Kolkata: If you want to tickle your taste buds with almost 2,000 years old Roman bread? Then, here is the good news for Kolkatans as Spencer's has prepared the historic bread with the same ingredients, the Roman bakeries might have followed in 79 AD.
Internationally reputed bread maker Spencer's in Kolkata, after a series of experiments, has successfully recreated Roman bread which was very popular in Pompeii. The city of Pompeii was destroyed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius around 2,000 years ago. To celebrate 400 days of the inception of its Park Street store, the Spencer's from Monday afternoon has started offering this historic Pompeiian bread to consumers. The bread will be available in a 400 gram pack at a cost of Rs 60 from 30 Spencer's stores as well in the city from 30 October.
A Spencer's spokesperson said on Monday that in the Western world, there had been inquisitiveness about the carbonized loaves excavated from Pompeii many years ago. According to the chief chef, western bread makers like many of us wonder how the original Pompeiian breads might have been looked like, how they might have tasted or what ingredients might have been used by the then bakeries to prepare those loaves. The funny looking bread was called "Panis Quadratus" which was excavated in a fossilised state many years later. It is presumed that the city of Pompeii had been destroyed due to a volcanic eruption.
According to a senior official of the Spencer's, the Pompeii bread is prepared with ingredients like — whole wheat flour (Atta), wheat refined flour (Maida), wheat bran, extra-high dietary fibre, yeast, starter, salt and others. Researchers tell us that the professional bakers in Rome and Pompeii did not exist until 2 nd Century BC.
According to historical sources, the ancient Roman breads were made of flour, whole-wheat flour, tepid water, salt and other spices. The preparation time of the bread during the Roman era might have remained up to 30 minutes.