Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome

by Apicius, Joseph Dommers Vehling (Editor)

Oldest known cookbook in existence offers readers a clear picture of what foods Romans ate and how they prepared them. Actual recipes — from fig fed pork and salt fish balls in wine sauce to pumpkin Alexander style, nut custard turnovers, and rose pie.

49 illustrations.

Genres: Cookbooks, History, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Classics, Food History

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 9, 2011

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to know what the Romans ate and how I could cook versions of the food. That's a bit disingenuous as I don't actually have an oven or a hob, if a microwave or rice cooker can't manage it then I can't either. I can cook. I've cooked in restaurants, I just hate it. All that chopping and fat spattering and cleaning up. When I'm in the US, Whole Foods is my kitchen!

But the book didn't deliver. I gave it up because the notes, appendices, indices, introductions, prefaces, explanations of typsetting, Apiciana and vocabularies were oppressive. There were more notes, more discussion, and notes about the notes. All these technicalities got in the way of the recipes and were oppressive.

I had expected a certain amount of background, but not a very detailed, occasionally smarmy, often derogatory criticism of the previous translations of the book published through the ages If you are interested in Apicius as a historical figure and what all the various translators made of his book, then you might enjoy this a lot more than I did.

There is much detail of what Romans ate for feasts, there were certainly takeaway restaurants in Pompeii and wooden structures meant that from time immemorial in almost every country there were communal ovens, usually the baker's. But there are few details of what Romans ate for breakfast. What about a mid-morning snack? When they passed a takeaway did they pop in for something fried or did these place sell sweet snacks, pastries and confectionaries? What did the wealthy people of "Imperial Rome" consider comfort food?

I didn't find out any of this. And when it became apparent that the recipes (when the book finally got to them) were just a reason for the author to make annotations and notes and he wasn't really interested in the food as much as deconstructing Appicus, I gave it up.

History books interest me, especially ones of culture rather than politics, because we are the children of those that went before and some things only change slowly. Greek culture is still relevant in the West. Our political systems, quite a lot of the legal arguments (they were a very litigious bunch), our plays, poetry and architecture is still relateable. For 1700 years the Greeks were tied up, often ruled, by the Romans who idolised Greek culture. At the basis of every culture is food. What did they eat for breakfast?

Review 100% of 1 Feb, totally rewritten as I had another go at reading some more of the book, but didn't get much further

Review 10/2020

[Ily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lettura per la parola del mese di ottobre 2018: cucina.

''L’unica cosa certa è che un cuoco di nome Apicio vissuto tra il I secolo a.C. e il IV secolo d.C. dette ai suoi ricettari il nome di «Libri di Apicio».
Poiché per alcuni storici della tarda romanità il nome di «Apicio» indicava – per antonomasia – l’esperto dell’arte culinaria, il titolo potrebbe intendersi come «Libri dell’esperto cuoco» alla cui stesura avrebbero collaborato vari cuochi della media e tarda romanità.''.

Si tratta di una raccolta di ricette e consigli tradizionali sulla preparazione e sul mantenimento delle pietanze, le quali sono suddivise in base alla loro tipologia in dieci libri, dagli ortaggi alle vivande prelibate. L'excursus è molto interessante per comprendere e capire quanto del retaggio dell'antica Roma ci sia pervenuto e quanto purtroppo sia andato perso nel tempo.

[PMM · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Preface:
"When Barbara Flower died in July 1955 we had worked through the whole book together, and the translation of most of Book I, the whole of Book II, and most of Book III had been written. In the following winter I resumed work alone. Had she lived to see the final result it would certainly contain fewer faults."

"This book is meant to be used as a cookery-book rather than read as a curiosity of literature."

Favored Highlights from Text:
"The Greeks and Romans ate the bulbous roots of various plants which are nowadays only cultivated for their flowers-for instance, the bulbs of gladiolas or asphodel. The latter were, according to Pliny, Nat Hist., XXI, 17, 67-68(107-111), baked in the ashes and eaten with salt and oil, or pounded with figs. Most highly praised by the Romans were the Megarean bulbs. The bulbs vary in size, shape, bitterness, and colour. They grew wild, but they were also cultivated. They were considered a very powerful aphrodisiac."
p125



"The Romans knew two kinds of beets, the white and the 'black,' the latter being our beetroot."
p87

"olisera codd.; Theasaurus Linguae Lantinae s.v. holus atrum-olisatrum-considers it a variant of Holus atrum. This is an umbelliferous plant, Smyrnium olusatrum, Greek hipposelinon, formerly used in England as celery-see 'Alexanders' in the O.E.D. Pliny, Nat. Hist., XX, II, 46 (117), recommends a decoction of the root in wine for calculus and the bite of mad dogs."
p87

"Patina a la Apicius. Make in the following way. Pieces of cooked sow's udder, fillets of fish, chicken meat, fig-peckers, cooked breasts of turtle-dove, and whatever other good things you can think of. Chop all this, apart from the fig-peckers, carefully..."
p107

"(b) When you cook a crane see to it that the head does not touch the water, but is outside it. When the crane is cooked wrap it in a warm cloth and pull its head: it will come off with the sinews, so that only the meat and the bones remain. [This is necessary] because one cannot eat it with the sinews."
p151

"Snails fed on milk. Take the snails, clean with a sponge, remove the membrane so that they may come out [of their shells]. Put in a vessel [with the snails] milk and salt for one day, for the following days add only milk, and clean away the excrements every hour. When the snails are fattened to the point that they cannot get back their shells fry them in oil. Serve with oenogarum. In a similar way they can be fed on meat."
p191

"Take 6 gallons of sea-water from the deep sea, where no fresh water comes in. Pound 1 1/2 lb. of salt, put it in, and stir with a stick until a boiled hen's egg will float on it, then stop mixing. Add 12 pints old wine, either from Aminoea or mixed white wine, mix well. Then pour it into a vessel treated with pitch, and seal. If you wish to prepare more sea-water make it according to the proportions given above."
p195

"Boned Sucking Kid or Lamb. Bone carefully from the gullet, so that it becomes like a sack, and empty the intestines competely by blowing into them from the head, so that the excrement will be emptied through the back passage. Wash carefully and fill with water, and an admixture of liquamen. Sew up the animal at the shoulders, and put it in the oven..."
p205

"Hare, another method. Mince liver and lights of the hare with its blood. Put in a saucepan liquamen and oil stock. Finely chop leek and coriander and add liver and lights. When this is done pound pepper, cumin, coriander, and asafoetida root, mint, rue, pennyroyal, moisten with vinegar, add the hare's liver and blood, pound together..."
p217

"Peas, Indian manner. Boil the peas, When the froth has been skimmed off chop leek and coriander, put into the saucepan, and bring to the boil. Take very small cuttlefish with their ink an dlet then cook like this [i.e. with the ink]. Add oil, liquamen, and wine and a bouquet of leek and coriander. Let it cook. When cooked pound pepper, lovage, origan, and a little caraway, moisten with some of the broth from the cuttlefish, blend with wine and passum. Chop the cuttlefish finely and add to the peas..."
p137

"Kid with Bay and Milk. Prepare the kid, bone, remove the entrails, including the stomach, wash. Put in a mortar pepper, lovage, asafoetida root, two bay-berries, a little pytherum, two or three brains; pound all this, add liquamen, season with salt. Strain 2 pints of milk and 2 tablespoonfuls of honey over the contents of the mortar. Stuff the guts with this mixture, and arrange them on the head of the kid in a circle. Cover with sausage-skin or paper, bind together, and place the kid in a saucepan or a shallow pan, adding liquamen, oil and wine. Half-way through the cooking-liquor. Add a little defrutum; mix well. Empty into the saucepan. When it is done remove paper and binding material, thicken the sauce with cornflour, and serve."
p207

somewhere, i swear i saw a recipe for porpoise.
there is a recipe for flamingo that one can also substitue with parrot.

[Sally Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know why this is public domain; not only is it old, but it's not very good. Dude's pompous and patronizing AF (footnotes are snide or mansplaining) and his Latin wasn't good enough to deal. He couldn't handle garum (fish sauce for umami) so he deemed it had to be broth. Man never had nuoc mam, is all I'm saying. He says pepper might sometimes be cinnamon, and sometimes mentions ingredients that only grow in N/S America. And of course he's all about making things be bland AF Midwestern of 100 years ago, so things he's scared of are things we eat every day. There's one recipe he proclaims a hopeless jumble -- I've made it and it's a lovely creamy salad dressing. Which is obvious if you read the listing.

No actual recipes, just lists of the ingredients. This is only useful in conjunction with proper modern interpretations of some of the recipes, and using their proportions to figure out something similar.

[Italo Italophiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ancient Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius, De Re Coquinaria is presented in an English translation together with a treatise on Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome. The editors are skilled cooks in their own right, which makes their book, which is in the public domain, one of the more intelligible printings of Apicius's book of recipes.

The Apicii Librii, The Apicius Books, are actually the ten chapters of the Ancient Roman chef's recipe collection. Included in this edition is a chapter of notes collected by a student of Apicius. Manuscripts, books written by hand, of Apicius's cookbook were copied over and over again through the centuries, from roughly 100 B.C., during the reigns of Augustus Caesar and Tiberius Caesar, to the late 1400s.

In the late 1400s, the only surviving cookbook from the Ancient Roman era was printed using the newly invented printing press. It has been in print ever since. While not the first European cookbook to be printed on a press, which was Platina's cookbook in 1474, Apicius's is the oldest European cookery book in existence, and its early printed editions are rare and highly valued. It is possibly the oldest cookery book in the world.

There are ten chapters (roughly 500 recipes) in Apicius's cookbook. The editors include the notes from a Goth (the original meaning!) student of Apicius's called Vinidarius. Vinidarius includes with his 31 recipes more instructions for cooking and serving the dishes than Apicius does. Vinidarius also lists Apicius's recommendation for what should be included in every well-stocked kitchen in the form of spices, seeds, dried herbs and legumes, liquids ingredients, nuts, and dried fruit. The editors of this wonderful translation provide many scholarly additions.

Please read my full and illustrated review at Italophile Book Reviews.
http://italophilebookreviews.blogspot...

[Christopher Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curiosity I found at the library book sale. It's the only cookbook, I believe, that has come down from the ancient world and quite interesting to poke around in. Any one for sea scorpion with turnips? Or how about a nice boiled ostrich?

[Barb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best translation out there--the Flowers/Rosenbaum is superior--but not bad.

[Marijan Šiško · Rating 5 out of 5]

Od garuma do punjenih svinjskih...nećemo u detalje. Ako vas zanima čime su se trpali stari Rimljani na lukulovim gozbama, ovo je knjiga za vas.

[Annie Nardone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Translated into English circa 1920, this book is for food historians and cooking nerds. Recipes with no amounts of ingredients, just ingredients, . Lots of Latin terminology (translated and in Latin) and history, with a focus on recipes and menus from Apicius, a renowned gastronomer in Rome who lived 80 B.C. to A.D. 40. I'm writing an historical cookbook, so this was a great help and a fun read!

[Juna Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Te gusta más [x] que un romano diez kilos de miel."

El imperio romano cayó por la diabetes, estoy seguro

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads #Food History

When you open Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome, you’re not just reading a cookbook—you’re stepping into the kitchens, marketplaces, and banquet halls of one of history’s most powerful empires.

Attributed to Apicius, a legendary Roman gourmand whose name became synonymous with extravagant eating, this text is our closest surviving window into the culinary life of the ancient world. Part recipe collection, part cultural document, it is at once alien and oddly familiar, reminding us that the act of dining has always been more than just about feeding the body; it has been about spectacle, status, memory, and meaning.

Rome’s empire was built not only on armies and laws but also on trade routes that brought exotic ingredients into the city. Pepper from India, garum (fermented fish sauce) from the coasts of Hispania, dates from the Middle East, and honey from the countryside—all found their way into Roman kitchens. What Apicius shows is how food became a microcosm of the empire. To eat in Rome was to eat the world.

At the same time, this book is a reminder that Roman food culture was deeply stratified. The elite dined in lavish triclinium halls on stuffed dormice and flamingo tongues, while the common people lived largely on bread, porridge, olives, and wine. Reading Apicius, you are immediately struck by the disconnect: this is not a people’s cookbook. It is the preserved indulgence of the 1%, an edible expression of power.

The recipes themselves can be startling. You’ll find directions for sow’s udder, jellyfish, and peacock; for sauces combining honey with fish brine; for meats stuffed with herbs, nuts, and sweet wine. Garum—ubiquitous, salty, pungent—threads its way through almost every dish. To the modern palate, some of these combinations sound bizarre, even grotesque. And yet, turn the page and you’ll find roast chicken, lentils with greens, or honey cakes that could have come straight out of a Mediterranean kitchen today.

That duality is part of the book’s charm. Food historians often talk about continuity and rupture, and Apicius offers both. You see the persistence of Mediterranean staples—olive oil, grains, legumes, herbs—right alongside the extravagances that could only belong to imperial Rome. Reading it, you realize how much of what we eat today has ancient echoes, and how much has been lost to time.

Most modern readers encounter Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome through Joseph Dommers Vehling’s 1936 English translation. Vehling was a chef himself, and his introduction and commentary make the text not just readable but contextualized. He explains where the recipes come from, how they might have been prepared, and what they reveal about Roman society.

Vehling’s translation has been criticized for its occasional clunkiness and dated style, but it remains a pioneering work: the first attempt to make Apicius accessible to an English-speaking audience. His background in the culinary arts gives his commentary an immediacy that a purely academic translator might lack. For a food history reader, that blend of scholarship and chef’s intuition makes the book feel alive.

One of the striking lessons of Apicius is that Roman dining was theater. A feast was not just a meal but an event staged to impress, to outdo rivals, to demonstrate wealth and cultural capital. Exotic ingredients were prized not just for their flavor but for their rarity and cost. To serve pepper, imported from halfway across the known world, was to show you had access to global trade networks. To serve dormice or flamingo was to flaunt your ability to command luxury.

And yet, beneath the opulence lies the same impulse that drives us to host dinner parties today: the desire to gather, to impress, to create memories through food. That continuity makes Apicius oddly relatable. Strip away the flamingo tongues, and you’re left with the eternal human desire to break bread together and to be remembered for generosity at the table.

The Romans did not draw a strict line between diet and health. Many of the recipes in Apicius are flavored with herbs and spices believed to have medicinal properties. The idea of balance—hot and cold, dry and moist—comes straight from humoral theory, inherited from the Greeks. In that sense, Apicius is not just a cookbook but also a pharmacopeia. Food was a tool for maintaining health, for restoring equilibrium, for treating ailments.

Reading these passages, one is reminded of Harvey Levenstein’s Fear of Food, which charts modern food anxieties. Where we obsess over gluten, cholesterol, or GMOs, the Romans worried about digestion, humoral imbalance, and moral corruption through indulgence. The logic shifts, but the impulse—to worry about what we eat—remains constant across centuries.

One of the biggest surprises for a modern reader is the vagueness of the recipes. Apicius rarely gives exact quantities, times, or measurements. Instead, he lists ingredients and methods in broad strokes: “Take such-and-such, add this, cook until done.” For someone raised on Fannie Farmer’s standardized cups and spoons, this feels maddening. But it also tells us something about Roman cooking: it was an oral, experiential art. Recipes were reminders for cooks, not instructions for novices. Precision belonged to the modern kitchen, not the ancient one.

Why read Apicius today? Partly for the sheer curiosity of seeing what the Romans ate, but also because it forces us to question our assumptions about food. When we wrinkle our noses at sow’s udder or fish sauce with honey, we’re reminded that taste is cultural, not absolute. What is strange to us was delicacy to them; what is normal to us might be bizarre to someone two thousand years hence.

There is also something humbling about realizing that our food anxieties, our obsession with exotic flavours, and our love of dinner parties all have precedents in ancient Rome. Apicius becomes a mirror: we see ourselves reflected in these ancient banquets, both in continuity and in contrast.

In many ways, Apicius is the ancestor of the books I’ve been binge-reviewing. Rachel Laudan’s Cuisine and Empire charts the global spread of cooking traditions—Apicius shows us an early empire doing exactly that. Betty Fussell’s The Story of Corn reminds us of how a single crop shaped civilizations—Apicius reveals how wheat and barley were the backbone of Roman dining. Wayne Curtis’s And a Bottle of Rum tells the story of alcohol as history—Apicius gives us Roman wine, mixed with honey and herbs, as a precursor. Even Christopher Kimball’s Fannie’s Last Supper feels like an echo: just as Kimball reconstructed a Victorian banquet, Vehling reconstructed a Roman one for modern readers.

Food history is never linear. It is a tapestry of continuities and reinventions, and Apicius is one of its oldest surviving threads.

At over 400 surviving recipes, Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome is not something you read cover to cover in a single sitting. It’s a book to dip into, to marvel at, to contextualize. Some recipes make you smile with their audacity; others make you pause at their familiarity. Vehling’s notes help, but part of the joy is the strangeness, the sense that you are eavesdropping on a conversation across two millennia.

Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome is more than a cookbook. It is a cultural artifact, a time machine, a reminder that eating has always been one of the most profound ways humans express identity and power. Whether you read it as a historian, a cook, or a curious gourmand, it challenges you to rethink what food means.

For me, Apicius stands as a reminder that every meal carries history, that taste is never just about flavor but about context, and that the roots of our dining rituals go far deeper than we imagine. In the end, to read Apicius is to dine with ghosts—and to realize that across the centuries, the banquet never really ends.

[Jesus · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is ok, but on the same theme I found more inspiring (and this is what I ask to a cooking book) "A taste of ancient Rome" by Iliara Gozzini Giacosa.

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful book. Not totally sure about the accuracy of its information since it's almost 100 years old at this point, but still, quite gorgeous.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 4 out of 5]

🖊 First of all, the Kindle e-book version has none of the illustrations that were in the hardcover printing in 1926. That makes this book wholly useless in that format. The e-book version on the Project Gutenberg site is the one to read. Secondly, this book is unreservedly useful for my research project in writing about this era in cooking. Moreover, there are a plethora of Latin phrases and quotations throughout the book. The organization/format is somewhat strange. However, I enjoyed reading Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome in the Project Gutenberg format.

CONTENTS

BOOK I. THE CAREFUL EXPERIENCED COOK Lib. I. Epimeles
CHAP. I. FINE SPICED WINE. HONEY REFRESHER FOR TRAVELERS.
CHAP. II. ROMAN VERMOUTH.
CHAP. III. ROSE WINE. VIOLET WINE. ROSE WINE WITHOUT ROSES.
CHAP. IV. LIBURNIAN OIL.
CHAP. V. TO CLARIFY MUDDY WINE.
CHAP. VI. TO IMPROVE A BROTH WITH A BAD ODOR.
CHAP. VII. TO KEEP MEATS FRESH WITHOUT SALT. TO KEEP COOKED SIDES OF PORK.
CHAP. VIII. TO MAKE SALT MEATS SWEET.
CHAP. IX. TO KEEP FRIED FISH. TO KEEP OYSTERS.
CHAP. X. TO MAKE LASER GO A LONG WAY.
CHAP. XI. TO MAKE HONEY CAKES LAST. TO MAKE SPOILED HONEY GOOD. TO TEST SPOILED HONEY.
CHAP. XII. TO KEEP GRAPES. TO KEEP POMEGRANATES. TO KEEP QUINCES. TO PRESERVE FRESH FIGS. TO KEEP CITRON. TO KEEP MULBERRIES. TO KEEP POT HERBS. TO PRESERVE SORREL. TO KEEP TRUFFLES. TO KEEP HARD-SKINNED PEACHES.
CHAP. XIII. SPICED SALTS FOR MANY ILLS.
CHAP. XIV. TO KEEP GREEN OLIVES.
CHAP. XV. CUMIN SAUCE FOR SHELLFISH.
CHAP. XVI. LASER FLAVOR. ANOTHER.
CHAP. XVII. WINE SAUCE FOR TRUFFLES.
CHAP. XVIII. OXYPORUM.
CHAP. XIX. HYPOTRIMA.
CHAP. XX. OXYGARUM, DIGESTIVE.
CHAP. XXI. MORTARIA.

BOOK II.
MINCES Lib. II. Sarcoptes
CHAP. I. FORCEMEATS, SAUSAGE, MEAT PUDDINGS, MEAT LOAVES.
CHAP. II. HYDROGARUM, SPELT PUDDING AND ROUX.
CHAP. III. SOW’S MATRIX, BLOOD SAUSAGE.
CHAP. IV. LUCANIAN SAUSAGE.
CHAP. V. SAUSAGE.

BOOK III. THE GARDENER Lib. III. Cepuros
CHAP. I. TO BOIL ALL VEGETABLES GREEN.
CHAP. II. VEGETABLE DINNER, EASILY DIGESTED.
CHAP. III. ASPARAGUS.
CHAP. IV. PUMPKIN, SQUASH.
CHAP. V. CITRUS FRUIT, CITRON.
CHAP. VI. CUCUMBERS.
CHAP. VII. MELON GOURD, MELON.
CHAP. VIII. MALLOWS.
CHAP. IX. YOUNG CABBAGE, SPROUTS, CAULIFLOWER.
CHAP. X. LEEKS.
CHAP. XI. BEETS.
CHAP. XII. POT HERBS.
CHAP. XIII. TURNIPS, NAVEWS.
CHAP. XIV. HORSERADISH AND RADISHES.
CHAP. XV. SOFT CABBAGE.
CHAP. XVI. FIELD HERBS.
CHAP. XVII. NETTLES.
CHAP. XVIII. ENDIVE AND LETTUCE.
CHAP. XIX. CARDOONS.
CHAP. XX. COW-PARSNIPS.
CHAP. XXI. CARROTS AND PARSNIPS.

BOOK IV. MISCELLANEA Lib. IV. Pandecter
CHAP. I. BOILED DINNERS.
CHAP. II. DISHES OF FISH, VEGETABLES, FRUITS, AND SO FORTH.
CHAP. III. FINELY MINCED DISHES, OR ISICIA.
CHAP. IV. PORRIDGE, GRUEL.
CHAP. V. APPETIZING DISHES.

BOOK V. LEGUMES Lib. V. Osprion
CHAP. I. PULSE, MEAL MUSH, PORRIDGE, ETC.
CHAP. II. LENTILS.
CHAP. III. PEAS.
CHAP. IV. BEANS OR PEAS IN THE POD.
CHAP. V. BARLEY BROTH.
CHAP. VI. GREEN BEANS, BAIÆAN BEANS.
CHAP. VII. FENUGREEK.
CHAP. VIII. GREEN STRING BEANS AND CHICK-PEAS.

BOOK VI. FOWL Lib. VI. Aëropetes
CHAP. I. OSTRICH.
CHAP. II. CRANE OR DUCK, PARTRIDGE, DOVES, WOOD PIGEON, SQUAB AND DIVERS BIRDS.
CHAP. III. THRUSH.
CHAP. IV. FIGPECKER.
CHAP. V. PEACOCK.
CHAP. VI. PHEASANT.
CHAP. VII. GOOSE.
CHAP. VIII. CHICKEN.

BOOK VII. SUMPTUOUS DISHES Lib. VII. Polyteles
CHAP. I. SOW’S WOMB, CRACKLINGS, BACON, TENDERLOIN, TAILS AND FEET.
CHAP. II. SOW’S BELLY.
CHAP. III. FIG-FED PORK.
CHAP. IV. TID-BITS, CHOPS, STEAKS.
CHAP. V. ROASTS.
CHAP. VI. BOILED AND STEWED MEATS.
CHAP. VII. PAUNCH.
CHAP. VIII. LOINS AND KIDNEYS.
CHAP. IX. PORK SHOULDER.
CHAP. X. LIVERS AND LUNGS.
CHAP. XI. HOME-MADE SWEETS.
CHAP. XII. BULBS, TUBERS.
CHAP. XIII. MUSHROOMS.
CHAP. XIV. TRUFFLES.
CHAP. XV. TAROS, DASHEENS.
CHAP. XVI. SNAILS.
CHAP. XVII. EGGS.

BOOK VIII. QUADRUPEDS Lib. VIII. Tetrapus
CHAP. I. WILD BOAR.
CHAP. II. VENISON.
CHAP. III. CHAMOIS, GAZELLE.
CHAP. IV. WILD SHEEP.
CHAP. V. BEEF AND VEAL.
CHAP. VI. KID AND LAMB.
CHAP. VII. PIG.
CHAP. VIII. HARE.
CHAP. IX. DORMOUSE.

BOOK IX. SEAFOOD Lib. IX. Thalassa
CHAP. I. SHELLFISH.
CHAP. II. RAY.
CHAP. III. CALAMARY.
CHAP. IV. CUTTLEFISH.
CHAP. V. POLYPUS.
CHAP. VI. OYSTERS.
CHAP. VII. ALL KINDS OF BIVALVES.
CHAP. VIII. SEA URCHIN.
CHAP. IX. MUSSELS.
CHAP. X. SARDINES.
CHAP. XI. FISH SAUCES.
CHAP. XII. BAIAN SEAFOOD STEW.

BOOK X. THE FISHERMAN Lib. X. Halieus
CHAP. I. DIFFERENT KINDS OF FISH.
CHAP. II. MURENAS.
CHAP. III. EEL.

📕Published — 1926. In the public domain.
🎨Illustrated Project Gutenberg site.

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જ⁀🟣 Kindle e-book version has none of the illustrations.
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[Basel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ancient Rome has continued and will always continue to intrigue millions of people all over the world. Though while general knowledge of that period over 2000 years ago is usually connoted with its military, gladiators, and different arts and literature, to the general public, Roman cuisine is a mystery. People will have the image of lavish Roman feasts, decadent feasts, but they don’t know much about what was being served. Curious, you are? Then there is no better introduction than the De Re Coquinaria (The Culinary Art), which is generally attributed to the Roman gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius around the 1st century BC. One of the oldest surviving cookbooks in human history, the book offers us a fascinating insight into Roman high cuisine and culture. The book has a multitude of detailed recipes ranging from different kinds of meats, poultry, sea food, fruits and vegetables. One thing is for sure; do not check this book out if you’re on a diet. There’s an important reliance on different fresh herbs in Roman cookery. While thyme and parsley are still used till this very day, lovage, rue, and siliphium amongst others are not. Furthermore, other key ingredients to Roman cookery are olive oil, wines, and above all, garum (a fermented fish broth). They practically used it with everything. Such a book is fascinating as it also tells us how far and wide did ingredients travel to ancient Rome. Some ingredients came from Ethiopia and India, for instance, which attest to the role of cuisine and food in human civilization. I know for a fact that I will be trying several of these recipes out. So if you wish to travel back in time to ancient Rome, just grab this book and feast like the ancient Romans.

A recipe:

“Aliter Isicia Omentata

Finely cut pulp of pork is ground with the hearts of winter wheat and diluted with wine. Flavor lightly with pepper and broth and if you like add a moderate quantity of myrtle berries also crushed, and after you have added crushed nuts and pepper shape the forcemeat into small rolls, wrap these in caul, fry, and serve with wine gravy.”

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Roman cookbook was a fascinating read—for a cookbook, that is. I’m not much of a food-lover, but I have lots of interest in history, especially about Ancient Rome. And it is fascinating to find out more about Ancient Roman cuisine, especially that of the rich because the dishes are stranger than the common man’s.

Most of recipes in the translation I read have been adapted for the modern kitchen, unless they are too strange to the modern tongue or have ingredients that aren’t available in the modern day. Although a lot of them would be delicious to eat, the most interesting ones to me are things like porpoise or ostrich. I’m also interesting in the obvious ancestors of modern dishes.

There were many different Roman cooks named Apicius. It was possibly an epithet giving to later cooks in honor of their culinary skill. This edition doesn’t come from any of them, but from the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The translator added quotes from Roman authors like Pliny describing some of the dishes in this book, not always in flattering terms.

It would have been interesting to actually live in Ancient Rome and eat these dishes at some infamous feasts for myself. A lot of them wouldn’t suit my modern stomach, however. And this 1980s translation makes it hard to figure out how to cook some of the dishes. This book, to me, was more interesting for its historical value than culinary value.

[Antony Vathy-Riakos · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I came across this volume in a second-hand bookshop in Michigan, it was an epiphany. I had been teaching Latin for years and had tried to approximate Roman cookery with only my imagination to work with. Edwards offers adaptations of the original transcriptions of Apicius’ recipes with modern measurements and cooking times, and the occasional substitutions (such as garlic or asafoetida for the ancient, now extinct, sylphide). His recipe for a substitute for garum, the ancient sauce made from fermented fish entrails, is, perhaps a bit too tasty to be authentic. In any case, this book transformed my annual Latin banquets into something truly memorable, with eighteen-course meals from ‘ova ad mala’ as the ancients would have it. Over the years, I believe I have eaten every single item that Apicius thought worth including in a proper recipe book.

Here’s an anecdote: as teacher, I sometimes was left with some magnificent leftovers after a banquet. One evening, our family was about to feast on a delicious Apician roast of pork, lentils with leeks, hard-cooked eggs (with a filling of fish sauce and almonds), Alexandrian dates, and rosemary cake. A neighbor asked us to look after her daughter, a girl of seven or eight who ‘had an eating disorder’ and would normally eat only white bread and doughnuts. When we sat down to dine, this child tucked into the Roman food as though there were no tomorrow. Is there a lesson to be learned here?

If one expects the ancient Roman fare to be like that of modern Mediterraneans, it isn’t: they had no lemons, no tomatoes, and no pasta. One item lacking in the recipes is bread: I followed the recipe for ‘pane di Prato’ of Giuliano Bugiali and directed the students to shape it like the Pompeian loaves shown in wall paintings.

One further note: the illustrations in my volume of Edwards’ book are black and white line drawings of ancient cookware and foods. They’re a pleasure to look at. No decent school library (where Latin continues to be taught) should be without this fine book. I should add that togas were ‘de rigueur’ at our banquets, and all were required to recite ancient poetry in Latin or Greek. Was this ‘elitist’? I certainly hope so.

[Antony Vathy-Riakos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finding this book in a used bookshop in Michigan was an ‘epiphany’ for me. I had been teaching the classics for a few years and had hosted several ‘Roman themed’ banquets wherein I used my imagination as to what the ancients ate. John Edwards’ adaptation of the ancient gourmet Apicius’ De Re Coquinaria has dozens of very tasty recipes with measurements, temperatures, and possible modern substitutions where the ancient ingredient is no longer available. At last! Mirabile dictu! Over the years, I have eaten nearly every recipe in Edwards’ fine book. Our banquets became truly memorable occasions when the club members each prepared a Roman or Ancient Greek dish, and, wearing toga or stola, reclined in a triclinium in a room decorated with versions of Greek or Roman art that they had created. After the eighteen-course feast, each was responsible for reciting verse in Greek or Latin. The only thing lacking in Edwards’ book is a recipe for Roman bread, but I followed the recipe for ‘pane di Prato’ in one of Giuliano Bugiali’s cookbooks. Shaped into a circular loaf and scored into pie-shaped wedges, this resembled what Pompeiian wall paintings depict.

The food never disappointed. Occasionally, as teacher, I was given leftovers from these banquets which I was happy to share with my wife and children. One evening following such a banquet, we were asked to ‘look after’ a neighbor girl who had ‘an eating disorder’: she would only eat white bread and pastry. Making no allowances for her peculiar tastes, we sat down to a meal of Apician roast pork, lentils with leeks, Roman bread, sheep’s cheese, olives, Alexandrian dates, and rosemary-flavored honey cake. The child-guest tucked in as though there were no tomorrow. Is there a lesson to be learned in this?

This book should be in the library of every decent school that continues to buck fashion and still offers Latin. Make no mistake: the foods and flavors of Ancient Rome do not resemble modern Italian food.

[Ellen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Vehling was a trained chef and not a Latin scholar. He was the first to translate the Apician cookbook into English, in 1935, but his translation is full of errors because of his lack of actual scholarship and the fact that he was using manuscripts from the 15th and 16th centuries which were themselves full of transcription errors. Perhaps the most pervasive error is Vehling's use of "broth" for fish sauce (liquamen or garum), which radically alters the flavor of the dishes, since fish sauce is frequently used in the original Roman recipes. Additionally, he freely confuses and substitutes New World ingredients without saying anything about the Old World ingredients being replaced; he mentions pumpkins quite frequently, for example.

And his worked out recipes in a number of cases were "improved" upon, based on his education and experience as a chef. He took liberties, often substituting, adding, or deleting ingredients without explanation, based on his personal sensibilities.

Unfortunately, that means there is probably almost as much of Escoffier in the edition as there is Apicius. It might be edible food; just not necessarily first-century Roman food.

[Giuliana Unlibropersognaregiuly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Questo simpatico libretto ci porta nel mondo culinario dell'antica Roma. Gli imperatori e la sua corte, spesso annoiati dalla vita reale, dovevano essere sempre stupiti a tavola. Inoltre, con l'espansione dell'impero, anche la cucina ebbe una grande innovazione, con l'arrivo di spezie esotiche dall'Oriente e di nuovi ingredienti da provare e scoprire. Inoltre nella prefazione scopriamo che Apicio non è un unico personaggio, ma era diventato quasi un titolo per chi si occupava della cucina degli imperatori nell'arco di 4 secoli. Il testo è diviso in 10 capitoli che si occupano dei più disparati piatti, dagli antipasti ai dolci. Tra i piatti più singolari ci sono le carni esotiche, come quelle di struzzo, o di camoscio, e l'uso di strane spezie come il ligustico o il laser.
Inoltre troviamo il testo originale latino a fronte. Mi sembra un piccolo libro interessante e pieno di curiosità per capire come si mangiava una volta.

[Rhianna Schoonover · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a student of ancient history and enjoy recreation of things that are possible, with understanding that modern tastes and availability is very different than in the past.

This is an interesting collection of recipes. I have cooked hundreds of them over the years and some have become family favorites. Aliter dulcia makes a regular appearance in my breakfast repertoire, though the Romans considered it a sweet or dessert based upon the location in the book.

I have yet to attempt any form of door-mice, flamingo, or peacock though they do sound interesting, if not appetizing. Roman tastes, at times, are so grossly different as to be incomprehensible, and at others are clearly still common in modern dishes across myriad cultures.

I have gifted a copy to a friend who is trying various recipes as well, so just about 2000 years later, Roman food is still palatable, and worth trying for the more adventurous taster and chef amongst us.

[Julie Barrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius : Apices ,imperial Rome by Apices Joseph Dommers Vehling
This book starts with TOC where recipes are listed along with how to use the book, numbering of recipes and other information.
Each recipe starts with a title. NO real listing of ingredients but tells you what to do, with the item you need. No measurements for adding oil, broth, wine and other fluids. same with spices, NO measurements. Tells you how to cook the dish
Not your typical cookbook by any means. Lots of fun things to read about.
No pictures, NO nutritional information.
Other works by the publishing company are listed at the end of the book.

[Anne]

I don't feel like I can give this a "number of stars" rating - it's not a great "sit down and ready from cover to cover" but it's a cookbook, and an ancient one at that! I did really enjoy this, from the scholarly drama in the introduction (at least, in the version I read) to the insight into how cooking and recipes worked in Ancient Rome.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy cookbooks, and I really like old and foreign cookbooks, anything new (to me) and different, I look forward to trying a few of these recipes, if I can find all the ingredients, fingers crossed. Good slice of history as well. Check it out.

[Diann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decently translated cookbook from Roman times. I've considered a few recipes I'd like to try. I simply do wish that some portions of the book weren't printed ALL CAPS. Still, I will try a few of these.

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like cookbooks and history this is fascinating. I will be looking at if for a long time.

[Max Johansson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se supone es el primer libro de recetas. Recetas griegas.

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found a bunch of new recipes to try! Excited to have found this from The History of Taste.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this on a free eBook site and decided to give it a read since I'm incredibly interested in the history of Rome and it's people. I wanted to like it more, but I think it's just the edition that I picked up that I'm having problems liking.

I’ll keep my eyes open for either a better eBook version or hopefully a physical version to give a full read and, hopefully, with a better edition I’ll be able to write a better review.

It’s an interesting insight into a different aspect of life in those times, many people have read (or at the very least watched movies based on) Roman history, mythology, military campaigns, engineering, science, poetry, artwork - but getting a look into the kitchen is not something most people would spend much time thinking about. Which is one of the reasons why I found it so fascinating. Especially when you look at the vast amount of time and effort it took to prepare a favorite meal - there were no pre-prepared or pre-packaged spices or ingredients, not in the sense of any modern kitchen anyways.

Long stream of introductions and possible attributions of who wrote it or who might have written it or who might have edited an edition at some point sometime during history... There are some recipes towards the end of the book which are pretty interesting. A little bit of a back story of Apicius who was one of the first food lovers to write a book (or possibly books with this being the only surviving manuscript) about his love of food - essentially a Roman era Anthony Bourdain. One story that made me laugh was, supposedly Apicius sails across the Mediterranean seeking out the best prawns and when the fisherman show him their “best of the best”, he turns his boat around and goes home.

I hope I can find a better edition to read…. But for now, the best I can do is 3 stars and only really recommend it for somebody either seriously interested in Roman history or culinary history, for the casual reader, I do not think it will be enjoyable other than a unique (Odd) book to have.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much of history is not a matter of wars, kingdoms, and treaties, but the daily litany of how people lived, loved, worked, and died. This book, the only surviving cookbook written in Latin, provides some insight into how a wealthy Roman may have dined and, thus, provides some interesting insight into Imperial Rome's daily history.

"Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome" was composed by both a classicist and a chef. The addition of his culinary knowledge brings the translation to life and the additional commentary turns otherwise meaningless lists of ingredients into surprisingly wonderful dishes. Many of the recipes are vague or incomplete leading to great speculation regarding the cook's intent, but the translator's knowledge of cooking is able to bridge the gap for many of the recipes that have befuddled previous translators.

In addition to helpful commentary throughout the text, you will find a list of terms in in the index, an appendix with descriptions of the extant manuscripts for those paleographers who may be reading the book, and another list of commentaries that were available at the time.

Lest this seem to be a boring venture, I found the book "spiced up" by various accounts such as that of the cruel Pollio who kept of pool of eels on hand because he found them delicious - especially when they had been fed with livers of disobedient slaves. I also discovered that the Romans had discovered a few cooking tricks that have been lost to us, such as the proper way to cook asparagus. Simply bring a pan of water to boil and place the thick stalks down into the water leaving the thinner,tender tops above the surface. The vigorous heat of the water will cook the thick stalks and the steam will cook the tops. The result is evenly cooked asparagus and not stalks with mushy tops.

If you are interested in history, food preparation, the Latin language, or bizarre tidbits you will find something in this book for you. Bonum appetitionem!