Pultes (Meat Pottage) is a traditional Ancient Roman recipe for pottage made from a spelt grain base flavoured with brains and minced meat that's flavoured with pepper, lovage and fennel seeds, liquamen and wine. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ancient Roman version of Meat Pottage (Pultes).
Pultes: alicam purgatam infundis, coques. cum ferbuerit, oleum mittis. cum spissaverit, adicies cerebella duo cocta et selibram pulpae quasi ad isicia liatae, cum cerebellis teres et in caccabum mittes. teres piper, ligusticum, feniculi semen, suffundis liquamen et meri modicum, et mittis in caccabum supra cerebella et pulpam. ubi satis ferbuerit, cum iure misces. ex hoc paulatim alicam condies, et lias ut quasi sucus videatur..
Translation
Meat Pottage: Pour hulled spelt into a saucepan, [add water and] bring to a boil. When boiling, add olive oil. As soon as the mixture thickens take two brains, previously cooked, and 225g of meat minced as for forcemeat, pound with the brains and place in the saucepan. Pound pepper, lovage and fennel seed [in a mortar]. Add liquamen and a little unmixed wine, and pour over the brains and meat. Subsequently, stir the mixture into the pottage little by little, to make the spelt savoury. Stir carefully, until the mixture resembles a thick paste.
Drain the spelt grains and bring them to the boil in a pan of water (just enough to cover the grains by 3cm [1 in]).
Simmer until soft (about 20 minutes), add the olive oil and continue to cook until thickened to a creamy consistency.
Mash the brains (or corned beef) and minced (ground) meat in a bowl, then transfer to a saucepan.
Mix together the fish sauce, wine, pepper, lovage and fennel seeds then add this to the meat mixture.
Bring everything to a gentle boil then dually add this mixture to the cooked grains. Stir until smooth and cook gently until the pottage has the consistency of a thick soup. Serve hot.