Phoebe Bong, Central Gubernator 25-26
oman Food
reservation
Phoebe Bong, Central Gubernator 25-26
Today, we preserve food using advanced technology: refrigeration, freezing, canning, freezedrying, vacuum-sealing, and the like. But the Romans didn’ t have any of that! So how did they keep their food fresh?
Their storage techniques show an advanced level of specialization: ceramics called dolia kept temperature, humidity, and pH levels of their contents stable, granaries had raised floors and small windows to keep mold out, and wine was stored over smokerooms, oil, however, was to be kept away from smoke yet still in a warm room.
They also salted their food to preserve it, whether directly or in a pickled brine( Brine-making was an essential household skill, especially for meat and fish). By dehydrating the food, salting stops microbial growth and slows down oxidation( which is pretty much equivalent to food spoilage). Salting was the main method of preservation in Rome; often, other methods included a salting stage. So, the Romans clearly valued salt, partly because of its preservative properties. Pliny the Elder definitely loved salt, writing in his Naturalis Historia:“ Therefore, Heaven knows, a civilized life is impossible without salt and so necessary is this basic substance that its name is applied metaphorically even to intense mental pleasures.”
Meat and fish were also smoked and dried or cured. In his treatise on agriculture, De Re Rustica, Cato the Elder instructs us how to cure hams. First, layer them skin down, with salt completely covering the bottom and top of each ham. Let sit for 5 days, then reshuffle the hams so that the ones on the top are now on the bottom and vice versa. Let that sit for 7 days( for a total of 12 days in salt), then hang them in the open air for 2 days WITHOUT wiping off the salt. After hanging, wipe off the salt and brush with oil. Then, after smoking the hams for two more days, rub with vinegar and more oil. At this point, according to Cato, you can hang the hams in the meathouse and“ neither bats nor worms will touch them.”
The Romans’ food preservation shows relatively advanced technology and demonstrates Roman strength. Using these techniques, they were able to harvest only once a year and rely way less on foreign imports than they would have had to without salting or drying or smoking.
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