[Sca-cooks] ancient Roman cookery

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Giano wrote:
>  > >I find that garum is a matter of quality and quantity. If you are using
>  > >Philippine 'bagoong balayam' as your substitute (barely filtered stuff,
>  > >grey-brown and opaque, quite nasty) it goes only with savoury fish or meat
>  > >dishes, and even then it usually 'tastes through' more delicate flavours.
>  >
>  > Yeah, bagoong is way too strong, in my opinion, for Roman food - at
>  > least that of the upper classes...
>
>I would consider it as a substitute for the strong, chunky filter-residue
>sauce (often equated with 'allec') sold cheap. Good for lower class food or
>soldiers' fare, which I am particularly interested in and am trying to
>research and foster. I know we're all supposed to be nobles, but I'm a tad
>sick of every banquet being the period equivalent of cordon bleu. Especially
>since a farmer's feast can be very tasty.

Yeah, that's why i phrased it as i did - bagoong would definitely be 
the cheaper stuff...

>  > I prefer Thai fish sauce, much more delicate. The common brand around
>  > here (California) is Tiparos - the Thai company that makes it, also
>  > makes at least 1/2 dozen fish sauces.
>
>Lucky you.

Well, as far as i know, we don't get all those brands here - just the 
Tiparos. But we also get several brands of Pilipino fishy stuff, and 
Vietnamese fish sauce, and ISTR Chinese fish sauce (we have Hakka and 
Hokkien communities here, and i'm wildly guessing southern coastal 
folks would be the Chinese with fish sauce). Clearly here on the Left 
Coast of the US, and the East Coast of the Pacific Ocean, we have a 
lot of East and Southeast Asians

>I think I'll be making Parthian chicken this weekend. It's National holiday
>weekend, I get three days off.

Parthian? (perks up) Parthia was pre-Muslim Persia and Iraq, and a 
bit more, and immediately preceded the Sassanian Dynasty. If it isn't 
in Apicius, recipe, please?

>  > I made a somewhat expansive Greco-Roman feast a few years ago - no
>  > problem. A couple people (ok, three) were squeamish about fish sauce,
>  > but most people (close to 100) had no such problem.
>
>Very, very delicious... I don't know what it is here, exactly. Some people are
>just opposed to antiquity (in the long run I'll have to start my own club for
>that). Some people want familiar foods on the table and balk at the idea of
>seafood and strange sauces. Cost is also a factor, especially now that we got
>people used to the idea that you can serve a big feast for EUR 5 per head. I
>don't see that working for Greco-Roman food with the prices for seafood,
>lamb, goat and fresh Mediterraean vegetables.

Yeah, i'm lucky - i live in an area with a long sea coast and plenty 
of animal farms and dairies and a mostly Mediterranean climate - we 
grow almonds and walnuts here, all sorts of stone fruit (mmm-mmm), 
berries - there are even some experimental banana farms down the 
coast north of LA... (and earthquakes, which can't be predicted and 
evacuated beforehand)

I don't know the exchange rate, but our feasts run around $15 for the 
feast and the site fee... People complain, but there's no way anyone 
could get so much good food anywhere for so little money. A nice 
stuffed omelette and a double cappuccino costs around $10 at an ok 
(not high class) cafe.

On the other hand, what you have available is more "correct" for most 
Medieval cooking, when doing it by seasonal availability.

>But then, the same goes for Arabic food and I talked people into eating that
>several times at smaller events. Maybe it just takes time.

I'm both surprised and not surprised at your problem - of course 
there are plenty of places in the US where folks don't trust "period" 
food.

Anyway, when i lived in France - granted, over 30 years ago - most 
Europeans i met were resistant to foreign food (even from another 
European country, let alone from another time or continent). Heck, 
French people from one region mocked the foods of other French 
regions.

On the other hand, folks always seemed rather proud of their 
heritage, and at least from several thousand miles away, and via the 
internet, folks today seem to embrace Medieval costuming and 
accoutrements. So i assumed those same people would embrace Medieval 
food

I guess I'm lucky - i live in the founding place of the SCA and 
people have been working there way through the evolution of the SCA 
Medieval-oid or Medieval feast for 39-1/2 years. And us 'Merkans are 
from every part of the world, and especially here in California we 
have people from just about everywhere, so we have their restaurants 
to explore and many of us are willing to try almost anything...

Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
-- 
Soylens Viridis Homines Est!