"This is the kitchen"

 

    "A wave of noise broke over John, voices shouting, pots banging, pans clanging, knives and cleavers thudding on blocks. But he hardly heard the din. A great flood of aromas swamped the noise, thick as soup and foaming with flavours: powdery sugars and crystallised fruit, dank slabs of beef and boiling cabbage, sweating onions and steaming beets. Fronts of fresh-baked bread rolled forward then sweeter cakes. Behind the whiffs of roasting capons and braising bacon came the great smoke-blackened hams which hung in the hearth. Fish was poaching somewhere in a savoury liquor at once sweet and tart, its aromas braided in twirling spirals ... The silphium, thought John. A moment later it was lost in the tangle of scents that rose from the other pots, pans and great steaming urns. The rich stew of smells and tastes reaching into his memory to haul up dishes and platters. For a moment he was back in the wood. His mother's voice was reciting the dishes and the spiced wine was settling like a balm in his stomach, banishing his cold and hunger, even his anger. He closed his eyes and breathed in the scents, drawing them deeper and deeper ..."

From John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk.

There's another extract here.

Comments

[Dark Puss]

I'm fascinated to read that silphium or silphion is thought to have been used as an oral contraceptive in ancient times. See for example American Scientist 80 (1992) 226 and J.Riddle Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance Cambridge, 1992. Theophrastus records it as a plant of considerable economic value such that around Cyrene the annual harvest was limited to preserve the crop for the next year; see Environmental Review 9 (1985) 296 and the revenue and likely sources for the tax that Cyrene paid to Rome is covered especially in S I Oost Classical Philology 58 (1963)11-25

[Cornflower]

Thankyou, DP.
I'm keen to see the significance of the plant (for it clearly has some) to the greater plot as the book progresses.

[Dark Puss]

Oh, I hope my academic ramblings may prove useful then. P x