SC - Apician Teriyaki Chicken 8-); and ostrich sauces

[Phil & Susan Troy]

LYN M PARKINSON wrote:
> 
> >>I think perhaps they have it just a bit wrong, too.  Isn't corn flour
> oop?
> Mordonna<<
> 
> Not phrased this way in a European recipe.  They meant 'grain', probably
> wheat, not the maise that we call corn, here in the USA.  This is
> certainly a very early flour sauce.

According to Flower and Rosenbaum, who did the translation discussed, they
used the term "cornflour" because they felt it was the most easily available
and easily comprehensible equivalent for the modern cook. It seems what they
actually meant was what Americans call cornstarch. As in maize. No, it is not
what a Roman cook would have used, but their approach (F & R, that is) is that
authenticity for its own sake is less important than producing something like
the original dish. Using corn starch instead of amulum produces a nearly
identical dish as far as its taste and texture are concerned.

The Latin amulum, and the Middle English amydoun, are actually wheat starch,
and this is what Apicius himself, whoever he may have been, would have
recommended for smooth sauces. Coarser ones get thickened with either
spelt-frits or crumbled pastry of some kind. Pliny's Natural History gives a
recipe for soaking wheat to release its starch, and includes the claim that
amulum is so called because it is made without a mill.

In hopes this clears up any confusion,

Adamantius
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