06-06-2005, 08:34 AM
Very few ancient recipes give quantities at all, and neither Apicius nor Vinidarius mention salt often. It has been theorised that in Roman upper class cuisine, garum stood in for salt and thus in many recipes the mention of 'garum' is equivalent to the 'pinch of salt' that goes into all kinds of modern foods to bring out the flavours.
Personally, I'm not sold on the 'oversalted' theory. We do not have quantities, and it was long assumed on dubious evidence that the plethora of herbs and aromatics mentioned in recipes must have been overwhelming, but they can equally well be balanced very finely. Chinese chefs do it all the time. It's just us Westerners that aren't good at it any more.
Remember, they also used to say that medieval food was spiced to disguise the taste of rotten meat.
Personally, I'm not sold on the 'oversalted' theory. We do not have quantities, and it was long assumed on dubious evidence that the plethora of herbs and aromatics mentioned in recipes must have been overwhelming, but they can equally well be balanced very finely. Chinese chefs do it all the time. It's just us Westerners that aren't good at it any more.
Remember, they also used to say that medieval food was spiced to disguise the taste of rotten meat.
Der Kessel ist voll Bärks!
Volker Bach
Volker Bach
