Kandaulos (Lydian Stew)

Kandaulos (Ancient Greek: κάνδαυλος, also κάνδῡλος, ὁ) was an ancient Greek luxury dish of Lydian origin. The Ionian rich savoury confection was a new delicacy in Athens in the early 4th century BC. According to the Greek rhetorician and grammarian Athenaeus (late 2nd century AD), kandaulos came in three forms. One of them was sweet, and is described by one Hellenistic source as a πλακοῦς, flat cake. A second was savoury, consisting of meat and broth with breadcrumbs. However, what these two kinds of kandaulos had in common with one another or with the third kind is not clear.

The term kandaulos appears to be related to the Lydian word Kandaules (Κανδαύλης), recorded by Hipponax and Herodotus. This was a title of Hermes and Heracles and name or title of a Lydian king. But Tzetzes, a Byzantine poet and grammarian from the 12th century, says that kandaules was also Lydian for dog-throttler.

Athenaeus (Deipnosophists XII 516c-d) quotes a brief recipe for the meaty version of kandaulos from Hegesippus of Tarentum, an author of Greek works on cookery and on cake-making of the 4th century BC:

The Lydians used also to speak of a dish called kandaulos, of which there were three varieties, not one merely; so exquisitely equipped were they for luxurious indulgence. Hegesippus of Tarentum says that it was made of boiled meat, bread crumbs, Phrygian cheese, anise [other translations say dill], and fatty broth.

In the original Greek:

καὶ κάνδαυλον δέ τινα ἔλεγον οἱ Λυδοί, οὐχ ἕνα ἀλλὰ τρεῖς· οὕτως ἐξήσκηντο πρὸς τὰς ἡδυπαθείας. γίνεσθαι δ᾽ αὐτόν φησιν ὁ Ταραντῖνος Ἡγήσιππος ἐξ ἑφθοῦ κρέως καὶ κνηστοῦ ἄρτου καὶ Φρυγίου τυροῦ ἀνήθου τε καὶ ζωμοῦ πίονος.

This discussion follows:

It is mentioned by Alexis, in his Woman Working all Night, or The Spinners; and it is a cook who is represented as speaking:

(A) And, besides this, we now will serve you up
A dish whose name's kandaulos.
(B) I've never tasted
Kandaulos, nor have I ever heard of it.
(A) It's a grand invention, and it is mine ;
And if I put a dish of it before you,
Such will be your delight that you'll devour
Your very fingers rather than lose a bit of it.
We here will get some balls of snow-white wool.

* * *
You will serve up an egg well shred, and twice
Boiled till it's hard ; a sausage, too, of honey ;
Some pickle from the frying-pan, some slices
Of new-made Cythnian cheese ; and then
A bunch of grapes, steeped in a cup of wine :
But this part of the dish is always laughed at,
And yet it is the mainstay of the meal.
(B) Laugh on, my friend ; but now be off, I beg,
With all your talk about kandauloi, and
Your sausages, and dishes, and such luxuries.

Philemon also mentions the kandaulos in his Passer-by, where he says - For I have all these witnesses in the city, That I'm the only one can dress a sausage, A kandaulos, eggs, an omelette, all in no time: Was there any error or mistake in this ?

[516, 12, G?)