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Recreating food
#1
This is probably a sensitive subject, but my wife, a good cook, is at odds with other reenactors in their interpretations of Roman recipes. Many that we've seen to us seem pretty inedible. The wheat/grain breads are heavy and take a lot of chewing. Many of the other recipes are defended as straight from Epicius. However, with all the money Romans had and their interest in eating, and that we can't be all that different from them, it seems unlikely they ate this.<br>
We think Epicius was a guide rather than recipes. The Joy of Cooking relates that 18th and 19th century American recipes really had not exact measurements or procedure; cooks were so experienced that they grasped the dish from the bare specifications. Such we think was the way of the Romans.<br>
Given that, how do you do your food displays? Thoughts on this? <p></p><i></i>
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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#2
I'll let you know how the honeycakes come out,i.e. are they actually decent enough to eat and don't turn into lumps of concrete after one day on the shelf.Obviously my cooking would have nothing to do with the wrong results.<br>
Lawrence <p></p><i></i>
Lawrence Payne

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#3
try getting hold of a copy of Sally Graingers book<br>
The Classic Cookbook<br>
Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger<br>
ISBN 0-7141-2222-X<br>
she does lot of Roman and other historic cooking and is very good at it-- using basically the Roman way of cooking too.<br>
<br>
I have tried quite a bit of her her stuff............some is very tasty, but Romans did have their taste buds wired differently<br>
<br>
<br>
the other thing to remember many are recipes which were probabaly for the posh folk<br>
<br>
in our encampment we do sausages, chicken in wine/honey and herbs and great mushrooms in honey [with other secret ingredients---ie I cant remember]<br>
<br>
and bread made from spelt--coarse and heavy brown bread but lots of flavour sort of nutty<br>
<br>
<br>
o and goats cheese sometimes..........................<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
and olives ............................bleurgh <p><img src="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.martin/forum/mark.gif
" width="100" height="100" align="right">
</p><i></i>
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#4
I think you're right about Apicius just being a guide Rich.<br>
I guess how heavily you flavored some dishes would also depend on how 'ripe' the meat was. Without refrigeration it must have gone off pretty quickly.<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>
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#5
I think it's entirely realistic to make authentic recipes if you limit yourself to what was available at the time. Chicken is chicken, and olive oil just that. However, I would never have imagined stuffed doormice. Yet, remember that the american bison became almost extinct because it's TONGUE was considered a delicacy and the beast shot just for that. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub27.ezboard.com/bromancivtalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=richsc>Richsc</A> at: 7/13/03 8:37 pm<br></i>
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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#6
I will post this thought here as well...<br>
.....even if we had the exact items in the exact quanities and cooked by Apicius' own master cook, we might not like the result. The differences in cultural tastes, foods that taste right, are very great in the world today, and things that are yummy in Korea or Viet Nam or Nigeria or Japan or Ukraine or Germany or France or England (and so on), might not please your palate.<br>
Different areas in the USA and different sub-cultures have different tastes in foods, as we can see by the 2 billion US dollars a year "ethnic frozen food" business!<br>
Romans seem to have enjoyed mixing sweets and sours, bitter and tarts, salty and spicey in ways that might seem unpalatable!<br>
Actual posca, (water and vinegar) or wine watered with seawater really takes some getting used to, and we always want to tweak the recipes to make them taste "good". Plus we have mental hurdles to overcome, like eating tongue, or doormice or "hung" pheasant.<br>
Just because a Roman meal doesn't taste "good" does NOT mean you did it wrong!<br>
<p>"Just before class started, I looked in the big book where all the world's history is written, and it said...." Neil J. Hackett, PhD ancient history, professor OSU, 1987</p><i></i>
Caius Fabius Maior
Charles Foxtrot
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#7
Hi there,<br>
<br>
I may be a bit late with my reply to this thread...<br>
<br>
I cook for anything upwards of about 20 people in a re-constructed Roman Caupona for my re-enactment group Legio II. Although I've only been managing the Caupona for a little while now, I have already discovered that many Roman recipes are both difficult to cook (in terms of getting hold of ingredients or making then from scratch) and not palatable to modern tastes.<br>
<br>
So far I have manily stuck to stews (usually chicken), pancakes, fresh bread, fruit, goats cheese, toasted sandwiches and things such as sausages. I do have an original recipe...<span style="color:black;font-family:helvetica;font-sizeConfusedmall;">Small Helvetica</span>with thanks to Hanneke for shallow fried cheese balls which you dip in honey and seasame seeds - these always go down well!<br>
<br>
I intend on experimenting over the winter with different Roman recipes to see what is (a) affordable, (b) practical. I think one of the big problems is the actual physical limitations of a pop-up-stand, i.e. no bread oven. Even still, the Caupona seems to mirror its historical counterpart as it is still the place where everyone likes to hang out during events!<br>
<br>
I am happy to share the results of my experiements in due course with everyone for more discussion!<br>
<br>
Claire <p></p><i></i>
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#8
Claire/Helena, we noticed that all our reenactors hang out by the food too. If we had wine no telling what would happen. We are thinking of expanding the caupona by adding another six panels, when I get the time and there are no hurricanes ! <p></p><i></i>
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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#9
Claire/Helena--<br>
<br>
I sure would like to see you post your recipe for the shallow fried cheese balls. Are these something that can be served cold, or would they need to be warmed up first? Do they save, so they can be cooked at home and then taken to an event? Since I am running a popina now, I am always on the lookout for more dishes like this.<br>
<br>
Arturius Britannicus<br>
Coh. III. Gal. et. Br. (retired) <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub27.ezboard.com/bromancivtalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=arturiusbritannicus>Arturius Britannicus</A> <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://www.quiknet.com/~fifi/index4.html" BORDER=0> at: 9/30/03 5:22 pm<br></i>
Arturius Britannicus
Coh. III.Gal.et.Br.
aka Arthur Gamon
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