[Sca-cooks] the Smithsonian's take on the history of the hamburger

[Johnna Holloway]

Several things wrong here with the article. Vehling translation was published in 1936, not the 19th century. They chose free and unreliable when the Grocock and Grainger version is widely available. Their English version of "esicia omentata" is

"2.1.7 Forcemeat faggots: you pound chopped meat with fresh white breadcrumbs soaked in wine, with pepper and liquamen; if you wish, you pound crushed myrtle berries with them. (5) You  shape the faggots with pine nuts and pepper placed inside. Wrap them in caul fat and roast (6) them with caroenum.  Pp. 149. 

Footnote 5: indicates the berries are opened up.
Footnote 6: indicates grilling
Caroenum is a sauce, perhaps made of wine or must.

Ok, so
Why didn't they use Andy Smith's book Hamburger. A Global History? Or how about John T. Edge's Hamburger and Fries? I mean start out with those focused researched books and go from there. Why invent the wheel or the in this case the burger? The Smithsonian seems to return to the topic frequently. 
Here's an earlier 2011 Smithsonian article which mentions another history of the hamburger book by Joel Ozersky.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-hamburger-a-quintessential-american-meal-178808853/
Or see this article here which says the hamburger in America dates to 1763. 
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/hamburger-history-59279160/

Johnnae

Sent from my iPad

> On Jul 18, 2016, at 11:16 AM, Terry Decker <t.d.decker at att.net> wrote:
> 
> The general group of recipes appears to fall in the section of Book II entitled Isicia or forcemeat and, if I am correct, the recipe they are following is Book II, Section 1, Recipe 7; Isicia Omentata.  That translates to Forcemeat in Caul.  Flower and Rosenbaum translates it as Forcemeat Sausages.  Vehling translates it as kromesky which is generally a meat croquette wrapped in bacon.
> Besides using the worst translation of Apicius, they chose to use beef, where based on perusal of the recipes, pork or veal would be more likely. Looking over Apicius's sauce, I also question the use of mustard as a condiment rather than as a minor ingredient in the a condiment.
> I don't have a copy of the Milham translation of Apicius, but it would be interesting to see her take on the recipe.
> Bear
>