Apicius’ Roman Cookery Book (file under Nouvelle huh?)

Pliny once wrote of Apicius; " the most gluttonous gorger of all spendthrifts, established the view that the flamingo's tongue has a specially fine flavor." And I need to beg the question; who says he was wrong?

I imagine that my file under has you all a bit perplexed. Of course Nouvelle Cuisine came to us by way of Marin, Menon, Escoffier, Gault, Bocuse, Chapel, Troisgros Brothers, Guerard, Verge and Oliver as is observed by common consensus. However it would seem (though I do need further study) that much of what we term as nouvelle cuisine today is in fact the result of Apicius Roman Cookery Book which was written an astonishingly fifteen to sixteen hundred years ago.

The particular copy that I got my hands on (though I am sure by now Google has it on Google Books) is presented with the Latin version on the left side of the page and the English translation on the right.

I observed that some of the recipes seemed to be arcane (ah duh), silly or just plain unnecessary such as one which teaches how to turn red wine white. The first question that popped into my head is why would anyone assault a red wine with a recipe such as this?

Another recipe that struck me (perhaps because it reminded me of Garde Manger) was to turn bad honey into good honey. This is quite simply accomplished by heating two thirds of the bad honey with one third of the good honey. And according to the recipe “Voila” good honey. To me it is unclear whether this recipe is meant to be dishonest or as a means of eliciting further profit. Moreover, for me, it is hard to test the recipe as most honey today is prepared to avoid such spoilage.

He has numerous recipes for the preservation of meats, vegetables, fruits, etc. I am excited to try each and every one of them and to relay the results to you my loyal readers. He has numerous recipes for broths, soups and purees which I am curious to try. Specifically in the trying of these recipes I want to know about the texture resultant.

On page 149 of the copy I had is the recipe for Flamingo that Pliny is so bothered by. Interestingly to me was that there were recipes for snails and wombs. I’ve never had nor conceived of eating a womb (perhaps because of my consciousness) but it did make me wonder why there would be a recipe for it. Are people out there eating womb today? If so I would be curious to know how it is prepared and moreover if there is a ritualistic aspect to the use of the womb.

All in all I would suggest that anyone serious about food should at the very least peruse this book as it has some very interesting recipes. When I try them out I will let you know the result.

Plutarch once wrote; “The same intelligence is required to marshal an army in battle and to order a good dinner. The first must be as formidable as possible, the second as pleasant as possible, to the participants.”

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM