Sally Grainger was originally a chef, but in her 20’s, she was gifted a copy of an ancient Roman cookbook called Apicius.
Apicius is a bit of a fluke. It shouldn’t have survived the 2000-ish year journey into the modern era, but it did. And in this episode of Here Be Monsters, Grainger explains how Apicius persisted due to being a favorite text for monks-in-training to practice their gilding skills. And thus, this fascinating book of recipes (featuring cooking instructions for boiled ostrich soup, complex sauces, and cucumbers stewed with brains) is still feeding people today.
While cuisine today might seem distant from ostrich soup, Grainger thinks that Roman food often gets inaccurately portrayed as overly decadent or overly spiced. Cooked correctly, the cuisine is quite balanced, she says. And in her book, Cooking Apicius, she uses her knowledge of ancient Roman life to put the recipes in context for a contemporary kitchen and contemporary cooks.
Also, on this episode, Jeff also reads from a 1932 English translation of Apicius by Joseph Dommers Vehling, which is available in the public domain thanks to Project Gutenberg.
Producer: Jeff EmtmanMusic: The Black Spot
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HBM144: Keeping A Place
HBM143: Laughing Rats and Dawn Rituals
HBM142: The Vastness of the Universe
HBM141: Filthy Riches
Season 9 = February 17th
HBM Continues as an Independent Podcast
HBM140: The New Black Wall Street
HBM139: Acceptable Pains
HBM138: Did Neanderthals Bury their Dead?
HBM137: Superhappiness
HBM136: Jacob's Lost Biography
HBM135: Dying Well
HBM134: Questionable Hobbies of the Socially Isolated
HBM133: Prey of Worms
HBM132: Moral Enhancement
HBM131: A Cure for Carsickness
HBM130: Mother Pigeon / Sister Marta
HBM129: The Underearthlings
HBM128: Seeing Auras
HBM127: QALYs
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