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Roman Dinnerware - Printable Version

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Roman Dinnerware - Lothia - 04-17-2018

Ave Civitas,

Lots of articles on food, ingredients, and even utensils, but I can't find much on dinnerware.

In A. Croom's book "Running the Roman Home" she writes about cleaning the dinnerware after meals, Wood, clay, silver, glass dinnerware was mentioned, but there is not description of what was washed, no description of shapes and sizes.

I would imagine soups was served in bowls.  But were they more like soup plates or were they soup bowls.
And how about solids, like beans, roasted meats, or bread.  The servers may bring them out on platters, and Croom has images of slaves cleaning serving trays, but how large and what shape were the dinnerware the diners ate on?

As always, thanks in advance.

Tom


RE: Roman Dinnerware - Centurion Callummus Britanicus - 04-17-2018

Salve ? There's been a few good answers for that question. Most of your answers have been excavated at sites like Pompeii, and herculanium. Their bread loaves which were usually in cut segments of 8 were usually as wide as a football so we are talking about a diameter of 30-35cm. And most excavated and rediscovered pieces of evidence at sites like Pompeii and herculanium show flat wooden boards which when theorized would've held such items as bread was a easy commodity and you wouldn't serve bread on a silver platter. That would be reserved for things like honeyed peacock. Or boar etc. Or oysters.

On another note I'm waiting on a book called Cooking Apicius: Roman Recipes for Today by Sally Grainger. From a copy I quickly saw it contained recepies which have been rediscovered and remade from tablets and from recovered clay receipts. And also contains some information on the utensils and containers to serve them in. However once I have had a more thorough read I will update.

Centurion Callummus: I Cohor Durotriges


RE: Roman Dinnerware - Michael Kerr - 04-17-2018

Never thought too much about dinnerware but I found this article that gives a general rundown on Roman dinners. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/banq/hd_banq.htm

Regards
Michael Kerr


RE: Roman Dinnerware - Nathan Ross - 04-17-2018

You might find something interesting by googling the Mildenhall Treasure, a large collection of 4th century Roman silver tableware - presumably less prestigious items would be made of ceramic, glass or copper to a similar sort of pattern.


RE: Roman Dinnerware - Lothia - 04-18-2018

Took a look at both sites. Thank you very much.

Tom