Food in Rome

[TheLimey]

This is something that came about after a conversation with malins, and could have fitted in the Roman Resources thread. However, there's such a lot of different topics going in in there, I thought I'd start a separate thread to keep things in one place.

When we think of Rome, we certainly think of crucifixion, scourging, slaves of all kinds, and copious indulgence in food and wine.

So, I'd like this to be a resource for notes, descriptions and what have you for Roman stories that feature banquets.

My first offering is an actual Roman recipe for milk fed snails.

6 snails per person
2 pints of milk
Salt
1tsp Garum (or anchovy essence)
1 tblsp Wine

Clean the Snails with a sponge, and remove the membrane so they can come out from their shells.
Put in a vessel with half the milk and the salt, for 1 day, then in a fresh vessel with the remaining milk for another day, cleaning away the excrement every hour.
When the snails are fat to the point that they can no longer return to their shells, fry on oil . Serve with a dressing of Garum and wine.

 

[malins]

When we think of Rome, we certainly think of crucifixion, scourging, slaves of all kinds, and copious indulgence in food and wine.

When ever did we stop thinking of Cicero, the roots of our jurisprudence, public works, road networks, the Republic and all that? Oh when we figured out it was all just a thin veneer over what it was really about ... slave torture and indulgence!!!

I do have lots of 'Weinbergschnecken' (helix pomatia) in my garden, which it turns out in English may also be called 'Roman snails' or at least Wikipedia claims so... they are however today a protected species!

 

[windar]

When we think of Rome, we certainly think of crucifixion, scourging, slaves of all kinds, and copious indulgence in food and wine.

Barb and I made a little trip to Rome a couple of years back and that wasn't on the menu. But Barb did get to spend a night in the Mamartine Prison, the old Tullianum, where Sts. Peter and Paul had been kept before their crucifixions, as well as Vercingatorix, the leader of the Gauls, captured and brought to Rome by Julius Caesar. We also met a very important guy. You can read about it here

Roman Holiday

Spoiler Alert I have written a not-too-long coda to "The Bronx Crux Murders" http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/threads/the-bronx-crux-murders.6173/. If you haven't read that story yet, I suggest you do so before you read this one, as there are references in here that will spoil the suspense. I...

www.cruxforums.com

 

[Serva]

This is something that came about after a conversation with malins, and could have fitted in the Roman Resources thread. However, there's such a lot of different topics going in in there, I thought I'd start a separate thread to keep things in one place.

When we think of Rome, we certainly think of crucifixion, scourging, slaves of all kinds, and copious indulgence in food and wine.

So, I'd like this to be a resource for notes, descriptions and what have you for Roman stories that feature banquets.

My first offering is an actual Roman recipe for milk fed snails.

6 snails per person
2 pints of milk
Salt
1tsp Garum (or anchovy essence)
1 tblsp Wine

Clean the Snails with a sponge, and remove the membrane so they can come out from their shells.
Put in a vessel with half the milk and the salt, for 1 day, then in a fresh vessel with the remaining milk for another day, cleaning away the excrement every hour.
When the snails are fat to the point that they can no longer return to their shells, fry on oil . Serve with a dressing of Garum and wine.

This is a very interesting little recipe! I wouldn't mind trying these snails. My Dominus might let me eat one if there are any leftover. I love how elaborate the preparation is, with feeding the snails! Very decadent, very much a dish for patricians!

 

[Serva]

Barb and I made a little trip to Rome a couple of years back and that wasn't on the menu. But Barb did get to spend a night in the Mamartine Prison, the old Tullianum, where Sts. Peter and Paul had been kept before their crucifixions, as well as Vercingatorix, the leader of the Gauls, captured and brought to Rome by Julius Caesar. We also met a very important guy. You can read about it here

Roman Holiday

Spoiler Alert I have written a not-too-long coda to "The Bronx Crux Murders" http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/threads/the-bronx-crux-murders.6173/. If you haven't read that story yet, I suggest you do so before you read this one, as there are references in here that will spoil the suspense. I...

www.cruxforums.com

Wasn't Vercingetorix strangled to death, in private, in the Mamertine? They certainly had mercy on him, letting him die easy and quietly.

 

[TheLimey]

Wasn't Vercingetorix strangled to death, in private, in the Mamertine? They certainly had mercy on him, letting him die easy and quietly.

I believe so. Julius Caeser had a soft spot for his old enemy.

 

[malins]

I believe so. Julius Caeser had a soft spot for his old enemy.

But ...
did he ...
EAT him!?!?!

This is supposed to be about "Food in Rome" not Executions in Rome or Slaves in Rome

 

[KageKamen]

Don't forget that most plebians lived on the dole and takeaways. The more things change...

 

[poem21045]

This is a very interesting little recipe! I wouldn't mind trying these snails. My Dominus might let me eat one if there are any leftover. I love how elaborate the preparation is, with feeding the snails! Very decadent, very much a dish for patricians!

Stuffed dormouse was standard fare.

 

[Serva]

Stuffed dormouse was standard fare.

Ah yes, I've read they were kept in jars of clay and stuffed there. I love imagining I am a slave and I have to feed the dormice in their jars.

 

[TheLimey]

The dining room in a fine Villa was known as the triclinium, as usually there were three couches around a dining table, with the fourth side open for the serving slaves. You reclined on a couch, often shared with two other people, your left arm supported on a cushion. Slaves would have removed your shoes, and replaced them by sandals.

In-between courses, entertainers would keep the guests amused whilst the next course was brought out. Musicians, dancers, acrobats. For the very rich, even gladiatorial fights would be offered.

For those nights you truly wanted to impress, then the food would become less edible and more ostentatious. Peas mixed with grains of gold, lentils with precious stones are noted from contemporary accounts.

 

[KageKamen]

I believe there were some rules about who was allowed to recline?

 

[TheLimey]

I believe there were some rules about who was allowed to recline?

I think so, but why would you invite someone not of your station to a fine meal. If you wanted to mix with the plebians, then you could go to any tavern...

However, it did happen on occasion.Trimalchio gave a feast where his guests selected which of three pigs was slaughtered after they were paraded round the room. His cook very shortly brought out a huge roast pig. Trimalchio inspected the pig,and declared the cook incompetent, as the pig had not been gutted, and made as if to beat the cook. He ordered the cook to gut the pig right then and there. The first slash revealed a cornucopia of sausages and black puddings. For his part in the heat, the cook was given a silver piece, and given the privilege of joining his master and his guests for the rest of the evening.

 

[Eulalia]

This is something that came about after a conversation with malins, and could have fitted in the Roman Resources thread. However, there's such a lot of different topics going in in there, I thought I'd start a separate thread to keep things in one place.

When we think of Rome, we certainly think of crucifixion, scourging, slaves of all kinds, and copious indulgence in food and wine.

So, I'd like this to be a resource for notes, descriptions and what have you for Roman stories that feature banquets.

My first offering is an actual Roman recipe for milk fed snails.

6 snails per person
2 pints of milk
Salt
1tsp Garum (or anchovy essence)
1 tblsp Wine

Clean the Snails with a sponge, and remove the membrane so they can come out from their shells.
Put in a vessel with half the milk and the salt, for 1 day, then in a fresh vessel with the remaining milk for another day, cleaning away the excrement every hour.
When the snails are fat to the point that they can no longer return to their shells, fry on oil . Serve with a dressing of Garum and wine.

That seems to me a very good recipe, and certainly escargots lightly fried in oil with a dressing of garum (or anchovy relish) and wine would be nice, a change from the garlic butter I generally use. Modern-day snail farmers feed them on juicy vegetable materials - the kinds of leaves they eat in our gardens - plus calcium in some form. I suppose the milk would fatten them up quickly, and supply calcium (though that's mainly for their shells), but it seems a rather cruel way and I doubt they'd taste as good as ones fed on garden leaves.

 

[Eulalia]

I know I keep advertising it, but I don't even apologise - when she was working on 'Amica', Velut Luna included a great deal of well-researched detail on the meals and wine, the eating customs and courtesies, and the domestic architecture of high-class houses in Pompeii and around the Bay of Naples, her story brings them to life very vividly:

http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/resources/amica-the-slavegirl-of-pompeii-by-velut-luna.402/

 

[Loxuru]

Before you carry on, do not forget the vomitorium was also part of Roman dining culture. i
Foresee a sleve to provide feathers, to keep the room shiny clean after every use, and to keep the air smelling freshly and fragrantly!
On complaint, the slave will be whipped!

 

[malins]

Before you carry on, do not forget the vomitorium was also part of Roman dining culture. i
Foresee a sleve to provide feathers, to keep the room shiny clean after every use, and to keep the air smelling freshly and fragrantly!
On complaint, the slave will be whipped!

Now I'm no expert in Rome and I may be wrong ...

but from what I've heard the 'vomitorium' is actually simply a term from architecture, it is a passage that 'spews forth' something, specifically a crowd. Vomitoria would exist in theaters and arenas as large passageways through which crowds could exit, basically crod management.

Simply because the word sounds so suggestive to modern ears it was then repurposed for the myth of the 'vomitorium' as an installation that supoosedly reflected the gorging gluttonous decadence of Rome...

 

[TheLimey]

Now I'm no expert in Rome and I may be wrong ...

but from what I've heard the 'vomitorium' is actually simply a term from architecture, it is a passage that 'spews forth' something, specifically a crowd. Vomitoria would exist in theaters and arenas as large passageways through which crowds could exit, basically crod management.

Simply because the word sounds so suggestive to modern ears it was then repurposed for the myth of the 'vomitorium' as an installation that supoosedly reflected the gorging gluttonous decadence of Rome...

You are correct!

 

[Loxuru]

Now I'm no expert in Rome and I may be wrong ...

but from what I've heard the 'vomitorium' is actually simply a term from architecture, it is a passage that 'spews forth' something, specifically a crowd. Vomitoria would exist in theaters and arenas as large passageways through which crowds could exit, basically crod management.

Simply because the word sounds so suggestive to modern ears it was then repurposed for the myth of the 'vomitorium' as an installation that supoosedly reflected the gorging gluttonous decadence of Rome...

I do not contest your expertise..

But myths exist to be cherished, and particularly here on CF, why should we not cherish that myth of decadence, when it allows us to put a slavegirl in charge, which, in our cherished Roman-CF decadence, risks an exciting punishment in presence of the esteemed decadent guests.

 

[Serva]

I do not contest your expertise..

But myths exist to be cherished, and particularly here on CF, why should we not cherish that myth of decadence, when it allows us to put a slavegirl in charge, which, in our cherished Roman-CF decadence, risks an exciting punishment in presence of the esteemed decadent guests.

You have a point that I can relate to. Collars, for example, weren't that common for Roman slaves. They existed but they weren't universal by any means, nor even widespread. But in my Roman fantasy, all slaves are collared.