• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Reprinted from A Taste of Ancient Rome

SERVES: 4

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup all-purpose flour

8 ounces whole ricotta cheese

1 large egg, beaten

1 bay leaf

½ cup red bee® wildflower honey

Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease a baking tray. Sift the flour into a medium-sized bowl. In a second medium-sized bowl beat the cheese until it’s soft, and stir it into the flour along with the egg. Form a soft ball, and divide it into four parts. Mold each quarter into a bun and place them on the baking tray on top of a fresh bay leaf. Cover with your brick* and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Warm the honey in a shallow dish and place the warm cakes in it so that they absorb the honey. Allow to stand 30 minutes before serving.

*The Romans often covered their cooking food with a domed earthenware cover called a testo. You can use an overturned shallow clay pot, a metal bowl, or casserole dish as a brick.

Libum, a traditional Roman sweet-cheese bread that Apicius wrote about, is similar to our modern-day cheesecake. Making it was often a sacred act and part of the worship of household deities. Served hot or cold, libum should be generously drizzled with honey.

MEAD (OR HONEY WINE): Mead, a fermented beverage made with honey, is the first known alcoholic drink and is known in mythology as the drink of the gods. It is found in every ancient culture and is now experiencing a reemergence in the United States. Metheglin is mead made with spices (such as cloves, cinnamon, or nutmeg) or herbs (such as oregano, hops, or even lavender or chamomile). Fermented mead with grape juice is called pyment. Mead made with berries, like strawberries, blackberries, or raspberries, is called melomel. The list goes on and on, since honey wine pairs well with all types of ingredients to create a truly unique drink.

Every country has its own version of distilled alcoholic beverages made with honey. Some popular ones are Benedictine in France, Drambuie in Scotland, Irish Mist in Ireland, Grappa al miele in Italy, Krupnik in Poland, and Barenfang in Germany.

Telling the Bees

There is an old beekeeping tradition known as “telling the bees.” First, the bees must know everything that goes on in their keeper’s family, including births, deaths, illnesses, and marriages. Then, upon the death of the beekeeper, a close family member should approach the hive, knock three times with the key to the house, and whisper the news to the bees. The bees, it is said, need to be assured that someone will take care of them after their keeper has died; otherwise, they will abscond or not produce honey. Two nineteenth-century New England poets, John Greenleaf Whittier and Eugene Field, wrote poems entitled “Telling the Bees.”

HONEY IN LOVE

• The term honeymoon originated with the Norse practice of consuming large quantities of mead during the first month of a marriage. This practice was believed to ensure fertility during the lunar cycle.

• In early Greece and Rome honey symbolized fertility, love, and beauty. Greek mythology says that Cupid dipped his arrows in honey to fill a lover’s heart with sweetness.

• In Greece it is customary for a bride to dip her finger into honey and make the sign of the cross before entering her new home. This gesture would bring her a sweet married life and good relationship with her mother-in-law.

MAD HONEY

There is some honey known to be toxic to humans. Popularly known as mad honey or crazy honey, it is most commonly found in the northern hemisphere and produced from the spring flowers of rhododendrons, mountain laurels, oleander, and azaleas. The beautiful and fragrant yellow jessamine that turns the Southern swamps to gold in the springtime also has the reputation of yielding poisonous honey. The nectar of these plants may contain grayanotoxin, a compound that is both psychoactive and poisonous to humans, but harmless to bees. However, during the time when azaleas and rhododendrons bloom, other flowers more appealing to the honeybees are usually available. Also, the shape of the azalea flower makes access to nectar difficult