Baking in ancient Rome

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Baking was a popular profession and source of food in ancient Rome. Many ancient Roman baking techniques were developed due to Greek bakers who traveled to Rome following the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC). Ancient Roman bakers could make large quantities of money. This may have contributed to receiving a negative reputation. Bakers used tools such as the fornax, testum, thermospodium, and the clibanus to make bread. Most Roman breads were made using sourdough. The most common way to leaven bread was using flour mixed with grain.

History

Still life with bread and figs, wall painting from Herculaneum

The Romans had eaten porridge and baked bread for around six hundred years after the founding of Rome. In 171 BC, during the Third Macedonian War, the arrival of Greek bakers established the first professional bakers, known as the pistores, in Rome.[1] It was in ancient Rome where bread and pastries first began to be mass produced.[2]

Process

Frieze on the Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker, depicting bread being prepared.

criminals as workers in bakeries.[3][9]

Ingredients

Ancient Roman bread was typically made from sourdough. White raised bread was preferred over unleavened bread; the latter was associated with the lower classes. Sourdough bread was made by mixing flour with water, and leaving the mix in the open air, to be colonised by wild, airborne yeasts. If this "starter" was successful, a small amount was retained uncooked, to be added to the next batch. The rest was baked. A good starter was handled with care. It could be re-used indefinitely, and, as much as the flour itself, determined the quality of the bread. Other, less popular leavening agents included soured barley cakes, beer foam, or fermented grape juice.[10] Ash cake was the ancient Roman term for food produced in the ashes of a fire. This type of food may be the ancestor of Italian flatbread focaccia.[3] Many baked goods included large quantities of honey and oil.[2] Leaves were used to flavor the bread.[11] The Romans adopted a Gaulic technique of adding froth to bread dough to make light leavened bread.[12]

Equipment

The furnus was developed by the end of the Republic and spread due to a greater need for baking.

food preparation ritual.[16] This type of oven was used by the Roman military to supply food to its soldiers.[18] Another piece of baking equipment was known as the clibanus. Although frequently mentioned in Roman literature, there is little evidence as to its function or role. It is unclear what differentiated it from the testum. It was a rounded pot with a wider bottom than top and heated with a fire located underneath it. Flanges were sometimes placed on the sides of the vessel and were used to grip onto. It may also have had a central opening or small circular vents in the sides which were used to regulate the heat. The clibanus may have been portable. It is also possible the term clibanus referred to a wide variety of vessels, possibly including the testum. Decorations were sometimes placed on clibani. The most common decoration was incised concentric circles, wave patterns, rouletted concentric circles of triangles or rectangles, gouges, and slashes.[4]

A mill and bakery complex at Pompeii

Reputation

There is evidence that baking was widespread in ancient Rome. Archaeologists have found over thirty commercial bakeries in Pompeii. Bakers could be identified through imagery such as millstones or donkeys.[3] Wealthy Romans would purchase domestic slaves and use them as bakers. This was seen as a sign of aristocratic status. Bakers were also associated with servility. Cicero considered baking to be a lowly occupation. In Plautus' Poenulus bakers were said to work with prostitutes. Augustus was mocked for being the descendant of an African baker. The negativity towards bakers was likely influenced by the large quantities of wealth bakers would assume.[19]

See also

References

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