technique of aromatic baking on leaves appears across the ancient Mediterranean (from Roman mustacei to the Greek fig-leaf-wrapped preparations documented in Athenaeus) and reflects an ancient intuition about indirect flavour transfer that modern cooking has largely abandoned.

Ingredients

Dough

  • 400 g plain wheat flour (spelt flour is more historically accurate and gives a slightly nuttier flavour)
  • 200 ml fresh grape must or dark grape juice reduced by half (to concentrate)
  • 80 ml good olive oil
  • 60 g lard or unsalted butter, softened
  • 1.5 tsp ground anise or aniseed (lightly crushed in a mortar)
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • pinch salt

For Baking

  • 15 fresh or dried bay leaves, for baking on

Method

  1. Combine the flour, ground anise, ground cumin, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together to distribute the spices evenly throughout the flour.
  2. Add the softened lard or butter and rub it into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. This takes 2–3 minutes. The fat coats the flour particles and will give the finished cakes their characteristic shortness.
  3. Add the olive oil and mix briefly with a fork until incorporated. The mixture will be crumbly.
  4. Add the grape must gradually; start with 150ml and add more as needed. Mix with your hands until the dough just comes together into a stiff, non-sticky dough. It should hold together when pressed but not be soft or elastic. You may not need all the must.
  5. Wrap the dough and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. This allows the flour to fully hydrate and the spices to begin infusing into the dough.
  6. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Arrange the bay leaves on baking trays in pairs or individually, spacing them evenly.
  7. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces (approximately 60g each). Roll each piece into a ball, then flatten between your palms to a round disk approximately 8cm in diameter and 1cm thick. Place each disk directly onto a bay leaf on the baking tray.
  8. Bake for 18–22 minutes until the cakes are golden-brown on top, firm to the touch, and have a pleasant anise-grape fragrance. The undersides will have absorbed the resinous perfume of the bay.
  9. Cool completely on the bay leaves before serving. The cakes are dense and best eaten at room temperature. Serve alongside mulsum (Roman honey wine), or with honey for dipping.

Notes

Mustacei keep well for 3–4 days stored in an airtight container: their density and low moisture content made them ideal as travel food in the ancient world. For a closer approximation of ancient Roman flour, substitute 100g of the plain flour with spelt flour (farro in Italian); spelt was the primary grain of Roman Italy before common wheat became dominant. Cato's original recipe does not include sugar or honey in the dough (the grape must provides all the sweetness), but a small drizzle of honey over the finished cakes when served is entirely appropriate. The bay leaves used for baking can be fresh or dried; fresh leaves give a slightly stronger perfume.

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