The ordinary Roman meals prepared by the general citizens of ancient Rome, called plebeians were not very different from what we eat today. They prepared roasted pork in spicy sauces, dates filled with cheese and nuts. They eat ate omelettes with mushrooms and enjoyed desserts like cheesecake and figs in custard. Fish and fish sauce were also important foods. One of the most delicious flavours in the Roman and Byzantine period was a salty fish sauce with a strong and sharp sensation called Garum. Garum was made by fermenting fish guts, tails, heads, small, whole fish, and spices in salt. The jars with the layers of fish and salt were placed for several days out in the sun. It was used in many recipes. The finest garum could be sold for astronomical sums.
In 2019 archaeologist discovered, close to the Israeli city of Ashkelon, a small Roman garum factory dating from the time of Jesus. Even in the storerooms of King Herod’s palace in the isolated Masada near the dead sea, a rare, labelled amphorae of garum dating from the 1 century was found.
A roman style recipe
Here is a famous recipe from a collection of Roman cookery recipes thought to have been compiled by the roman food loving Marcus Gavius Apicus Gavius who lived in the 1st century during the reign of the second roman emperor Tiberius. It seems to be the oldest cooking book from Europe. After losing his money due to many extravagance parties and dinners, he committed suicide by taking poison. The 4th century cookbook the “ De re coquinaria” is attributed to him, but there are perhaps only 6 recipes in the book who are likely from him or from the 1st century.
Roman fish sauce
Almost every Roman used Garum and liquamen as sauce to salt their dishes. Garum and liquamen are roman fish sauces made from fermented fish, salt, and water. Kitchen salt is extracting moisture from the dish but garum adds moisture to a dish. When preparing a real roman stile meal, the use of garum is a must. It is used in the same way as we use Worcestershire sauce or Maggi. Garum is not meant to be used as a sauce on its own. Asian shops are selling fish sauce produced in almost the same way.
Boiled Mussels based on an ancient roman recipe.
Ingredient's
2000 gram of live mussels
1 tablespoon garum or fish sauce from an Asian shop
60 millilitres fortified sweet wine.
120 millilitres white wine or more if necessary
1 cup of shopped leek
¼ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon dried savoury
175 millilitre waters
Preparation
1. Wash and clean the mussels and make sure that they are all alive.
2. Combine all the ingredients except the mussels in a large cooking pot.
3. You need at least ½ inch of liquid at the bottom. Add more wine or water if necessary.
4. Set the cooking pot over medium high heat until simmering.
5. Add the mussels and cover the pot.
6.Let it steam for ca 5 minutes.
7.Check if all mussels are opened. and discard the unopened mussels.
7.Serve hot and use the shells as spoon.
In roman days it was usual to ate 3 times a day. The breakfast contains often bread, omelette and or wheat pancakes served with dates and honey.
As lunch they consumed a light mail, from fish, meat bread and vegetables, mostly the leftovers of the previous days.
Dinner was the most important mail from the day. The plebeians, who probable could not afford them to eat 3 mails per day, made simple evening meals of vegetables and porridge. To flavour the tasteless boiled wheat they often used flavourings, herbs, vegetables and sometimes a little meat.
Patricians (=The nobility) were able to hold big luxury dinner parties with several courses, exotic food lasting often up to 8 hours. They were laying on sloping couches placed around squire tables. Spoons were only used for eating soup. For the rest they eat with their hands. During the whole dinner party slaves were washing the hands of the Patricians. Meat dishes were prepared from boar, deer, lamb, pig, dormouse and all kinds of known birds like chicken, ostriches, cranes, pheasants, pigeons, doves, thrushes, figpeckers and even peacocks.
In roman times it was common to parboil the meat before roasting. To give the chicken a special taste after roasting they often used a sauce called defrutum. Defrutum is a syrup made by boiling wine grapes or must ill the volume be reduced.(half the original.) To extract the juice the cooked mixture was squeezed through a sieve. Depending on the taste of the juice sweetener like honey was added. The main use of defrutum was to help to preserve and sweeten wine to add to meat dishes as sweetening and souring. The Romans also used it to feed animals like ducks and pigs to improve the taste of the flesh. Defrutum was mixed with garum to make oenogarum. Defrutum was often used as food preservative food provisions for the traveling Roman troops. Roman woman used it as cosmetics. Grape syrup was often boiled in lead pots. Because of the chemical reaction between the lead and the grapes the syrup became sweeter. There is recorded that incidental people were poisoned by using Defrutum syrup. You can make your own defrutum, but you need many kilograms of grapes. o produces only a little sauce t is often easier to buy grape juice.in the shop. I prefer to use red grape juice because the aroma is more intense and has a better sweet-sour after taste.
In many Roman recipes, changed to the today’s taste I read in the list of ingredients Sugar. In Roman times people didn’t have sugar as sweetener. Instead of sugar they used honey. It is widely believed that sugarcane was first used by the Polynesia and spread to India. In 510 BC Emperor Darius of Persia invaded India and found “ the reed which gives honey without bees”. In the 7th century the Arabs invaded Persia and learned how to produce sugar from sugarcane. In the 11th century the Crusaders discovered the “white sweet salt” in the Levant. In 1069 the first sugar was used in England. Sugar during the Crusades was very expensive, a great luxury.
Savoury is a common herb, already used for 2000 years to flavour beans and meat. It is a very good herb to flavour stuffed cabbage or grape leaf rolls. Savoury has a thyme-like, and robust peppery taste. The word savoury refers also to a flavourful food. Savoury is known as the “herb of Love”. Ancient romans believed that this aromatic herb was a natural aphrodisiac. It was used to make love potions. Its reputation was so powerful that European monasteries forbid the growth was of savoury for fear that the monks were using it.
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