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This dish comes, not from a cookbook, but from a letter about healthful
eating, de obseruatione ciborum or On the Observance of Foods. This text was
written by an exiled Roman (Eastern empire) doctor
sometime at the end of the fifth or early in the sixth century.
There are a number of questions that arise, is this a classical source or an
early Medieval source?
The text has a distinct Roman flair but many items of interest relate to
Frankish culture such as notes on butter, bacon, beer and mead.
So does this make our melon salad a late Roman dish or and early French dish? At any rate it
makes a very nice simple dish for potlucks and is especially nice on a hot day.
I am not sure I can really call this a recipe. It is really too simple.
One melon, peeled, seeded, and cut into bite sized pieces, I like a honeydew but
your favorite is fine, too.
Sprinkle with a little vinegar, red wine, balsamic or, if you can get it,
raspberry or another fruit vinegar.
Add in chopped fresh mint or, if the leaves are small, whole. Toss and serve.
If melons are well ripened, their flesh is particularly recommended mixed
with their own seeds, and this is better than if they are eaten on their own.
If, as people do, they are eaten like this with diluted vinegar and a
sprinkling of pennyroyal, they are good for healthy people.
For those who have problem of the kidneys or bladder, diluted vinegar is not
suitable, because vinegar when plain is fairly injurious to the kidneys and
bladder. And it not good for the liver.
From Anthimus; On the Observance of Foods, de observatione ciborum edited and
translated by Mark Grant. Prospect Books 1996,
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Other Cold Salads
Other Roman Recipes
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