SPICES, HERBS AND OTHER SEASONINGS
Garum (fish sauce from mackerel)
was the most common Roman condiment. An “inferior”
fish sauce was made from tuna fish. Garum (and other seasonings)
were made on the coast of Brittany and along the Mediterranean
coast of Gaul.
Honey, vinegar and broth were all
used generously as well.
Roman spices, etc.: Salt,
pepper, anise, caraway, celery seed, costus, cumin, dill, fennel,
flea-bane, ginger, laser, laurel, laurel berries, lovage,
mastic, mint, mustard, myrtle berries, onion, origany, pennyroyal,
rocket seed, rue, saffron, sage, savory, spikenard, sumac, thyme,
was known but not apparently used for cooking in the western
empire. It seems to have been in the eastern, however.
Pepper was sometimes replaced with
dried juniper berries.
One type of nard – one of
the more luxurious Romans spices – was called Gallic nard
and was sometimes adulterated with hirculus, an herb that
grew with it and was said to smell like a goat.
SAMPLES MEALS AND LISTS
GAUL IN PARTICULAR
Food for the poor:
“From spelt pottage-making meal,
that...furnishes the tables of the common folk” (i.e.,
porridge); turnip and rape were also mentioned as food of the
For luxury meal:
made with Libyan wheat, wines of Chio, Gaza, Falerne.
Funerary meals and offerings:
Pork; beef, wild boar, mutton;
goat; dog; cat; rabbit; hare; eggs; rooster, chicken, goose,
pigeon; vegetables, bread, salt; oysters; plums, hazelnuts;
fruit preserves, honey. Gutus – pottery or glass pitchers
with “nipples” for feeding babies (possibly ) – have been found in infants' graves.
Remains found in central Paris:
Pig, wild boar, beef, sheep, goat,
hare, rabbit, poultry, oyster, mussel, snail.
Fish in the Moselle:
Chad, tench, bleak, trout, barbel,
gudgeon, grayling, chub, salmon, eel-pout, perch, pike, sheat-fish
Fish remains found in
Tuna (large quantities), sardine,
anchovy, mackerel, horse mackerel, small bream, red mullet, sea
bass, turbot, flatfish.
ROMAN IN GENERAL (Well-off
Gallo-Romans would have eaten at least some of these)
MEAT: Wild boar (neck; from
Tuscany), ham, bacon (Cerratan or Menapian), chitterlings (from
virgin pig or pregnant sow), suckling pig, kid, Lucanian sausage,
sow's paunch, udder/teats, hare (thigh), rabbits, dormouse
BIRDS: Thrush, turtle-dove, birds
from Libya or Phasis, chicken and eggs, capon, pullet, wild-fowl,
pheasant, partridge ("rarity"), wood-pigeon, duck
(breast and neck), peacock, crane (Thrace), fat goose liver (foie
gras), heathcock, flamingo (tongue), blackbird
SEAFOOD/SHELLFISH: Mullet, turbot,
eel, “sea-lizard” [eel?], pike, lamprey, carp, char
(liver), coracinus, sea-hedgehog, prawn, gudgeon, sturgeon, John
Dory, barbel, red herring, anchovy. moray, parrot fish, oyster
(Locrian), lobster, crab, shrimp, sea-urchin, cockles, mussels,
snails and sea-snails
VEGETABLES: Asparagus (wild and
from Ravenna), fresh cauliflower, beans, haricot beans, olives
(Andulusians), black olives, mushrooms, truffles, cabbage (in oil
or boiled in nitrate water), cabbage sprouts, mallows "to aid
digestion", leeks (Arician and Tarentine), mint "the
antidote to flatulence", lettuce "a laxative",
SPICE: Pepper (frequently,
even exclusively, mentioned in literature, though many other spices appear in Aspicius)
FRUIT: Figs (Carian, Chian and
Libyan), dates (Thebes), plums (Syrian/Damas), apples (Ancona and
Tivoli), candied plums, grapes (Venusian, Alba, Gallic), raisins,
pears, chestnuts (roasted), quinces (with honey), service berries
(for avoiding diarrhea), citrons, pomegranates (Nomentan and
Libyan), cornel berries, melons, cherries
CHEESE: Cheese of Nimes (Mt.
Lozere/Gevaudan), Luna cheese, Trebulan cheese (toasted or in
water), baked cheese
SWEETS: Cake, cheesecake, phallic
INFERIOR: Boiled snout of mutton,
tuna fish, wine tasting of resin, Pelignian wine, Marseilles wine,
Veieintine wine (Campanian), Rhodian biscuit
COMBINATIONS: Candied figs with
onions, shell-fish and cheese; sausages on porridge; slices of egg
on anchovies with rue; gourds made into various foods; lobster
with asparagus; lamprey with shrimp cooked in garum, wine, white
pepper, vinegar, and arugula; capers and onions in sauce; crane
with salt and flour; sauce of lees and anchovies, black and white
pepper; soup with sea-crabs and mullets; lettuce, snails, eggs,
barley cake, sweet wine and snow with Andulusian olives, gourds,
shallots (served to guest); boar stuffed with live thrush; boar
with turnips, lettuce, root vegetables, celery, brine, wine dregs;
lamprey with squillids, sauce with wine, oil, brine; inula and
arugula cooked in shellfish brine; ostrich eggs stuffed with
peacock egg yolks with figpecker in them "like foetus";
hares with wings added; dish of birds' tongues.
WINES: Falernian, Opimian (a
vintage of Falernian), Caecuban, Chian (sometimes mixed with
Falernian), Setian, Laletanian, Nomentan, Cretan, Surrentine (a
lighter wine), Trifoline, Signine (against diarrhea), Tarragonese,
Spoletine, Massic, Aminaean (in Picenum), perfumed wine (with spikenard,
Snow was used to chill wine; ice too.
Honey was sometimes mixed with wine
Mulled wine and broth was taken after
Metheglin – spiced mead.
ACCESSORIES: Golden table service;
woolen table cover on citron table; toothpicks of lentisc wood;
feathers of Phoenicopterus (for instance, flamingo) used to
provoke vomiting; one cup for water and one for wine..