Homemade Sweets (Stuffed Dates)

History

This recipe opens the section on "homemade sweets" (dulcia domestica et melcae) in the seventh book of the collection known as Apicius — the book of luxury cookery the manuscripts title in Greek as Polyteles, "the Gourmet." That collection is a later anonymous compilation, usually dated to the fourth or fifth century CE, that carries the name of Marcus Gavius Apicius, the first-century gourmet the title is associated with rather than its demonstrable author. Like most entries it is terse and gives no quantities: pit the dates, stuff them with a nut or pine kernels and ground pepper, salt them on the outside, fry them in reduced honey, and serve. The salt set against the honey is the ordinary Roman taste for sweet played against savoury, not a quirk. Every element was a mark of affluent dining. Date palms did not fruit in Italy's climate, so dates were imported; the prized Judean and Jericho fruit was extolled by Pliny, Strabo and Tacitus and exported around the Mediterranean. Pepper was a costly Eastern import — one translator notes Apicius's "Alexandrine" tag meant "expensive or best quality," after the port where Eastern spices arrived. The dish belonged to the dessert course, the secundae mensae, on wealthy tables.

Ingredients

• dates (palmulae / dactyli)
• nuts or pine-kernels
• pepper
• salt
• honey

Instructions

1. Stone the dates and stuff with a nut, pine-kernels, or ground pepper.
2. Roll the outside in salt.
3. Fry in cooked honey and serve.