tein from beans and lentils eaten with bread. Fish from the
Mediterranean was commonly eaten, but meat was not popu-
lar. Italy’s terrain was not good for growing large livestock
such as cattle, and beef was another item considered more
appropriate for barbarians. People did eat chickens and their
eggs, and they ate some pork and veal, but these foods were
not a substantial part of the average diet. Cheese made from
goat’s or sheep’s milk was common; some cooks mixed it with
garlic.
Roman cooks loved to add sauces to food and sometimes
added 10 or more spices and fl avorings to a dish. Th e most
common seasoning was garum, a sauce made by covering
fi sh with salt and leaving it to ferment for several months.
Other fl avorings included honey, vinegar, dry or sweet wine,
oregano, cumin, coriander, fennel, lovage, rue, and silphium
or asafetida, the resin of a plant related to fennel. A dish of
peas could be topped with a sauce of honey, vinegar, olive
oil, white wine, garum, lovage, ginger, pepper, and egg yolk
blended together.
Although the typical meal was simple, a Roman feast
was not. Many Romans subscribed to the teaching of the
Greek philosopher Epicurus (341–270 b.c.e.), who main-
tained t hat pleasure of t he body achieved by satisf y ing phys-
ical desires was the best way to achieve a happy life. Th ese
people called themselves epicures and preferred to consume
the fi nest of foods and wines. Epicures and other wealthy
nobles seeking to impress their guests sought out the most
exotic foods. Caelius Apicius describes delicacies such as
fl amingoes, peacocks, sea urchins, sows’ wombs, camels’
hoofs, and dormice. He provides a recipe for a chicken salad
that involved layering pieces of bread, chicken, sweetbreads,
cheese, pine nuts, cucumbers, and onions, dressed with a
sauce made of celery seed, pennyroyal, mint, ginger, ci-
lantro, raisins, honey, vinegar, oil, and wine. Gourmets in
Rome itself raved about licker fi sh, a freshwater bass that
lived in the Tiber River and fed on the outfl ow from the
city’s sewer pipes.
Breakfast was very simple and could consist merely of
bread and salt. Th e midday meal, prandium, was more com-
plicated and could include meat or eggs. Th e main meal of the
day was cena, eaten in the late aft ernoon. Among the wealthy
the cena could include several courses, beginning with an ap-
petizer and honeyed wine, followed by several main dishes,
and concluded with sweets and fruit. Th is meal was eaten in
the dining room, or triclinium, so called because it contained
three couches on which men reclined to dine. During the
republic women generally sat in chairs, but it became more
common for them to recline as time went on.
Roman kitchens were equipped with brick hearths that
included grills and ovens. Cooks used pots and pans made of
clay or metal. A pestle and mortar were essential for puree-
ing foods. Not all households did their own cooking. In the
countryside wives did much of the cooking for their families,
but wealthy families maintained elaborate kitchens and ex-
pensive slaves who did the cooking. Within Rome many poor
people lived in tenement buildings and did little or no cook-
ing because of limited facilities and the risk of fi re. Th ey pur-
chased most of their food from the numerous street vendors
who sold bread, wine, cakes, kebabs, and other snacks.THE AMERICAS
BY MICHAEL J. O’NEAL
Archaeologists can oft en determine what ancient peoples
ate by examining their skeletal remains, which provide clues
about nutrients that were present—or absent—in their diets.
Th ey also fi nd clues in tombs, where containers with food
items were placed, as well as from traces of foods found in
pots and other containers.
Like ancient peoples throughout the world, prehistoric
Americans subsisted on a diet that nature provided for them
until they learned to cultivate some or most of their own
food. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers, depending on what was
available in their area, ate wild game, fi sh, nuts, root vege-
tables, wild fruits, berries, and even insects, along with such
foodstuff s as honey and occasionally eggs. Interestingly, in
modern life many doctors and nutritionists recommend what
is sometimes called the “Paleolithic diet,” arguing that in
many respects it was superior to the diets of modern people
because it was low in fat and starches and high in vitamins
and minerals.
Local sources of nutrition varied greatly from place to
place. People who lived along the seacoasts relied on fi sh and
seafood, and in the northernmost regions of North America,
the Inuit people consumed the meat of animals such as seals
and whales, along with fi sh. Woodlands tribes in the east-
ern half of the modern-day United States found in the forests
they inhabited an abundance of deer and smaller game ani-
mals, game birds, and waterfowl and fi sh in rivers and lakes,
supplemented with seasonal fruits, vegetables, and nuts. In
contrast, those who lived in desert regions such as portions
of Central America and the southwestern United States relied
more on small game animals and such vegetable foods as the
nopal cactus, which can be eaten cooked or raw (and which
modern science has shown reduces cholesterol levels). Th ey
also consumed other types of cactus, as well as plants known
as agaves, such as the maguey. Th is variety was the source
of pulque, an alcoholic beverage made from the plant’s fer-
mented juices and drunk primarily on ceremonial religious
occasions; pulque is still made and consumed in many rural
areas of central Mexico.
With the emergence of agriculture Native American
peoples found that they were able to increase dramatically
the amount of food available to them. North Americans, for
example, grew various types of beans, which they combined
with dog meat, corn, and bear fat to make succotash. Th ey
also ate tubers, or root vegetables, which they cooked until
they were the consistency of a thick soup. In the moister tem-
perate regions of North America rice became an important
staple crop. Also valued as food were organ meats, buff alofood and diet: The Americas 481