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Oxyporium Composito (Oxyporium Salad Dressing)

Oxypori[um] Composito (Oxyporium Salad Dressing) is a traditional Ancient Roman recipe for a salad dressing of herbs, raisins, red wine vinegar and honey. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ancient Roman version of: Oxypori[um] Composito.

prep time

10 minutes

cook time

10 minutes

Total Time:

20 minutes

Serves:

4

Rating:

Tags : Sauce RecipesAncient Roman Recipes

Salads were popular accompaniments for Roman main courses. A good basic salad would be a something like a Greek Salad (the Romans loved cucumbers). But remember there were no tomatoes available! Substitute the greens lovage, mint and lettuce for the tomatoes. Simple green salads were also popular and the recipe below is a dressing for one of these.

Original Recipe

Oxypori[um] Composito (from Columella's de Re Rustica)

Piperis albi, si sit, si minus, nigri unciae tres, apii seminis unciae duae, laseris radicis, quod silphion Graeci vocant, sescunciam, casei sextantem; haec contusa et cribrata melli permisceto et in olla nova servato; deinde, cum exegerit usus, quantulumcumque ex eo videbitur, aceto et garo diluito.


Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (4 CE to circa 70CE) was a Roman writer on agriculture, who after a career in the army (as a tribune in Syria c. 35CE) took-up farming. He is best known for his twelve-volume de Re Rustica (On Argiculutre) which has been completely preserved.

Translation

Oxyporium Dressing: One uncia of lovage, one sextans of skinned raisins, one sextans of dried mint, one quadrans of white or black pepper. To avoid any more expense these ingredients can be mixed with honey and stored like this.

Modern Redaction

Ingredients:

30g lovage leaves (substitute young celery leaves if not available)
½ tsp raisins
¼ dried mint
1 tsp ground white pepper
2 tbsp clear honey
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
A pinch of salt and pepper.

Method:

Finely chop the lovage leaves and the raisins. Place these in a small bowl and add the other ingredients. Whisk to mix properly then serve with the green salad.