Curiosities of ancient Rome (Food)
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How did plebeians eat and how patricians?
Plebeians ate using all fingers. Patricians to distinguish themselves from the pleb used only three fingers so as not to get their ring finger and little finger dirty. Before serving it was needed to have hands washed. Two types of ... Read more
McRoman – fast-food in ancient Rome
It is widely believed that fast food bars are a modern invention. However, ancient Rome does not quite agree with this statement. The first recipe for an ancient burger can be found in the cookbook Apicius, written in the first ... Read more
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. Cheesecakes were also known in ancient Rome as libium. It was a ... Read more
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, ... Read more
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. To prepare Roman bread you ... Read more
First burger was Roman?
Ancient Romans are appreciated by modern Britons for bringing several innovations to Britain: roads, pavements, baths and plumbing. As it turns out, one more thing may be owed – a beef burger. The recipe for a burger comes from a ... Read more
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. It was ... Read more
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 ... Read more
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 ... Read more
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 ... Read more
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