For the dinner to function as a social ritual, it had to include different, better and superfluous—indeed wasteful—kinds of food. The everyday cena was itself something of a feast, even among ordinary peasants. The banquet was judged based on the size of the feast, and therefore, the bigger the expenditure.
As almost every other aspect of the Roman dining experience, food was also used to denote social status. Foods were placed in a hierarchy based on their rarity and exotic quality.
1. Cereals:
Products of the earth were considered the lowest and least desired of the food groups. This included cereals, pulses, vegetables, fresh or preserved fruit, olives, italian oil, and italian wine.
Products of the earth were considered the lowest and least desired of the food groups. This included cereals, pulses, vegetables, fresh or preserved fruit, olives, italian oil, and italian wine.
2. Meat of the animals kept and bred for slaughter:
This group included domestic animals such as chickens, pigs, or cows.
This group included domestic animals such as chickens, pigs, or cows.
3. Game killed by hunters in the woodlands:
Game was deemed more sumptuous than reared meat because it was thought to be 'softer'.
Game was deemed more sumptuous than reared meat because it was thought to be 'softer'.
4. Meat of Animals fattened with flour or figs:
These meats were extremely fatty and soft. Cow's utter and vulva were considered particular delicacies.
These meats were extremely fatty and soft. Cow's utter and vulva were considered particular delicacies.
5. Fattened Game:
This meat was considered the height of luxury in animal foods.
This meat was considered the height of luxury in animal foods.
6. Fish and Eels:
They were especially luxurious if considered exotic.
They were especially luxurious if considered exotic.
7. Shellfish and Oysters:The pinnacle of food extravagance were products the disquietingly soft and liable to rapid putrefaction
The cena demanded elaborate and sophisticated cuisine: it was the task of culinary technique to civilize types of food that were inherently less civilized or more wild, in the case of game. It was softness of banquet food that marked them out as delicacies and justified their cost: in every respect they were the opposite of the hard foodstuffs produced by arable farming. Furthermore, because the softness verging on petrification of banquet delicacies, they were infinitely moreish, allowing for the superfluous number of courses consumed. The high price of meats and other delicacies made their consumption all the more luxurious.