SC - your opinions, please

[Decker, Terry D.]

IIRC, there is a Roman recipe which is very similar to hamburgers.  There is
also one in Platina that the instruction might be interpreted as a hamburger
eqivalent.  There is not a lot of information on the dining habits of the
upper crust in Ptolemaic Egypt, so the possibility of the meal is open to
question.  

I do wonder about the dormouse.  I don't believe their natural range
extended into Egypt.  Given their size, about 4 inches, I don't think they
would have been turned into "ground" meat.  I may be wrong, but I believe
Apicius served them whole in honey.

As an opinion, I would say that the meal described is an author's attempt at
verisimilitude rather than a historically accurate recipe.

On to turnips, the Celtic root vegetable before potatoes.  Yes, you can
replace the potatoes with turnips, but that is a matter taste rather than
historical accuracy.

I am assuming your thought is that by replacing the obviously New World
potato with the Old World turnip will make the recipes in your Celtic
cookbook more period.  Your recipes may feel more period by using turnips,
but it does not place the origin of the recipes within period or make them
historically accurate.  While a number of the recipes may have period
antecedents, the recipes themselves are modern and may have changed
considerably from the original.

If you want to look at some of the discussions of Celtic and Irish food to
compare your recipes to the little we do know, I would suggest trying
Stefan's Florilegium:

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BY-REGION/fd-Ireland-msg.html

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BY-REGION/fd-Celts-msg.html

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/fd-Scotland-msg.html

Bear



> would  ask
> your two-cents of the following:
> excerpt from a fictional account of young cleopatra, Cleopatra VII,
> Daughter of the Nile  Egypt 57 B.C.
<clipped>
> now, in my celtic cookbook, a good number of the recipes have 
> potatoes in
> them...can turnips be substituted? For example,  
> 
> branwen of stormsport, kingdom of Aethelmarc