Cato’s Bread
Introduction
What I attempted to do here is to recreate Cato’s recipe for kneaded bread from De Agri Cultura. Cato wasn’t very specific about his directions; he didn’t include times, proportions, or any real directions. The directions read as followed: “Recipe for kneaded bread: Wash your hands and a bowl thoroughly. Pour meal into the bowl, add water gradually, and knead thoroughly. When it is well kneaded, roll out and bake under a crock.” As you can see, I wasn’t really going off of much here, so I took some liberties creating my bread. I also enlisted the help of my girlfriend, who is a much better cook than I am and has actually made bread before. Between the two of us, I hoped to make Cato proud.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 packet of yeast
- Pinch of salt
- Olive Oil
- 1.5 cups of water
- Pinch of sugar
- Seasonings of choice
Directions
- Add flour, salt, and seasonings to large mixing bowl (also wash your hands like Cato)
- In a separate bowl, add yeast,warm water, and sugar together. Although the sugar part isn’t very Roman (or the packet of yeast), it helps with the activation of the yeast. You’ll know if your mixture is activated when you see frothy bubbles rising to the surface of the mixture
- Gradually add yeast-water mixture to the large mixing bowl, kneading the dough then adding a little more water. When you’ve added about half the mixture, add olive oil to the big bowl.
- After the dough has been kneaded, cover the bowl and let rise in a warm place for about half an hour
- After the dough has risen, form the dough into a circle and place on a parchment paper lined baking tray. It should look like this.
- Heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and place the bread on the middle rack. Cook for a minimum of 45 minutes. When finished, the bread should look golden brown and feel crispy. Here is the finished product! Feel free to dip in olive oil or whatever you like.
Reflections
I’m not sure how proud Cato would have been with our work. I had a lot of fun making the bread, and when I was taking turns with my girlfriend kneading I felt like a true Roman. The recipe was pretty simple, and the bread turned out alright. The outside was very hard, and the inner bread part was very soft, albeit kind of tasteless. However, it was delicious when dipped in olive oil mixed with salt and pepper. If I were to make this again, I’d try and find a crock (which is an earthenware lid) to make it more authentic. I also would have let the bread rise for much longer and let it sit for longer as well to help develop the flavors better. If I was Cato, I’m not sure I’d be eating this. However, as a peasant who had to cook his own food, I would have definitely made this with grain allotted to me by the Gracchi brothers. My girlfriend told me that she was grateful that she wasn’t a Roman, but she did have fun making it and said she saw how a Roman would make and eat this. After all I’ve learned so far, I’m grateful that I’m not a Roman too.
