Conditum Paradoxum: Ancient Roman Spiced Wine with Honey, Laurel, and Roasted Date Stones
A recipe originally from
APICIUS - DE RE COQUINARIA
400-500 A.D.
Apicius, or De re coquinaria, is a collection of Roman recipes thought to have been compiled in the fifth century AD. The author, or authors, remain a mystery. Some believe the book to be named after Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman gourmet who lived sometime in the 1st century AD during the reign of Tiberius and that it consists of recipes from a number of different Roman cooks — a compilation.
The text contains ten books, each dedicated to a different culinary subject such as The Sea, The Fisherman, The Meat Mincer, and The Gardener. In the first book Epimeles, or The Careful Housekeeper, among the first recipes you’ll find is Conditum Paradoxum. Translated to "surprise spiced wine," it was one of ancient Rome's most popular wine drinks, transformed with the aromas and flavors of mastic, honey, saffron, pepper, and dates. This spiced, woodsy, and sweet drink was kept on hand for guests and travelers. Explore the original recipe below (Joseph Dommers Vehling translation) along with a modern, scaled-down version you can make at home.
Original Conditum Paradoxum
Directions
Into a copper bowl put six sextarii i of honey and two sextarii of wine. [1]
Heat on a slow fire, constantly stirring the mixture with a whip.
At the boiling point add a dash of cold wine, retire from stove and skim.
Repeat this twice or three times.
Let it rest till the next day, and skim again.
Then add four ounces of crushed pepper [2], three scruples of mastich, a drachm each of nard or laurel leaves and saffron, five drachms of roasted date stones crushed and previously soaked in wine to soften them.
When this is properly done add eighteen sextarii of light wine.
To clarify it perfectly, add crushed charcoal [3] twice or as often as necessary which will draw the residue together and carefully strain or filter through the charcoal.
Notes
Sextarii. Tor. partes XV; G.-V. pondo XV; List. partes XV ... pondo lib.... qui continent sextarios sex. One sextarius (a “sixth”) equals about 1½ pint English.
Pepper. Piperis uncias IV—ordinarily our black or white pepper grains, but in connection with honey, sweets, and so forth, the term “pepper” may just as well stand for our allspice, or even for any spicing in general.
Charcoal. Still a favorite filterer for liquors.
Modernized Conditum Paradoxum
Ingredients
1 bottle of white wine
2 tablespoons of honey
6 date pits
3 bay leaves
About 20 allspice berries
1 teaspoon mastic
1 pinch of saffron
1 binchotan charcoal stick (optional)
Directions
Gently toast the date pits in a medium-high saute pan for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a small saucepan, combine the honey and half the bottle of wine, bring to a boil.
When foam starts to accumulate, remove the pot from the heat and skim. Repeat three times.
Remove the wine from the heat and set aside.
With a mortar and pestle, lightly crush the pepper and mastic resin.
In a pitcher combine the honeyed-wine, bay leaves, date pits, saffron, the crushed mastic and pepper, and the remaining wine.
Refrigerate for 2-3 days.
Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the wine into a clean pitcher or bottle. Place the wine in the refrigerator to chill and serve.
Add a stick of binchotan charcoal, if you wish to further clarify the wine, and let sit in the fridge for another 1-2 days before serving.