The mystery of silphium, a lost Roman herb (2017)

In fact, Roman cuisine wasn’t at all like Italian food. It was all about contrasting sweet with salty and sour foods (they liked to eat fishgut sauce, garum, with melon). Instead Rowan compares it to modern Chinese food. “If it was edible, they were eating it – nothing was off the table,” she says.

If you’d like to see for yourself, why not try this Roman recipe for braised flamingo and parrot, substituting asafoetida for laser.

Scald the flamingo, wash and dress it, put it in a pot, add water, salt, dill, and a little vinegar, to be parboiled. Finish cooking with a bunch of leeks and coriander, and add some reduced must [condensed grape mush] to give it color. In the mortar crush pepper, cumin, coriander, laser root, mint, rue, moisten with vinegar, add dates, and the fond [drippings] of the braised bird, thicken, strain, cover the bird with the sauce and serve. Parrot is prepared in the same manner. Apicus 6.231

We may never learn the true identity of silphium, but we can learn from its decline. The last survey of Cyrene showed that many species are rapidly disappearing, as land is given over to deserts and once again, it’s overgrazed. The Roman Empire may be long gone – but it seems we’re repeating the same mistakes.

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