Roman Roast Pig Stuffed with Honeyed Tracta

Roasted suckling pig stuffed with a mixture of wine, honey, pepper, and tracta (sheets of dried dough)

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City/Region: Rome

Time Period: 1st Century

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Trimalchio, a character in the ancient Roman work the Satyricon, was a former slave who had become fabulously wealthy. He showed off his wealth in the least classy of ways, and was everything that the author Petronius hated in social climbers. Trimalchio threw extravagant feasts, and this suckling pig would fit right in.

First off, you don’t need to get a suckling pig if that isn’t your thing. Use pork loin or chops or whatever you want, but the pig did turn out really, really good. The skin was crispy and the meat was so tender that it fell off the bone. It got a little flavor from the stuffing, but it was mostly a wonderful roasted pork flavor. The stuffing was super peppery, so feel free to cut back if you want. The honey balanced it out, and I liked the sweet and spicy combination. I didn’t like the texture of the stuffing though, which was oddly chewy and not like a modern bread stuffing at all.

“Porcellum Assum Tractomelinum
Roasted Pig Stuffed with Tracta and Honey:
Gut the clean pig through the neck, then dry. Grind one ounce pepper, honey, wine, bring to a simmer. Crumble dried tracta and mix with the ingredients in the pot. Stir with a sprig of fresh laurel, then cook until smooth and thick. Stuff the piglet with the mixture, tie up, set in an oven, arrange and serve. ”

— Apicius De re coquinaria, 1st Century

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Ingredients:

Tracta

• 3 cups (500 g) coarse semolina
• 4 cups (500 g) finely ground durum flour
• Water

Stuffed Pork

• 1 ounce (28 g) black pepper
• 1 cup (235 ml) honey
• 2 cups (475 ml) wine, I used white
• 2 fresh bay leaves
• 1 suckling pig, or pork loin or pork chops
• Olive oil, optional

Instructions:

1. For the tracta: In a bowl, cover the coarse semolina with water and let it sit for 1 hour. It should soak up most of the water. If there’s a lot left over, pour it off.
2. Add the durum flour about a quarter at a time and work it into the soaked semolina with your hands. Add a bit more water if you need to, but this should be a dry dough.
3. Once all the durum has been worked in, turn it out and knead it until you have a nice smooth dough.
4. Lightly flour your work surface with durum. Divide the dough into pieces, mine were about 2-inch balls. Roll them out very thin (think flour tortilla).
5. Lay the pieces out and let them dry for about a day. You can also put them in a very low oven, but don’t cook them, just dry them.
6. For the pork: Break up the dry tracta into large crumbs.
7. Grind the pepper with a mortar and pestle, then combine it with the honey and wine in a large pot. Set the pot over medium heat and bring it to a simmer.
8. Slowly add the crumbled tracta to the simmering pot. Stir until it comes together into a kind of homogenous clump. Add the bay leaves and cook for 5 minutes.
9. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
10. Stuff the tracta mixture into the pig (or loin or chops) and sew it closed. Set in a large roasting pan and roast for about 15 minutes per pound. You can put a little olive oil on the pig to help the skin brown and have a nice shine.
11. When the pig has reached 170°F (76°C), take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
12. Carve it up and serve it forth.

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