5 ms·

Putting Ancient Recipes on the Plate

80 points by benbreen 9y ago

quickben 9y ago
Ha, that bread, panis quadratus; the entire village where I grew up makes it like that, usually minus the string, but they cut it finely on the top, add the sun and all. Who would have thought it's from Roman times.
- AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
  How is it? It looks delicious.
- bcaulfield 9y ago
  Italian village? Where you from? Romania?
coldcode 9y ago
Sign me up for a restaurant that makes ancient recipes. Would you like 2700 year old beer with that 2000 year old bread?
- bpicolo 9y ago
  On the average you'll find them much less tasty than your modern palate is used to. Maybe if they spruce it up with modern standards like salt (which was uber-luxury then).
  - DonaldFisk 9y ago
    The recipes of Ancient Rome were quite heavy on herbs and spices, so they were anything but bland. Instead of salt, they used liquamen/garum, which is a fermented fish sauce similar to colatura/nuoc mam/nam pla. I've cooked quite a few of them. My web page (from around 20 years ago, with lots of dead links) is at http://web.onetel.com/~hibou/Apicius.html http://web.onetel.com/~hibou/Apicius.html The complete text (in Latin) of Apicius's De Re Coquinaria is here: http://users.ipa.net/~tanker/apicius.htm http://users.ipa.net/~tanker/apicius.htm In addition to Apicius, there are recipes in De Agri Cultura by Cato.
- DonaldFisk 9y ago
  I like Ancient Roman food (the oldest complete recipes available), used to cook it quite often, and have served it to family and guests. It isn't to everyone's taste, possibly due to unfamiliar herbs (e.g. rue, lovage), spices (e.g. asafoetida), and their putting fish sauce in everything, including sometimes puddings.
  - muninn_ 9y ago
    Any good recommendations for recipes to check out? Preferably a big list? :)
    - mywittyname 9y ago
      Depending on how "ancient" you're looking for, Cooking the Roman Way is a very interesting read and focuses on Italian recipes passed down among families over generations. These will tend to be shaped by history and altered as availability of ingredients changed. Presumably, the person altering the recipe knew what the old version tasted like, so while it won't necessarily be authentic, I think it's probably better than the wild guesses made during translation of actual ancient recipes.
      - DonaldFisk 9y ago
        That's a modern Italian cookery book. The cuisine of Italy has changed out of all recognition in the past 2000 years. Ancient Romans had none of the new world ingredients which are staples of modern Italian cuisine: tomatoes, courgettes, pepper, maize, potatoes. Nor did they have aubergines or basil despite their trade with India. We have absolutely no problem translating the original recipes, which are in Latin. The only ambiguity is in ingredient quantities and cooking times, but any competent cook is able to figure those out.
  - vram22 9y ago
    Interesting. First time I've heard that someone actually does that - cooks with ancient recipes. Cool. > fish sauce Garum? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garum Edit: Okay, saw your other comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16205619 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16205619
- amyjess 9y ago
  Honestly, I just really want to try gruit beer. I've never been a fan of hops, so I've always been really curious what unhopped beer tastes like. (edit: I mean, I already drink a lot of malt-forward lightly-hopped beers like scotch ales, sweet stouts, and bocks, but I really want to try a beer with no hops at all)
  - Endy 9y ago
    That makes two of us!
staunch 9y ago
I absolutely love this stuff and nothing has stoked my interest in it as much as the Townsends (formerly "Jas Townsend & Son") channel on YouTube Townsend "explores the 18th century" through food. There's a lot of similarities to 1st century Roman cookery, which it must be (at least distantly) related to. https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson
- marak830 9y ago
  Oh thank you for that, I have recently been cooking the recipes from an old book I found approx 150 years old(from the English side of the family). It's difficult to say the least(mostly due to weird measurements).
snambi 9y ago
oh my god... that green stuff doesn't look right.
- dang 9y ago
  Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments?
mallow 9y ago
I tried this recipe long before it appeared on HN. I utterly failed!! :( The bread was good but there was no way to keep the shape. And it was just so massive.
DaniFong 9y ago
yes!

80 points by benbreen 9y ago

Ha, that bread, panis quadratus; the entire village where I grew up makes it like that, usually minus the string, but they cut it finely on the top, add the sun and all. Who would have thought it's from Roman times.

AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
How is it? It looks delicious.
bcaulfield 9y ago
Italian village? Where you from? Romania?

coldcode 9y ago

Sign me up for a restaurant that makes ancient recipes. Would you like 2700 year old beer with that 2000 year old bread?

bpicolo 9y ago
On the average you'll find them much less tasty than your modern palate is used to. Maybe if they spruce it up with modern standards like salt (which was uber-luxury then).
- DonaldFisk 9y ago
  The recipes of Ancient Rome were quite heavy on herbs and spices, so they were anything but bland. Instead of salt, they used liquamen/garum, which is a fermented fish sauce similar to colatura/nuoc mam/nam pla. I've cooked quite a few of them. My web page (from around 20 years ago, with lots of dead links) is at http://web.onetel.com/~hibou/Apicius.html http://web.onetel.com/~hibou/Apicius.html The complete text (in Latin) of Apicius's De Re Coquinaria is here: http://users.ipa.net/~tanker/apicius.htm http://users.ipa.net/~tanker/apicius.htm In addition to Apicius, there are recipes in De Agri Cultura by Cato.
DonaldFisk 9y ago
I like Ancient Roman food (the oldest complete recipes available), used to cook it quite often, and have served it to family and guests. It isn't to everyone's taste, possibly due to unfamiliar herbs (e.g. rue, lovage), spices (e.g. asafoetida), and their putting fish sauce in everything, including sometimes puddings.
- muninn_ 9y ago
  Any good recommendations for recipes to check out? Preferably a big list? :)
  - mywittyname 9y ago
    Depending on how "ancient" you're looking for, Cooking the Roman Way is a very interesting read and focuses on Italian recipes passed down among families over generations. These will tend to be shaped by history and altered as availability of ingredients changed. Presumably, the person altering the recipe knew what the old version tasted like, so while it won't necessarily be authentic, I think it's probably better than the wild guesses made during translation of actual ancient recipes.
    - DonaldFisk 9y ago
      That's a modern Italian cookery book. The cuisine of Italy has changed out of all recognition in the past 2000 years. Ancient Romans had none of the new world ingredients which are staples of modern Italian cuisine: tomatoes, courgettes, pepper, maize, potatoes. Nor did they have aubergines or basil despite their trade with India. We have absolutely no problem translating the original recipes, which are in Latin. The only ambiguity is in ingredient quantities and cooking times, but any competent cook is able to figure those out.
- vram22 9y ago
  Interesting. First time I've heard that someone actually does that - cooks with ancient recipes. Cool. > fish sauce Garum? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garum Edit: Okay, saw your other comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16205619 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16205619
amyjess 9y ago
Honestly, I just really want to try gruit beer. I've never been a fan of hops, so I've always been really curious what unhopped beer tastes like. (edit: I mean, I already drink a lot of malt-forward lightly-hopped beers like scotch ales, sweet stouts, and bocks, but I really want to try a beer with no hops at all)
- Endy 9y ago
  That makes two of us!

staunch 9y ago

I absolutely love this stuff and nothing has stoked my interest in it as much as the Townsends (formerly "Jas Townsend & Son") channel on YouTube Townsend "explores the 18th century" through food. There's a lot of similarities to 1st century Roman cookery, which it must be (at least distantly) related to. https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson

marak830 9y ago
Oh thank you for that, I have recently been cooking the recipes from an old book I found approx 150 years old(from the English side of the family). It's difficult to say the least(mostly due to weird measurements).

snambi 9y ago

oh my god... that green stuff doesn't look right.

dang 9y ago
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments?

mallow 9y ago

I tried this recipe long before it appeared on HN. I utterly failed!! :( The bread was good but there was no way to keep the shape. And it was just so massive.

DaniFong 9y ago

yes!