Ancient Roman Meals :: essays research papers

Ancient Roman MealsThe ancient Romans were correspondent to todays generations in their feedinghabits but never ate three hearty repasts a day. Ientaculum and prandium were further appetizers that filled their stomachs unitl the large cena, the eventthey look forward to since awakening. They had names for their meals similar toours, breakfast (ientaculum), lunch (prandium), and dinner (cena).Breakfast, ientaculum was usually taken about club oclock and consistedof merely a few pieces of slit sprinkled in salt or dipped in wine, and with afew raisins and olives, and a little cheeseflower added. The poorest Romans atelittle other than w rage either crushed to puddle a porridge or ground into flourfor bread.Lunch, or prandium was usually taken at noon. It was usually nothingmore than a piece of bread accompanied by cold meat, vegetables, and fruitwashed down with a glass of wine. Both ientaculum and prandium were so shortthere was no involve to set the table or wash ones hands. The only serious meal was the evening dinner or cena. Dinner time waspractically the comparable for all Romans due to the lack of artificial light. Dinnerwas after the bathtub at the end of the eigth hour in winter and at the ninth insummer. The food is mostly cold,-breads, salads, olives, cheeses, and meatsremaing from last nights dinner. Occasionally, hot dishes such as ham and pigsheads are feasted upon. Some wealthy Romans would give up as many an(prenominal) as seven coursesto feed on.Trimalchio, a wealthy Roman would have a bronzed donkey with appetizerdishes of olives, stuffed dormice rolled in sexual love and poppy seed, hot sausageswere laid on a silver grill close to pomegranate and damson seeds. The guestswere still busy with the hors doeuvres when a tray would be brought in with abasket on it, in which there was a woody hen spreading her wings. Under thestraw were Peahen orchiss that would base passed out. from each one egg contained a fatbecafico rolled up in spiced egg yolkf. There were plates with the twelve signsof Zodiac on them that had food matas ching the symbol, ram, bull, crab, figs,lion, etc. Some hosts would heat a wfshole pig and then entertain his guests byhaving skilled swordmen chip at the pa fig like he was killing it. After eating,many guests would entertain each othed sfr in belching. It was consideredpolite to belch and release abstract after a ni sce meal. Guests would simply snaptheir fingers and servants would come racetrack with vases to contain urine.