Apicius

De re coquinaria ( "On cookery " ) is the oldest surviving cookbook of ancient Rome. The text in its present form dates from the 3rd or 4th century.

As the author's name Caelius Apicius is narrated what refers to several Roman gourmets that name. None of this is true today as an author, but it is believed that it is a repeatedly is extended and expanded collection of recipes over a long period of time. The fact that one of the relevant gourmet contributed certain recipes and so it came to the write-up is possible. It is also possible that the origin of the cookbook is a composed in honor of one of the gourmet recipe collection.

Brandt ( see references ) assumed that Marcus Gavius ​​Apicius could have written two cookbooks: The one cookbook was generally held, the second contained sauce recipes. Both books were written together by a copyist and mixed with other recipes from other sources. This would explain the high proportion of sauce recipes from around 100 among the 400 recipes. The 3rd or 4th century, it is assumed for the final editing.

Get the cookbook is only in two Carolingian manuscripts of the 9th century. A manuscript from a monastery in Fulda was bought in 1929 by the New York Academy of Medicine and can be visited in the original or as a copy in the library of the Academy (Enoch of Ascoli ). The second manuscript is in the Vatican Library. Another incomplete manuscript, whose whereabouts are unknown, was discovered by Alban Thorer on the island Maguelone at Montpellier.

The recipes do not correspond to the form that we perceive today as typical, but are short, barely explained cooking suggestions, because they assumed that the reader with all the basic techniques and cooking ideas of his time was familiar - in accordance with professional contemporary works such as herring lexicon of the kitchen. Very often, there is a recipe just from a list of ingredients, often times with statements such as " much " or " little ", in some cases lack even the verb, such as " cook " or " fry " Only a few recipes with dimensions executed. One example is the recipe for pork liver quoted:

The recipe collection includes, moreover, very few such unusual dishes as Sauzitzen and stuffed dormice and little instructions for elaborate table decorations. On the contrary: Most of the recipes are rather simple, reminiscent of Chinese " sweet and sour " or North African cuisine can be felt. The cookbook of Apicius hardly offers recipes for " orgies " or decadent -looking concoctions.