SC - An impossible mission!

[margali]

ChannonM at aol.com wrote:
> 
> >  Could the four heads of garlic be roasted?  That gives it a much
> >  milder flavor.
> >
> >
> That would be an interpretation but there is no direction to do so in the
> original.

Okay, perhaps I missed this, although I remember having exactly the same
questions after watching the moretum thread go by on the Apicius list.

A) In the moretum/moretarium recipe that calls for the four heads of
garlic (in Virgil???), are the proportions of the other ingredients
specified? Do we know how much this is supposed to make? Is the question
of garlic sharpness mitigated by the fact that the dish is supposed to
be eaten with bread, IIRC?

B) Why (if you don't mind refreshing my memory) do you feel that moretum
is based on Apician originals (and sufficiently so to state it as an
empirical fact)? Since we don't know when Apicius' recipes were actually
written and cooked for the first time, for sure, what real evidence is
there that sala cattabia is in any way an inspiration for moretum? The
fact that part of sala cattabia seems to bear some similarity to pesto
and to moretum in re some common ingredients isn't necessarily relevant
when you consider that lots of things use those ingredients, and there
are quite a few Apician sauces that call for herbs, cheese, nuts and oil
to be pounded up in a mortar. But, BTW, almost none that call for garlic.

To get back to the original topic of discussion, there's a lot of
evidence to suggest pesto is very old indeed. Its relationship to
moretum is pretty obvious, but I think the nature of the relationship of
both of these to sala cattabia is, well, a bit tenuous, and perhaps
could be either more clearly explained, or thought out differently. It
appears, from what I've seen, at least, that there's a chance that you
may be seeing a clear sequential relationship, or perhaps solidifying a
nebulous one, because you want it to be that way. Please don't take this
as criticism; it isn't intended to be, but it appears you're basing some
fairly heavy conclusions on some pretty weak premises. Unless there's
more evidence than you've mentioned.   

Adamantius      
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com