Defrutum is a reduction of must used by cooks and others in ancient Rome. It was made by boiling down grape juice or must in large kettles until it had been reduced by at least half. The sweetest defrutum was further boiled down into an even stronger concentrate called sapa. Must is the juice of freshly pressed grapes, prior to fermentation into wine. ... The Roman Empire reached its greatest extent during the reign of Hadrian, ca. ... Lead(II) acetate, (trihydrate: Pb(CH3COO)2·3H2O) is a white crystalline substance made by dissolving lead in acetic acid. ...

The main culinary use of defrutum was to sweeten wine, but it was also added to fruit and meat dishes as a sweetening and souring agent and even given to food animals such as suckling pigs and ducks to improve the taste of their flesh. Defrutum was mixed with garum to make the popular condiment oenogarum and as such was one of Rome's most popular condiments. Quinces and melons were preserved in defrutum and honey through the winter, and some Roman women used defrutum or sapa as a cosmetic. It has been suggested that Red wine be merged into this article or section. ... Fruit stall in Barcelona, Catalonia. ... Meat is animal tissue (mainly muscle) used as food. ... Binomial name Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758 The domestic pig is usually given the scientific name Sus scrofa, though some authors call it , reserving for the wild boar. ... The word duck was also used as slang for the WWII amphibious vehicle called a DUKW. It is also a cricketing term denoting a batsman being dismissed with a score of zero; see golden duck. ... Fish sauce is a condiment derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment. ... The Quinceañera is a young Latina womans celebration of her fifteenth birthday, which is celebrated in a specific and different way from her other birthdays. ... This article is about the fruits called melons. ... Honey honey comb A capped frame of honeycomb Honey is a sweet and viscous fluid produced by bees and other insects from the nectar of flowers. ... Cosmetic refers to beauty or appearance, especially concerning the human body. ...

Defrutum is mentioned in almost all Roman books dealing with cooking or household management. Pliny the Elder recommended that defrutum only be boiled at the time of the new moon, while Cato the Censor suggested that only the sweetest possible must should be used. Both writers advised against the use of bronze or copper kettles, as the metals would react with the acids in the defrutum and give the finished product an unpleasant metallic taste. The preferred vessels for boiling and storing defrutum were made of (or lined with) lead. Geochemist Jerome Nriagu published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1983 hypothesizing that defrutum and sapa may have contained enough lead acetate to be of danger to those who consumed it regularly. Cooking is the act of preparing food for consumption. ... Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19c portrait. ... Crust composition Oxygen 43% Silicon 21% Aluminium 10% Calcium 9% Iron 9% Magnesium 5% Titanium 2% Nickel 0. ... Must is the juice of freshly pressed grapes, prior to fermentation into wine. ... Assorted ancient bronze castings found as part of a cache, probably intended for recycling. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic brown Atomic mass 63. ... General Name, Symbol, Number lead, Pb, 82 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 6, p Appearance bluish white Atomic mass 207. ... The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society with the highest impact factor for a general medical journal. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Modern cooks who wish to make defrutum should use a large glass or stainless steel Dutch oven or stock pot. Boil four litres (or quarts) of dark grape juice in an open pan slowly until 750 ml or three US cups of defrutum remains. The vapors can be sticky, so it is advised to either boil the juice under a fan or to prepare the defrutum outside. For additional flavor add one cup of hand-crushed dark grapes at the beginning of the cooking process. For eyeglasses, see glasses. ... The pinnacle of New Yorks Chrysler Building is clad with stainless steel In metallurgy, stainless steel (inox) is defined as a ferrous alloy with a minimum of 10. ... Dutch oven from the 1890s Note the evidence of ashes on the lid. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

External links and references

• Jerome O. Nriagu; Saturnine Gout Among Roman Aristocrats: Did Lead Poisoning Contribute to the Fall of the Empire?; New England Journal of Medicine 308, 660-663;
• Ilaria G. Giacosa; A Taste of Ancient Rome; University of Chicago Press; ISBN 0-226290-32-8 (paperback, 1994)
• Pliny the Elder; Natural History; tr. H. Rackham; Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library); ISBN 0-674994-32-9 (cloth, 1956)
• Marcus Porcius Cato; On Agriculture ; Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library); ISBN 0-674993-13-6 (hardcover, 1979)