Cibo Mediterraneo Modi alimentari mediterranei: Tendenze e sviluppi storici [Mediterranean Food. Mediterranean Foodways: Historic Trends and Developments] by Prof. Carmel Cassar, was recently published by the Perugia based Publishing House Graphe.it (Italy)

The book, dedicated to food historians, scholars of food history and the Mediterranean, and enthusiasts of recipes and cooking, examines Mediterranean dietary “ways” by evaluating trends and historical developments.

It provides intricate details about the way Mediterranean societies and their traditions influenced each other and evolved across time by examining the culture of food from prehistory to the present and provides a wealth of information thanks to the publication of a wide variety of ancient and historic recipes through the ages, from instructions for a 4,000 year old Sumerian soup, to Greek pancakes from the Byzantine era, passing through Ottoman sweets and the opulent stews of Renaissance Italy, up to French haute cuisine.

The reader finds gathered the recipes enjoyed by the ancients: Egyptians, Greeks, Israelites, Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Medieval and early modern Europeans, the Ottomans, the changes brought about by the expanding commerce, and contact with foods from the Far East, Africa, and the New World (the Americas).

Some readers may be tempted to prepare some of the old recipes.

However, it may be advisable for whoever wishes to do so to inform oneself about the correct use of measurements.

Often only the ingredients are mentioned while details about quantities of specific ingredients are often missing. Whatever the case, the recipes help the reader to appreciate the wide variety of ingredients used hundreds, at times thousands of years ago, in the ancient Mediterranean.