GateWAy Blog

Christmas is just around the corner and everyone is busy with food, food and more food – and the prospect of expanding girths to attend to afterwards. I found this recipe for Stuffed Dormice ( from Apicius – a Roman Cookery Book) in the front of my well thumbed Kenya High School cookery book which was published in 1959 to raise money for the new school chapel.

Ingredients: Several dormice, pork, pepper, pine kernals, asafoetida, (a gum resin with an obnoxious smell)and  liquamen. (Does anyone know what liquamen is/was?)

Method: Stuff dormice with minced pork and the meat of whole dormice (minced), pounded with pepper, pine kernels, asafoetida and liquamen.  Sew up the dormice, place on a tile and put in the oven, presumably with a bit of fat. Very tasty!

Does anyone have any recipes to rival this one for sheer revulsion and age?