Chef Giorgio Locatelli recreated a Roman loaf from Herculaneum, an ancient Greek colony in Italy.

In AD 79, a baker put a loaf of bread into the oven, just like any other day in the town of Herculaneum.

Some 2,000 years later, archaeologists found it and put it in a museum in Napoli, from where it was borrowed to the British Museum for a temporary exhibition.

There, researchers worked with Giorgio Locatelli, an Italian chef working in the United Kingdom, to backtrace the recipe. Here’s what they came up with:

Ingredients

600g biga acida (sourdough)
4 tsp sugar
4 tsp salt
c. 500ml water
500g spelt or buckwheat flour
500g wholemeal or plain flour

Method

Mix the wholemeal and spelt flours together, and pour this on to your work surface. Create a large depression in the centre.
Dissolve the salt and sugar into the water. Mix the sourdough into the flour bit by bit, pouring it into the well you’ve just created. Once the sourdough is roughly mixed, begin to pour the water into the well slowly, mixing gently with your hands. Mix until all the water is gone, and any excess flour is incorporated into the dough. You will end up with a rough ball.
Start kneading the dough gently, folding it back on itself so it can ‘take in’ some air. Knead for a few minutes until you can form it into a smooth ball.
Flatten the ball slightly as in the video, and transfer it to an oiled baking tray. Cover it, and leave it to rise for 1.5–2 hours in a warm room. While you’re waiting, perhaps investigate some other ancient recipes to enjoy your bread with!
The next two steps are optional, but if you’re going for historical accuracy here, they’re a must. Cut a piece of string long enough to go round your risen dough, with a bit left over to tie a knot. Wrap the string around the sides of the dough, pull it tight so it makes a lip around the side, and tie a knot to secure it.
Now, take a knife to score the top into eight equal segments. Real loaves from the Roman period were often stamped too. If you want, now’s the time to add your own stamp. It could be your initials or whatever you want, but bear in mind that your stamp must be oven-proof, and will need to be weighed down during baking with something heavy (like baking beans wrapped in foil).
Bake for 30–45 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius (around 400 degrees Fahrenheit). Keep an eye on your loaf so it doesn’t come out looking carbonised like the one from Herculaneum!
Let it cool and enjoy your Roman bread!