Baking in ancient Rome

Many ancient Roman baking techniques were developed due to Greek bakers who traveled to Rome following the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC).

Bakers used tools such as the fornax, testum, thermospodium, and the clibanus to make bread.

The Romans had eaten porridge and baked bread for around six hundred years after the founding of Rome.

These baking covers are typically ceramics with pie-shaped lids and foot-long sides.

[4] Pastry cooks were known as pastillarium and bakers of sweetmeats and cakes were termed dulciarius or crustularius.

[3] By the end of the Republic private bakers known as pistores used mills to mass produce bread.

If this "starter" was successful, a small amount was retained uncooked, to be added to the next batch.

Other, less popular leavening agents included soured barley cakes, beer foam, or fermented grape juice.

[12] The furnus was developed by the end of the Republic and spread due to a greater need for baking.

Beneath the openings in the baking chambers were located ledges which were likely used to store ashes.

[3] Ancient Roman bakers would heat it by creating a fire underneath the dome on a baking stone.

[16] One thermospodium found at Pompeii was made from a square box resting on four decorative legs.

It was a rounded pot with a wider bottom than top and heated with a fire located underneath it.

It may also have had a central opening or small circular vents in the sides which were used to regulate the heat.