Wash, cut and stone apricots. Put them with a little cold water in a pan. Ground pepper and dried mint, add Liquamen (a salty fish sauce which can be replaced by salt), honey, Passum (sweet grape juice), wine and vinegar. Pour into the pan with a little oil. Cook approximately 20 minutes on small to moderate heat. After it boils add a little cornstarch to thicken the sauce, sprinkle with pepper and serve.

Apricot Starter Recipe
The above Ancient Roman recipe for Apricot Starter is written in totally different way to today's recipe books! Food and ingredient measurements were extremely basic - quantities were not often specified in Roman food recipes. Temperature control was difficult and therefore not specified! Cooking times were vague - and left to the cook to decide!

Apricot Starter Recipe
The content of this Apricot Starter Recipe is taken from a collection of Ancient Roman Food Recipes. The cookery book, containing these old Roman recipes, is called Apicius, the overall title being 'De re coquinaria' which means "On the Subject of Cooking".