Ancient Roman cuisine
The
In the beginning, dietary differences between Roman social classes were not great, but disparities developed with the empire's growth.
Archaeology
Most organic foods decay under ordinary conditions, but ashes and animal bones offer some archaeological details about the Ancient Roman diet.
Meals
Traditionally, a breakfast called ientaculum[2] was served at dawn. At mid-day to early afternoon, Romans ate cena,[2] the main meal of the day, and at nightfall a light supper called vesperna.[3] With the increased importation of foreign foods, the cena grew larger in size and included a wider range of foods. Thus, it gradually shifted to the evening, while the vesperna[3] was abandoned completely over the course of the years. The mid-day meal prandium became a light meal to hold one over until cena.[2] Among the lower classes of the Roman society, these changes were less pronounced as the traditional routines corresponded closely to the daily rhythms of manual labour.
However, among the upper classes, who normally did not engage in manual labour, it became customary to schedule all business obligations in the morning. After the prandium, the last responsibilities would be discharged, and a visit would be made to the baths. Around 2 p.m.,[4] the cena would begin. This meal could last until late in the night, especially if guests were invited, and would often be followed by comissatio, a round of alcoholic beverages (usually wine).
In the period of the kings and the early
Over the course of the Republican period, the cena developed into two courses: the main course and a dessert with fruit and seafood (e.g.
The Roman legions' staple ration of food was wheat. In the 4th century, most legionaries ate as well as anyone in Rome. They were supplied with rations of bread and vegetables along with meats such as beef, mutton, or pork. Rations also depended on where the legions were stationed or were campaigning. Mutton was popular in Northern Gaul and Britannia, but pork was the main meat ration of the legions.[6]
Foods and ingredients
The Roman colonies provided many foods to Rome; the city received
The ancient Roman diet included many items that are staples of
However, some foods considered characteristic of modern Italian cuisine were not used.
Breads and grains
From 123 BC, a ration of unmilled wheat (as much as 33 kg), known as the frumentatio, was distributed to as many as 200,000 people every month by the Roman state.[15] There was originally a charge for this but from 58 BC this charge was abolished by the plebeian tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher. Individuals had to be citizens and domiciled in Rome to receive the frumentatio.[15]
Originally flat, round loaves made of
Meat
Butcher's meat was an uncommon luxury. The most popular meat was
Fish and seafood
Fish was more common than meat.[20] Aquaculture was sophisticated, with large-scale industries devoted to oyster farming.[20] The Romans also engaged in snail farming and oak grub farming.[20] Some fish were greatly esteemed and fetched high prices, such as mullet raised in the fishery at Cosa, and "elaborate means were invented to assure its freshness".[20]
Fruit
Fruit was eaten fresh when in season, and
Columella offers advice on the preservation of figs by crushing them into a paste with anise, fennel seed, cumin and toasted sesame to be wrapped in fig leaves.[27]
Vegetables
While the precursors of
Legumes
Nuts
The ancient Romans ate
Dairy
Condiments
Garum was the distinctive fish sauce of ancient Rome.[32] It was used as a seasoning, in place of salt; as a table condiment; and as a sauce. There were four major fish sauce types: garum, liquamen, muria, and allec.[32] It was made in different qualities, from fish such as tuna, mullet, and sea bass.[32] It could be flavoured, for example mixed with wine, or diluted with water (hydrogarum), a form popular among Roman soldiers, although the emperor Elagabalus asserted that he was the first to serve it at public banquets in Rome.[32] The most costly garum was garum sociorum, made from mackerel (scomber) at the New Carthage fisheries in Spain, and widely traded.[32] Pliny wrote in his Natural History that two congii (7 litres) of this sauce cost 1,000 sesterces.[33] One thousand sesterces in the Early Empire was equal to 110 g of gold.[citation needed]
Cooking
One of many modes of cooking in ancient Rome was the focus, a
Portable stoves and ovens were used by the Romans, and some had water pots and grills laid onto them. At Pompeii, most houses had separate kitchens, most fairly small, but a few large; the Villa of the Mysteries covers a nine-by-twelve meter area.[37] A number of kitchens at Pompeii had no roofs, resembling courtyards more than ordinary rooms; this allowed smoke to ventilate.[37] Kitchens that did have roofs must have been extremely smokey, since the only ventilation would come from high windows or holes in the ceiling; while the Romans built chimneys for their bakeries and smithies, they were unknown in private dwellings until about the 12th century A.D, well after the collapse of Roman civilization.[38][39]
Many Roman kitchens had an oven (furnus or fornax), and some (such as the kitchen of the Villa of the Mysteries) had two.
Alcoholic drinks
Wine was also variously flavored. For example, there was
Beer (cerevisia) was known but considered vulgar, and was associated with barbarians.[44][45]
Desserts
While lacking necessary ingredients commonly used in the modern era for sweets such as refined sugar or properly churned butter, ancient Rome had desserts to serve after they had completed their meals served with wine.[41] The most renowned were large platters of various fruits picked fresh; some of the more exotic fruits that were not able to grow in Rome were even shipped in from distant continents for the wealthy. Due to the lack of a sweetener such as sugar there was always a desire for the sweetest fruits that were available. Sprias were a type of sweet pastry that were readily available during this time; that were always made with a thin, cake-like crust, and sometimes contained fruit. Enkythoi is another common type of Roman pastry that was softer, like a modern sponge cake.
See also
- Apicius, De Re Coquineria
- Ancient Greek cuisine
- Byzantine cuisine, Eastern Roman Empire
- Italian cuisine
- List of ancient dishes
- Spice use in Antiquity
- Asarotos oikos
Notes
References
- ^ Wilkins, John. A Companion to Food in the Ancient World. Wiley Blackwell. pp. 105–109.
- ^ a b c Artman, John:"Ancient Rome- Independent Learning Unit", page 26, Good Apple, 1991.
- ^ a b Artman, John::"Ancient Rome- Independent Learning Unit", page 26, Good Apple,1991.
- ^ Guy, John:"Roman Life", page 8, Ticktock Publishing LTD,1998.
- ISBN 978-1-4351-0121-0.
- ^ Giacosa, Ilaria Gozzini (1992). A taste of Ancient Rome. chicago: University of Chicago.
- ^ Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, University of Chicago Press (2005), p. 27.
- ^ André, Jacques. L'alimentation et la cuisine à Rome. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1981.
- ^ Phyllis Pray Bober, Art, Culture, and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy, University of Chicago Press (2001), pp. 187–188.
- ^ Phyllis Pray Bober, Art, Culture, and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy, University of Chicago Press (2001), p. 188.
- ^ a b Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, University of Chicago Press (2005), p. 209.
- ^ a b c Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, University of Chicago Press (2005), pp. 209, 210–239, 362–371
- ^ a b c Phyllis Pray Bober, Art, Culture, and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy, University of Chicago Press (2001), p. 187.
- ^ Julia F. Morton, Lemon in Fruits of Warm Climates, 1987 pp. 160–168|url=http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/lemon.html#Description%7Cpublisher=Purdue University}
- ^ ISBN 9780521591478.
- S2CID 218839911.
- ^ Berry, Joanne (17 February 2011). "Bakery". Pompeii Art and Architecture Gallery. BBC. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ Way, A. (1843). Promptorium parvulorum sive clericorum, lexicon Anglo-Latinum princeps, recens. A. Way. Camden Society. p. 268. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
- ^ a b c Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food, John Wiley & Sons (2009), p. 93.
- ^ a b c d e f g h John E. Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City, JHU Press (1988), p. 148.
- ISBN 0-226-29032-8
- ^ John E. Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City, JHU Press (1988), p. 148; George A. Feldhamer, Mammalogy: Adaptation, Diversity, Ecology, JHU Press (2007), p. 359.
- ^ Maurice Burton & Robert Burton, International Wildlife Encyclopedia (2002), p. 701.
- ^ Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, University of Chicago Press (2005), p. 289-90.
- ^ Wilhelmina F. Jashernski, Frederick G. Meyer, & Massumino Ricciardi, Plants: Evidence from Wall Paintings, Mosaics, Sculpture, Plant Remains, Graffiti, Inscriptions, and Ancient Authors, in The Natural History of Pompeii (Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski & Frederick G. Meyer, eds), Cambridge University Press, (2002), p. 102.
- ^ J.F. Hancock & G.A. Lobos, Pears, in The Future of Drylands: International Scientific Conference on Desertification and Drylands Research, Tunis, Tunisia (2006), Springer (2008), p. 304.
- ^ Shephard, Sue (2000). Pickled, Potted, and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World. Simon & Schuster. p. 41.
- ^ Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, University of Chicago Press (2005), p. 233.
- ^ Wikipedia entry for chickpea
- ^ a b P.F. Fox and P.L.H. McSweeney, Cheese: An Overview, in Cheese: Chemistry, Physics, and Microbiology Vol. 1 (3d ed.), p. 2-3.
- ^ P.F. Fox and P.L.H. McSweeney, Cheese: An Overview, in Cheese: Chemistry, Physics, and Microbiology Vol. 1 (3d ed.), p. 2-3
- ^ a b c d e Harlan Walker, Fish: Food from the Waters, Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 105-06 (1998).
- ^ Harlan Walker, Fish: Food from the Waters, Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 106 (1998).
- ^ J. Carson Webster, The Labors of the Months in Antique and Mediaeval Art to the End of the Twelfth Century, Studies in the Humanities 4 (Northwestern University Press, 1938), p. 128. In the collections of the Hermitage Museum.
- ^ Faas, p. 50-52.
- ^ a b Faas, p. 52.
- ^ a b Faas, p. 130.
- ^ Faas, p. 140.
- ISBN 0-316-11672-6, p. 159
- ^ a b c Faas, p. 132.
- ^ ISBN 978-0831709587
- ^ Stilo, Aelius. "Wine and Rome". University of Chicago. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
- )
- ISBN 978-0801835742
- ISBN 9780521194044
Further reading
- Gold, Barbara K.; Donahue, John F. (2005). Roman Dining: A Special Issue of American Journal of Philology. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8202-9.
- Faas, Patrick; Whiteside, Shaun (2005). Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-23347-5.
- ISBN 978-0-415-23259-3.
- Dalby, Andrew (2000). Empire of Pleasures. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-18624-7.
- Grocock, Christopher; Grainger, Sally (2006). Apicius. A critical edition with an introduction and an English translation. Totnes: Prospect Books. ISBN 978-1-903018-13-2. [includes Vinidarius]
- Ricotti, Eugenia Salza Prina (1995). Dining as a Roman emperor: how to cook ancient Roman recipes today. Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider.
- Villegas Becerril, Almudena (2001). Culinary Aspects of Ancient Rome. Ars Cibaria. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
External links
- Pass the Garum: Recreations of Roman recipes
- Eight recipes for an ancient Roman dinner
- resourcesforhistory.com: Food in Roman Britain