Alexandrian Sauce for Roasted Fish

History

This sauce survives in Book X of the collection known as Apicius, the book given over to fish and seafood. It is short, like everything in that book: pepper, dried onion, lovage, cumin, oregano, celery seed and pitted Damascus prunes, loosened with *mulsum* — honeyed wine — vinegar, *liquamen* and *defrutum*, the reduced grape must, and cooked.

It is not the only one of its kind. The Alexandrian label runs across three consecutive sauces for roasted fish, the second and third both headed *Aliter*, "another way," and each built on dried fruit against the fermented fish sauce. The same label turns up outside the fish book too, on gourds cooked *more Alexandrino*, "in the Alexandrian manner."

That repetition is the most interesting thing about the name. A label used once might record a particular dish; a label used four times across two books is doing the work of a style.

Whether it records genuine Alexandrian cooking or borrows the city's allure is unresolved. The account of Egypt's annexation and of Alexandria as the emporium through which eastern spices reached Rome, and the summary of what food writers make of the label, we learned from popular reference and food-writing sources, and we were unable to locate the evidence they rest on.

Ingredients

• pepper
• dried onion
• lovage
• cumin
• oregano
• celery seed
• Damascus plums
• mulsum
• vinegar
• liquamen
• defrutum
• olive oil

Instructions

1. Combine pepper, dried onion, lovage, cumin, oregano, celery seed, pitted Damascus plums, mulsum, vinegar, liquamen, defrutum and oil.
2. Cook.