"Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome" by Apicius is the oldest known cookbook in existence. There are recipes for cooking fish and seafood, game, chicken, pork, veal, and other domesticated animals and birds, for vegetable dishes, grains, beverages, and sauces; virtually the full range of cookery is covered. There are also methods for preserving food and revitalizing them in ways that are surprisingly still relevant.
Oldest known cookbook in existence offers readers a clear picture of what foods Romans ate and how they prepared them, from fig fed pork to rose pie. 49 illustrations.
Apicius, first century author of De Re Conquinaria (On Cookery), has been described as the most demanding of gourmets, and his amazingly sophisticated recipes havve long been awaiting rediscovery with practical adaptation for the modern kitchen. In The Roman Cookery of Apicius, John Edwards has given us a new, close translation of Apicius' manual, coupled with his adpted and tested versions of 360 superb recipes. Most attractive for modern lovers of fine cookery is the enormous variety, orginality and richness of flavours, achieved with entirely pure and natural ingredients. The many kinds of meats, vegetables, fish, fowl, shellfish, cheeses, fruits, nuts, herbs, spices, honey and wines - all familiar in themselves - here appear delectably transformed in surprising combinations. One can prepare theses recipes and actually experience the distinctive dishes of Apicius' day, with flavours that range from the delicate and subtle to the hot and pungent, or the richly sweet. This is a perfect manual for food lovers an adventurous cooks, hoping to be inspired.
Apicius is a collection of Roman cookery recipes, thought to have been compiled in the 1st century AD and written in a language in many ways closer to Vulgar than to Classical Latin; later recipes using Vulgar Latin (such as ficatum, bullire) were added to earlier recipes using Classical Latin (such as iecur, fervere). Based on textual analysis, the food scholar Bruno Laurioux believes that the surviving version only dates from the fifth century (that is, the end of the Roman Empire): "The history of De Re Coquinaria indeed belongs then to the Middle Ages".The name "Apicius" is taken from the habits of an early bearer of the name, Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman gourmet who lived sometime in the 1st century AD during the reign of Tiberius. He is sometimes erroneously asserted to be the author of the book pseudepigraphically attributed to him.Apicius is a text to be used in the kitchen. In the earliest printed editions, it was usually called De re coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking), and attributed to an otherwise unknown Caelius Apicius, an invention based on the fact that one of the two manuscripts is headed with the words "API CAE" or rather because a few recipes are attributed to Apicius in the text: Patinam Apicianam sic facies (IV, 14) Ofellas Apicianas (VII, 2). It is also known as De re culinaria.
2012 Reprint of 1958 New York Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This is an English translation of the oldest known cookbook in existence. The book was originally written for professional cooks working in Ancient Rome, and contains actual recipes presented in the form of a cookbook. The work is translated with the intention of providing an actual cookbook rather than as a scholarly translation of an ancient text. Illustrated. The text is organized in ten books which are arranged in a manner similar to a modern cookbook: Epimeles - The Careful Housekeeper Sarcoptes - The Meat Mincer Cepuros - The Gardener Pandecter - Many Ingredients Ospreon - Pulse Aeropetes - Birds Polyteles - The Gourmet Tetrapus - The Quadruped Thalassa - The Sea Halieus - The Fisherman
Perhaps assembled around the fifth century CE or earlier, Apicius, often known as De re culinaria or De re coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking), is a body of Roman cooking recipes. With subsequent recipes adding Vulgar Latin (such as ficatum and bullire) to earlier recipes employing Classical Latin, its vocabulary is in many respects closer to Vulgar than to Classical Latin.Based on the fact that one of the two manuscripts is headed with the words "API CAE," or rather, because a few recipes are attributed to Apicius in the text, the book has been ascribed to an otherwise unknown Caelius Apicius: Patinam Apicianam sic facies (IV, 14). It has alternatively been ascribed to Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman gourmet who flourished during Tiberius's rule sometime in the first century CE. Furthermore, numerous Roman chefs from the first century CE could have penned the book.
Ancient Roman gastronomy was famous for an incomparable skill in the art of pairing the ingredients, with its Mediterranean flavors and healthy balance among the aromas.Many sources record the greatness of Roman cuisine. Writers and poets celebrate its beauty, complexity, decadence, and at the same time, its simplicity. Agronomists tell the life in the countryside, showing the farming techniques and the preparation of common preserves, from cured meat to cheese, vegetables, fruit. Cooks focus on providing unique sensorial experiences through the learned use of ingredients that belong to our history, now almost forgotten. Silphium, garum, mulsum, allec, sapa are just some of them.A journey back in time through ingredients and recipes, from the republican age to the empire, to rediscover an extraordinary culinary tradition that will satisfy, still today, the most refined palates.
From appetizers to desserts, the rustic to the refined, here are more than two hundred recipes from ancient Rome tested and updated for today's tastes. With its intriguing sweet-sour flavor combinations, its lavish use of fresh herbs and fragrant spices, and its base in whole grains and fruits and vegetables, the cuisine of Rome will be a revelation to serious cooks ready to create new dishes in the spirit of an ancient culture.
