Ham Baked in Honey Pastry

History

This recipe survives in the collection known as Apicius (De re coquinaria), the anonymous Late-Antique compilation of Roman cookery that carries the name of the first-century gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius rather than being his authored work. It sits among the dishes for quadrupeds, in the short chapter on perna — a word Romans used for the pork leg or shoulder, whether fresh or cured. The method is elaborate: boil the ham with a quantity of caricae (dried figs) and three bay leaves, strip off the skin, score the surface in a checkerboard (tessellatim), work honey into the cuts, then sheathe the whole joint in an oil-and-flour pastry and bake it, the crust standing in for the discarded rind. The sweetness played against the salt was deliberate — honey and fig set off the cured meat in the sweet-savoury manner typical of Roman cooking. Ham itself was long established: Cato's De agri cultura (c. 160 BCE) already details salting pork legs in barrels and smoking them, a craft centred in northern Italy that some trace back toward the Bronze Age. Cured pork was a favoured Saturnalia gift, the festive setting modern cooks give the dish.

Ingredients

• ham (perna)
• dried figs (caricae)
• bay leaves
• honey
• flour
• oil

Instructions

1. Boil the ham with plenty of dried figs and three bay leaves.
2. Strip off the skin, score the surface in a lattice, and fill the cuts with honey.
3. Knead flour with oil into a dough and wrap the ham to form a crust.
4. Bake; when the pastry is cooked, take from the oven and serve as is.