The 1,500-year-old recipe that shows how Romans invented the beef burger
This article originally appeared on Culture24.
Visitors to Hadrian's Wall this weekend will get a taste of a Roman burger thanks to a discovery in a Roman recipe book
A Roman Burger made from a 1,500 year old recipe© Picture by Dave Thompson/Route OnePhotography/English HeritageA recipe from the ancient Roman cookbook, Apicius, written by an unknown author during the late 4th or 5th centuries AD, details a dish called ‘Isicia Omentata’ made of minced meat, pepper, wine, pine nuts and a rich fish-based sauce (Garum), all formed into a patty.
The Roman delicacy, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the modern day burger, will be served up at Birdoswald Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall this weekend so that visitors can make up their own mind - and taste the ‘Roman Burger’ for the first time in 1,000 years.
It has long been known that the Romans brought ‘fast food joints’ - or thermopolia as they called them - to Britain. In large towns people wanted access to quick food during their lunch break and vendors selling chicken legs, lamb chops and shellfish became commonplace.
“We all know that the Romans left a huge mark on Britain, fundamentally altering the British diet forever,” says Food Historian Dr Annie Gray. “Street food became available en masse, and many of our favourite foods were introduced, including Isicia Omentata, what can be seen as the Roman forefather to today’s burger."
According to Dr Gray, the Roman burger was “decidedly more upmarket" than many of today’s offerings, with a “richer and more complex” recipe than the plain beef version most common today.
“Since our ‘Roman Burger’, other similar recipes can be seen throughout history,” she adds. “There were the more flat or meatball-like Medieval ‘Pompeys’ or ‘Rissoles’, Georgian ‘Patties’ which popularised fried mince meat, and, by the end of the Victorian era, we see the first proper Hamburger. Burgers aren’t a modern invention - rather, a staple throughout the centuries that has evolved.”
More than 10,000 soldiers would have been based at forts such as Birdoswald at the peak of Roman occupation along Hadrian’s Wall. Having access to tasty, convenient food was vitally important as they patrolled the frontier and vendors serving fast food would have been commonplace in large towns.
Visitors to the fort on Saturday April 23 will be able to see the patty being cooked over a traditional open fire. It will then be served in a bun for visitors to taste and adjudicate whether the Roman ‘burger’ beats its modern-day counterparts.
Joe Jackson, dressed as a Roman Centurian, makes a Roman Burger at Birdoswald Roman Fort in Cumbria© Picture by Dave Thompson/Route OnePhotography/English Heritage.More from Culture24's Archaeology section:
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