Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome

TO KEEP OYSTERS _OSTREA UT DIU DURENT_ FUMIGATE A VINEGAR BARREL WITH PITCH [1], WASH IT OUT WITH VINEGAR AND STACK THE OYSTERS IN IT [2] [1] Tor. _vas ascernum_, corrected on margin, _ab aceto_. List. _vas ab aceto_, which is correct. G.-V. _lavas ab aceto_; V. the oysters? unthinkable! Besides it would do no good. [2] Goll. Take oysters out of the shell, place in vinegar barrel, sprinkle with laurel berries, fine salt, close tight. V. Goll's authority for this version is not found in our originals. V. There is no way to keep live oysters fresh except in their natural habitat--salt water. Today we pack them in barrels, feed them with oatmeal, put weights on them--of no avail. The only way English oysters could have arrived fresh in Imperial Rome was in specially constructed bottoms of the galleys. X [15] MAKING A LITTLE LASER GO A LONG WAY _UT NUCIA _[1]_ LASERIS TOTO TEMPORE UTARIS_ PUT THE LASER [2] IN A SPACIOUS GLASS VESSEL; IMMERSE ABOUT 20 PINE KERNELS [pignolia nuts] IF YOU NEED LASER FLAVOR, TAKE SOME NUTS, CRUSH THEM; THEY WILL IMPART TO YOUR DISH AN ADMIRABLE FLAVOR. REPLACE THE USED NUTS WITH A LIKE NUMBER OF FRESH ONES [3] [1] List. and G.-V. _uncia_--ounce. Making an ounce of laser go a long way. Tor. _nucea_; Tac. _nucia_. Lister, fond of hair-splitting, is irreconcilably opposed to Tor., and berates Caspar Barthius for defending Tor. List. _Quam futilis sit in multis labor C. Barthii ut menda Torini passim sustineat, vel ex hoc loco intelligere licet: Et enim lege modo uncia pro nucea cum Humelbergio, & ista omnia glossemata vana sunt._ V. both readings, _uncia_ or _nucia_ are permissible, and make very little difference. We side with Tor. and Tac. because it takes more than an ounce of laser to carry out this experiment. [2] _Laser_, _laserpitium_, cf. dictionary. [3] V. This article illustrates how sparingly the ancients used the strong and pungent laser flavor [by some believed to be _asa foetida_] because it was very expensive, but principally because the Roman cooks worked economically and knew how