? Most Romans never ate the kind of food that ancient Roman gourmets enjoyed, so what did gourmets eat during the height of the Roman Empire?

? First, Lucania sausage. It is said that in the late Roman Empire, Lucanian sausage was brought back to Rome by soldiers serving in southern Italy and served as an appetizer. It is one of the most beloved sausages. ?

? Second, hazelnut custard. Nut custard was a sweet treat enjoyed by the Romans as porridge or pudding, and nut custard was also eaten as a pie or tart. One recipe calls for crushing "very fine walnuts and hazelnuts" before roasting, adding honey, then mixing them with "pepper, broth, milk, eggs and a little oil."

Third, lobster patties. The third most popular dish after peacock and rabbit, lobster is often cooked but also appears in croquettes - small breaded balls of meat or vegetables. The Romans loved cuttlefish, lobster and crab croquettes, all of which require meat extracted from their respective creatures, minced and then added with pepper and fish stock. ?To hold the meat together into a small cake, they add flour, eggs or potatoes, then fry the croquettes in an ancient Roman fish sauce.

? Fourth, white bread. Bread in the Roman world was tied to social status, with poor men and women enjoying "hard, dirty" bread. As a staple food, bread can be as simple as adding a pinch of salt or elaborately baked with honey, nuts and various grains. Wealthy Romans mostly ate white bread, which was made from a fine flour of wheat and was often added to other dishes. They often remove the crust, soak the bread in a mixture of milk and eggs, fry it, and then coat it with honey.

Fifth, boiled eggs with pine nut juice. The Romans loved eggs so much that they were often served as an appetizer. Eggs may be fried and served with a wine sauce, or cooked and seasoned with "broth, oil, pure wine or... broth, pepper and". Another common egg dish is poached or poached eggs with a sauce made of pepper, soaked pine nuts, honey, vinegar and fish sauce. Preparing the pine nuts for this recipe involves soaking them overnight, draining them and mashing them in a mortar. After mixing them with pepper, honey and fish sauce, heat the sauce while the eggs are boiling. To serve, pour sauce over whole peeled eggs in bowl.