SC - Roman Recipes LONG
ChannonM at aol.com
ChannonM at aol.com
Tue Jun 27 06:07:25 PDT 2000
Hello everyone,
Bear (I believe)posted earlier requesting info about Roman finger foods (I
think), here is my collections of recipes that have been mostly direct
redactions, some are adaptions based on other Roman recipes. If any of them
are of interest let me know, I'll post recipe. I've also included a
suggestion to use Vehling (gasp) in conjunction with an online Latin version
of Apicius, it's better than nothing for all it's worth.
I do have a document in the works that has tips on working with Roman food
(ie substitutions for garum) these tips have been gleaned from discussions on
various lists, personal experience and research. It's too long to put on the
cooks list, but could be available to the Florilegium if anyones interested.
I have to tweak a few things, but other than that, it's useable and as
documented as possible.
Moretaria
SalaCattabia
Flat Bread
Green Beans and chickpeas (An adapted hummous type dish)
Stuffed Chicken with Sauce ala Apicius
Ne Lactucae Laedant/A harmless salad
Ova Elixa/ Hard Boiled Eggs
Phaseoli Virides Frictae/ Fried Green Beans
Porcus Farcimina Mellitum/Honey Pork Sausage (an adaption of an iscia style
dish)
Frumentum/Barley Frumenty
Pernam et Ficus/Ham with Figs
Isicia Amulato ab Aheno/Rissoles with a Thick Sauce in a Metal Casserole
Alicam Vel Succum Tisanai
/Cracked Wheat
Dulcia Domestica/Homemade Sweets
Savillum/Cheesecake
In addition, I came across a reference in the Archaeology magazine,
November/December 1990 Dining with the Ancients-by Edith Evans
Some of her extrapolations are off slightly in my opinion but she mentions
the following that might be of interest to you.
" One example of a site where the study of bones gave an interesting insight
into food consumption was the main baths in the fortress of the Second
Aughustan Legion at Caerleon (Roman Isca) in Britain. The animal remains from
the lowest levels of the principal drain consisted overwhelmingly of chicken
bones with a lesser amount of mutton chops, suggestiong that guests at the
baths wer able to obtain snacks"
I can also recall a painting on a wall in Pompei, that was an advertisement
for the occupants ham, it appears the owner of the building or occupant was a
food vendor.I was concentrating on the food of the Roman Army and didn't hold
on to the reference, but it is very popular in books on Vesuvius and Pompei.
The full latin text of Apicius can be found at
http://users.ipa.net/~tanker
you could use this in conjuction with the Vehling edition so you could at
least analyze the text as Vehling doesn't give the original latin.
here are two good Latin dictionaries on line;
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/lexica.html
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/searches.html
Here are a few websites on Roman food and related links
http://www.ancientsites.com/xi/interface/bb/readTopic.rage?BB=xi_data/Rome/
bb/main&TT=355
>http://www.ancientsites.com/~Caius_Livius
Here is a really fun reference for Moretaria (Roman cheese spread) that
someone posted on the Apicius list;
The following scene is from Aristophanes' _Peace_. In this scene,
Trygaeus, a crazy old man, is spying on the personification of War. War
makes a "myttotos" (which also happens to be the title of the greek poem
virgil's Moretum is said to be based on!), with each of the ingredients
allegorically representing a city of Greece. Fortunately he can't find
the pestle, required to mash it (and hence Greece) to a pulp.
This translation comes from Perseus online. The bracketed numerals
indicate line numbers if you want to track down the reference yourself,
say to compare the Greek.
War:Enters, carrying a huge mortar.
Oh! mortals, mortals, wretched mortals, how your jaws will snap!
Trygaeus:Oh! divine Apollo! what a prodigious big mortar! Oh, what
misery the
very sight of War causes me! [240] This then is
the foe from whom I fly, who is so cruel, so formidable, so stalwart, so
solid on his legs!
War:Oh! Prasiae! thrice wretched, five times, aye, a thousand times
wretched! for thou shalt be destroyed this day.
(He throws some leeks into the mortar. )
Trygaeus: (to the audience. )This, gentlemen, does not concern us over
much; [245] it's only so much the worse for the Laconians.
War:Oh! Megara! Megara! how utterly are you going to be ground up! what
fine
mincemeat are you to be made into!
(He throws in some garlic. )
Trygaeus: (Aside. )Alas! alas! what bitter tears there will be among
the Megarians!
War:(throwing in some cheese.)[250] Oh, Sicily! you too must perish!
Your wretched towns shall be grated like this cheese. Now let us pour some
Attic
honey into the mortar.
(He does so.)
Trygaeus: (Aside.)Oh! I beseech you! use some other honey; this kind is
worth four obols;be careful, oh! be careful of our Attic honey.
War:[255] Hi! Tumult, you slave there!
Tumult:What do you want?
War:Out upon you! Standing there with folded arms! Take this cuff on the
head for your pains.
Tumult:Oh! how it stings! Master, have you got garlic in your fist, I
wonder?
War:Run and fetch me a pestle.
Tumult:But [260] we haven't got one; it was only yesterday we moved.
War: Go and fetch me one from Athens, and hurry, hurry!
Tumult:I'll hurry; if I return without one, I shall have no cause for
laughing.
[etc.]
Not totally reverent, but amusing!.
Hauviette
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