The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Philosophy
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
"There is another cake, which is called by the Romans catillus ornatus,
and which is made thus:—Wash some lettuces and scrape them; then put
some wine into a mortar and pound the lettuces in it; then, squeezing
out the juice, mix up some flour from spring wheat in it, and allowing
it to settle, after a little while pound it again, adding a little
pig's fat and pepper; then pound it again, draw it out into a cake,
smoothe it, and cut it again, and cut it into shape, and boil it in hot
oil, putting all the fragments which you have cut off into a strainer.
"Other kinds of cheesecakes are the following:—the ostracites, the
attanites, the amylum, the tyrocoscinum. Make this last thus:—Pound
some cheese (τῦρον) carefully, and put it into a vessel; then place
above it a brazen sieve (κόσκινον) and strain the cheese through
it. And when you are going to serve it up, then put in above it a
sufficient quantity of honey. The cheesecakes called ὑποτυρίδες are
made thus:—Put some honey into some milk, pound them, and put them into
a vessel, and let them coagulate; then, if you have some little sieves
at hand, put what is in the vessel into them, and let the whey run off;
and when it appears to you to have coagulated thoroughly, then take up
the vessel in which it is, and transfer it to a silver dish, and the
coat, or crust, will be uppermost. But if you have no such sieves, then
use some new fans, such as those which are used to blow the fire; for
they will serve the same purpose. Then there is the coptoplacous. And
also," says he, "in Crete they make a kind of cheesecake which they
call gastris. And it is made thus:—Take some Thasian and Pontic nuts
and some almonds, and also a poppy. Roast this last with great care,
and then take the seed and pound it in a clean mortar; then, adding the
fruits which I have mentioned above, beat them up with boiled honey,
putting in plenty of pepper, and make the whole into a soft mass, (but
it will be of a black colour because of the poppy;) flatten it and make
it into a square shape; then, having pounded some white sesame, soften
that too with boiled honey, and draw it out into two cakes, placing one
beneath and the other above, so as to have the black surface in the
middle, and make it into a neat shape." These are the recipes of that
clever writer on confectionary, Chrysippus.
58. But Harpocration the Mendesian, in his treatise on Cheesecakes,
speaks of a dish which the Alexandrians call παγκαρπία. Now
this dish consists of a number of cakes mashed up together and boiled
with honey. And after they are boiled, they are made up into round
balls, and fastened round with a thin string of byblus in order to
keep them together. There is also a dish called πόλτος, which
Alcman mentions in the following terms—
And then we'll give you poltos made of beans (πυάνιος),
And snow-white wheaten groats from unripe corn,
And fruit of wax.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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