Which is the first culinary book ever written?
score:13
A collection of 26 Babylonian recipe tablets written in Akkadian from 1700BC have been deciphered. Here is an interesting newspaper article on the translations by a chef-turned-antiquarian:
Recipe tablets from the Yale Babylonian Collection, previously thought to contain pharmaceutical formulas, have been decoded by French Assyriologist and gourmet chef Jean Bottero. The three Akkadian tablets, dating to about 1700 BC, revealed, Bottero wrote in a description of his find, "a cuisine of striking richness, refinement, sophistication and artistry, which is surprising from such an early period. Previously we would not have dared to think a cuisine 4,000 years old was so advanced."
Upvote:1
Not as ancient as Babylonian recipe tablets from 1700 BC, but still I think they're worth a mention.
Archestratus of Gela, a "Sicilian-Greek gourmet" and poet of the 4th century BC, known as "the father of gastronomy" and "the Daedalus of tasty dishes", wrote a book on food very popular in antiquity. This work has been cited under different names: Gastrology, Gastronomy, Hedypatheia...
According to Wikipedia:
His humorous didactic poem Hedypatheia ("Life of Luxury"), written in hexameters but known only from quotations, advises a gastronomic reader on where to find the best food in the Mediterranean world.
And...
... most of his attention is given to fish, although some fragments refer to appetizers, and there was also a section on wine.
The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology also says that Archestratus had a teacher, Terpsion:
mentioned by Athenaeus as the first author of a gastrologia, giving direction as to the viands from which it was advisable to abstain.
Sources:
Upvote:4
Wikipedia has a list, starting with:
The earliest collection of recipes that has survived in Europe is De re coquinaria, written in Latin. An early version was first compiled sometime in the 1st century and has often been attributed to the Roman gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius, though this has been cast in doubt by modern research. An Apicius came to designate a book of recipes. The current text appears to have been compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century; the first print edition is from 1483.
More post
- 📝 How were years numbered on the Republican Calendar?
- 📝 Did the Taaffe family maintain an actual connection with Ireland during the 19th century?
- 📝 How many citizens were in each century of the Roman electoral system?
- 📝 When was the last moment that Dutch, German and Swiss German were the same language?
- 📝 Cult related law made in US
- 📝 Can anyone confirm the identity of these WWI uniforms?
- 📝 Can you identify the ship in this picture?
- 📝 What date did Henry Morgan capture his most famous flagship, the "Satisfaction"?
- 📝 Were the Germans quoting Hamlet to describe their existential struggle in the Great War?
- 📝 Was Murud-Janjira independent until it became part of India?
- 📝 Place and/ or plane identification
- 📝 How did Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof end up on the list of prisoners to be released, by Black September?
- 📝 How did Alexander III of Macedon get the title "the Great"?
- 📝 Why is the name of King Lucifer used by Christians as that of Devil?
- 📝 Was the painting of men's nails a rare practice in the mid-20th century?
- 📝 What is this document marked "Palestine Bearer Bond"?
- 📝 Napoleon's exploits in 1785
- 📝 What were the typical arguments against women's higher education in XIX century Germany?
- 📝 What evidence is there relating to Matilda of Scotland as a wife (to Henry I) and mother (to Empress Matilda and William the Adelin)?
- 📝 Why was Abane Ramdane killed?
- 📝 Historical documents of Mount Athos
- 📝 Why was Kentucky not admitted to the Union in 1789?
- 📝 Is this a Russian naval uniform?
- 📝 What was the German perspective on Stalingrad?
- 📝 How much time would it take to mobilize an army during WW2?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify the country, rank, and unit this WWI uniform is from?
- 📝 Why do the British Queen's Guard and the Danish Royal Guard Company look so similar?
- 📝 Did the Iraqis really only use landlines during Desert Storm?
- 📝 What clergy went on the second Bering expedition?
- 📝 Were drugs used in early Buddhist traditions?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Which is the first culinary book ever written?
- 📝 Which religion was the first monotheistic one?
- 📝 Which was the first civilization to ban slavery?
- 📝 Which was the first war in which photography was employed?
- 📝 Was there ever any doubt which side the USA would join?
- 📝 Was Donald Knuth the first person to typeset a book using a computer?
- 📝 Did the treasure ship Cortes first sent from Mexico ever arrive in Spain?
- 📝 Has a book ever caused the ousting of a dictator?
- 📝 Which car was the first to come with a cigarette lighter receptacle?
- 📝 Has there ever been any assassination so that another assassination could happen during the first one's funeral?
- 📝 What was the first instance of native Americans using gunpowder weapons in battle and did they ever make their own powder?
- 📝 Why was Hiroshima selected to be the city in Japan on which the first atom bomb was dropped?
- 📝 Which was the earliest book of names for naming babies?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that the book of Isaiah was written before Cyrus?
- 📝 What was the first book translated from Japanese to any of the European languages?
- 📝 What does the first Versal in Book of Kells refer to?
- 📝 When was the first full length book sent over telegraph?
- 📝 Which is the first genocide?
- 📝 Has a book ever secretly been written with gold ink?
- 📝 During the WWII, did the German Luftwaffe ever have mixed units of Bf-109s and Me-262s, and if so, which units and/or which airfields?
- 📝 Which country was the first to separate (Christian) Church from state?
- 📝 When was the term "Dravida" first used and what is the context with which it was presented?
- 📝 What was the first ever televised lottery?
- 📝 Was Christianity the first belief system which encouraged the ideal of peace among all people on Earth?
- 📝 Which year was the first leap year?
- 📝 How can we be sure what the first day of the month was 2000 years ago and how can we determine which years were leap years?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 Did the ancient Greeks ever climb Mt. Olympus?
- 📝 What is the first recorded dog name?
- 📝 Is history always written by the victors?