Cato's Grape Bread (Mustaceus)
Submitted by lnouel
An ancient Roman bread recipe from Cato the Elder: grape juice, feta, lard, cumin, and anise baked on bay leaves. A fascinating taste of history you can bake at home.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
25 minCOOK
35 minREADY
5 hrsThis bread is over 2,000 years old. Cato the Elder wrote down the recipe in his agricultural manual “De Agri Cultura” around 160 BC, and it’s still worth baking today.
Grape juice replaces the water you’d normally find in bread dough, giving the crumb a subtle sweetness and a faint purple hue. Mashed feta cheese adds salt and tang, lard keeps things rich, and ground cumin and anise deliver a warm, aromatic spice profile that feels both ancient and surprisingly modern.
Bay leaves go on the bottom of each small rectangular loaf before baking. They’re not just decoration; they perfume the bread from below as it rises in the oven.
The result is dense, fragrant, and unlike anything in your usual bread rotation.
Kitchen Tips
- The dough will be sticky at first. Resist adding too much extra flour; a slightly tacky dough gives you a moister, chewier bread.
- The 3-hour room temperature rise is essential. Don’t rush it. This slow fermentation develops the flavor.
- For the truly adventurous: skip the yeast entirely and bake at a lower temperature for 2 hours. You’ll get a dense, chewy flatbread closer to what Cato himself would have eaten.
Ingredients
Directions
1) Place the flour, lard, mashed cheese, ground cumin and anise, and yeast in a large mixing bowl.
Blend well.
Add the grape juice and mix the dough well for 2 to 3 minutes until all the grape juice is absorbed and evenly distributed.
The dough will be damp and sticky, but no internal dry areas should appear by the end of the mixing.
If they do, mix a few minutes more or add a little more grape juice and mix again.
2) Let the dough rest 5 minutes.
Now sprinkle 1 or 2 tablespoon flour over the dough and knead, either in the bowl or on a lightly floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic and only slightly sticky.
Add more flour if needed. Let the dough rest 2 minutes.
3) The dough should now be very smooth and easy to handle.
Knead 30 seconds more, return the dough to the bowl, cover the bowl with a dish towel or large plate, and let rise at room temperature for at least 3 hours.
4) Sprinkle top with flour, punch down, and form the dough into 4 rectangular loaves (4 in. by 2 in. by 2½ in.).
Place two bay leaves on the bottom of each loaf, and lay them, leaf side down, on a greased cookie sheet.
Cover with a towel and let rise for 1 hour, until well risen.
5) Bake in a preheated 400℉ (200℃) oven for 35 minutes, until the loaves are brown on top and make a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.
Serve when cool.
NOTE: To make these breads without leavening, omit the yeast, knead the dough thoroughly, then bake at 350℉ (180℃) for about 2 hours.
They will be chewy and moist, and very foreign to our taste.
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