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Prateek Dasgupta, M.S.

Prateek Dasgupta, M.S.

Apr 25

7 min read

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Bizarre Dishes Invented by the Romans That will Make Your Stomach Turn

Would you dare to try these dishes?

Seafood from Pompeii

A mosaic from Pompeii shows the variety of seafood available in ancient Rome. Image
source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Romans were responsible for many innovations we take for granted today, like toilets,
sewers, concrete, and an extensive system of highways. As strange as it sounds, they also
invented many bizarre food dishes that you may find unappetizing.

I will walk you through them.

Here are seven weird delicacies from Roman kitchens that would make your stomach turn.
Let’s just hope no one tries to cook or eat these dishes nowadays!

Dolphin meatballs

Dolphin

Photo by Ádám Berkecz on Unsplash

According to the writings of Marcus Gavius Apicius, an ancient Roman cookbook writer,
Romans enjoyed eating meatballs made of dolphin meat, although his recipe called for a
specific type of dolphin — one that had been caught using a net. (I’ll refrain from making any
dolphin basketball jokes here.)

Romans had a fascination for eating sea creatures as they saw them as luxury food items.
Apicius’ recipe calls for skinning the dolphin and cutting its flesh into small meatballs.

The chefs would then cook the meatballs in wine, olive oil, and a fish sauce known as garum.
You may consider garum, made by fermenting fish for several weeks, as a bizarre condiment,
but since the fish sauce is a popular item in Asian cuisine and they still make garum in Italy, I
have left it out of this list.

The dolphin meatballs deserve a mention because most of us today prefer to see dolphins in
the seas and rivers rather than on dinner plates.

Do you have the courage to try dolphin meatballs?

Lark tongue pie

Lark

Photo by David Thielen on Unsplash

Like most rich people today, the Roman elite were also big fans of high-end, overpriced
cuisine. An ancient Roman delicacy that may have perhaps surpassed all others was lark’s
tongue pie.

How can you make a pie using the tongue of a little bird like the lark, which isn’t even a two
ounce creature?

A single pie needed the tongues of at least a thousand larks, caught by Roman slaves. They
would next open the bird’s beak, snap its neck, and cut off its tongue.

To make the pie, the chefs would marinate the lark tongues in red wine, mince them, and then
bake them.

The lark pie was Apicius’ favorite food. The pie was his signature dish at many of his lavish
banquets.

Jellyfish Omelet

Jellyfish

Photo by Florian Olivo on Unsplash

Do you fancy a bit of jellyfish in your omelet?

That’s a hard pass for me. The infamous Roman foodie Apicius had different ideas. From
records, we know that Romans usually ate jellyfish in salads. But Apicius, being a culinary
innovator, took the slimy seafood to the next level by preparing an omelet using jellyfish.

The Romans were familiar with anchovy omelets. Apicius had a mischievous idea of adding
jellyfish to the omelet instead of anchovies. The recipe was known as patina de apua sin apua,
which is Latin for anchovy omelet without anchovies.

Apicius’ cooks used jellyfish in the omelet in place of anchovies and, according to his
cookbook, he says “no one at the table will know what he is eating.”

Yikes! Sounds chewy, don’t you think?

I wonder how Apicius’ guests felt about the jellyfish omelet?

Weasel's brains as a cure for epilepsy

Weasel

Photo by Magalie St-Hialire Poulin on Unsplash

Weasel wasn’t a common delicacy in ancient Rome. But the Romans viewed it as medicine.
Roman statesman Pliny the Elder wrote about weasel brains serving as a cure for epilepsy
The brains of a weasel are also considered very good, dried and taken in drink; the liver, too,
of that animal, or the testes, uterus, or paunch, dried and taken with coriander, in manner
already mentioned- Pliny the Elder

Romans also thought the salted weasel meat was helpful for people who were stung by
snakes.

Dormouse stuffed with minced pork

Dormouse

Photo by Ricky Kharawala on Unsplash

Remember Tom and Jerry?

In Ancient Rome, Jerry would have ended up on the dinner plate, though Tom would have
some competition from the Romans.

Stuffed dormouse was a delicacy among the Romans. Some patrons would weigh the dormice
in front of their guests as a status symbol.

The chefs of Rome gutted the dormice and then stuffed them with pork mince and baked
them. The Romans served dormice as an appetizer during the parties.

Surprisingly, the dormouse hasn’t gone off the plates yet. Though it may not be popular in
Italy, among peasant communities of Croatia and Slovenia, dormice are still eaten.

Dormouse trapping is a cultural event in both nations. They grill the mice over an open flame
or stew them to make a goulash-like dish.

Braised parrots with date sauce

Parrot

Photo by Akshay Madan on Unsplash

Elagabalus, the Roman emperor, was well known for throwing spectacular parties. The parrot
was a popular dish at his parties.

The Romans adored parrots because they could imitate what people said. Romans thought it
was funny when parrots would repeat the words of a guest who had too many drinks.

But when the jokes were over, the parrots, along with pheasants, peacocks, and flamingoes
would all be put in the stew pot. You could say Elagabalus was an equal opportunity glutton
who didn’t spare any exotic birds.

Apicius’ cookbook has a recipe for parrots and flamingos. The birds were de-feathered and
then simmered in a broth flavored with dill, salt, vinegar, leeks, and coriander.
After boiling the birds, they were braised in a sweet date sauce with salt, pepper, cumin, and
herbs. They also added mint and shallots during the braising.

Would you try the dish?

I might if they replaced parrots with chicken or duck.

Grilled sow’s womb in brine

Photo by Gary Stearman on Unsplash

Perhaps the least surprising in the list of bizarre foods eaten by the Romans is the womb of a
sow. I have seen pig uterus being sold in Asian food stores in North America and they are
consumed in Southeast Asia, hence the dish isn’t that surprising to me.

But I don’t have the courage to try it. Romans considered it a delicacy. To control the
population of the pigs, Romans spayed the sow and their wombs (Latin: vulvae steriles) were
carefully selected and preserved for fine dining.

How did the Roman chefs prepare a sow’s womb?

According to Apicius’ cookbook, one could cook the womb with pepper, celery seed, dried
mint, and laser root in a broth. Laser root is a mysterious ingredient that is found in many
Roman recipes. Food historians suggest the laser root is related to asafetida.

Another way of preparing a sow’s womb was by grilling it. The cooks would put the wombs
in bran, brine them, and then grill them over an open flame.

Sounds appetizing? Maybe not!

We can conclude that the Romans, especially the elite, were quite adventurous in their food
experiments. They were far from being shy!

Many of these dishes might make us gag, but they were delicacies that involved enormous
costs.

What do you think of the list? Would you try any of the dishes? What is the most exotic food
you have eaten? Let me know in the comments.

Though the Roman elite had a taste for expensive exotic foods, many of our modern foods
had similar counterparts in Roman society.

One such food is the hamburger. Curious to know more? Check out the Roman burger recipe
below.

The 1500 Year Old Burger Recipe From Ancient Rome

Can we recreate a forgotten Roman burger?

medium.com

Want to know more about ancient Greece and Rome? Here are the best stories from the two
civilizations.

Prateek Dasgupta, M.S.

Prateek Dasgupta, M.S.

Greco-Roman History

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16 stories

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Sources

Jeremy Klar Totally Gross History: The Totally Gross History of Ancient Rome, Rosen
Publishing.

Plinio Prioreschi A History of Medicine: Roman medicine Horatius Press.

810

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810
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