Conditum Paradoxum
(Surprise Wine)

Apicius, Anonymous, fifth century CE

1 (750 ml) bottle of wine

1 cup honey

1 date

1 teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

2 bay leaves

Pinch of saffron threads

Bring 75 ml (about ⅓ cup) of wine and the honey to a boil in a saucepan, stirring often until the honey has emulsified.

Reduce the heat so that the mixture simmers and stir in the remaining honey and the rest of the ingredients. Cover the pan and simmer for 10 minutes.

Strain the mixture into a pitcher through a fine-mesh sieve lined with a coffee filter.

Add the remaining wine to the strained mixture and stir to combine. Serve chilled.

This excellent spiced wine.

Apicius is a book of cookery of all kinds, remarkable for its age. The author is anonymous, though that hasn’t stopped people from guessing who it might have been. It’s possible that some form of the book was written in the first century, though the surviving version seems to date from the fifth century.

This wine would be perfect for a celebration, such as Saturnalia (the big Roman holiday in December). Red or white wine will work for this recipe, though white might be preferable, since it is best chilled, and white was the most common wine drunk in Roman times.