SC - Apicius

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Gaylin Walli wrote:
> 
> The reason that I'm interested is all my Platina
> work has sent me deeper in the past to trace the
> recipes I'd chosen for MK Coronation. Now I need
> more information to continue (not that I have the time
> to research this of course, but then research is a
> sickness or an addiction if you will and my head
> is clamoring for information on the topic...).

The trouble with this line of thinking is that there aren't as many
direct parallels between the food of the Rome of Apicius and the
Rome/Vatican of Platina. There are some very basic similarities, but
they're pretty superficial. Roast and boiled meats with sauces are
common to both, patinae are very common in Apicius and absent from
Platina, isicia ex whatever (or in Platina's case, exicia) have a basic
similarity in shape and wrapping but not really in the filling, which in
Apicius is more of a stuffing containing meat, while Platina's are more
likely to consist _of_ meat, mostly, more like a modern sausage. Same
for things like farcimina lucanium, or lucanian sausages, which in
Apicius is [often - there's more than one version] a mixture of eggs,
cheese, pounded pork, brains, pine nuts, etc., while in Platina it's
basically ground pork with salt, fennel, and, I think, garlic. Much more
like a modern sweet Italian sausage, apart from the smoking.

There may be some similarities, but I believe the differences are more
pronounced. A reason for this might be that a number of the culinary
traditions of the Italian Middle Ages (and elsewhere) are as much
derived from both the MidEast and from the Northern European tribes that
moved in on Rome, with their very tribalism forming the basis for later
nationalism. I suspect there's a visible, across-the-board cultural
shift, seen in language, dress, warfare conventions, politics and food,
among other aspects of everyday life.  

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com