[Sca-cooks] Apicius

[Phlip]

Well, your best bet is to look in the Florilegium- there are, I believe
several reviews of the various versions of Apicius.

In a nutshell, Apicius was used throughout the MA, but it's not as ancient
Roman as it was originally reputed to be. There are obvious and not so
obvious additions from later dates, so trying to sort all that out requires
a great deal of acholarship.

The version you have is considered to be the worst translation. The
originals aren't there, and the translator was a cook rather than a scholar.
His recipes are, as I understand it, tasty, but not particularly accurate-
in one dish he calls for bell peppers, in another for green beans, both of
which are New World foods, unavailable to most folk of the European MA, let
alone the Ancient Romans.

As a document, it is valuable as part of the history of learning how to cook
Medieval Foods, just as Fabulous Feasts is, from the POV of things not to
do, but as a general rule, I don't think any of us would consider it useful
documentation for an historically accurate feast.

Phlip




----- Original Message -----
From: "Barbara Benson" <vox8 at mindspring.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 11:48 AM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Apicius


> Greetings,
>
> Last night at our meeting one of our long time members of the SCA brought
a
> big bag that was the fruits of her labour, going through her attic.
>
> Among fabric and sundry books she gifted me with a copy of Apicius. I
wanted
> to know if there are good and bad translations of this book, if there is
> anything I need to be aware of in this particular translation. The
> Translator is Joseph Dommers Vehling, published by Dover in 1977.
>
> Even if it isn't one of the best translations, it does have 3 things going
> for it.
> 1. It was free.
> 2. It didn't cost me anything.
> 3. Did I mention that it was free?
>
> Glad Tidings,
> Serena da Riva
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>