[Sca-cooks] Apicius question(s)

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Cailte wrote:
>  > Which Apicius are you using?
>
>  Vehling.  I know there is a more recent, and perhaps
>  better one, but Vehling fit the budget, even at Amazon.

Ah! Well, ya gets what ya pays for. Vehling is cheap, readily 
available, and woefully inaccurate. I don't own a copy, so i can't 
easily compare any of the recipes you're using with the versions i do 
own. I think he may have been webbed somewhere, though...

And it's true, the recent and excellent translation by Christopher 
Grocock, published by Prospect Press, is kind of expensive (but such 
a deal - shortly after it came out, one could get Grocock plus his 
wife's book of worked out recipes for less than Grocock alone, which 
is what i did).

Until that became available i relied on the Flower and Rosenberg 
translation, which i bought shortly after joining the SCA for a 
reasonable price (although i don't recall what i paid).

I recently purchased Jonathan Edward's OOP translation for $1.99 - 
shipping was $4.99 (!). He's no better than Vehling, just different - 
harder to find, though, which is why i got it. Probably worth the 
$6.98 to me just because i'm something of a completist, but not a 
book i would recommend to anyone. For example, Edwards routinely 
substitutes rosemary for rue! Not a good substitute, not that i can 
think of a good substitute, but certainly not rosemary.

Anyway, substitute asafoedita for laser & sylphium/sylphion.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita