Gustum

"Versatile Vstum: wash small white beets, leeks at rest, parsley, onions, and boiled snails. Add ginger, cook chicken and boiled birds. Spread this in a dish. Shred mallow leaves and press through, then arrange on the greens as follows: place whole onions upside down, add camafenas (possibly a kind of fruit or ingredient). Add the boiled snails and briefly crush the Lucomica. Pour in garum (fish sauce), oil, wine, and vinegar, and let it boil. Then grind pepper, lovage, ginger, and a little pyrethrum. Mix, pour over, and let the dish boil. When it is filled and ready, remove any remaining sauce from the mortar. Bind the mixture in the dish. While it is firming up, prepare an oenogarum (wine sauce) as follows: grind pepper, lovage, mix, pour in garum and wine, adjust, or use sweet wine. Put the mixture in a pan with a little oil, let it boil, and when it does, thicken the dish with starch, turn it out onto a platter, remove the mallow leaves, pour over the oenogarum, sprinkle pepper on top, and serve."

The recipe, like many from the Apicius manuscript, is written almost as a loose set of instructions rather than precise directions. Quantities are rarely given; instead, the cook is assumed to have both experience and judgement. Spelling in the text reflects both the Latin of Apicius and later medieval Italian scribal conventions—'u' for 'v' and vice versa, and terms like 'liquamen' (fish sauce), 'amylum' (starch), and 'pullos' (chicken) are used as in antiquity. There is a heavy reliance on seasoning with aromatics and on combining starch with hot liquid to thicken, a precursor to the French roux and sauce techniques of later centuries. The recipe expects the cook to taste, adjust, and improvise—Roman style.