Apicius's chicken with laser: jointed chicken braised in an earthenware casserole with pepper, lovage, and asafoetida dissolved in wine, and finished with freshly crushed pepper
Origin: Rome, Roman Empire
From the journey of Asafoetida.
Pullum laseratum means chicken with laser, and it is one of a run of chicken recipes in the cookery book that goes under the name of Apicius. The whole of it, in Joseph Vehling's translation, reads: 'Dress the chicken carefully, clean, garnish and place in an earthen casserole. Crush pepper, lovage, laser moistened with wine, add broth and wine to taste, and put this on the fire; when done serve with pepper sprinkled over.' It is a braise, and a very simple one, and the laser is the point of it. What laser meant in that kitchen changed during Rome's lifetime. It had first been the juice of silphion, the wild plant of Cyrene in Libya, which was worth its weight in silver; by the time Pliny wrote, in 77 CE, the Cyrenaic plant had vanished, and the only laser reaching Rome came from Persia, Media, and Armenia. That Persian laser is generally identified as asafoetida, and the Apician collection, compiled in its present form long after the Cyrenaic plant was gone, treats the two as interchangeable, calling for 'laser from Cyrene or from Parthia'. Asafoetida is therefore not a modern stand-in here but, in all probability, the very thing the later Roman cook used. The Romans used it sparingly, because it was precious. The same book explains how to make an ounce of laser last for ever: keep it in a jar with about twenty pine kernels, crush a few of the kernels into the dish when the flavour is wanted, and replace them with fresh ones. The 'broth' of Vehling's translation is the Latin liquamen, which most scholars now take to be fish sauce, the Roman garum, and this version uses a little fish sauce with a light chicken stock. Lovage, a Roman favourite, tastes of strong celery; celery leaves with a few celery seeds will do in its place.
Pure asafoetida resin is far stronger than the compounded powder sold in Indian shops, which is cut with flour and gum; use half the quantity if yours is pure. Compounded asafoetida usually contains wheat flour. To try Apicius's method of 'making a little laser go a long way', keep a lump of asafoetida in a small jar with twenty pine kernels for a week, then crush a few of the kernels into the paste instead of using the resin. Serve with bread, as a Roman would have, or with boiled spelt or barley.
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