Cena Romana: Must

The Romans liked their wine. They liked their wine so much that it was a common ingredient in their food. Not only wine, but wine by-products were called into play.

Must is what’s left over after you press the grapes. It’s a combination of skins, seeds, stems and juice. Waste not, want not, the Romans would boil this stuff down (filter it, I hope) then use it in their recipes to add a little acid and flavor.

In your part of the world they might be picking apples, pondering pumpkins or raking leaves but where I live it’s “Crush Season.” Grapes are being harvested and squished by the billions. The perfect time to score some must!

A quick email to a local vineyard has resulted in a must source. “Hoot”, my contact at the winery, asked me how many tons I would like. Um…right. He was kidding but I don’t think he’d have wept if I’d said, “Oh, one or two tons would do.”

So next week I’ll be swinging by Kastania and picking up a generous allotment of what would otherwise be wine trash or compost. Yeah, that sounds tasty. Do I know how to sell the product, or what?