Vtiles Alicam Purgatam Infundis

This recipe hails from the famed Apicius collection, a Roman cookbook likely compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century CE, though attributed to the 1st century gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius. The version found here comes through a 15th-century Italian manuscript, at the crossroads of manuscript culture and the first age of print. Apicius’s recipes blend opulence with practicality, offering a window into elite Roman dining and the use of ingredients like brains and liquamen, which were considered both luxurious and, to some extent, medicinal. The recipe is a wonderful example of 'ancient porridge,' combining grains, offal, and aromatic spices as part of a dish designed for both sustenance and pleasure. This manuscript would have been used by learned cooks or stewards in renaissance Italy, preserving the traditions of ancient Rome.

Originally, this dish would have required a sturdy earthenware or bronze pot (caccabus) for simmering the mixture, a mortar and pestle for grinding spices and pounding the brains and meat to a fine paste, a sharp knife for chopping, and perhaps a wooden stirring paddle. A hearth or open fire would serve as the cooking heat, with all mixing performed by hand. For serving, either small bowls or shallow dishes would distribute the thickened alica for each diner.