Roman food

You will be facing the challenge of preparing a Roman menu - what would you feed a hungry legion with? (This webquest sets out the kind of things you need to consider and provides more great links too)

To help you think about this you will find a series of resources below. Lets start with CBBC's Horrible Histories...


So...eating Roman food could be quite an ordeal!

Below you will find several websites that will help you research your menu.




How does stuffed kidneys sound? Well, the BBC has the recipe for this, um, delicious meal...

This site highlights the very different experience of rich and poor Romans - obesity was an issue with the richer,often gluttonous Romans just as it is across Europe today with people of all backgrounds! It also provides you with some recipes in Latin! Furthermore, you get ideas about meals for different times!

The RomanArmy.net site focuses on what the marching armies were fed, and argues this was a really important factor in their success... It also includes some intriguing links:

HistoryForKids.net provides a nice, short overview.

Historyonthenet.com provides another short guide, homing in on what they describe as the key food of pottage...

Image from historyonthenet.com.

If you want to go that step further and get some books on this, this page has some suggestions.

A good historian should be well (b)read...

You probably should drop by this very comprehensive site, which has lots of tables of common foods! See the example above.

The historylearningsite has some useful information ... not least a lovely dormice recipe!

Taking the mickey? A dormice recipe!

It's never a good idea to rely on it, though you can always check out the sources used to back up the points made, but the Wiki for this topic is very detailed, with points not covered in any of the links above!

Finally, the BBC pose the question of how similar what the British eat today is to Roman food - and you might be surprised at how influential it was and remains!

Over to you...