Ab Ovo, Rome's Egg Saying
From the Egg, Rome's Oldest Saying
The Roman dinner custom behind the phrase for starting at the very beginning.
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Helen of Troy's Egg Myth
Greek legend says Zeus came to Leda as a swan, and Helen of Troy hatched from an egg. It is a myth, not history, but Romans loved retelling it too.
Source: Wikipedia
The Poet Who Named the Egg
Roman poet Horace called that myth the 'double egg' and warned poets not to start a story from so far back. His phrase became shorthand for the very beginning.
Source: Wikipedia
A Roman Dinner, Egg to Apples
Horace also wrote that a proper Roman meal ran 'ab ovo usque ad mala,' from the egg to the apples. It was the customary shape of dinner, eggs to open and fruit to close.
Source: Wikipedia
How Rome Actually Dressed an Egg
The cookbook of Apicius kept plain boiled eggs simple, just a peppery broth, and saved the richer treatment, pepper, honey, vinegar and crushed nuts, for eggs poached in a spiced dressing.
Source: The Daily Meal
The Phrase That Outlived Rome
Ab ovo now simply means starting from the very beginning, in any language, a straight line back to Horace's warning against opening a story too far back.
Source: Wikipedia
Centuries Later, the Egg Got Stuffed
The oldest known recipe for a stuffed egg comes from a 13th century Andalusian cookbook: boiled yolks mixed with cilantro, pepper and onion, then piped back inside the white.
Source: Wikipedia
Two thousand years on, a good egg still deserves to open the day, now on a Multan breakfast table too.
References
- Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
- The Daily Meal thedailymeal.com
- Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
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