I want to try to make some ancient recipes, especially deserts, but I also want to be as Authentic as possible, while using modern tools. Now, I’m no baking expert, and I’m sure most of you aren’t either, so I really can’t improvise that well when it comes to specific substitutes, but I at least know enough to know that they used yeast instead of baking powder, and I can do that much, but I also know that modern instant yeast is way more advanced than what they had back then. Don’t really know anyone with a culture, and probably won’t be able to maintain one, so if it is at least semi-modern, I’d appreciate it. I can also ask the baking subreddit for advice as well.
TL;DR: I want translated ancient recipe books that are not too modernized that they are in-authentic but not too old fashioned that they are really hard to make, and need to be from the time period between the rise of civilization and the fall of Constantinople.
If you're interested in medieval Europe, I've got a previous post on some AMAZING resources that I'll copy here:
The website you want is Medieval Cookery. They've got:
Links to digitized versions of actual medieval cookbooks--some in translation, some in the original languages. These aren't going to be recipes in the modern sense; ones with measurements and such don't start appearing in any appreciable amount until the very late 18C or 19C, and there's a lot of "and add spices" or such. But they're really, really cool to look at, and a good place to start.
Links to online modernized recipes to follow, adapted from medieval outline-versions
I also own the books Pleyn Delit and The Medieval Kitchen, which are modernized versions of medieval recipes.
I hope this gives you some good, uh, food for thought and further reading!
Happy feasting!
Old recipes are often vague, for example, not specifying quantities, how long things are cooked for, what size pieces the ingredients are cut in. This can make them challenging for cooks, especially inexperienced cooks. Some books will give the original recipe (or translation) and a modern interpretation; these might be the ones that you find most useful.
Since you are seeking desserts, you will find some in Apicius. Two online translations:
The desserts in Apicius are mostly quite different from modern (Western) desserts. For what the 2nd translation above describes as the most modern-like, see recipe 143, "Nut Custard Turn-over".
For some modernised recipes (with quantities, etc.) from Apicius, see https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/historical/ant-rom-coll.html
A sweet dish from Apicius, discussion in detail of reconstructing a modern-style recipe: https://tavolamediterranea.com/2017/10/11/roman-sweet-tooth-apicius-tiropatinam/
There are multiple historical cooking books by Maggie Black which you might like, e.g, The Medieval Cookbook, Food and Cooking in Medieval Britain, etc. A Taste of History: 10,000 Years of Food in Britain covers from about you dawn of civilisation to modern cooking, so if you want a broader time range, this might be a good book. Otherwise, her Medieval books have some desserts. The recipes sometimes use modernised ingredients (e.g., self-raising flour), so keep an eye out for those.
To go out of Europe, you could try:
Translations rather than modernisations, and many desserts/sweets (over 50 recipes, pp 415-439).
The ancient Roman Apicius wrote a cookbook during the early empire, around 1st century AD, and gives us a really interesting perspective on what kind of foods would have been available on wealthy tables. My cooking skills top out somewhere around instant noodles, so these recipies are fairly intimidating to my eye, but I know of people who have made dishes out of Apicius for parties.