[Sca-cooks] Earliest Viking area post-Viking cookbooks

[Decker, Terry D.]

> At 07:03 -0500 2003-10-27, Sharon Gordon wrote:
> 
> > Is there any sort of written or archeological evidence that 
> roman style
> > recipes would have been used with northern european foods 
> in roman occupied
> > areas...perhaps a sort of modification of Apicius for foods locally
> > available at the time?
> 
> Slightly off topic -- the Romans did not occupy any of Scandanavia, 
> so any influence on the later Vikings would have been very indirect.
> 
> 
> Thorvald

I think this is a separate question from that of the Viking cookbooks, and
in my view the answer is maybe, but not necessarily at the times the Romans
occupied the area.

The Roman diet appears to have been primarily cereals prepared as bread or
polenta with vegetables and meat of secondary consideration.  In general,
the Romans used local foodstuffs and probably adopted local recipes.  Roman
recipes as represented in Apicius were the domain of the wealthy, most of
whom would be found in Rome, where they could influence the politics of the
Empire.  The wealthy in the provinces might have tried to ape the wealth of
Rome, but it was probably due to the knowledge of itinerant cooks rather
than the writings of Apicius.

M. Gavius Apicius is believed to have been the author of two cookbooks; one
general recipes, one on sauces.  His existence is recorded by contemporaries
in the 1st Century, primarily Seneca.  His cookbooks probably did not get
beyond Rome in his lifetime, but may have been spread during the later Roman
Empire.  He remained a known figure for many centuries as he is mentioned by
St. Jerome (4th-5th Centuries), Isidorius (6th Century) and St. Odo of Cluny
(9th Century).

The work we commonly refer to as Apicius is actually a patch work of texts
(most likely including part of Apicius' original work) assembled sometime
during the 4th or 5th Centuries.  There are excerpts from this work in an
8th Century copy of a 5th or 6th Century texts by Vinidarius.  In the 9th
Century, copies of the Apicius manuscript were made at Tours and Fulda,
suggesting that copies of the work existed and may have been used as a
culinary reference in those places.  (The 9th Century copy from Tours is
very decorative, suggesting it was copied as a work of art rather than a
reference text.)

Although Apicius was a noted historical figure, to my knowledge, it has not
been demonstrated that his works were known outside of Italy prior to the
9th Century.

In the late 15th Century, it moved into print in Northern Italy.  By the
mid-16th Century, it had several editions in Switzerland and was being
spread across northern Europe.  The work probably had greater impact on
cooking in Northern Europe during the Renaissance, than it did when M.
Gavius Apicius wrote his works in the 1st Century.

Bear