‘ Laudas, insane, trilibrem
Mullum, in singula quenl minuas pulmenta necesse est.’
Now, according to Rumohr, singula pulrntnla would mean separate
dishes, separately prepared ; but according to Georges, Diet. Lat.,
singula pulmenta are single pieces, carved portions of the served fish
which each guest receives. Georges quotes just this passage from Horace
(Sat., ii. 2, 341).
, Apicius, lib. ix., cap. xiii. (de mullo) : *et si volueris in foi'mella
piscem formabis. ’
§ Seneca, Epist. 95, ‘ torti distractique sine ullis ossibus mulli ’ This
seems an accurate description of rolled fillets of barbel, and may have been
a very accomplished and by no means over-dressed dish.
.11 Apicii Coelii, ‘ De Arte Coquendi.’ Libri decern, ‘de opsoniis et cou-
dimentis, s. arte c-quinaria.’ Many editions, a good one by Mart. Lister
Amstelodam., 1709. Lister believes the author to have been an Africaii
who compiled his work from different Greek, Roman, and African authors,
and whose_ name was Cselius or Ctecilius, and who gave to his book the
title Apicius, in the same manner as Cicero entitled his work ‘De
22
THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY
impossible to read many of the prescriptions in this work
without coming to the conclusion that they are, indeed,
absurd recipes for mixtures in which the natural ingredients
of food were so comminuted, confounded, and overlaid with
flavours and spices, that the whole could not by any means
produce a pleasant impression on the palate or be whole-
some for the stomach. We therefore decline to believe
that an artist, such as the writer of the body of tbe work of
Apicius evidently was, could also have been the author of
such enormities as are contained in the work attributed to
him. We hold all such passages to be corruptions partly
by omission, partly by later additions effected by ignorant
persons, principally copying clerks ; in particular, it appears
to us that many prescriptions are alternatives which have
been clumsily strung together as if they were parts of a
single process. We think it probable that an analysis and
expurgation of the text of Apicius, by the light of this hypo-
thesis, would result in a much better knowledge of antique
cookery than that which is available at the present time.
In connection with this it should be remembered that
there lived at Eome at different periods three persons of the
name of Apicius whom fame connects with cookery ; one
under the republic at the time of Sylla ; the second one
under Augustus and Tiberius; the third under Trajan.
The observations made by Seneca, Pliny, Juvenal, and
Martial refer to the second Apicius, surnamed Marcus
Gabius ; to this gastronomer Tiberius sent the turbot of
Capri, which he was not rich enough, he said, himself to
buy. This man possessed a property of two million pounds
sterling in value : of this he squandered four-fifths upon his
Senectute ’ Cato, and that ‘ De Amicitia ’ Lslins. See the entire literature
of this discussion in Graesse, ‘Liter. Geschichte,’ vol. i., p. 1201.
Opwuium or obnoninm, from the Greek, is everything eaten with bread,
such as vegetables, meat, and fish. Horace uses obsonia for dishes of fish
(Gr. btpci) ; hence obnonare or obsonari, to buy for the kitchen or give a
dinner.
THE HISTORIC LITERATURE OF COOKERY 23
Page 24
Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
‘ Laudas, insane, trilibrem
Mullum, in singula quenl minuas pulmenta necesse est.’
Now, according to Rumohr, singula pulrntnla would mean separate dishes, separately prepared ; but according to Georges, Diet. Lat., singula pulmenta are single pieces, carved portions of the served fish which each guest receives. Georges quotes just this passage from Horace (Sat., ii. 2, 341).
, Apicius, lib. ix., cap. xiii. (de mullo) : *et si volueris in foi'mella piscem formabis. ’
§ Seneca, Epist. 95, ‘ torti distractique sine ullis ossibus mulli ’ This seems an accurate description of rolled fillets of barbel, and may have been a very accomplished and by no means over-dressed dish.
.11 Apicii Coelii, ‘ De Arte Coquendi.’ Libri decern, ‘de opsoniis et coudimentis, s. arte c-quinaria.’ Many editions, a good one by Mart. Lister Amstelodam., 1709. Lister believes the author to have been an Africaii who compiled his work from different Greek, Roman, and African authors, and whose_ name was Cselius or Ctecilius, and who gave to his book the title Apicius, in the same manner as Cicero entitled his work ‘De
impossible to read many of the prescriptions in this work without coming to the conclusion that they are, indeed, absurd recipes for mixtures in which the natural ingredients of food were so comminuted, confounded, and overlaid with flavours and spices, that the whole could not by any means produce a pleasant impression on the palate or be wholesome for the stomach. We therefore decline to believe that an artist, such as the writer of the body of tbe work of Apicius evidently was, could also have been the author of such enormities as are contained in the work attributed to him. We hold all such passages to be corruptions partly by omission, partly by later additions effected by ignorant persons, principally copying clerks ; in particular, it appears to us that many prescriptions are alternatives which have been clumsily strung together as if they were parts of a single process. We think it probable that an analysis and expurgation of the text of Apicius, by the light of this hypothesis, would result in a much better knowledge of antique cookery than that which is available at the present time.
In connection with this it should be remembered that there lived at Eome at different periods three persons of the name of Apicius whom fame connects with cookery ; one under the republic at the time of Sylla ; the second one under Augustus and Tiberius; the third under Trajan. The observations made by Seneca, Pliny, Juvenal, and Martial refer to the second Apicius, surnamed Marcus Gabius ; to this gastronomer Tiberius sent the turbot of Capri, which he was not rich enough, he said, himself to buy. This man possessed a property of two million pounds sterling in value : of this he squandered four-fifths upon his
Senectute ’ Cato, and that ‘ De Amicitia ’ Lslins. See the entire literature of this discussion in Graesse, ‘Liter. Geschichte,’ vol. i., p. 1201. Opwuium or obnoninm, from the Greek, is everything eaten with bread, such as vegetables, meat, and fish. Horace uses obsonia for dishes of fish (Gr. btpci) ; hence obnonare or obsonari, to buy for the kitchen or give a dinner.