Honey Sponge Eggs (Apicius)
Reader ratingsHoney sponge eggs, the ova spongia of Apicius: eggs beaten with milk and a little olive oil, set gently in a pan, turned out onto a plate and soaked with honey and black pepper.
- Recipe makes
- One 24 cm pancake, 4 servings
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Make it just before serving; it sinks a little as it cools.
Ova spongia, an egg and milk pancake with honey and pepper.
The story behind the recipe
Trimalchio’s egg course was a joke. A wooden hen sat on a basket of straw, and the eggs dug out from under her turned out to be made “of flour paste,” each hiding “a plump reed-bird, surrounded by yolk of egg well seasoned with pepper.” The cookery book that goes under the name of Apicius, compiled about the fourth century AD, has a real egg dish with that seasoning: eggs beaten with milk, set in a pan, and finished with honey and pepper.
What are ova spongia?
Ova spongia ex lacte, sponge eggs from milk, comes near the end of Apicius’s short chapter of sweets, seven recipes after the stuffed dates. The proportions are given: four eggs, a hemina of milk, about 270 ml, and an uncia, about an ounce, of oil, beaten until they become “one body.” A little oil is heated in a fine pan, the mixture goes in, and once it is cooked on one side it is turned out onto a plate, soaked with honey and sprinkled with pepper.
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Apicius cooks it on one side only. The lid is our choice: set over the pan, it lets the top firm in its own steam while the bottom turns golden, so the cake holds together when it is turned out. Turned out bottom side up, it shows its browned face. A runny honey soaks in best.
Serve it after the Lucanian Sausages (Apicius), the way the egg course followed the grill at Trimalchio’s. How the wooden hen and its pastry eggs were carried in is told in What Was Actually Served at Trimalchio’s Dinner?
Ova spongia ex lacte: ova quattuor, lactis heminam, olei unciam in se dissolvis, ita ut unum corpus facias. in patellam subtilem adicies olei modicum, facies ut bulliat, et adicies impensam quam parasti. una parte cum fuerit coctum, in disco vertes, melle perfundis, piper aspargis et inferes.
Apicius, De re coquinaria 7.13.8, in the 1922 edition of Cesare Giarratano and Friedrich Vollmer. In our translation: “Sponge eggs from milk: beat together four eggs, a hemina of milk and an ounce of oil, so that you make one body of them. Put a little oil in a fine pan, let it sizzle, and add the mixture you have prepared. When it is cooked on one side, turn it out onto a plate, pour honey over it, sprinkle with pepper and serve.”
Recipe makes: One 24 cm pancake, 4 servings
Ingredients
For One 24 cm pancake, 4 servings. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for One 24 cm pancake, 4 servings.
- Eggs4
- Whole milk270 ml
- Olive oil, for the batter2 tbsp
- Olive oil, for the pan1 tbsp
- Honey3 tbsp
- Freshly ground black pepper1/4 tsp
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 4 eggs
- 270 ml whole milk
- 2 tbsp olive oil, for the batter
- 1 tbsp olive oil, for the pan
- 3 tbsp honey
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Equipment
- Mixing bowl and whisk
- Nonstick or well-seasoned frying pan with a lid, about 24 cm
- Flat serving plate, wider than the pan
Instructions
Whisk the eggs, milk and olive oil for the batter in the bowl until smooth and evenly yellow, with no streaks of white.
Heat the olive oil for the pan in the frying pan over medium heat until it shimmers.
Pour in the egg mixture. Cook for 1 minute, until the edge begins to set, then turn the heat to low and cover the pan.
Cook for 8 to 10 minutes more, until the bottom is golden and the top is just set, with no liquid egg when you tilt the pan.
Loosen the edge with a spatula. Set the plate upside down over the pan and turn the pan and plate over together, so the pancake drops onto the plate golden side up.
Warm the honey if it is stiff, pour it over the top, and grind over the black pepper. Serve warm, cut into wedges.
Nutrition
250calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- One 24 cm pancake, 4 servings
- Servings
- 4
Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for whole eggs, whole milk, olive oil and honey.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Apicius’s proportions: four eggs to a hemina of milk, about 270 ml. Make one pan at a time; a larger batch in a wider pan sets unevenly.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
If the center is still wet when the bottom is browned, take the pan off the heat and leave it covered for 2 minutes. Keep any leftover in the refrigerator and eat it the same day. Contains egg and milk.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Apicius, De re coquinaria, book 7, Ova spongia ex lacte; Latin text ed. Cesare Giarratano and Friedrich Vollmer (Leipzig: Teubner, 1922); our translation
Recipe details
- Course
- Dessert
- Dish family
- Desserts & Sweets
- Era
- Ancient Rome
- Main ingredient
- Eggs
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- Dinner party