[Sca-cooks] roman feast / Apicius

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Thu Mar 20 18:56:00 PDT 2008


On Mar 20, 2008, at 6:28 PM, Lilinah wrote:
> FINAL NOTE
> Both F&R and G&G use "cornflour" (what in the US is "corn starch")
> where the Romans used amulum, wheat starch. I tried to find wheat
> starch for my Ottoman feast in November and failed. I went to
> ordinary supermarkets, high end supermarkets, natural food stores,
> and Chinese and pan-Asian markets. I found corn starch, potato
> starch, tapioca starch, and rice flour, but no wheat starch. Any
> other suggestions where to find some wheat starch?

I believe it was pretty reliably determined (not sure if it's in the  
intro by F&R or somewhere else) that in the UK in the 1950's,  
cornflour was indeed a starch made from corn, but that the corn wasn't  
necessarily maize; it might be more likely to be wheat starch, in fact.

My own experience with finding wheat starch is that you can get it in  
Chinese groceries, where it's common for making dumpling wrappers and  
the noodles for chow fun.

Adamantius



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