COOKING APICIUS - ROMAN RECIPES FOR TODAY
SALLY GRAINGER

book cover
128 pp; 216x138mm; 6 b&w illustrations; paperback 

ISBN 1903018447 £10

published June 2006

sample pages 1.6mb download

 To accompany the new scholarly edition of Apicus Sally Grainger has gathered, in one convenient volume, her modern interpretations of 64 of the recipes in the original text. This is not ‘recipes inspired by the old Romans’ but rather a serious effort to convert the extremely gnomic instructions in the Latin into something that can be reproduced in the modern kitchen which actually gives some idea of what the Romans might have eaten. Sally Grainger, therefore, has taken great pains to suggest means of replicating the particular Roman taste for fermented fish sauce. It may sound unpleasant, but actually is not too far removed from the fish sauces of the Far East and any reproduction of Roman cookery must depend on getting this particular aspect right.

Not all the recipes are for mad Roman luxuries such as lark’s tongues and boar’s bottoms, she has taken care to include perfectly do-able and affordable dishes such as cucumber with mint dressing, duck with turnip, roast lamb with coriander, carrots or parsnips in a cumin-honey glaze, almond and semolina pudding, and deep fried honey fritters.

The advantage of this manual over those that have come before is that it is more accurate and benefits from all the hard work that Sally Grainger and Christopher Grocock have put into getting the text of Apicius itself into some sort of working order.

Sally Grainger is the author of The Classical Cookbook (with Andrew Dalby) for the British Museum. She is a leading reconstructionist cook and has produced classical and medieval meals for countless conferences and public gatherings.
logo
Catalogue by Author
Prospect Books Home Page
Index/Prices