[Sca-cooks] a sampling of ancient Roma

[Terry Decker]

I got curious about this recipe because it is more complex than Cato's 
Savillum and doesn't match the white tort recipes I've seen.  Also the 
addition of orange to a Roman recipe is a red flag on the historical 
accuracy.

The recipe appears on the Antique Roman Cookery in February 1999.  The 
author has this to say about it:

"In a message dated 2/5/99 4:42:46 AM Central Standard Time,
hibou at ... writes:

> Where is this recipe from? It includes oranges which AFAIK were unknown
> to the ancient Romans.

This was adapted from a recipe mentioned in a book I read, which cited Pliny
as the reference. I admit I have been unable to find it in any of Pliny's
works, but it is still a tasty (if smelly) cheesecake. I did adapt it
slightly for modern use - I used orange instead of pomegrante because
pomegranate is diffilcult to get in all parts of the US. Lemon was known at
that time -although it was probably more bitter than what we use now.

Nodigio"

The problem with this response is Pliny doesn't give recipes (other than by 
accident) and I don't remember any references to cheesecake.  The most 
commonly quoted Roman cheesecake recipe is from Cato and is much simpler 
than this recipe.  From the available evidence, I would say the recipe does 
not  represent a true Roman recipe.

Bear



> Greetings Alexa,
>
> I've lost track of my source for that feta cheesecake - It was a website 
> that I was darned sure I had bookmarked. I'll see if I can track it down 
> for you, though...
>
> Aurelia