Garum - it's what Romans crave!
Garum - it's what Romans crave!
13 comments
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Explanation: Romans were inordinately fond of a kind of fermented fish sauce they called garum. Like wine, it had low-quality varieties, which, also like low-quality wine, were considered the essential part of even a slave's rations; and high-quality varieties, which could cost a year's wages for a common laborer for a single container! The Romans put their fermented fish sauce in everything - on their bread, in their porridge, on their salads, even in their wine! De gustibus non disputandem est - there's no accounting for taste!
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Do we know what the difference was, in recipe or production technique?
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Difference between modern fish sauce and Roman fish sauce, or difference between low and high quality garum?
I don't know the methods of making modern fermented fish sauce, but the big difference with garum quality was location/fish. I forget which kind exactly, but there was a particular fish off the coast of modern-day Portugal which was extremely highly valued as an ingredient for expensive garum, whereas cheap garum would often use a lot of small (and different species of) fish mashed in together. "We made this out of whatever we had, except for the best catches; those went to make good garum" sort of thing.
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I dunno, I once got a tube of anchovy paste and I experimented with putting it on a lot of different things - besides pizza, also crackers, bread, pasta, salads (I didn't try drinking it, tho!) so I kinda get it.
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Wonder if dudes put a lil bottle of garum in a holster
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Warning: don't try to make it at home. Unless you (and your neighbours) want to discover why the Romans had laws against urban garum production.
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Mmmmm, corpse juice!
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PARTY FACT: The only reason that ancient Egyptian mumys are rare today is that rich people ate most of them.
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Mematic brand fish sauce?
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Hot take: ketchup is garum.
Apparently some of Europe forgot about garum so hard that they rediscovered fish sauce when colonizing the far east. They tried to make it at home, then switched the base from fish to mushrooms and eventually to tomatoes.
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I think Worcestershire sauce is the closest modern Western equivalent.
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I think there is an Italian fish sauce, but I don’t know if it is a direct descendant of garum or not.
Edit: Colatura di alici was invented by medieval monks who found an ancient garum recipe and tried it.
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13 comments