The recipes of the Ancient Roman Bread
Good morning! Here we are in Pompei,
In our family business.
My name is Carmelo Esposito, I'm one of the staff members of this company
with more than 50 years of history
And here we are presenting the the Ancient Roman Bread.
This is Ortolaganus,
a kind of bread rich in ingredients, I would even say very rich:
With a part of white flour,
With red wine, honey,
candied fruit,
Because the Romans used this bread for their celebrations.
I have mixed the dough,
with water, flour, and the other ingredients previously mentioned.
And then let it rest
at room temperature. They used to cut it like this
in order to obtain about 8 slices per loaf,
In order to to make it easier for people to eat
during the celebrations.
Doing so
They enabled people
to eat it without using a knife, because at that time it is assumed there was
no cutlery.
I would like you to smell this scent that exudes these candied fruits,
this wine,
It makes me emotional.
Now, letís put it in the oven.
I sprayed a bit of water on top to give it color
when it gets out of the oven.
This is Cibarius,
Itís a slightly whiter bran bread,
because it was mixed with white flour, flax flour, flaxseed,
Right for middle class people,
Letís say, neither too rich nor too poor.
Now letís bake it, letís make the famous cuts I previously mentioned,
because for them cutting the bread was a little bit troublesome,
So, by the time of processing
it was already cut.
As you can see on the bread
We tried I tried not to make it as good-looking as modern time
loaves Just because at that time they were
I guess they were rough.
This is bran bread, "Less noble" people's bread,
Let's say the people's bread, and now letís bake it
at about 200°C ,
Of course, we use a modern oven.
I really wanted to say
that for all of these loaves there is no yeast,
There is a whole base made of flour and water, the traditional Biga or
Criscito dough.
All of these kinds of bread have been studied, they are not mixtures
you can find on the market, they are niche products
that you can find in Pompei
at Esposito's bakery,
where I will be glad to welcome you.
Hope to see you soon, bye-bye!
Whatch all videos on http://en.farina.tv/ In this video Carmelo Esposito from Esposito bakery, Pompeii, prepares and describes some types of bread that were part of the gastronomic landscape of the Ancient Romans and classified on a the social status basis. For the noble class and celebrations of abundance, there was Artolaganus that consisted of white flour, red wine, honey and candied fruit. A gingerbread with incredible scent and flavor. And there was also Cibarius or bran bread, a rather large loaf for the people. And then there were focaccias, cookies, (sweet bread) and others. All the loaves were cut into various pieces when the dough was still raw in order to help distribute the portions because there was no knife at that time, as we used them now. The Pompeian baker also reveals his baking secrets and the way to reproduce these types of old bread with modern techniques and ovens.