Sunday, 29 September 2013

Liblum - Cato's Sweet Offering

Another quick and easy one – Liblum from De Agricultura by Cato the Elder is a cake used in religious ceremonies as an offering to the Gods. 

Cato's Recipe: Bray 2 pounds of cheese thoroughly in a mortar; when it is thoroughly macerated add 1 pound of wheat flour, or, if you wish the cake to be more dainty, ½ pound of fine flour, and mix thoroughly with the cheese. Add 1 egg, and work the whole well. Pat out a loaf and place on leaves, and bake slowly on a warm hearth under a crock 

Since it's just me eating I'm quartering the quantities given as I don't like too much waste. 






1/2lb feta cheese, cubed then mashed up with a spoon.




I decided to add the egg here, beating the feta into a smooth paste.


Add the flour, I went for white for the dainty offering. 


Coming together.


Kneading it.


I shaped it into two loaves and placed them on fresh bay leaves. Because I'm an arty fart I put a bay leaf on top too. Going from Cato I had no idea as to what shape to make it, it was only later I googled it a bit and saw everybody else was rolling this stuff out like biscuits. Cato says to make a single loaf though, so I don't know, although that's probably a bad translation putting me wrong 




My approximation of a crock is to place the loaves on a pre heated pizza stone and cover it with a pyrex dish, I was tempted to use terracotta pots but I didn't have any clean ones to hand. (excuse my kitchen, we moved into a total hole and haven't had it redone yet) 


Cook for one hour. The kitchen smells amazing. Looking good actually!


I removed the bay leaves and drizzled the cake with hot honey. It tasted amazing, seriously very very good. The outside was infused with bay, had a delicate golden crunch with a cheesy biscuit flavour and the inside was warm, soft but not doughy. The inside of the cake had the slightest tang from the feta, when paired with the sweet honey the combination of sweet and sour is really damn good. I just ate a whole liblum in one sitting for lunch, wonderful. Further proof that Cato the Elder was a seriously awesome dude.


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