Lecture 9: Dining in Republican and Imperial Rome
The recipes in the cookbook, though gathered several centuries
after the historical Apicius lived, nonetheless bear witness to this
reputation for lavishness. There are directions for making boiled
ostrich served in a sauce of pepper, mint, cumin, celery seeds,
dates, honey vinegar, raisin wine, garum, and oil and thickened with
starch. This recipe has a wild juxtaposition of fl avors, with sweet,
sour, savory, spicy, and salty fl avors all competing for attention
in one dish. The ingredients also come from the far-fl ung corners
of the Roman Empire and beyond: African ostrich, Indian pepper,
dates from the Middle East, and garum from Spain. What could this odd fl avor combination possibly mean, apart from
revealing the seriously jaded palates of Roman diners? Foremost,
it is designed to impress with wealth and sophistication. As a
cookbook, it also teaches how to cook dishes that are unfamiliar.
In other words, this cookbook seems designed precisely to appeal
to social aspirants who want to get it all right at their next dinner
party. Someone who owned the cookbook would presumably
dictate precise directions for these dishes to their cooks, who were
probably illiterate. Recipes include stuffed dormice, sow’s womb, and fl amingo
tongues—things perhaps appreciated precisely for their gross-
out factor as well as their rarity. The vast majority of recipes also
feature the ingenuity of the cook in transforming ingredients into
something completely new. One of the most shocking recipes is for
a rose patina made of pounded brains and rose petals steamed with
eggs in a shallow custard-like tart. There are also pretty ordinary ingredients and simple recipes in
Apicius’s cookbook. Nonetheless, it seems like the appearance of
the oddities suggests an audience eager to try out strange recipes to
impress dinner guests—social aspirants who will be judged by the
food they serve. Thus, they must choose foods that clearly denote
status. Rare and unusual ingredients and complex cooking methods
serve as ingenious tricks to titillate guests.