A pottery dump discovered about 12 kilometres from Naples has shown that the Romans had and used non-stick cookware.

Roman non-stick cookware was first mentioned in a first-century Roman cookbook De Re Coquinaria but had never been confirmed until this new discovery near Naples. The discovery of more than 50,000  shards covered in a thick red slippery coating.

The cookware known variously as Cumanae testae or Cumanae Patellae was apparently used particularly for making stews and was exported across the Mediterranean and North Africa.