Lupercalia Goat with Date Sauce

Pot roast style goat with date sauce

---

City/Region: Rome

Time Period: 1st Century

---

Part of the Lupercalian celebration was to sacrifice male goats, and they didn’t go to waste. The skins would be made into strips with the hair still on them, and young men would “run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs” (Plutarch, Caesar 61.2). The women of the city would go out and meet the youths to be slapped with the goatskins, believing that the pregnant would then have an easy delivery and the barren would become pregnant.

The meat from the sacrificial goats would then become part of a feast. The recipe for roast goat that we’re using here is from Apicius, and it actually has amounts for each ingredient, something that isn’t common for recipes this old. I wouldn’t change a thing. There’s a slight sweetness from the goat meat (if you haven’t tried goat, I highly recommend it), and the other flavors combine into that kind of foreign ancient Roman flavor profile thanks to the garum and asafoetida. It’s delicious and so tender.

“Another kid or lamb deboned:
One pint milk
4 ounces honey
1 ounce pepper
A little salt
A little silphium
With the broth:
A little cup of oil
A little cup of garum
A little cup of vinegar
8 ground dates
A half pint of good wine
A little starch.”

— De re coquinaria by Apicius, 1st Century

---

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 lbs (1 kg) goat meat, or lamb
• 2 cups (475 ml) goat milk, or other milk
• 1/3 cup (115 g) honey
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon asafoetida*
• Root vegetables like beets or carrots, optional
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) garum*
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) wine vinegar
• 8 pitted dates
• 1 cup (235 ml) wine, whatever you like
• 1 tablespoon starch*

*See notes below.

Instructions:

1. Put the goat into a large zip top bag or a dish. In a bowl, whisk together the milk, honey, pepper, salt, and asafoetida. Pour it over the goat and marinate it for a few hours in the fridge.
2. Cover the dates with some water or wine and let them soak while the meat marinates.
3. Preheat the oven to 320°F (160°C).
4. Once the goat is marinated, set it in an oven safe dish with the marinade. Add the root vegetables around it if you’re using them. Cover the dish with a lid or some foil and cook in the oven for 2 1/2 hours. Remove the lid and continue to roast for another 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted can easily twist.
5. Take the dish out of the oven and let the meat rest while you prepare the sauce.
6. Grind the dates into a pulp. You can use a mortar and pestle, but depending on the dates, you may want to use a blender or food processor. Sometimes they grind up easily, sometimes they don’t. You’re going for a puree consistency here.
7. Take 1 cup of the liquid that the goat roasted in and strain any solids out. Put this in a saucepan and stir in the date puree, olive oil, garum, and vinegar. Slowly heat it to just simmering.
8. Whisk the starch into the wine until it’s fully dissolved, then once the sauce is simmering, pour the starch slurry into the pan and whisk it together. Return it to a simmer and cook until it thickens, about 10 to 15 minutes.
9. Slice the goat after it’s had time to rest. Once the sauce has thickened, pour it over the goat, and serve it forth.

Notes

• Asafoetida, or hing, was Rome’s pungent replacement for their beloved silphium and imparts a wonderful garlicky umami flavor when cooked. Be sure to store it in a sealed container (or two) or your whole pantry will smell sulphurous. You can find it at Indian markets or at the link below.
• Garum was a fermented fish sauce that was used in a lot of ancient Roman cooking. You can buy a modern equivalent or use an Asian fish sauce.
• They would have probably used wheat starch, but it can be a little harder to find, so go ahead and use cornstarch if you’d like.
• Link to asafoetida: https://amzn.to/3R2zRRZ
• Link to modern garum: https://amzn.to/3ulTKKW

---

Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you buy something through them, it does not cost you anything more, but we will get a small commission which helps keep the site up and running. Thanks!

---