Cato described pear culture methods similar to modern techniques. At least 35 cultivars of pear were grown in Rome, along with three types of apples. At the time of the destruction of Pompeii in AD 79, there were at least 33 bakeries in that city. The ancient city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, in 2007, was named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. In Ancient Rome, wine was normally mixed with water immediately before drinking, since the fermentation was not controlled and the alcohol grade was high. It could be flavoured, for example mixed with wine, or diluted with water (hydrogarum), a form popular among Roman soldiers, although the emperor Elagabalus asserted that he was the first to serve it at public banquets in Rome. It was part of the standard rations for Roman soldiers and was popular among civilians as well. Those instructions as well as detailed descriptions of Roman viticulture date back to 160 BC in the first known text written in Latin prose. Wine was sometimes adjusted and “improved” by its makers: instructions survive for making white wine from red and vice versa, as well as for rescuing wine that is turning to vinegar.

For example, there was passum, a strong and sweet raisin wine, for which the earliest known recipe is of Carthaginian origin; mulsum, a freshly made mixture of wine and honey (called a pyment today); and conditum, a mixture of wine, honey and spices made in advance and matured. One specific recipe, Conditum Paradoxum, is for a mixture of wine, honey, pepper, laurel, dates, mastic, and saffron, cooked and stored for later use. Sweet wine cakes were made with honey, reduced red wine and cinnamon. Roman chefs made sweet buns flavored with blackcurrants and cheese cakes made with flour, honey, eggs, ricotta-like cheese and poppy seed. The manufacture of cheese and its quality and culinary uses are mentioned by a number of Roman authors: Pliny the Elder described cheese’s dietary and medicinal uses in Book 28 of Historia Naturalis, and Varro in De Agricultura described the Roman cheesemaking season (spring and summer) and compared soft, new cheeses with drier, aged cheeses.

The Emperor Diocletian (284-305 CE) fixed maximum prices for cheese. The ancient Romans ate walnuts, almonds, pistachios, chestnuts, hazelnuts (filberts), pine nuts, and sesame seeds, which they sometimes pulverized to thicken spiced, sweet wine sauces for roast meat and fowl to serve on the side or over the meat as a glaze. Fruit was eaten fresh when in season, and dried or preserved over winter. Veal was eaten occasionally. There is only one recipe for beef stew and another for veal scallopini. Juscellum was a broth with grated bread, eggs, sage and saffron, described in Apicius, a Roman recipe book of the late 4th or early 5th century. Another recipe called for the addition of seawater, pitch and rosin to the wine. The bread was sometimes dipped in wine and eaten with olives, cheese, and grapes. Cabbage was eaten both raw (sometimes dipped in vinegar) and cooked. Dormice were eaten and considered a delicacy. It was a status symbol among wealthy Romans, and some even had dormice weighed in front of dinner guests. One of many modes of cooking in ancient Rome was the focus, a hearth that was placed in front of the lararium, the household altar which contained small sculptures of the household deity (the lares, or guardian ancestor-spirits, and the penates, who were believed to protect the floor, the larder).

Garum was the distinctive fish sauce of ancient Rome. It was used as a seasoning, in place of salt; as a table condiment; and as a sauce. Pliny wrote in his Natural History that two congii (7 litres) of this sauce cost 1,000 sesterces. There were four major fish sauce types: garum, liquamen, muria, and allec. It was made in different qualities, from fish such as tuna, mullet, and sea bass. Fish was more common than meat. Seafood, game, and poultry, including ducks and geese, were more usual. On the walls of kitchens were hooks and chains for hanging cooking equipment, including various pots and pans, knives, meat forks, sieves, graters, spits, tongs, cheese-slicers, nutcrackers, jugs for measuring, and pâté moulds. For instance, on his triumph, Caesar gave a public feast to 260,000 humiliores (poorer people) which featured all three of these foods, but no butcher’s meat. If for instance, you are looking for a gym facility or a spa, then you should inquire from the customer service desk, before checking in. These are no ordinary campgrounds. A number of kitchens at Pompeii had no roofs, resembling courtyards more than ordinary rooms; this allowed smoke to ventilate. Oranges and lemons were known but used more for medicinal purposes than in cookery.