CulinaryCodex

• Ancient recipes meet modern code.
• CulinaryCodex is an experiment where food history (Roman bread, medieval syrups, stews with garum) meets software design.
• Part cooking-history project, part coding sandbox, with a security twist.
• This project is inspired by food historians, the Tasting History YouTube channel (I adore you, Max Miller), and the idea that coding projects can be fun, flavorful, and give us a taste of the past.

• A small API + front end that serves historical recipes
• Browse dishes by civilization (Rome, Medieval Europe, etc.), view ingredients, and follow steps
• Built to be expandable — today it is bread and stew, tomorrow it could be a whole timeline of ancient cuisines

Instead of collecting recipe cards in a box, recipes are stored in JSON, Flask, and SQLite.

1. History is fascinating, especially food history. Ancient Rome had sourdoughs, medieval kitchens had syrups, and all of it connects us to how people actually lived their day-to-day lives.
2. I love to cook and I wanted to combine my love of history, cooking and coding/automation.
3. I wanted a portfolio project that demonstrates:
   • Backend with Flask + SQLAlchemy
   • Frontend with vanilla JavaScript + fetch API
   • Secure coding habits (CORS, rate limits, dotenv configs)

• Browse seeded recipes via a simple front end
• Roman Panem (bread) — inspired by archaeological loaves from Pompeii
• Soldier’s stew — lentils and garum, hearty Roman cooking
• Medieval sapa syrup — sweet reduced grape must

• Additional seeded recipes across civilizations
• Filters (by era, dish type, difficulty)
• Shopping list generator with modern substitutions (e.g., garum → fish sauce)
• QR codes to pull recipes up on a phone
• Timeline visualization of cuisines across history
• Security hardening: input validation, CORS, rate limiting

• Backend: Flask, SQLAlchemy, python-dotenv
• Frontend: HTML, CSS, vanilla JavaScript
• Database: SQLite (lightweight, easy to swap later)
• Security: CORS controls, basic rate limiting, environment variables

Clone and set up the backend:

git clone https://github.com/ginesthoii/culinarycodex
cd culinarycodex/backend

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
cp .env.example .env
python3 seeds.py
flask --app app run

The backend runs at:
http://127.0.0.1:5000/api

Start the frontend:
cd ../frontend
python3 -m http.server 5500

The frontend opens at:
http://127.0.0.1:5500