SC - Roman world - Apricots or Peaches

[Glenda Robinson]

Niccolo wrote:
> I'm not aware of any sources I have of peaches, but Apicius has
> apricots in the ancient Roman cuisine.  That should mean they came up
> north at some point thereafter, at least in dried form.  No certianty,
> but those Romans shared their cultures with so many others that you
> never can tell which way stuff went.  Then there is the Hansiatic
> trade league shooting all over the north European trade ways......they
> proliferated many foodstuffs as well.  Apricots would be a great taste
> idea to go with a semi dry mead of final gravity around 1.035-1.040.



The way my version of Apicius reads is that they had peaches in ancient Rome
and not apricots (checked the latin recipe name with the dictionary -
there's no mistranslation).

There is also an extant fresco from Pompeii with peaches (p 104 - Still Life
with Peaches - Pompeii - Lessing/Varone 1996 ISBN 2-87939-007-9) this book
also has a lot of mosaics with fruit. Some of these fruits are easily
identifiable, and others aren't. Some could possibly be apricots, but are
not clear enough to positively identify. These yellow fruits are also much
bigger (by comparison with other fruits in the same fresco) than the
apricots we now get, so are unlikely to be them.

That's not to say that this proves the Romans didn't have Apricots, but does
prove they did have peaches.

Glenda.
- --------------------------------
Glenda Robinson
Flamberge Computer Services
glendar at compassnet.com.au






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