Posca

Posca, the Roman vinegar-based wonder-drink, is a bit of a mystery, because as much as people keep mentioning it, it is oddly absent from ancient literature.  Posca appears in books and articles, being sipped by soldiers and passed around by pals, yet we don't even have a recipe for it!

Basically, we know that soldiers were given a vinegar ration (Vegetius, Concerning Military Matters, 3.3), and that this vinegar could be mixed with water and drunk. (Celsus, On Medicine, 2.27)   Hadrian drank posca to 'be one of the soldiers' (Historia Augusta: Hadrian, 10.2), and from this we can infer that it wasn't a drink usually served to the rich.  On the contrary, this was a drink sold on the streets! (Suetonius, Vitellius, 12.1)  If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense - vinegar is what is left when wine production goes 'wrong', or if wine is left exposed for too long.  Knowing how much wine the Romans got through, it stands to reason that there was a lot of vinegar knocking about - so, why not put it to use?

Clearly posca was good enough to keep a Roman army marching - in his soldiering days, Cato the Elder drank posca to fend off raging thirst. (Plutarch, Cato the Elder, 1.10).  The sharpness of the vinegar masked the taste of questionable water, the acidity would have helped to kill off certain bacteria, and, according to a recent study, vinegar makes you feel more full after eating bread.  We shouldn't rush to say that the Romans knew all of this, but it is important nonetheless.  What wasn't so important to the Romans was writing the recipe down, which leaves us in a bit of a pickle.

I've encountered several recipes online, some simplistic, and others quite complex.  They're all feasible with regards to ingredients, so we're going to try them all and see how they taste.  If anybody can find a reliable source for any of these recipes, please do get in touch!  Before starting, make sure you use brewed vinegar (red-wine vinegar preferably), rather than distilled.

1) Ever-so-simple Soldier's Posca

All the sources say is that soldiers drank a mixture of vinegar and water, so that's going to be our starting point.  Nothing fancy here.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
• 250ml Water

Methods

• Mix and drink!

Notes

• If you want to replicate that 'stuck-in-the-freezing-cold-north-of-England' feeling, or fancy something a bit more refreshing, use chilled water.

2)  Sharp-but-sweet Posca

I've seen several websites suggesting that honey was added to posca (without providing sources mind you).  It's a feasible suggestion, so let's pretend we're an entrepreneuring posca salesman looking to one-up the competition, and give it a go.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
• 250ml Water
• 1 tbsp Honey

Methods

• If using set honey, melt it in the microwave for 20 seconds first.
• Add the honey to the water, give it a stir, then add the vinegar.

3)  Posh Posca

Everybody loved the honey idea, so now they're all doing it.  We have to go one further and make our posca even tastier!  I've seen claims, again unsourced, that crushed coriander seed was a favourite addition to posca.  It's certainly feasible, although I can't imagine it's what the soldiers and common people got to drink, hence why we're calling it posh posca.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
• 250ml Water
• 1 tbsp Honey
• 1/2 tsp Coriander Seed

Methods

• If using set honey, melt it in the microwave for 20 seconds first.
• Add the honey to the water, give it a stir, then add the vinegar.
• Crush coriander seeds, add them to the drink, and stir it about for a bit.  After a few minutes, strain the seeds out, and serve the drink.

Results

Vinegar and water sounds quite horrific if we're being honest, but my oh my is it good!  First up was Soldier's Posca, undoubtedly the most 'realistic' version of the drink.  No matter what you add to it, posca is always going to smell strongly of vinegar - this makes taking that first sip difficult.  Struggle through the smell and you have a very refreshing drink with a bit of a tangy taste.  The closest comparison I can think of is lemon water, or lime cordial.  Secondly was posca with a touch of honey.  This was, in my opinion, the tastiest version of the drink; the sweetness of the honey and the acidity of the vinegar work well together, making the mixture much more drinkable.  Finally there was 'Posh Posca' with its added coriander seeds.  This tasted much the same as the second drink, with the coriander seed emphasising the citrusy taste.  With the added expense and hassle however, you have to ask if it's worth it.

Without a written recipe, we can never truly know what went into posca, meaning that all of the above is just guess work.  Given what we do know, I think it's safe to say that posca resembled at least the first of these recipes, although all are equally plausible.  All I can do now is urge you to try them, and see what you think.

Rome sweet Rome!

When I set off for South East Asia, the ancient Romans were the last thing on my mind, but every once in a while, thousands of miles from the Mediterranean, I would see something which taught me a little bit more about their world.  I saw 'ruler cult' in Vietnam as people lined for hours to see their 'Uncle Ho', witnessed religious rituals in Laos and Northern Thailand which wouldn't have been out of place in ancient Rome, and even got to stand side by side with the elephants as Hannibal once did.  

More relevant to Pass the Garum, I also learned a lot about food and cooking.  Asians, like the Romans, are a lot less sheltered than most of us when it comes to preparing and eating food.  If you want to buy ingredients you visit the market, and very quickly get used to the sights and sounds of chickens being killed and cows having no heads - and heaven forbid if you don't use every last little bit of the animal!  Continuing on, stalls were stacked high with countless herbs and spices, and people peddled fruit and vegetables which I never knew existed!  This raises an important question - if we can't even cook an authentic Thai green curry because we don't have the correct ingredients, how can we ever hope to recreate Roman recipes?

One ingredient which we can be a bit more certain about is that Roman staple, liquamen, made now in much the same manner as it was all those centuries ago.  I was lucky enough (depending on who you talk to that is) to visit a Vietnamese fish sauce factory.  Fish were caught in the village, fermented in large vats for around a year, and the liquid was drawn off.  Tasty.  Here are several pictures of the fish-sauce-making-process:

Perhaps the biggest insight I gained into Asian food was how social it was - SE Asians typically take to the streets in the evening to hunt out their favourite foods, with tables and chairs filling every bit of available space.  Meals, with all of their added revelry, can last long into the night, with conversation flowing just as fast as the food.  Ancient Rome was much the same in many respects; the vast majority of people simply did not have the space or facilities to cook elaborate meals, so they headed out in search of food - we can only imagine what the atmosphere might have been like!

With all this added insight and experience, we're now ready to get back to good old Roman cooking - well, almost.  I'm in the process of moving house, and will have to reacquire a few important ingredients first, but once I do we'll have some great recipes ready to get us started again.  Keep your eyes peeled!