Isicia omentata are small Roman forcemeat patties wrapped in caul fat and gently roasted in reduced grape must — the dish modern writers like to call the Roman hamburger. Apicius gives it in a few lines: chopped meat pounded with the crumb of fine wheat bread soaked in wine; pepper, liquamen (fish sauce) and, if you like, a seeded myrtle berry pounded together; small patties formed with pine nuts and peppercorns pressed inside; each wrapped in caul and roasted gently with caroenum.
The diagnostic detail is the caul, the lacy fat membrane from around a pig’s stomach. It holds a loose, bread-softened forcemeat together without a casing, bastes it as it melts, and leaves a crisp net on the outside — the same trick as a French crépinette or a faggot. That makes isicia omentata a sausage without a skin, which is why it belongs in a sausage collection at all.
Like all of Apicius, the original has no quantities and does not name the animal. This page gives the Latin, a translation and a modern working version with weights, cooked to a safe temperature. I have not made this one yet; the formula is this recipe’s own reading of the Latin, and it is untested.
Ingredients
FORCEMEAT
- 1 kg (2 lb 3 oz) pork shoulder, or half pork and half beef chuck, chilled
- 100 g (3½ oz) crustless white bread (the Roman siligo was fine white wheat)
- 120 ml (½ cup) dry white wine, for soaking
- 30 ml (2 Tbsp) fish sauce
- 6 g (1 tsp) fine salt — about 1.2% total salt with the fish sauce
- 3 g (1½ tsp) freshly ground black pepper
- 3–4 dried myrtle berries, seeds removed, crushed — optional (or 2 juniper berries as a stand-in)
FILLING FOR EACH PATTY
- 40 g (¼ cup) pine nuts
- 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
WRAP AND SAUCE
- 250 g (9 oz) pork caul fat, soaked in cool salted water and rinsed
- 250 ml (1 cup) red grape juice (unsweetened) or must, reduced by one third to about 165 ml — caroenum
- 150 ml sweet red wine such as a passito or ruby port, in place of the caroenum
Directions
Key ingredients
- In the collection: caul fat and Fish Sauce. Caul is sold frozen by many butchers; ask for ‘lace fat’ or crépine.
- The Latin (Apicius II.2.7): “Isicia omentata: pulpam concisam teres cum medulla siliginei in vino infusi. piper, liquamen, si velis, et bacam myrtam extenteratam simul conteres. pusilla isicia formabis, intus nucleis et pipere positis. involuta omento subassabis cum caroeno.”
- Translation: “Caul-wrapped patties: pound chopped meat with the crumb of fine wheat bread soaked in wine. Pound together pepper, liquamen and, if you wish, a myrtle berry with the seeds removed. Form small patties, with pine nuts and pepper placed inside. Wrapped in caul, roast them gently with caroenum.”
- Make the caroenum: simmer the grape juice uncovered until reduced by a third. Roman writers on farming describe caroenum as must boiled down; it is sweet and slightly syrupy.
- Soak the bread: in the wine until soft, then squeeze lightly and mash.
- Chop and pound: grind the meat through 6 mm, or chop by hand and pound briefly in a mortar as the Latin says. Mix in the bread, fish sauce, salt, pepper and myrtle until sticky and uniform. Fry a teaspoon and taste: savoury, peppery, a little sweet from the wine.
- Form small: ‘pusilla’ — small. Wet hands, about 70 g each. Press a few pine nuts and two or three peppercorns into the middle of each and close the meat over them.
- Wrap: spread the caul flat, cut squares big enough to go once round each patty with a small overlap, and wrap. The caul holds the soft forcemeat together while it sets.
- Roast gently: in a shallow dish at 180 °C (350 °F), 15 minutes; pour the caroenum around them, baste, and roast 8–10 minutes more until the caul is crisp and browned and the centre reads 71 °C (160 °F). ‘Subassabis’ means roast gently, not hard — high heat splits the caul before the inside is done.
- Serve: hot, with the reduced juices spooned over, and bread.
- Sibling: Lucanica (Apicius) is the cased, smoked Roman sausage from the same book.
Notes
Where this recipe came from — and what it isn’t. The text is Apicius, De re coquinaria, book II (IntraText numbering II.2.7; other editions number it II.1.7 or recipe 47). Every weight, the meat choice and the oven temperature are this recipe’s own. Untested.
What the text says, and what it doesn’t. (1) ‘Pulpa’ — flesh; no animal is named. Pork or a pork-beef mix is a modern choice. (2) The bread is ‘siligo’, fine white wheat, crumb only (‘medulla’), soaked in wine. (3) ‘Si velis’ — if you wish — is placed by editors so that it may govern the liquamen or the myrtle; most translators attach it to the myrtle berry, as here. (4) No salt except the liquamen. (5) The pine nuts and peppercorns go inside, not mixed through. (6) ‘Pusilla’ — small. (7) ‘Subassabis’ — roast gently, ‘cum caroeno’, with reduced must.
Where it came from. Isicia (from insicia) is the Roman family of forcemeats: Varro, De Lingua Latina 5.110, derives the word ‘ab eo quod insecta caro’ — from meat that has been cut up. Apicius gives isicia of shellfish, squid, chicken, peacock (ranked first in quality), pheasant and rabbit, some poached, some fried. The entry just before this one, ‘omentata’, is a liver preparation: roasted pig’s liver pounded with pepper, rue and liquamen, wrapped in caul with a bay leaf, hung in smoke as long as you like, and roasted again to eat. The Romans were smoking caul-wrapped forcemeats too.
The name. ‘Omentum’ is the Latin for caul — the word survives in English anatomy. ‘The Roman hamburger’ is a modern nickname, not a Roman idea; the dish is closer to a crépinette or a British faggot.
Variations. Grilled over coals instead of roasted. A sweeter sauce of caroenum with a little honey and pepper. Lamb, which suits the myrtle.
Sourcing and gear. Caul fat from a whole-animal butcher, usually frozen; it tears when cold and stretches when cool-room temperature. Dried myrtle berries from Sardinian or herbal suppliers (myrtle is the flavour of Sardinian mirto liqueur). Unsweetened red grape juice for caroenum.
Still open. The exact reduction for caroenum varies between Roman authors (by a third is the common figure); the version read here was not checked against Columella or Palladius directly.
The photo. The photograph shows a modern recreation of isicia omentata from Tastes from the Road, not this exact recipe.
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