The World That Was - Roman Bread from Apicius

 Hello and Welcome to The World That Was!

Today, I'll be making some Roman bread! Bread is one of humanity's food staples - if there's a collection of humans, they'll find a way to make bread one way or another!

This particular bread is actually recorded by Apicius - Marcus Gaius Apicius, a Roman writer and gourmet - who was writing in the 1st century BC. This is a simple wheat loaf, that I've decided to give a little decoration too.

In any case, lets take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video above!

Ingredients

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 cup plain flour

1 packet instant yeast OR 1/2 cup sourdough starter

1 tsp salt

warm water (to mix)

Method

1 - Prepare the Dough

To begin with, pour your packet of yeast into a large bowl, and add a little water, just to rehydrate it. Romans didn't have access to dried yeast like this, but they used natural airborne yeast - like how we use it today when making sourdough! You could just as easily use a 1/2 cup of sourdough starter if you want to be more authentic - but since that's something few people would have on hand these days, dry yeast works fine! Whatever type of yeast you use, add your teaspoon of salt, a cup of wholemeal flour, and a cup of plain flour into the bowl. Pour in a little water, and get to mixing. Always add less water than you think you need, so your dough doesn't get too wet. I usually add about a half a cup of water at a time, and work it through, before adding more if needed.

2 - Work the Dough

When your dough looks cohesive, get to kneading it in the bowl a little, before tossing it out onto a lightly-floured worksurface. Knead your ball of dough for a while, stretching it out and folding it around repeatedly. You should know that you're done whenever you can poke the dough and it springs back fairly quickly. This is also dependant on how warm your kitchen is, and how active your yeast is - which is dependant on a thousand different factors.

In any case, go shape your bread loaf. More often than not, Roman bread was disc-shaped. Examples can be seen carbonised in bakeries in Pompeii. However, it's not unlikely that bread could have been shaped and braided, much like bread today! So that's what I'll be doing here.

If you're going to braid yours, divide your dough into three long sausage shapes, each about the same thickness. Then, join them together at one end by pressing the dough together. Next, take the left-most length and pull it over the middle strand, and under the right strand. Repeat this with the middle strand (which will now be on the left-hand side of the loaf), and tuck the ends underneath the loaf!

Even if it doesn’t look cleanly done here, it’ll turn out gorgeous when you’ve baked it!

3 - Rest the Load and Bake

Now that your loaf is formed, go place it onto a lightly floured baking pan. Place a damp cloth over this, and leave it next to a heater, or in a warm area, for the dough to prove and expand. Leave this be for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size!

When it's finished proofing, take the cloth off it, and place this into the middle of an oven preheated to 200 ° C / 395° Fahrenheit, for about 25-30 minutes - or until they develop a golden crust! This will take more or less time than my oven, so be sure to keep an eye on your loaf so it doesn’t burn.

When it's done, take it out of the oven, and let it cool before you cut into it!

The finished loaf is delightfully light, with a lovely crispness to it. Fine flour in the Roman empire would still have had wheat bran, so it would have been closer to modern "wholegrain" flour, than modern plain flour. The crumb of this bread is delightfully soft, and when toasted, it takes on a lovely nutty flavour.

Bread was a very important part of Roman society (and indeed other ancient societies), through to the modern day. It's hard to imagine what life would be like today without the humble loaf of bread.