---
title: Author Crystal King's Blog - Tasting Life Twice | Ancient Roman Food
description: Ancient Roman Food | Author Crystal King muses on life, history, writing and food.
---

# Tasting Life Twice

Author Crystal King muses on life, history, writing and food.

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## Posts about Ancient Roman Food:

![Sauce for mushrooms - An ancient Roman Recipe from Apicius](https://blog.crystalking.com/hubfs/mushrooms%20apicius.png)

[Ancient Roman Food](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/ancient-roman-food) [Recipe](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/recipe) [ancient recipes](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/ancient-recipes) [Apicius](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/apicius)

This is one of the very first recipes that I made when I first started diving into the cookbook Apicius as part of my research for [FEAST OF SORROW](https://geni.us/FeastOfSorrow). It calls for caroneum which is a bit tricky to know exactly what it might have tasted like but it was a reduced grape syrup of some sort. I recommend that you substitute sapa (sometimes called saba) or vincotto, which are essentially [just different names](https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/22/dining/the-soul-of-the-grape-drop-by-drop.html) for grape must, and either would be delicious in this dish. They are easily acquired at specialty food shops or Amazon.com.

![Tasting The Past with Historian Sally Grainger](https://blog.crystalking.com/hubfs/Ancient%20Rome/saturnalia-teatro-romano.jpg)

[Ancient Roman Food](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/ancient-roman-food) [YouTube](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/youtube)

One of my most prized possessions is a [book of ancient Roman recipes with the name Apicius](https://geni.us/jp1L) emblazoned across the cover. My copy is well over a decade old and a bit dog-eared, full of little post-it notes. I've read it so many times I know exactly where to find specific recipes. 

![Crystal King's July Ponderings, Tastings, Travels, Readings and General Updates](https://blog.crystalking.com/hubfs/Scappibanquet.jpg)

[Ancient Roman Food](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/ancient-roman-food) [Books](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/books) [ancient rome](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/ancient-rome) [italy](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/italy) [recipes](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/recipes)

It's the sticky part of July, nearly the dog days of summer. My mind has been jam-packed with planning for both the fall, and the winter launch of my next novel, THE CHEF'S SECRET. In the midst of that, I've had my mind in a swirl with a variety of other projects, books and ideas--many of which I think might be of interest to my readers and potential readers, so let's unpack it all:

![How Testing (and Tasting!) Ancient Roman Recipes Helped Me Write My Novel](http://www.thedebutanteball.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/apicius.jpg)

[Writing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/writing) [Ancient Roman Food](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/ancient-roman-food) [Recipe](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/recipe)

My novel, FEAST OF SORROW, is full of food. Everything about the story pivots around meals, ingredients and what food represents. One of the main characters is a Roman gourmand named Apicius, whose name is on the world's oldest known cookbook.

![Tasting the Past: An Ancient Roman Recipe for Parthian Chicken](https://blog.crystalking.com/hubfs/chicken.jpg)

[Ancient Roman Food](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/ancient-roman-food) [Recipe](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/recipe)

When researching my book, FEAST OF SORROW, one of the fun bits was trying out various recipes and experiencing the flavors of ancient Roman food. The book is about [Apicius](https://crystal-king-coc5.squarespace.com/feast2), a first century Roman whose name appears as the title of the oldest known cookbook.

One of the recipes in Apicius is for [Parthian](http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=33.0936111111,44.5808333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=33.0936111111,44.5808333333%20(Parthian%20Empire)&t=h) chicken. [Parthia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthia) was part of [ancient Persia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iran), now in a region of north-eastern Iran. Much to my delight, it turns out that the Parthians really knew how to make chicken. Hands down this is one of the best chicken dishes I've ever had. It's juicy and tender with a perfectly crispy crust. 

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