Ancient history of roasting

Roasting has been a method of cooking meat since prehistoric times. The simplest and oldest method is spit-roasting, in which the meat is impaled on a spike made of wood or metal and then cooked over a fire.

The spit is kept turning so that no section of the meat is exposed to the high heat for long.

The Celtic method was to spit-roast over an open fire on a hearth in the middle of the house, where a bar was set between two andirons.

Large cuts of meat, even whole animas can be cooked this way, getting thoroughly browned without being overcooked.

The Egyptians thrust a bar lengthways through a bird or a fish and a servant held this over a fire. In one tomb illustration a servant is known waving a fan over a bird, either to keep away flies or to act as a bellows.

The Greeks and Roman used spit-roasting for small game, fish, and pieces of meat, but preferred to roast their meat and fish in iron pans or clay pots, which were placed directly on the fire or on a gridiron set over glowing charcoal. It is a favorite method among the Romans, but the flare-ups when grease hit the open coals caused fire.

The Emperor Augustus created a corps of watchmen-firefighters to patrol the city watching for kitchen fires, and Roman kitchens were usually placed in separate buildings, so if a fire start, the principle structure would not burn down.
Ancient history of roasting

History of aging process of wine

The first mention of wine in recorded history dates back to 5000 BC. The popular drink of the time was mead – honey wine.

Pliny the elder, the ancient author, naturalist and natural philosopher, describes in his writings how the ancient Greeks used partly dehydrated gysum before the fermentation of wine.

The Greeks seen to have had no appreciation of particular vintages and although they recognized the value of aging wines, most wines were drunk young.

Only higher-quality wines could sustain aging and transport over longer distances. Any one of more than a year old was an old wine, but many of the grand crus were considered at their best when a number of years old, perhaps up to about 10 years.

Cellar or wine storage areas, can be traced to the ancient world, where it became known that the aging of some wine would bring about positive changes.

The ancient Romans developed many wine regions in Western Europe. The use of barrels for fermentation, aging process and transportation were also created during this period.

There seems to be two main advantages to aging wine. The first is the smoothing characteristics of aged, quality red wines. Second is the sense of exclusively involved in drinking old wines.

Very old wines are appealing to consumers more because of their historical appeal than because of gastronomic factors.
History of aging process of wine