[Sca-cooks] Cato as a recipe source

[Philip Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jul 7, 2009, at 3:47 PM, David Friedman wrote:

> Is either of those the source for the "Libum" recipe that one can  
> find in various places on the web? The original is Cato, the  
> "redaction" includes bay leaves (the original has "leaves") and  
> honey (not in the original at all). Different webbed sources have  
> the same redaction with the same wording ("1/2 c clear honey"),  
> which makes me suspect a common secondary source.
>
> Anybody know if there is any basis for the honey? Does some other  
> latin source say that libum was eaten soaked in honey?

Andrew Dalby's notes for the passage on libum in his edition of Cato  
quotes Athenaeus as saying, "Next came in a cake made of milk, biscuit  
and honey: what Romans call libon."

It does appear that Cato's is just one recipe for a fairly widely- 
known dish that may have several contemporary variants.

Adamantius