The Ancient Roman Diet
Typical Food and Ingredients Used in Roman Cookery
Roman eating was not all about stuffed dormice and complex feasting. Basically simple and healthy, many of the recipes have survived into the present day.
Based on the evidence of recipes and carbonised shopping lists from Pompeii, the average Roman family’s diet would have been largely simple and nutritious. Some recipes are not for modern tastes. However, several have survivedto the present day.
The Staples
- Grain. This was the cornerstone of the Roman diet, either in the form of bread or as a kind of porridge. The agricultural texts of Cato and Columella are full of recipes of this kind. Grains used encompassed millet, wheat and barley boiled up and eaten plainly or flavoured with cheese, honey, eggs or milk. Such porridges were probably a staple part of the agricultural diet and were still favoured by those with more simple culinary tastes well into the empire, as well as the poor who would have relied upon such simple and economic dishes for survival.
- Vegetables.These were plentiful and an integral part of the diet. Rome itself was well supplied with produce from the market gardens that sprang up for this purpose on its outskirts. Evidence indicates that lentils, pulses, onions, leeks, celery and parsley amongst others, were common. It was also possible to acquire imported food stuffs such as dates which were affordable and readily available in the markets.
- Cheese. Like vegetables, cheese was readily available and commonly combined with vegetables and grain. Often it was preserved in brine or vinegar, salted or smoked.
- Condiments. Olive oil and wine were the most frequent condiments served with food. Wine would be boiled down into a condiment known as sapa and used asthe basis of for sauces that were often served with Roman meals. Herbs and spices were regularly added to these sauces, as well as fruit and honey, lending dishes a strong sweet and sour flavour.
Luxury Items
- Meat and Fish.Despite literary evidence the common Roman diet include very little meat or fish. Affordability did increase with time, making it common for at least one main meat dish to appear on even modest dinner party menus. Most people could afford to eat meat once a week. However, it was considered to be vulgarly ostentatious by the majority of society to serve meat with every course as Pertonius's Trimalchio does in his Satyricon. Pork appears to have been popular. Fish was rare except for those living in coast regions. Rome itself, despite its close proximity to the sea, did not have a ready supply. Commonly it was sold live from huge tanks in the markets.
- Garum. Widely regarded as the ancient equivalent of tomato ketchup, garum may not have be as widely used as once supposed. Made by fermenting mackerel and other fish in huge vats, it was transported all over the Roman Empire. However, it does not feature as an ingredient in regular recipes were salt was more commonly used. It is however regularly included in recipes found in Apicius’s, a wealthy roman gourmets, cookbook. This suggests it was more of an expensive elite condiment.
Surviving Roman Recipes
Although the Romans did not have many of the food ingredients that we associate today with Italian cuisine, it is possible to detect some precursors of many common Italian dishes in Roman cookery.
- Laganon was the ancient version of pasta, made from wheat flour mixed to a dough with water. However, unlike modern pasta, it was fried and not boiled and used to scoop up the vegetable sauce commonly served with it.
- Ancient Pesto. Columella describes a sauce made or ground pine nuts, hazelnuts or almonds, mixed with oil, peppered vinegar and cheese, with thyme, oregano or savory.
Sources.
Roman Cookery by Mark Grant (Serif:London)
Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day by Philip Matyszak (Thames & Hudson)
Cato and Varro on Agriculture. trans. W D Hooper & H B Ash (Loeb Classical Library)
The Satyricon by Petronius. trans.J. P Sullivan (Penguin Books)
On Agriculture by Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (Loeb Classical Library)
The Roman cookery book : a critical translation of the art of cooking by Apicius for use in the study and the kitchen. Apicius. (Harrap)
