Food in Ancient Rome - DOCUMENTARY

in any society food is at the center of social life and even cultural identity because imagine japan without sushi italy without pizza mexico without tacos each country has its own unique food and without it it wouldn't be the same so what better way to get to know the romans than to take a closer look at their food nowadays italian food is probably the most well-known and appreciated food in the entire world and it generally revolves around two things pasta and tomatoes but forget about that because pasta as we know it today was not known to the ancient romans as with tomatoes and all of these other products most of them come from south america and only enter the european kitchens a thousand years after the romans so what did the romans eat then if it wasn't tomato sauce pasta and pizza when we think of culinary habits nowadays each nation has a staple cheap carbohydrate filler mostly either rice potatoes or pasta as we said potatoes were not yet known rice was rare and had to be imported from india and the only ancient pasta we know of is best described as some sort of small round lasagna sheets this does resemble modern day pasta but it seems it was highly in common something else had to make up the core of the roman diet and that something was called frumentum meaning cereals either pure or made into bread but before we dive into the world of roman cereals a quick word for our sponsor endl much more so than in roman times nowadays we live in an increasingly distracting environment with all sorts of impulses coming in all the time and this affects us mentally and physically endo is a non-profit app that helps people deal with this by creating personalized soothing soundscapes these soundscapes adapt in real time to personal inputs like location weather and heart rate listening to endl improves your concentration boosts productivity reduces stress levels and relieves brain fatigue these soundscapes give your mind and body what it needs to achieve total immersion in any task whether you need to focus relax or sleep specifically for falling asleep andal just released a new soundscape made in cooperation with james blake called wind down we mostly use the app to help us focus when writing scripts and it has proven to be real effective for us no surprise as the work of endo is backed by neuroscience so check it out now by clicking the description in the link down below to get a 7 day free trial a telling way in which grain is shown to be the cornerstone of the roman diet were the three grain handouts in rome installed already in the second century bc in the time of the republic hundreds of thousands of the poorer citizens of rome received a monthly free ration of grain amounting to some 35 kilos enough for a month of bread for two persons this was one of the first and for the time most impactful forms of a social safety net it was a way to keep the population of the capital fed and in that way help combat hunger poverty corruption crime and unrest in general it was broadly accepted as essential for the survival of rome and lasted until the fall of the empire in later times it was replaced by bread giving us the phrase bread and games but before that what did all these people do with their grain well one of the most common dishes in ancient rome was a porridge called pools the most traditional version amounts to nothing more than ammer wheat boiled in some salted water until soft and edible to fasten the boiling process it'd be smart to soak the grain overnight first but even then the boiling takes roughly an hour so it's not exactly the fastest dish it is easy to make though and nutritious and cheap from a price per calorie point of view this is the absolute best poor man's meal on top of that it's highly versatile it could be eaten warm or cold as breakfast lunch or dinner as a side dish or a main dish it really was the staple of the roman diet especially for the poorer romans we can imagine poor people making this in large quantities at a time to save on firewood and eating the bets spread out over multiple days the only downside to this dish really is the blend taste its entire need of some flavor no surprise there were many varieties of which a handful of recipes survive for example we know of one type of pools that was made into a nicely balanced one pot meal with onions beans and pork added to it another one was made with a base of roasted barley then mixed with cumin flaxseed and millet which was ground to a fine powder before cooking it into a thick sturdy porridge much like polenta a sort of potato mesh like substance made of ground corn flour still eaten today in italy and there was even a sweet one for dessert with soft cheese and honey added in and these are just some recipes that survived after 2000 years such types of grain porridge can be seen as the substitutes of potatoes rice or pasta combined with the available ingredients at the time there must have been an endless variety of dishes with each region and each family having their own recipes and methods of preparation but even then like nowadays you just want something different now and then was there something else to add to your meal for some cheap calories yes of course another option was to make bread out of grain bread provided some nice variation to the grain porridges so bread was eaten a lot alongside meals at whatever moment of the day the most fascinating evidence for the popularity of bread is a written overview of eight days worth of shopping uncovered on a wall in a house in the ancient buried town of pompei the list is a countdown of eight consecutive days towards the ides the middle of the month with a shopping list for each of the days it tells us this family's diet consisted mainly of bread porridge cheese fruits vegetables nuts and of course olives olive oil and wine interestingly enough bread is part of all eight of the lists and consistently put as the first item on the lists you can say quite literally this family's diet started with bread then came the rest they ate bread every day and bought it fresh every day too exceptions aside this was likely the case for all the well-off families being able to replace the cheaper poles for bread more often plautus a famous roman playwright sometimes described characters in his place as pulse eaters this was meant in a condescending derogatory way as to say these were lowly simple people eating just a bland mush and when you think about it porridge still kind of has an image of being old-fashioned cheap and boring certainly not something to serve your guests but also the poorer families who relied on the free grain handouts would not be solely reliant on porridge as they could take a portion of their grain handout and bring it to the baker so that he could make it into bread for a small price of course or they could choose to buy the cheapest bread because there were many types of bread each with its own price the shopping list alone mentioned no less than three types of bread just bread coarse bread and bread for a slave these clearly indicate different qualities showing us that bread was available for all layers of society in general you know white bread was the most beloved and most expensive white bread was the most expensive because it was made of the finest flour in general the darker the bread the coarser and cheaper here you go lady one bread for you thank you thank you very much have a nice day until next time the most famous roman bread was the so-called panis cuaratus so-called because of four cuts or impressions across the bread dividing it into eight easily breakable pieces this kind of bread is not famous because of the resemblance with pizza with the different parts but because we know exactly what it looked like not just because of its depictions on wall paintings but more so because 80 such loaves have been found inside an oven in pompeii carbonized and black but still giving us this real-life tangible ancient bread 2000 years later it's an extremely rare and clear window into the past the abundance of depictions and mentions of the bread suggests that this was the most common bread available at least in pompeii next to the regular loaves there are all sorts of specialist breads breads with a specific purpose or characteristic lenticulum for example was a flat and round loaf tracta was more like a dry cracker artologanus was a fatty cake bread made with milk and lard spoil stickers was a hurry bread oyster bread to be eaten specifically with oysters or light and soft parthian bread water bread light and full of holes like a sponge excellent for dipping in wine or olive oil sacrifice of breads for the gods big cannon a bread with nuts and honey the list goes on and on it is clear the romans cared for their daily bread and as much demand as there was so much offer was there to meet it bread could be bought the local bakery itself or it stands throughout the city for example at the market or it stands next to a temple selling sacrifice or bread but for the real busy people bread could even be delivered at home the cheapest and most basic meal would be to dip the bread in some wine it's a good way to make all bread soft again and make it easy to eat it quickly a good way to have quick breakfast or an easy meal on the road when there is no fresh bread available a similar meal is to dip your bread in olive oil to add some extra flavor you can add some salt garlic or green herbs to the olive oil simple but tasty and quite rich in calories and even healthier than you might think because olive oil contains lots of good fats and antioxidants studies have proven that eating olive oil helps against the inflammations and decreases the chance of heart diseases strokes alzheimer and even cancer then a step up in culinary complexity would be to make a dipping sauce or spread for bread besides a pen the most important food processing tool in any roman kitchen was a mortarium a heavy earthen bowl with its internal surface embedded with coarse sand or grit like a mixing bowl and the grate in one it was used to make all sorts of delicacies of which the most well-known is called muretum a general term used for spreads and dips usually based on the cheese combined with ground and garlic and or herbs like a modern day pesto or cheese spread ideal for eating with bread and making even the most boring bread delicious and there are many cheeses to choose from in antiquity as romans love cheese cheeses were made from sheep goat and cow's milk but the romans had a clear preference for sheep and goat probably because it's usually stronger in taste the romans knew both fresh soft cheeses like ricotta or cottage cheese as well as aged heart cheeses and everything in between they even had a special smoked cheese famously made in one specific neighborhood in ancient rome for many ordinary romans often times cheese must have been the most tasteful and expensive thing on the dinner table but well worth it when considering the golden combination it makes with red wine bread and olive oil it turns an ordinary meal into a real treat then of course there are the things that make our modern day dinner into dinner vegetables and meats often cooked and warm but the vegetables sometimes raw in the form of salads for the romans this was no different lettuce rockets watercress the green leaves of beets and many other smaller plants were all eaten raw in the form of salads often vinegar and salt was added as a dressing to the salad the latin word for salt so is actually where a word salad is derived from as a more filling but healthy and cheap side dish beans were perfect most common and popular beans were lentils chickpeas regular peas and broad beans with some roman culinary imagination this could be made surprisingly tasty such as a dish that is roughly translated as fava beans a la vitellis named after the gluttonous roman emperor vitellius it's made of meshed broad beans and egg yolks with an interesting dressing of wine vinegar honey and ginger apart from beans the romans had many other more green vegetables to choose from as well some of the most popular were broccoli cabbage leek asparagus and celery to name just a few but exotic items in itself weren't uncommon either because of the sheer size of the empire and the relative safety of trade routes economy blossomed like never before resulting in more and more ingredients entering the roman kitchens for example black pepper produced in india has been found in native homesteads all the way in northwestern germania products came from everywhere olive oil and fish sauce from spain wheat from north africa and egypt cows from germania cloves in nutmeg from india and beyond next to importing new products the romans also started the cultivation of many products new to the local population for example in germania there were no plums apples peaches cherries and walnuts until the romans arrived the local population learned from the romans how to grow these products greatly increasing the variety of their diet finally most expensive were fish and meat when it comes to meat the romans had a strong preference for pork other livestock like chickens cows oxen sheep and goats were held particularly for the secondary products eggs traction milk and wool pigs don't offer any such secondary products and were held purely for meat purposes their meat was therefore the most expensive and maybe in part for that reason the most craved another likely reason for the liking of pork is that it is the most fatty meat and fat was considered nutritious and therefore good the most popular ways to eat meat was in the form of a stew or as a sausage stuffed with minced meat and mixed with spices and herbs boiled meat was seen as less refined then there's fish fish came roughly in two varieties fresh fish and preserved fish generally speaking preserved salted fish would be affordable for the common man as well but fresh fish could cost anything between a lot and a fortune especially the rare and unusually big fish were much sought after and being bought for ridiculous prices but they would not be for regular day-to-day consumption though these fish were clearly meant to impress important guests as food was one of the prime ways to display your power in ancient rome so the bigger rarer and more exotic the better it is only for this reason that we know recipes of flamingos tongue sea urchins camel's feet and giraffe meat but this is the stuff of rome's ultimate elite and hardly realistic even for them this concludes our overview of the diet of an ancient roman from poor to rich thanks to the size and the vast trade network of the empire many products were available and cheap it would take many centuries after the roman empire before the common man had access to such a varied diet again well this concludes our video we hope you enjoyed it and now it's time to do the dishes [Music] you

Channel: Imperium Romanum

Views: 522,763

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Id: 0PaORdCEFqI

Length: 17min 34sec (1054 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2022