Roman recipes:
Dulcia domestica et melcae
(Dates Alexandrine)
By Apicius VII, XI, 1
The recipe can be used as an dessert at mealtimes or a snack. As simple and unimpressive as it sounds, it isn't. This is a really good dessert and appertizer. The combination of the swee tand the salty is really great and if left rovernight in the refrigerator, the taste is enhanced, as the salt spreads out on the honey. Yum! 
Original recipe: Dulcia domestica: palmulas uel dactylos excepto semine, nuce uel nucleis uel pipere trito infercies. sale foris contingis, frigis in melle cocto, et inferes.
Translation: Take palms or dates with the stones removed, and stuff them with nuts or nut kernels and ground peper. Salt the dates on top and bottom and fry in cooked honey and serve.
[[In the preparation of sweets, Apicius used the word "pepper" loosely. In the 1. Century AD, cinnamon and nutmeg were thought by the Romans to have common points of origin with pepper. They were, in those days, prohibitively expensive.]]
Ingredients
- 20 whole dates
- 20 blanched almonds
- Cinnamon
- Butter
- Salt
- Liquid Honey
Preparation
- Remove pits from dates.
- Roll almonds in cinnamon and stuff one in each date.
- Place dates on a greased pan.
- Sprinkle salt over the dates, then coat each one with honey.
- Glaze in a very hot oven (450°) for 10 minutes, then serve.
