Professor Butter Beard’s “Orator”
Orator (portrait of Aulus Metellus), from near Lake Trasimeno, early first century BCE, cast bronze, Museo Archeologico, Florence.
“Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It’ll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And they’ll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields….and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
All hail the arrival of the strawberries!!! Just the sound of those words makes my soul smile. Perfect memories that I can hear and smell and taste flow through me like waves of blissful sighs. I can remember walking out of my grandmother’s kitchen, letting the screen door slam (ever so slightly), heading into the dark aromatic outbuildings to find my woven basket and hat and heading into my grandfather’s garden just as the afternoon sun began to wane. I would kneel in between the strawberry rows, letting the hay scratch my knees, searching for the perfectly ripe berries still warm, and try to put at least as many into the basket as those I popped deliciously into my mouth. My grandfather would stand silently at the end of the row, trying not to laugh, while he raised his hand pointing me onward towards the next row.
This first century BCE Etruscan orator also stands, hand raised, with a specific message to convey. In the days before we could privately look into a hand-held tiny box and know all the world’s news in the blink of a minute, the orator would hold court in the city center calling all the citizens together for an eloquent reading of the necessary daily communications and possibly a few other persuasive arguments.
This animated senator, cast in bronze, stands 70 inches in height, and wears a “toga exigua,” consisting of a short-sleeved tunic underneath a close-fitting toga, slung over the left arm and shoulder while leaving the right arm free for theatrical movement. His eyes are hollow because originally, they would have had shell and stone, or glass paste, inserted into the holes to provide an even more lively facial expression. He wears a pair of high-laced boots called “calceus senatorius,” a type of red leather footwear worn by Roman senators and other high-ranking magistrates. But we know that this gentleman thought of himself as an Etruscan because the hem of his toga records his name, Aulus Metellus, in the Etruscan script.
The statue was found in 1566 at the bottom of Lake Trasimeno in north-central Italy, just west of Perugia. Since it was cast in bronze, it would almost certainly have not survived had it not been lost (or hidden) deep within the lake in antiquity. Unfortunately, most bronze statues from antiquity were melted down in medieval times for reuse as coins, cannons, door panels, or other practical purposes of the times. Once recovered from its burial at sea, the statue came into the hands of Cosimo de ’Medici in Florence, who had it placed in his bedroom on the ground floor of the Palazzo Pitti. Aulus Metellus now raises his arm in greeting to those gathered in admiration while visiting the Museo Archeologico in Florence.
My grandmother, also a well-versed orator of her time, would call us back into her kitchen after our evening baths and hand us bowls of those freshly picked strawberries, tossed in a bit of sugar and mint, and swimming in a lake of cream. I’ve updated the cream to some home churned Minted Rose Ice Cream, but the soulful joy is the same.
All hail! The strawberries have arrived!
Minted Rose Ice Cream
Makes about 1 quart
Serve with fresh strawberries over homemade biscuits
Ingredients:
2/3 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup fresh mint leaves, the younger the better
½ cup fresh rose petals
2 ½ cups heavy cream
½ cup buttermilk
Dash of kosher salt
6 large egg yolks
1-2 Tbsp rose water
1 tsp vanilla paste
1) In a food processor, pulse together the granulated sugar, the mint leaves and the rose petals. Remove from the processor and set aside briefly.
2) In a small pan, simmer the cream, the buttermilk, the prepared sugar and a dash of kosher salt until the sugar dissolves. This should take less than five minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let the contents steep for 30 minutes.
3) In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly rewarm the dairy mix until just warm to the touch. Whisking constantly, slowly whisk about 1/3 of the cream mixture into the eggs, warming them gently. Whisk this egg mix back into the warm cream in the pan and gently cook until the mixture reads 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.
4) Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the rose water (start with 1 Tbsp) and vanilla paste. Safely taste the hot cream for your desired flavor. Add more rose water if necessary. Strain into another bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight.
5) The next day, churn in an ice cream machine to manufacturer’s instructions.
