{"id":4097,"date":"2021-01-29T11:44:17","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T16:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/?p=4097"},"modified":"2021-01-29T11:44:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T16:44:19","slug":"menu-of-a-pub-in-ancient-pompeii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2021\/01\/29\/menu-of-a-pub-in-ancient-pompeii\/","title":{"rendered":"Menu of a Pub in Ancient Pompeii"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\nIn December 2020, archaeologists at the Archaeological Park of Pompeii \nannounced that they had found the remains of these two men and the dog \nas they were excavating this ancient food establishment, known as a thermopolium.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researcher: Spaces like this thermopolium provide archaeologists like me with a realistic portrayal of what Roman food culture was like in comparison to sensational portrayals of Roman food culture <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researcher re-constructed a typical meal based on article in the link below at the end of the text. The preparation is given next and this is the real “meat” of the article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preparation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
  1. Prepare the dough for the mensae: <\/em>Dissolve \nthe starter in the water, combine with the flour and salt, then knead \nthe dough, cover it, and let it rest for one hour in a warm place.<\/li>
  2. Place the duck in a pot, submerge it in water, add \nthe dill and pinch of salt, and bring it to a boil. Cover and simmer on \nmedium-low for 45 minutes to create a light broth. If you\u2019re feeling \nbrave, add a few snail shells, goat bones, and pork bones to the broth \nfor added flavor.<\/li>
  3. After the mensae dough has rested, cut the dough in \nhalf, and fold each half into a ball. Using a rolling pin or the palm of\n your hand, flatten each ball into a disk. Cover with a damp tea towel \nand let the dough rest for another 30 minutes.<\/li>
  4. In a pan, combine the olive oil and fish sauce with the oregano and coriander, then heat on medium-high.<\/li>
  5. Remove the duck from the broth pot and sear it in the\n pan along with the oil, fish sauce, and herbs. Drizzle with half of the\n defrutum (or grape molasses). Once the duck has browned, remove it from\n the pan and set it aside. Keep the drippings in the pan.<\/li>
  6. In a bowl, combine the remaining defrutum (or grape molasses) with the red wine vinegar, honey, diced dandelion greens (or cicoria<\/em>), ground black pepper, lovage, cumin, coriander, and asafoetida and whisk it all together.<\/li>
  7. In the pan, add the flour and duck fat (or lard or \nunsalted butter) to the drippings and make a roux by dissolving the \nflour and fat together on low heat. Use a whisk to prevent clumping.<\/li>
  8. Combine the mixture of honey, vinegar, and spices \nwith 1 cup (215 grams) of the duck broth and slowly add the liquid to \nthe roux in the pan, on low heat, whisking it together until it begins \nto thicken into a sauce.<\/li>
  9. Cook both mensae by either heating a grill or a \nfrying pan with olive oil, on medium-high. Place each mensa onto the hot\n grill or pan and grill it until it starts to inflate. Then flip it over\n and grill the other side until golden brown. Lower your heat if the \nmensae are browning too quickly before inflating.<\/li>
  10. Place a large dollop of the sauce on each serving \ndish. Slice the duck meat into bite-size morsels and place them on top \nof the sauce. Drizzle with additional broth to surround the duck morsels\n and garnish with sprigs of fresh oregano.<\/li>
  11. Slice the grilled mensae into wedges and serve them alongside the sliced duck to soak up the sauce and the broth.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Now take your bowl of \nbraised duck and your bread, and imagine you\u2019re in a Pompeiian popina. \nFind a stool where there\u2019s enough light to see the food in front of you.\n You may have to sidle up next to a stranger so make sure your coin \npurse is secure. Best make this your last cup of wine. The ground always\n trembles beneath your feet when you\u2019ve had too much and it\u2019s doing so \nright now. Not to worry, the broth and bread will sober you up just \nenough to stagger out the front door past that dog that won\u2019t stop \nbarking at something off in the distance. Scratch his head to distract \nhim, then say goodbye. Time to go while there\u2019s still daylight. Is it \ndaylight? The air outside has a strange yellow hue to it, and an acrid \nsmell, and the earth feels as if it\u2019s still trembling periodically as \nyou steady yourself on the edge of a fountain. It\u2019s probably just the \nwine but you\u2019d better get home quickly. A dark cloud is forming above Vesuvio<\/em> and it looks as if a storm is on its way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    * Correction: This article originally stated that Pliny wrote the letter in 79 AD. It was several decades after the eruption, around 106 AD.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    https:\/\/www.atlasobscura.com\/articles\/recreate-the-menu-of-pompeii-ancient-pub?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=b756f82470-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_01_29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-b756f82470-70922829&mc_cid=b756f82470&mc_eid=248b0bf054<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In December 2020, archaeologists at the Archaeological Park of Pompeii announced that they had found the remains of these two men and the dog as they were excavating this ancient food establishment, known as a thermopolium. Researcher: Spaces like this thermopolium provide archaeologists like me with a realistic portrayal of what Roman food culture was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4098,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097\/revisions\/4098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}