Dining/seating arranements

The romans traditionaly ate in the atrium and was usually eaten at 5:00 They would offer the house hold guards a porion of their food. The wealthy commonly had a seperate dining area. The aim was to have 2 dining tables 1 for winter 1 for summer. The tables over looked by a garden snd would honour guests by giving them the best seats by the garden. Guests would be sitted on couches the men often reclined on them and the women often seated at the end of the couch. The arrangement would involve three couches large enough for three guests to recline on each at a 45 degree angle at the table.

Roman Food/drinks

The usual roman meals consisted of peacock brains,pike livers,cock crests,lark tounges,bear and lion. Also often served for breakfast was cold meat,vegetables,eggs and bread. Herbs and spices were often added to their meals to sweeten the dishes up. The most commen used herb was pepper used to flavour game birds,fish,shellfish,lamb,kid and wild boar. In addition a fish sauce and fish pickle was common where the fish gills,blood,intestines of a mackeral were placed in a jar with salt vinegar and herbs in it. The mixture was pounded into a paste or sauce which was left in the sun to ferment. Wine was a very important part in a meal and different types of and many different types of spoons and dishes were used to make wine. A very popular dish for storing wine in is called a symposium which usualy had a picture inside it such as Dionysus at sea.

Cooking And Preperations

Bread,cakes and pastries were comercially cooked and at home in rome. A circular domed oven was used mainly for pastries and bread. Most food was cooked over an open hearth by cauldrons suspended in air by chains or cooking vessels on a gridirons. Cooking was done in the kitchin where smoke could escape through a small hole in the ceiling. Cooking was also known to be done outside and those living in tenements public cooking might also be available. Food was commonly sweetened with fruit,vinegar and (or) honey to obtain a sweet sour flavour and meat was often broiled. Preservation was very difficult and so popular food like fish and shellfish were usually shipped live. Meat and Fish could be preserved by pickling,smoking and salting. Food poisoning was a common place affair

Table Settings,manners,etc

The romans sat upright to eat but the wealthy often reclined on couches at diner parties, or ate outside in the gardens. Table ware consisted of course pottery but for those willing to spend some extra money silverware could be purchased in fine pottery,glass,silver,gold and pewter. Food was eaten with fingers and cut with knives crafted from anter,wood and bronze with an iron blade. Bronze,silver and bone spoons were used for eggs and liquids. These tools had sharp ends to extract shellfish and snails from their shells.

Drinks.

Romans loved wine but they drank it watered down,spiced and heated. Undiluted wine was considered barbaric. Wine concentrate and diluted with water was also quite common. Pasca (a wine made from acetum which is low quality similar to vineger beer) Mead was most commonly drunk in the northern provinces. Milk from sheep and goats was also considered barbaric so the milk was made into cheese or medicines

cook wear!!!

The Romans used clay pots and ceramic boais.Other thing they used for caring water they were large and circular at the bottom then they got thinner at the top and at the top the spout widened there was a hadle on the side for caring they were also used to cary wine and other liquids. They had large clay jars for holding fuitsvegdbles.They had two large hadles and a lid. There plates were lovely and decorated