SC - Roman Recipes LONG

[ChannonM at aol.com]

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