Cheesecake was known in ancient times
First mention art of baking cheesecake appears in the work of the Greek philosopher Aegimus from the 5th century BCE. Apparently, the cake was eaten by the Olympians.
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Curiosities of ancient Rome (Food)
The world of ancient Romans abounded in a number of amazing curiosities and information. The source of knowledge about the life of the Romans are mainly works left to us by ancient writers or discoveries. The Romans left behind a lot of strange information and facts that are sometimes hard to believe.
Cinnamon – valuable spice of antiquity
Cinnamon was a very well known spice in ancient times. Chinese and Egyptians, as well as Romans used it. In ancient times cinnamon and cassia were distinguished. Cinnamon, which was imported from Sri Lanka, was more respected and luxurious; cassia, in turn, was imported from Arabia and Ethiopia. Due to the fact that cinnamon was very expensive, only the richest could afford to import it.
Recipe for real Roman bread
In 1930 in Herculaneum there was excavated from the ground bread (pane), dated to 79 CE. In 2013, the British Museum asked chef Giorgio Locatelli to recreate a recipe for a Roman loaf of bread.
Garum – delicacy of Romans
What is for us today ketchup or mustard, for the Romans was garum. Garum was an addition necessary in exquisite Roman cuisine.
It appears in most of the recipes preserved in the work “De re coquinaria” of Apicius.
Roman meals during the day
Romans ate three meals during the day, in which women also participated. In the morning between eight and nine, the Romans ate breakfast so écantaculum, in the middle of the day between eleven and noon they ate the prandium (second breakfast, dinner) and finally the most important meal was dinner, between the third and the fourth hour.
Rich Romans organized wonderful feasts
Rich Romans organized extremely decadent and extravagant feasts that lasted for hours. Unable to swallow the next dishes, the slaves teased their palate with a pen so that they could then vomit the contents of the stomach. In this way they could continue to participate in the meeting.
What did ancient Romans drink?
Ancient Romans were famous for drinking wine in large quantities. The wine was available to everyone: a slave, a plebeian, a soldier, a woman. The wine also saw children (there was no age limit). The wine to the younger Romans was, however, served with water in the right proportion so that they would not get drunk. Was there anything else besides the red liquid?
What did ancient Romans eat?
The basic ingredient of an ancient Roman dinner was the bread of various types of flour: black bread (panis rusticus, plebeius), white bread (panis secundaris) and the most delicate luxury bread (panis candidus, uniform). There were also popular vegetables: lettuce, cabbage, leeks, chickpeas, broad beans (boiled, roasted), goat’s cheese and olives. Beef and various kinds of venison were valued (including deer meat and wild donkey), however fish dishes were the most favoured.
Penthiacum – Roman dish
Penthiacum is one of the dishes eaten in antiquity, and which was mentioned by Petronius in the “Trimalchio’s feast”. The meal consisted of chopped meat. The name derives from the name of the mythical king Thebes, Pentheus, who according to Greek mythology was killed in fury by Maenad, also called Bacchae.
