Posca?!

Believe it or not...  I've had a couple requests for the posca recipe from Latin 1.

Yes.

Really.

The recipie I originally used I found on the Wikipedia entry for posca, here; that recipe (in turn) was taken from Cathy Kaufman's book Cooking in Ancient Civilizations.  Kaufman calls for 1.5 cups of vinegar, .5 cup of honey, 1 tablespoon crushed coriander and 4 cups of water.  My assumption has always been that one should use either red or white wine vinegar because most modern vinegars are made from grain (corn, wheat, etc).

This year, I left out the coriander and simplified the recipe down to 12 oz red-wine vinegar, 4 oz (roughly) honey and water.  In order to make it in the classroom, I asked students to fill a 64 oz pitcher with ice and poured in the red-wine vinegar.  To dissolve the honey, I poured the honey into a mug and added an equal measure of hot water; stir and add to the pitcher.

Since posca was drunk at room temperature, I poured in the hot water to melt the ice in the pitcher.  Is it exact?  No.  Does it work as an in-class activity.  Oh yes.