[Sca-cooks] Period Greek Recipes

[Lilinah]

Vitaliano Vincenzi asked about SCA-period Greek food, but didn't 
mention the time period in his first few posts.

First, pita, while now associated with the Eastern Mediterranean 
primarily Muslim countries, actually has a Greek name, which was pide 
(two syllables), which was borrowed by the Ottomans in the 15th 
century. It was not "pocket bread" as modern pita is, it was just 
flat bread, so i don't use it at SCA events. I purchase other Middle 
Eastern flat breads that are actually flat, since i'm not a bread 
baker.

Second, because of hostility between modern Greece and modern Turkey, 
the Greeks are loathe to admit that any aspects of their modern 
culture were derived from or influenced by the Turks. So of course 
the Greeks will claim souvlaki to be completely Greek in origin, 
regardless of its actual origin.

Third, there are many books that address Greek cuisine of the 
Classical and Late Antique periods.

For pure scholarly information, without recipes, there is:
* Andrew Dalby.
Siren Feasts, A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece.
Routledge, London & New York: 1996.

These two books contain recipes from both Greek and Roman sources:
* Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger.
The Classical Cookbook.
British Museum Press, London: revised edition 2000.

* Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa. Translated by Anna Herklotz.
A Taste of Ancient Rome.
University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London: 1992.
The first (Dalby & Grainger) has lots of excellent additional 
information and lovely photos of period items, while the second 
(Giacosa) has more recipes and plenty of useful information. Since 
both are paperbacks, they are affordable additions to an historical 
cookbook library.

Finally, while the Apician cookbook - clearly not written by the 
famous Apicius - is rather Late Antique Period Roman, many of the 
recipes are Greek in origin and have Greek names. There is a brand 
new translation, which i think is the best, by Sally Grainger (of The 
Classical Cookbook) and her scholar husband:
* Christopher Grocock and Sally Grainger.
Apicius, a critical edition with an introduction and English translation.
Prospect Books, UK: 2006

And there's Grainger's companion booklet, with her worked-out recipes 
and comments, well worth owning for those who like doing the cooking 
of that time:
* Sally Grainger
Cooking Apicius: Roman Recipes for Today
Prospect Books, UK: 2006

The David Brown Co. had, and may still have, a special deal with the 
two books cheaper than the big hardcover "Apicius" alone (still it 
isn't cheap, but it's worthy). ($75 for the two, whereas the 
hardcover Apicius is $80, and the softcover Cooking Apicius is $20)

The second best translation is:
* Anonymous. Translated by Barbara Flower & Elizabeth Rosenbaum.
Apicius, The Roman Cookery Book. Peter Nevill, Ltd, London & New York: 1958.
This is LONG out of print, but i was fortunate to find an affordable 
copy, and it's a classic in the field.

* Patrick Faas. Translated by Shaun Whiteside.
Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome.
Palgrave Macmillan, New York and Hampshire UK: 1994, 2003.
He has some information in his chapters, but he hated some Apician 
recipes which i actually worked out for a feast and which were 
delicious and well-received. Shrug. I'm still glad i have the book.

I do not recommend the Jonathon Edwards version, but i can't cite my 
specific reasons, since i don't own it, only read it at a friend's 
house, and i only remember how disappointed i was with it. Since i'm 
something of a completist, i'd like to own it, but right now i'm 
saving my dinar to go to and shop at Pennsic.

Finally avoid the Vehling version, available in a cheap Dover 
publication, since Vehling was no scholar and made many mistakes.

All the above recommended cookbooks include the original recipes in 
translation, as well as the author's worked out recipes - i wouldn't 
recommend them if they didn't include the original recipes.

---

"The Deipnosophists", actually "Deipnosophistai", is translated as 
"The Partying Professors", also called "The Dinner of the Savants" 
and "Banquet of the Learned" and "Philosophers at Dinner" and other 
such titles. It dates from circa 170-239 CE (the Roman period) and 
was compiled by Athenaeus of Naucratis (since he was born and lived 
in Naucratis, Egypt). It is a work in which is collected quotes from 
other books, most of them now lost to the ravages of time, and put 
into the mouths of a number of fictitious diners. It is intended for 
use by diners to make clever conversation. Food related remarks are 
rather scattered throughout, as far as i can tell. If you want to 
make it a research project, you could get all the volumes out of the 
library and start collecting food related comments. Otherwise, there 
are excerpts from it in The Classical Cookbook and in A Taste of 
Ancient Rome. Therefore, if you don't want to make the big research 
project yet, i'd recommend starting with them.

---

OK, i wrote this before Vitaliano posted that he wants 15th C. Greek food.

Alas, there are no surviving cookbooks from so late. The best you can 
do is what someone else recommended, read Andrew Dalby's book 
"Flavours of Byzantium", which is not a cookbook, and look at Henry 
Marks' "Byzantine Cuisine". Marks is no Greek scholar, so he used 
works in French and translated them into English. Until Dalby's book 
was published, it was the best compendium on Byzantine food. However, 
he made a number of errors in his translations from the French, so, 
while i'm glad i have Marks' book, Dalby is much more reliable, since 
he *is* a scholar and he worked from the original Byzantine language 
documents.

-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita