- What are the ingredients and recipes of ancient Roman cuisine?
- What were the eating habits and what was the choice of food and beverages in ancient Rome?
- What did the ancient kitchen look like and how did Romans cook?
- What did famous ancient feasts look like?
- What advice did famous Roman cook Apicius give to hosts and cooks?
These are only some of the questions answered in the Latin language lessons with teacher Natalija Stanković.
Ancient Roman bread, sweets with dates and cheesecake à la ancient Rome cuisine
De re coquinaria, the first cookbook created and recorded in Europe, represents an amazing treasure chest of culinary and cultural achievements of the ancient world. This cookbook, whose author is Marcus Gavius Apicius, contains more than 400 unique recipes organised in sections (meat, vegetables, legumes, game, poultry, seafood etc.).
The section devoted to preparation of meat dishes includes the recipes for cooking offal of domestic animals, but also those of game, predominantly boars, even dormice. The collection includes the recipes for preparing the meat of cranes, ostriches, flamingoes, peacocks…
The students chose some recipes and, organised in groups, prepared the famous Roman bread (panis quadratus), some sweets with dates and cheesecake à la ancient Rome cuisine.
Please, do view some of the videos and maybe you would like to give it a try preparing some of these traditional dishes.
The students brought these specialties to school, enjoyed tremendously tasting them and for a moment stepped back in the ancient times.
The secret of longevity of ancient Romans
Ancient Romans were famous for their longevity which surely had to do with their habit of eating fresh fruit before meals, spicing dishes with honey, pepper and fig syrup, pine nuts and mint leaves. We may criticise them for their gluttony, but, when it comes to food, we must give them credit for taking enjoyment and creativity to perfection. Thus, the specialties our students made were so good that they decided to prepare them again.