The Classical Cookbook

Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger · The Classical Cookbook

This remarkable cake comes from Cato’s farming book. The name is Greek (and it had nothing to do with the modern meaning of placenta, invented by a seventeenth-century scientist). In Greek the word could often mean a flat cake with a pastry base; goat’s milk cheese and honey were among typical ingredients. A Greek comedy included a brisk exchange between a wordy gourmet and a down-to-earth eater: The streams of the tawny bee, mixed with the clotted river of bleating she-goats, placed upon a flat receptacle of the virgin daughter of Zeus, delighting in ten thousand delicate veils - or shall simply say cake for cake. Roman placenta, like libum, was not only a delicacy for humans but also a sacrificial cake offered on temple altars. The Roman poet Horace tells of a temple slave who ran away because he was sick of honeyed placenta and wanted some good plain bread. Cato’s Latin placenta is a single, very specific and very complicated recipe. It is likely that Cato was confused by the reci