SC - Books

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Håkan Hedrén wrote:
> 
> Platina:            On Right Pleasure And Good Health
<snip>
> Apicius:           Cookery & Dining In Imperial Rome

With regard to Platina and Apicius: I note you have listed the name of
the author of the original source, but titles indicating specific
translations. Do I gather you mean Millham's translation of "De Honesta
Voluptate et Valetudinae", and Vehling's translation of  Apicius' De Re
Coquinaria? If so, I highly recommend the Millham translation of
Platina, but advise against sinking any substantial sum into Vehling's
Apicius. By far the best translation of Apicius I've seen is Barbara
Flower & Elisabeth Rosenbaum's "The Roman Cookery Book", done originally
in 1958 but later republished, I believe. Even John Edwards'
translation, entitled, I think, "The Roman Cookery of Apicius" (not my
favorite), is better than Vehling's. Vehling was a highly regarded chef,
but not much of a Latin scholar, and saw no reason why he shouldn't
include the benefits of his own classical French culinary education in
Apicius' recipes. In short, he tried to improve on the original, and,
from the perspective of people doing serious historical recreations, or
at least trying to learn from the past, he failed pretty spectacularly.
For example, he includes pate a choux (cream puff or eclair paste/dough)
in a dumpling/sausage recipe as a substitute for Apicius' use of spelt
grits. Yummy, I'm sure, but not even close to what the original Latin
recipe describes, and ranging somewhere between inaccurate and wildly
irresponsible as a teaching tool for learning what the Romans ate.
    
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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