Parthian Chicken (Pullum Particum) from recipes of Apicius

It took me a few weeks to build up the courage to make this dish.  I've tried a few simple Roman dishes, namely boiled Farro with olive oil.  I cheated and added salt, garlic powder, and tomatoes ... not authentically Roman, but who cares.  


But back to the reason I have delayed in making this dish:  asafoetida.  Yes, it does smell like it reads -- fetid ass.  The stuff stinks like a dead mouse left in a desk drawer.  It scared me and I am not afraid of much (except spiders).  Asafoetida (Ferula assafoetida) is a spice derived from the root of a fennel-like plant and is also known as Devil's Dung.  That pretty much sums up the smell.


Anyway, I built up the courage and since I have  twelve pounds of chicken thighs (which I despise)  mistakenly purchased because someone (who shall remain nameless) thought they were chicken breasts, I decided to give it a go.


Here is the recipe from Apicius:


"pullum aperies a naui et in quadrato ornas, teres piper ligusticum carei modicum, suffunde liquamen, uino temperas.  conponis in cumana pullum et condituram super pullum facies.  laser uiuum in tepida dissoluis, et in pullum mittis simul et quoques. piper aspersum inferes."


Translated ...


"Draw the chicken from the rear and cut it into quarters.  Pound pepper, lovage, a little caraway, pour on liquamen, flavour with wine.  Arrange the chicken pieces in a ceramic dish, put the sauce over the chicken.  Dissolve fresh laser in warm water and put it straightaway on the chicken and cook it.  Sprinkle with pepper and serve."


Given that Apicius provides no measurements with his recipes, I did an internet search and found the following recipe at www.parthia.com:  

Ingredients:
     4 pieces chicken (breast or leg)
     ground black pepper
     6 fl oz (3/4 Cup/170 ml) red wine
     2 tablespoons (30 ml) garum (liquamen; substitute Vietnamese nuoc mam)
     1/2 teaspoon laser (substitute asafetida powder or 5 drops asafetida tincture)
     2 teaspoons chopped fresh lovage or celery leaf
     2 teaspoons caraway seeds 

Directions:
     Place the chicken in a casserole dish and sprinkle it liberally with pepper. 

     Combine the wine, fish sauce and asafoetida, add the lovage and caraway seeds and pour over the chicken.
     Cover and bake in a pre-heated oven at 375° F (190° C/gas mark 5) for 1 hour. Half-way through the cooking time remove the lid to brown the chicken.
     Serve with a little of the sauce poured over the meat.

As you can imagine, when cooking using recipes from some odd 2,000 years ago, some of the ingredients must be substituted.  This was the case with the laser, garum, and lovage.  For the laser, asafoetida powder was substituted.  Vietnamese fish sauce was substituted for the garum.  I couldn't find a decent substitute for lovage so I substituted the dried fruit of ajwain.  Some sources say that ajwain is the dried fruit of lovage, other sources disagree.  I should have listened to the sources that disagreed.  

Modern Ingredients

When I applied the cooking sauce, the pepper was washed away.  Next time I will pound the pepper into the chicken as Apicius recommended.

Pre cooking

You can usually tell whether or not something will taste good when cooked if it does not smell foul pre-cooking.  Despite the presence of asafoetida and fish sauce the chicken had a pleasant  aroma once all the ingredients were assembled.  During the cooking process a delicious aroma, which was unlike anything I had experienced, began to permeate the house.  The aroma was faintly reminiscent of East Indian cooking, but very different.

Post cooking

Not a pretty dish, but during the cooking process the wine-colored cooking liquid turns a brownish which is more appealing to the eye.  I don't like to eat wine-colored chicken.  The predominant flavor of the cooked chicken is the asafoetida which lends a fried onion flavor to the dish.  The wine adds a subtle flavoring and I don't taste the fish sauce, carroway seed, or black pepper at all.  


Unfortunately, the ajwain fruit has given the dish a slightly bitter flavor.   Ajwain has an extremely strong petrolchemical aroma before it is cooked and is not pleasant at all in the dish.


The other thing I noticed about the dish is that it is not salty at all.  This could be because my fish sauce was too old -- I noticed that salt crystals had precipitated and were visible in the bottom of the bottle.  I ended up adding a pinch of salt to my chicken and ate it with a side of farro and fresh tomato (I know ... un-Roman!).


Despite my complaints about the dish, I recommend it and I will cook it again.  Next time though using fresh fish sauce, fresh lovage, and chicken breasts.