Meanwhile Down at the Thermopolium....

Fast food in Pompeii Fast-food eatery discovered at Pompeii helps reveal favourite dishes of ancient Roman citizens | CBC News

I’ll have a Maccus Magnus with cheese please.

Corkage allowed?


Oh, wait, I just heard a BIG pop and hiss nearby… champagne.gif

AD 79 promises to be a historic vintage.

AS REPORTED: At the bottom of a wine container were traces of ground fava beans, which in ancient times were added to wine for flavour and to lighten its colour…"

So it’s Fava Beans IN a nice Chianti? [wow.gif]

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More or less, although the book had it as an Amarone and the movie dumbed it down to be a wine they thought more than three people would know.

I’ve toured Pompeii. The inhabitants were far more advanced than we think. They had Laundromats, wine bars, shopping centers, glass ware, toys and instruments equal to what we have today. If you are anywhere near Naples, see Pompeii and the history museum in Naples where most of the items that were removed are stored.

Yeah. I know. I was debating which one to post. I should have read the room. [wow.gif]

Chianti or Amarone in Pompeii 79 AD? More like aglianico or piedirosso or falanghina, Greco or Fiano.

Well, I do hear that fava beans pair well with a nice Chianti.
Anyway…the time of Pompeii was long before any classification of wines in Italy.
So we start a new thread: would you rather have fava beans added to your wine or calcium carbonate/sulphur/sugar/isinglass?

The wines I mentioned were brought by the Greeks prior to the Vesuvius eruption. What’s you source for additives in Campanian wine waking ca. Pompeii?

Garum

Yes - fish sauce! Our equivalent is often an anchovy or two surreptitiously added to a recipe to give a bit of umami.

The source is the article linked in the original post, from the CBC. It quotes Ms. Amoretti, an anthropologist at Pompeii.
That seems consistent with other historical records of additives to wine.
Seems reasonable for people to add things to wine when your goal is to make an enjoyable beverage.

Yes - like oak, sugar, acid…all done today.

But now I am curious. Who here will be the first to post a tasting note of a wine with some fava bean added…

Sorry, too many Victor blind, paywall links.

Some of the recipes I have seen included sea water. Salinity in its original form.