[Sca-cooks] Rotten meat and spices... (a few excerpts from Apicius)

[Chris Stanifer]

These are just a few of the food adulteration sections from JDV's text 'Apicius: Cookery and
Dining in Imperial Rome', which may lend a bit of credence to the idea that, yes, bad food was
commonly made 'good' during our period of study.  And, while Apicius pre-dates the medieval period
precisely, it is at the very least a starting point for the researcher.

I will add to these as I pull books out of storage.  Apicius was the only book I brought with me
when I moved to Las Vegas last month :)

1. pg 48 - VI [9] To Improve a Broth
If broth has contracted a bad odor, place a vessel upside down and fumigate it with laurel and
cypress and before ventiliating it, pour the broth in this vessel...

2. pg 51 [17] Spoiled Honey Made Good
How bad honey may be turned into a saleable article is to mix one part of the spoiled honey with
two parts of good honey,

3. pg 51 [18] To Test Spoiled Honey
Immerse elencampane in honey and light it;  if good, it will burn brightly.

4. pg 147 [229] Treatment of Strong Smelling Birds of Every Description
For birds of all kinds that have a goatish smell, pepper, lovage, thyme, dry mint, sage, dates,
honey, vinegar, wine, broth, oil, reduced must, mustard.  The birds will be more luscious and
nutritious, and the fat preserved, if you envelop them in a dough of flour and oil and bake them
in the oven.  (note:  Vehling notes that this probably refers to animals in an advanced state of
mortification)

5. pg 148 [230] Another Treatment of Odor
If the birds smell, stuff the inside with crushed fresh olives, sew up and thus cook, then retire
the olives.

Anyway, those were just the ones I was able to find readily in the Vehling Apicius.

There are others in the more modern manuscripts, which I will have to dig out.

William de Grandfort



Through teeth of sharks, the Autumn barks.....and Winter squarely bites me.


		
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