[Sca-cooks] Crocodile was Magpies

Dragon dragon at crimson-dragon.com
Tue Mar 4 13:26:02 PST 2008


Johnna Holloway wrote:
>Interesting. Can you provide the recipes and text that show that
>the classical Romans ate snakes and crocodiles? Not medicinal, but actually
>banquet fare for the crocodiles and snakes. Apicius oddly doesn't list snakes
>or crocodiles, so what source does?
>Also What medieval Arab and Chinese recipes can you offer for eating 
>crocodile?
>Which texts and which recipes? Again non-medicinal references would 
>be helpful.
>
>Johnnae
>
>
>Dragon wrote:
>>Considering all the other unusual things (by modern standards) that 
>>the upper class Romans consumed, I would be surprised that 
>>Crocodile and snakes of various kinds are not among them.
>>
>>Chinese medicinal texts may be enlightening. In China to this day, 
>>food is still considered medicinal and what you eat is considered 
>>to affect the balance of health in many of the same ways that the 
>>Arab influenced health theories of the Medieval period espoused.
>>
>>Dragon
>>
---------------- End original message. ---------------------

You are misinterpreting what I said. I did not say I had 
documentation for any of this.

What I did say is that they ate a ton of odd things so it would not 
surprise me if they did eat these things also.  There are historical 
accounts of all sorts of exotic species being brought to Rome for 
gladiatorial games (no, I don't have any references handy, this is 
from memory). It is not a far stretch to think that once these 
animals had been dispatched in the games that they would have been eaten.

I not specifically aware of any texts in Chinese medicine that regard 
use of the crocodile as I have not done any such research. However, 
through a casual knowledge of modern Chinese medicinal practices, I 
know they use a lot of reptiles including all sorts of lizards, 
cobras and other snakes. So again, I would not be surprised if they 
did use crocodiles in some medicinal soup. Virtually every edible 
item in traditional Chinese culture is associated with some sort of 
supposed medical benefit.



Dragon

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  Venimus, Saltavimus, Bibimus (et naribus canium capti sumus)
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