Ancient Non-Stick Pan Factory Found in Italy

Ancient Non-Stick Pan Factory Found in Italy

Italian archaeologists have found a site near Naples where the precursors of non-stick pans were produced more than 2,000 years ago. The finding confirms that non-stick frying pans, an essential tool in any modern kitchen, were used in the Roman Empire. The cookware was known as “Cumanae testae” or “Cumanae patellae,” (pans from the city of Cumae) and was mentioned in the first-century Roman cookbook De Re Coquinaria as the most suitable pans for making chicken stews.

Wow! This is pretty cool. I've never really thought about ancient cookware, so this really surprised me, although it just shows my own ignorance. I guess I should have known they cooked in something -- doh!

I would love to try these ancient nonstick pans. I wonder if someone will try to replicate the process. I won't use teflon, but I'd try these. My skillets are all cast iron. And my other cookware is pretty much all Visions/Corningware, although I do have a couple copper-bottom stainless steel sauce pans, and a couple good stainless steel roasting pans. (I don't think Corningware makes anything big enough for a turkey!)

Anyway, I thought it was interesting and thought some others here might too...

a reply to: Boadicea

Pretty nifty Bo.,I wonder what the pans were done up like....
Were they some form of glazed earthenware or .......what>?

a reply to: Boadicea

Your link is broken... It just goes to an empty, untitled page.

As for cookware, look, stew is great if you like your meat damp. But cookware is not necessary in order to cook food. You go out and get yourself some big, thick, non poisonous leaves, soak them in water, wrap meat in them, and place them on a fire, and you have what amounts to cook in the bag food, with no washing up bar the cutlery you eat it with and the crockery you cut it up on.

Hell I do 80% of my cooking in a rice cooker...including making dish water after etc...
They are truly a one stop shop for suppers...
Turkey wing chow mein my specialty....all in a rice cooker...and pdq too!

originally posted by: bandersnatch
a reply to: Boadicea

Pretty nifty Bo.,I wonder what the pans were done up like....
Were they some form of glazed earthenware or .......what>?

I was wondering just what they are too! I suppose someone will analyze it and maybe figure it out.

A pic at the link showed some beautiful red shards, and they did look glazed. They reminded of me of enamel coated cast iron.

a reply to: Boadicea

You want your pots glazed? If not it will taste like clay…

Non stick is for lazy chefs anyway that can't stir often while keeping the heat down.

Rendered fat is the best non stick…

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Boadicea

Your link is broken... It just goes to an empty, untitled page.

Thanks for the heads up! I didn't see anything wrong when I went to edit it, but I did it all over again and it seems to be working now.

As for cookware, look, stew is great if you like your meat damp. But cookware is not necessary in order to cook food. You go out and get yourself some big, thick, non poisonous leaves, soak them in water, wrap meat in them, and place them on a fire, and you have what amounts to cook in the bag food, with no washing up bar the cutlery you eat it with and the crockery you cut it up on.

We used to do that when we were camping when I was a kid! I don't know what kind of leaves my dad used, but it was yummy!

Foods taste different with different cookware. I never like enameled aluminum because it just tasted yukky to me. But cast iron is awesome -- especially for meat! I've even begun reheating leftovers in the oven in my smaller cast iron skillets just for the flavor. The first time I made johnnycake in a cast iron skillet for my hubby, he couldn't believe the difference in taste over muffins. Now it's johnnycake all the time...

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Boadicea

Non stick is for lazy chefs anyway that can't stir often while keeping the heat down.

Rendered fat is the best non stick…

Oh, man... haven't had food cooked in rendered fat since my grandmother passed. That sure brings back memories!

For the most part, my oil of choice is good old melted butter. But I still save my bacon grease for a few things -- like cottage fries -- and tamales just aren't worth eating if I don't use lard for the masa... And olive oil and coconut oils have their place, even corn oil. But butter is always my go-to.

originally posted by: bandersnatch
Hell I do 80% of my cooking in a rice cooker...including making dish water after etc...
They are truly a one stop shop for suppers...
Turkey wing chow mein my specialty....all in a rice cooker...and pdq too!

When my son moved out with his buddy, I let them borrow my rice cooker... I never got it back!!! My son tells me he can make an entire feast with a rice cooker. You two would sure have fun together!

So in the OP they found the factory dump site of glazed cookware.

Non-stick has it place. But you can get the same effect with a well seasoned cast iron skillet. And those are pretty versatile as well. I keep my smaller one in the oven to help regulate the heat (electric). Since I ran across take-n-bake bread at the big box store, I throw some ice cubes in there to crank up the moisture level for the really crunchy crust!

Wonder what archeologist will say of all our stainless steel that will last for thousands of years when they run across the QVC dump site?

Looks something like this: Natural Terracotta

www.google.co.uk...

This wouldn't be beyond the capabilities of roman pottery makers. The romans already had cook books like we have today. One was called the Apicius

penelope.uchicago.edu...

Would the Romans have been able to buy entire pottery sets like we can today?

If the Romans can come up with aqueducts, indoor plumbing, concrete and all manner of culinary art, then you know they had to have the cookware to produce it, including some means of keeping it from sticking.

We love our cast iron skillet and copper bottom stock pot. I still use non-stick to make eggs, but otherwise they are relegated to overflow duty.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Non-stick has it place. But you can get the same effect with a well seasoned cast iron skillet. And those are pretty versatile as well.

Probably why I've never even wanted teflon. I was blessed to inherit my grandmother's cast iron, so I've always had well seasoned cast iron. I don't know what I'd do without it...

I keep my smaller one in the oven to help regulate the heat (electric).

Thank you for the tip! I have gas stove/oven, but my son has electric. I'm going to pass it on... (and he will no doubt research it and tell me exactly how and why it works!)

originally posted by: stormcell
Looks something like this: Natural Terracotta

www.google.co.uk...

Thank you for the links. That's some beautiful cookware! If I didn't have more than enough cookware already, I would have to get me some of that...

This wouldn't be beyond the capabilities of roman pottery makers.

Right? I knew that as soon as I read the article, but for some reason I never made the connection before... I never even really thought about it before.

The romans already had cook books like we have today. One was called the Apicius

penelope.uchicago.edu...

Again, thank you. I checked it out a little... can't wait to dig into it more. I'm passing this link on to my kids too.

Would the Romans have been able to buy entire pottery sets like we can today?

Good question. I'm sure at some point customers would start requesting graduated sizes etc, so they probably did at some point create sets. Perhaps for their more wealthy clients. Like always, the poor folks would find creative and innovative ways to make do with less.

a reply to: ketsuko

If the Romans can come up with aqueducts, indoor plumbing, concrete and all manner of culinary art, then you know they had to have the cookware to produce it, including some means of keeping it from sticking.

Yes, indeed. If for no other reason than they had some hungry hardworking menfolk to feed!

a reply to: Boadicea

Giglio and colleagues found more than 50,000 fragments of lids, pots and pans of various sizes and thickness, each featuring a very distinct coating. ...
Cumae’s mass production of red-slip cookware made it possible to export these pans across the Mediterranean, from Spain to North Africa, and to France, Germany and Great Britain.

Wow, they found the dump for a pottery factory, mass producing non-stick pans. They were industrious creatures, those Romans.

Another ancient crockery fact that might (or might not ) interest you, is that culture rather than climate essentially created the demand for pottery.

Pottery is thought to have originated in Japan around 16,000 years ago, but the numbers produced vastly increased 11,500 years ago, coinciding with a shift to a warmer climate. As resurgence in forests took place, an increase in vegetation and animals led to new food sources becoming available. Previous thinking suggested that pottery use and production increased to accommodate different cooking and storage techniques for the wider variety of foodstuffs available at this time. However, new analysis reveals this not to be the case.

Performing molecular and isotopic analysis of lipids extracted from vessels spanning a 9000 year period, the researchers found that pottery was used largely for cooking marine and freshwater animal species – a routine that remained constant despite climate warming and new resources becoming available. Finding surprisingly little evidence of plant processing in pottery, or cooking of animals such as deer, researchers found the only significant change to be the different types of fish consumed, such as an increase in freshwater fish.

This functional resilience in pottery use, in the face of climatic changes, suggests that cultural influences rather than environmental factors are more important in the widespread uptake of pottery. Dr Oliver Craig, Director of BioArCh in York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “Here, we are starting to acquire some idea of why pottery was invented and became such a successful technology. Interestingly, the reason seems to be little to do with subsistence and more to do with the adoption of a cultural tradition, linked to celebratory occasions and competitive feasting, especially involving the preparation of fish and shellfish.

www.pasthorizonspr.com...

Competitive feasting sounds like a good use of time, we should resurrect that old tradition.