Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome

OR BROTH, A LITTLE OIL. [1] Wanting in G.-V. [321] ANOTHER WAY FOR TRUFFLES _ALITER TUBERA_ [1] COOK THE TRUFFLES WITH LEEKS, SALT, PEPPER, CHOPPED CORIANDER, THE VERY BEST WINE AND A LITTLE OIL. [1] Wanting in Tor. This, to our notion of eating truffles, is the best formula, save {Rx} Nos. 315 and 316. XVII TARO, DASHEEN _IN COLOCASIO_ [322] COLOCASIUM [1] TARO, DASHEEN _COLOCASIUM_ FOR THE COLOCASIUM (WHICH IS REALLY THE COLOCASIA PLANT, ALSO CALLED "EGYPTIAN BEAN") USE [2] PEPPER, CUMIN, RUE, HONEY, OR BROTH, AND A LITTLE OIL; WHEN DONE BIND WITH ROUX [3] COLOCASIUM IS THE ROOT OF THE EGYPTIAN BEAN WHICH IS USED EXCLUSIVELY [4]. [1] Cf. notes to {Rx} Nos. 74, 172, 216, 244; also the copious explanations by Humelberg, fol. III. [2] Tor. who is trying hard to explain the _colocasium_. His name, "Egyptian Bean" may be due to the mealiness and bean-like texture of the _colocasium_ tuber; otherwise there is no resemblance to a bean, except, perhaps, the seed pod which is not used for food. This simile has led other commentators to believe that the _colocasium_ in reality was a bean. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has in recent years imported various specimens of that taro species (belonging to the _colocasia_), and the plants are now successfully being farmed in the southern parts of the United States, with fair prospects of becoming an important article of daily diet. The Department has favored us repeatedly with samples of the taro, or dasheen, (_Colocasium Antiquorum_) and we have made many different experiments with this agreeable, delightful and important "new" vegetable. It can be prepared in every way like a potato, and possesses advantages over the potato as far as value of nutrition, flavor, culture and keeping qualities are concerned. As a commercial article, it is not any more expensive than any good kind of potato. It grows where the potato will not thrive, and vice versa. It thus saves much in freight to parts where the potato does not grow. The ancient _colocasium_ is no doubt a close relative of the modern dasheen