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By&#160;Sean CoughlinThis post follows on yesterday’s post on whether the Romans had pumpkins.Translation:[Cooked] gourds with fowl: [add] hard-fleshed peaches, truffles, pepper, caraway, cumin, silphium, green herbs – mint, celery, coriander, pennyroyal, mentuccia –,&#160; honey, wine, liquamen, oil and vinegar. (The Latin text is here).Stewing turkey, pumpkin and apples in the wine and stock. Photo by the author.My interpretation:Ingredients2 tbsps.     olive oil2 large     turkey drumsticks (about 750 g)Salt and     pepperHalf a     sugar pumpkin or butternut squash, cubedOne     apple, peeled, cored and diced1/4 tsp. asafoetida1/2 tsp.     caraway1/2 tsp.     cuminSilphium     (1/2 tsp. fennel seeds will do)For the sauce1/2 cup     dry white wine1/2 cup     chicken or vegetable stock1 tbsp.     honeydash of     fish-sauce or MSGFresh     herbs to taste (mint, celery, coriander, pennyroyal, oregano)Truffles,     shaved (to taste)1. Season the turkey legs with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in deep pan over high heat. Add turkey legs and cook, skin-side down, until crispy and golden brown (8 minutes or so). Flip legs and cook until the other side is browned, another 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate.2. Return pan to heat with a bit more oil,and when it’s hot, add the pumpkin or squash and asafoetida. Cook until thepumpkin just begins brown, about 5 minutes. Add the apple, caraway, cumin andfennel seeds and cook for another few minutes until browned.Browning pumpkin, caraway, fennel seeds and cumin to pan after browning the turkey legs. Photo by the authorAdding the apple. Photo by the author.3. Add wine to the pan and reduce by half.Add stock, honey, fish-sauce and herbs. Return the drumsticks to the pan, coverand let simmer for an hour until drumsticks are fall-apart tender. Add water ormore stock if it begins to look too dry. Alternatively, place in an ovenpreheated to 375 F / 190 C. Serve drumsticks with roasted sweet potatoes,drizzle on some of the sauce with some shaved truffle.Deglazing with white wine. Photo by the author.I’ve recently become obsesessed withcucurbits thanks to a question from Peter Singer. This resulted in a discussionwith Laurence Totelin that took place this summer duringa workshop at the Humboldt-Universität as part of SFB 980, projectA03, “The Transfer of Medical Episteme in the ‘Encyclopaedic’ Compilations ofLate Antiquity”, with Philip van der Eijk. The subject was our forthcomingtranslations of Books I and II of Aetius of Amida’s Medical Collections.“We” are Sean Coughlin, Eric Gowling, Christine Salazar, and Piero Tassinari.Many thanks to our guests Alessia Guardasole, Matteo Martelli, and of courseLaurence for attending. The translation of Book I was completed by Eric Gowlingas a doctoral dissertation and was in the process of being revised by PieroTassinari and myself when he passed away last year. I hope Piero wouldappreciate this little essay. He is dearly missed.