Storerooms and house kitchens were equipped with all the necessary utensils for food preparation. The responsibility for the daily meals laid with the lady of the house, who coordinated and supervised the slaves if they had any. They cooked small quantities of food, as there had no means to preserve it.
To facilitate the process, they transferred, with the use of funnels, the required quantity of products stored in pithoi and amphoras to smaller vessels. Water and wine were placed in jugs, and oil in lekythoi and askoi that had a specially shaped mouth to control the flow.
They measured with small juglets and used basins for mixing ingredients, strainers for filtering liquids and clay pots with spouts for the mashing of ingredients or curdling cheese. Condiments were stored in small ‘unguentaria’, spices and grain were grinded in stone mortars with pestles.
Food was braised in cooking-pots or grilled, while seeds were roasted in pan-shaped vessels. Cooking was performed on grills and in ovens set up in the kitchen or the courtyard, as well as, on portable braziers that many times were decorated with theatrical masks on their upper part.
The use of your data is described in the privacy settings