Title: garum-msg
Subject: Fermented Roman fish sauce.
Author: Edited by Mark S. Harris
Last saved by: Mark S. Harris
Keywords: garum, liquamen, fish sauce, fermented, Rome, period, condiment

garum-msg - 7/29/15

A fermented fish sauce used in ancient Rome. Also includes comments on a similar fish sauce called liquamen.

NOTE: See also the files: sauces-msg, fish-msg, murri-msg, spices-msg, pickled-foods-msg, vinegar-msg, verjuice-msg.

************************************************************************
NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I  have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I  have done  a limited amount  of  editing. Messages having to do  with separate topics  were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the  message IDs  were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make  no claims  as  to the accuracy  of  the information  given  by the individual authors.

Please  respect the time  and  efforts of  those who have written  these messages. The  copyright status  of these messages  is  unclear  at this time. If  information  is  published  from  these  messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
************************************************************************

From: "Nick Sasso (fra niccolo)" <grizly at mindspring.com>
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 15:12:41 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Definition

> For those of us who are .... vocabularily challenged<g>, what is
> "liquamen"?
>
> Caitlin

   "liquamen":  another name for garum.  A fermented fish sauce used in
ancient Rome.  Made by layering in a well sealed barrel, fatty fish such
as mackerel or sardine, strong herbs, and about
1 1/2" of salt.  Layer this until the barrel is filled and seal.  Leave
in the sun for about seven days.  After this fermentation, stir daily
for 2-3 weeks until it has turned to liquid.

You'll find a detailed description of various methods and varieties on
pages 27-29 in _A Taste of Ancient Rome_ by Giacosa.  I have used
oriental fish sauce, but it lacks the punch described of the original.
Maybe adding the strong herbs to steep for a while in the fish sauce
would help.  Ant other suggestions would be appreciated as this is a
common Roman condiment in cooking.

Giacosa also offers two suggested preparations for garum on p. 29 for
those who wish to avoid the seven day fermentation :o)
- --
In Humble Service to God and Crown;

fra nicol¢ difrancesco
(mka nick sasso)

From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 15:55:47 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Definition

Nick Sasso (fra niccolo) wrote:

>    "liquamen":  another name for garum.  A fermented fish sauce used in
> ancient Rome.  Made by layering in a well sealed barrel, fatty fish such
> as mackerel or sardine, strong herbs, and about
> 1 1/2" of salt.  Layer this until the barrel is filled and seal.  Leave
> in the sun for about seven days.  After this fermentation, stir daily
> for 2-3 weeks until it has turned to liquid.

Bear in mind that there's  more than one recipe available for liquamen.
Some of them omit the "strong herbs" (some recipes specify oregano, but
others specify only fish and salt). Some also call for whole fish, and
others call for fish entrails.
 
> You'll find a detailed description of various methods and varieties on
> pages 27-29 in _A Taste of Ancient Rome_ by Giacosa.  I have used
> oriental fish sauce, but it lacks the punch described of the original.

That would be hard to say for sure until you had experienced the punch
of the original. It would also depend on _what_ oriental fish sauce you
are referring to. There are dozens, some made from the whole fish or
fish entrails as mentioned above, and some made from cleaned fish. Some
are made from shrimp. Asia is a big place, and every hundred miles or so
you come to a place where they think the people you just saw a hundred
miles back are jerks who couldn't make fish sauce if their lives
depended on it. :  ) Variations on a central theme are therefore common.

> Maybe adding the strong herbs to steep for a while in the fish sauce
> would help.  Ant other suggestions would be appreciated as this is a
> common Roman condiment in cooking.

That's just about the only solution I can think of, unless you make the
stuff yourself. I'm not so sure about how much kick actual Roman
liquamen might or might not have had, actually. There are recipes that
call for adding it to wine as a beverage, IIRC. It might be a question
of total effect, where you use a lot to get a powerful effect, and less
for a more subtle approach.

Adamantius

From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 16:06:16 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Definition

Peters, Rise J. wrote:
> For those of us who are .... vocabularily challenged<g>, what is "liquamen"?
> 
> Caitlin

I seem to be getting messages out of sequence. As previously stated,
liquamen, at least in ancient Roman usage, is a salty, tangy condiment
made from fish. It is described as being a semi-clear liquid after the
solids settle out. The semisolid dregs are called allec or hallec and
are also used as a seasoning.

However, watch out: Platina calls for liquamen in his recipes, and he is
referring to rendered, liquid fat, such as melted lard or suet.

Adamantius

From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 19:03:34 -0400
Subject: Re: Liquamen -- was: SC - Definition

Nick Sasso (fra niccolo) wrote:

> It seems that the brine keeps liquimen sanitary and promotes the
> liquification, so it doesn't seem all that bad to me.  The salt also
> probably effects the pH to activate some of the enzymes and bacteria
> needed as well.  Strange to say the least.

As I understand the process (there was a big to-do on liquamen, garum,
nuoc mam, nampla, etc. in rec.food.historic a couple of weeks ago), the
salt is there to prevent the growth and reproduction of pathogenic
bacteria. This it does.

It does allow a certain proliferation of lactobaccili, even with the
high salinity. They eat whatever it is they eat and produce, in return,
lactic acid, in which the fish are effectively pickled, just like kosher
dills or sauerkraut.

Enzymes in the fish (especially if there are entrails involved) break
the fish down to a paste/liquid.

Yum! ;  )

Adamantius

From: Uduido at aol.com
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 1997 22:56:01 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SC - Liquamen

In a message dated 97-07-08 16:53:56 EDT, you write:
<< what is "liquamen"? >>

I think it was a fish sauce used by the Romans. I use an oriental fish sauce
as a sub or if the dish is more subtle I use oyster sauce.

Lord Ras

From: "Melissa Martines" <melissa.martines at mail.corpfamily.com>
Date: Wed, 09 Jul 97 08:35:17 CST
Subject: SC - Garum

     I made some garum for the Roman Feast I did at our local May Tourney.
     I used mackerel (3.5 pounds cut into chunks), a lot of salt (6 pounds) 
     oregano, coriander and cumin.
     
     I let it steep two weeks in the back of my car (I used a plastic beer 
     fermenter for this) which sits in the sun most days (I went for two 
     weeks since the Tennessee sunshine in March is probably not as 
     powerful as the Italian).
     
     Then, I began stirring it.  It does make a nice, clear, oily liquid.  
     And, thanks probably to the salt, it never smelled (for which my lord 
     was very grateful when I moved it into the house).
     
     The overwhelming taste of the stuff was salt.  There was an undertaste 
     of fish, and the herbs left a pleasant aftertaste.
     
     Everyone who tried it liked it -- the Baroness particularly liked it 
     on the hardboiled egges in the salad :).
     
     In my research, I concluded that when recipes call for it, they are 
     actually after the salt taste.  The fish oil (very rich in nutrients) 
     is an added benefit without a lot of added taste.
     
     Morgan

From: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy at abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 1997 10:24:51 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Liquamen -- was: SC - Definition

Adamantius wrote:
  As I understand the process (there was a big to-do on liquamen, garum,
  nuoc mam, nampla, etc. in rec.food.historic a couple of weeks ago), the
  salt is there to prevent the growth and reproduction of pathogenic
  bacteria. This it does.

Indeed.  While some of the exchange got stupidly personal and silly, it is
well worth checking with http://www.dejanews.com for the thread, looking
especially for postings from Andrew Smith.  It was, shall we say,
definitive.  Check in the May/June timeframe.

	Tibor

Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1998 18:01:13 EST
From: LrdRas <LrdRas at aol.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Gulf Wars & a question

mfgunter at fnc.fujitsu.com writes:
<< I've been reading the Roman recipe website and wondered if liquamen could
 be substituted with nuoc muam sauce?  I know we've discussed stuff like this
 before.

Gunthar >>

I always sub Thai fish sauce or a similar Far Eastern fish sauce for
"liquamen". I do not know how close actual manufacturing methods are to the
Roman stuff but, IMHO, such a substitution is far more justified than water or
broth. :-)

Ras

Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 18:10:43 -0700
From: Rob Baldassano <odla at best.com>
Subject: RE: SC - Garum & Verjuice production sources?

>Can anyone direct me to recipe/directions for Verjuice and garum? 
>niccolo difrancesco

As for the Garum, there are recipes documented in Rosenbaum & Flowers
translation of Apicius "The Roman Cookery Book", they include the
fermented version that was made in mass production and a quick version
you can make on your stove top in one afternoon. I no longer have a
copy of the book, it was lent to me a couple of years ago when I did a
course of Roman food at a feast,  and I have since returned it to its owner.

Euriol of Lothian

[Submitted by: Marilyn Traber <margali at 99main.com>]
Subject: [Apicius] garum/liquamen
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 18:41:08 PST
From: "Susan Hryckiewicz" <susanh99 at hotmail.com>
To: Apicius at onelist.com

This gets down to language semantics, but there is a subtle difference
in concept.  Is “garum” a translation of “liquamen” or a period
equivalent term?

Is it a term in current usage anywhere in the world?

If it is a modern translation, WHY?  Where did the word come from, and
how? Any clues?

Susan Hryckiewicz
Selivia de l'Estoile, Lochac (Australia)

Subject: [Apicius] garum
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 15:36:17 GMT
From: Carol Dery <sr045 at lamp.ac.uk>
To: Apicius at onelist.com

The ancient Greeks used a fish sauce called garos (not garon - this is the
accusative case which is why it is not in the dictionary) from about the
fifth century BC, and it is this that the Romans took over. Garum (Lat.)
derives from garos (Gk. actually a type of fish). The Romans used the
various types of fish sauce very much more than the Greeks ever did however,
which is why not many people know about the Greek version.

As regards the various terminology for Roman fish sauces, it goes like this:
Garum is the name for the best quality fish sauce (garum sociorum is the
very best of all - It was made in Spain from mackerel), but it is also used
generically in the early empire.

Liquamen was originally an inferior product to garum, but by the time of the
late Empire (when Apicius' cookbook was being compiled), liquamen had
largely replaced garum as a generic term for fish sauce.

There is also something called muria, which is the pickle that salt fish was
transported in. It could also be used to pickle other things as well.

Then there is allec, which is a fish paste. The other three are all liquids.

Carol

Subject: [Apicius] Re: garum/liquamen
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 05:22:11 -0600
From: Bill Thayer <petworth at suba.com>
To: Apicius at onelist.com

Pliny (XXXI.xliii.93, direct local link to the passage online at
http://www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_
Elder/31*.html#93>

is very mildly helpful, merely stating that _garum_ comes from some fish
the Greeks call _garon_, although in his time the stuff was no longer
produced from that fish.

If this is true, it's unlikely to be _karon_ since _k_ and _g_ both existed
as separate sounds and letters in both Greek and Latin. Also, garum doesn't
involve shrimp, and Pliny is rather careful about differentiating between
fish and other sea life: he's writing a natural history encyclopedia, after
all.
   Varro unfortunately only refers to the word _garum_ (ix.66) to tell you
that it has no plural because it's something sold by weight, i.e. not
enumerable.

BT

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 11:48:04 -0800
From: Lilinah biti-Anat <lilinah at grin.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Apicius site, some thoughts

Aislinn C. C. wrote:
>I have no idea if it is the same plant used by the Romans. Tannahill
>gives an intriguing process for making liquamen in her book. Would
>modern oyster sauce make a good substitute? Adamantius?

I've never tasted actual Roman style liquamen, but have had various
fish sauces from around 4 different Southeast Asian countries.

I recommend Thai fish sauce (nam pla). Vietnamese fish sauce is a
decent second. I REALLY didn't like the taste of Philippino fish
sauce, nor of Chinese fish sauce. Personal taste.

But i should think, knowing how they and liquamen are made, at least
from reading books, that any of them would be closer to liquamen than
oyster sauce, since it isn't made from fish, and has all sorts of
other additives, whereas the Southeast Asian fish sauces are just
little fish and salt, like liquamen.

Anahita Gauri bint-Karim al-hakim al-Fassi

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 12:07:24 -0800
From: Lilinah biti-Anat <lilinah at grin.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Apicius site, some thoughts

Iu'liana
>aislinncc at mailcity.com writes:
> >Would modern oyster sauce make a good substitute? Adamantius?
>
>I was wondering if Nuoc Nam Nhi would work.

Yeah. That would be fine, as far as i can tell. That's Vietnamese
fish sauce. Thai fish sauce is similar. Both much closer to liquamen
than Chinese oyster sauce (has sugar and other stuff - i don't have a
bottle on hand to list all other additives)

Anahita

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 20:50:05 EST
From: ChannonM at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Apicius site, some thoughts

Garum or liquamen to me is a much more substantial sauce than the fish sauces
so far mentioned, unless one of them is more substantial than the nuoc mam
sauce I have seen and tasted. I prefer to use anchovy paste, which is simply
anchovies and salt. For the various garum/liquamen sauces ie
oxygarum,hydrogarum, oenogarum- I simply combine it with the appropriate
liquid vinegar, water or wine respectively.   There is a gentleman he is an
Italian chef, operating a restaurant in Rome I believe) who regularly posts
on the Apicius list and during a thread on this topic put it very well. I
have discussed using his post with him and here it is, in its entirety,
...... go for it Stefan, this would be an excellent contribution to the
Florilegium! (IMO)- Hauviette

Marco Bernini writes--I am probably going to ignite some controversy here but
I do not agree that Nuoc mam and garum are the same thing at all.Nuoc mam is basically a fish based soy sauce originally made by fermenting anchovies in brine.  Today it is often made with concentrated extracts that are then diluted, the resulting sauce is very watery and quite like fishy soy sauce.  Most eastern cuisines have a sauce of this sort; the chinese have fish soy, the thai’s also have a variant as do the Malays and so on.

Garum or liquamen has many recipes according to who you read, it is
alternately made from whole fish, fish livers or fish guts and blood
depending on who’s description you read.  This is then layered alternately
with lots of salt and herbs of various sorts again depending on who’s recipe you use.  The container is then sealed and left to macerate NOT ROT as is commonly thought, it is impossible for the contents to rot due to the large amount of salt present.

What happens is that the fish liquefy over time as the coarse salt melts and
a thick lumpy brine is formed.  This is then strained either finely or
coarsely depending on the use it is intended for

My reasoning is based on the following:
I am Roman, I was born in the city am 34 years old and live there today
though I have lived much of my life in the UK.  I am a restaurateur and chef
and have an extensive knowledge of Italian cuisine as well as being trained
in classical french, modern British, Chinese, Japanese and Thai.

Italian regional cuisine is very ancient in its origins, many dishes that are
eaten today in Rome on the tables of the ordinary citizens and in the Roman
campagna (not the restaurants which barring a few exceptions are bastardized
and atypical) bear a great resemblance to those eaten by the ordinary
citizens of Rome two millennia ago.  Certainly new ingredients have been
added (most notably the tomato and chilli pepper) as they have been discovered
over the centuries but the basic style of the food remains the same.  The crux of the matter is this; if garum was indeed as essential an ingredient in Roman
cuisine as we are told by ancient texts then it is very likely that it would remain in the Roman diet in some prominent form today (much as soy sauce and Nuoc mam being very ancient still feature prominently in the far east).  The fact that Italy has no Nuoc mam type sauce today nor has it had in living memory leads me to conclude that garum cannot have been a sauce like nuoc mam or it would remain in use today; not just in Italy but in Spain, Greece and North
Africa, it is simply impossible for such an important ingredient to have disappeared from all of these countries without trace.

What does remain in all of these countries is an enormous production of
anchovies and other ‘pesci azzurri’ (sardines, mackerel etc.).  These are
produced in canned form via salting and then packing with olive oil and
sometimes herbs and also as pureed form in tubes for simplified use in
cooking.  Anchovies are used extensively in mediterranean cuisine to impart
salty ‘sea’ flavour to food, they are sometimes used in stews and soups,
often used in sautéed clams and other seafood, they are used in salad
dressings and chopped in salads and on top of pizzas, wrapped around olives
and capers,  put on hard boiled eggs and so on and so on.  As you can see
they are very important today.  It is my opinion that garum is the ancestor
of the salted anchovy whether whole, filleted, pureed or in herbs; at some
point production changed to a less liquefied product, possibly due to reduced production period, faster transport or maybe just a change in tastes.

Anyway, that’s my opinion for what its worth, accept it or not its up to
you.But I will tell you one thing, try sprinkling nuoc mam on a endive salad and
then making one using the recipe I suggest below.  Bet you never use the nuoc
mam again. (remember when using it as a dressing to add a olive oil and wine
vinegar plus pepper to taste.)

Below is a recipe from Gargilius Martialis 3rd C AD as published in the
excellent book “A Cena da Lucullo” by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa (published in
English as “A Taste of Ancient Rome”) plus a quick and clean variation that I
have developed myself from a modern day Roman salad dressing.

Garum (Gargilius Martialis 3C AD)
Use fresh fatty fish e.g.. anchovies, sardines or mackerel.
Dried aromatic herbs such as: dill, coriander, fennel, celery seed, mint,
oregano and rosemary.
Coarse sea salt
Clean and wash the fish removing heads fins and guts if desired. (the guts
impart a bitter flavour) Taking a large preserving or pickling jar (the wider
the better) place a generous layer of herbs on the the bottom of the jar then
place a  layer of fish on the top (cutting the fish into sections if it is
large) placing them fairly tightly packed.
Over this add a layer of coarse sea salt (must be sea salt) about * inch
thick!  Repeat these three layers till you have filled the jar to the top.
Let the container rest in the sun for seven days (this is the traditional way).
Then mix the sauce daily for a further twenty days.  After that time it
becomes a liquid and can be filtered if necessary.
Here is a quickish clean garum of my own:

6 tubes of anchovy paste, (or 12 small tins of anchovy fillets drained and
liquidized) * teaspoon of each of the above herbs but fresh if possible.
 1 clove of Garlic (crush it with the side of a knife)
Pepper
Good olive oil
Wine vinegar
Finely chop the herbs and place in a bowl. Add the anchovy paste, add the
crushed garlic clove, ground black pepper (the quantity will dictate the
‘hotness’ of the garum) a little vinegar and the olive oil, mix well (in
ablender if necessary)
The resulting sauce should pour easily, if not add more oil or white wine if
you like. Store in the fridge for a day before use and always shake well before
adding to recipes.  Use sparingly as it is salty and often replaces salt in
recipes.  Makes an excellent dressing for lettuce and rocket salads, the
traditional Roman hors d’oeuvre and is used in Rome today to dress
“puntarelle” a salad leaf from the dandelion family that has been eaten in
and around Romefor more than 2,000 years.Enjoy!

P.S.  If you should keel over with food poisoning after trying the ancient
recipe I deny any responsibility!   :)
Marco Berni

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 21:03:03 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Apicius site, some thoughts

Lilinah biti-Anat wrote:
> Aislinn C. C. wrote:
> >I have no idea if it is the same plant used by the Romans. Tannahill
> >gives an intriguing process for making liquamen in her book. Would
> >modern oyster sauce make a good substitute? Adamantius?
>
> I've never tasted actual Roman style liquamen, but have had various
> fish sauces from around 4 different Southeast Asian countries.

Definitely not modern oyster sauce. As it happens, I just happened to
sample (one of the few things I was able to sample) actual
garum/liquamen from Pliny's Historia Naturalis, and it was a light amber
color, a bit like filtered apple juice, but with a more substantial
mouth feel/body, and a definite anchovy taste. Yum! I ate mackerel guts!
And liked it! The only harshness to it was in the saltiness, which is
pretty much inevitable. If this was done right, it would seem to suggest
that the fish is preserved from rotting by the salt, and broken down
entirely by enzymatic action, unlike the processes that produce some of
the Southeast Asian fish sauces, at least some of which involve lactic
fermentation, as do things like sauerkraut.

> I recommend Thai fish sauce (nam pla). Vietnamese fish sauce is a
> decent second. I REALLY didn't like the taste of Philippino fish
> sauce, nor of Chinese fish sauce. Personal taste.

There are decent Philipino sauces, you need to watch for the ones that
contain anchovies and salt, and avoid ones with vinegar, these are
basically sauces that are artificially flavored to resemble the real
thing.

> But i should think, knowing how they and liquamen are made, at least
> from reading books, that any of them would be closer to liquamen than
> oyster sauce, since it isn't made from fish, and has all sorts of
> other additives, whereas the Southeast Asian fish sauces are just
> little fish and salt, like liquamen.

Yep. Oyster sauce is oyster essence (reduced stock made from dried
oysters), sugar, cornstarch, sometimes some caramel coloring, sometimes
soy sauce. The best oyster sauces are the ones for which oysters or
oyster essence are the first ingredient listed.

Adamantius

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 21:44:14 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Apicius site, some thoughts

ChannonM at aol.com wrote:
> What happens is that the fish liquefy over time as the coarse salt melts and
> a thick lumpy brine is formed.  This is then strained either finely or
> coarsely depending on the use it is intended for

According to Pliny (admittedly only one source) clear brine (hence the
term liquamen) is siphoned off from the solids, which are used as an
entirely different product called halec.

> Italian regional cuisine is very ancient in its origins, many dishes that are
> eaten today in Rome on the tables of the ordinary citizens and in the Roman
> campagna (not the restaurants which barring a few exceptions are bastardized
> and atypical) bear a great resemblance to those eaten by the ordinary
> citizens of Rome two millennia ago.  Certainly new ingredients have been
> added (mostnotably the tomato and chilli pepper) as they have been discovered
> over the
> centuries but the basic style of the food remains the same.  The crux of the
> matter is this; if garum was indeed as essential an ingredient in Roman
> cuisine
> as we are told by ancient texts then it is very likely that it would remain
> in the Roman diet in some prominent form today (much as soy sauce and Nuoc mam
> being very ancient still feature prominently in the far east).  The fact that
> Italy has no Nuoc mam type sauce today nor has it had in living memory leads 
> me to conclude that garum cannot have been a sauce like nuoc mam or it would
> remain in use today; not just in Italy but in Spain, Greece and North
> Africa,it is simply impossible for such an important ingredient to have
> disappeared from all of these countries without trace.

Actually, it hasn't. One very halec-like paste that is very common in
the south of France is pissalat. Another consideration is that as Rome
is not really a seaport, it's unlikely a center of manufacture for garum
would develop there. On the Mediterranean coastlines of what are now
Spain, France, Italy and Greece, you'll find what seem to be remains of
garum factories.

I wonder if there was some kind of climactic or other shift in the
migrations of some of the fish traditionally used in the manufacture of
liquamen, which might explain why the fish so prepared seemed to be
growing smaller over time, leading perhaps to the modern salted anchovy.
Which, by the way, is not necessarily a moist product packed in oil, you
can still find them in barrels in France, whole, dry, and packed in
salt. Many recipes written before the 1960s have complete instructions
on how to desalt and fillet anchovies. Other possibilities might include
a dearth of garum-suitable fish, due to overfishing, and then there was
this thing called the Fall of The Roman Empire. Modern citizens of Rome
also don't speak Latin, wear togas, or demand that Carthage be
destroyed. That doesn't mean they never did these things. This is simply
an area where there's been sufficient change that a thread of cultural
identity has been cut. Just as there are modern languages closer in
pronunciation and form to Latin than modern Italian, there are other
places that used to be part of the Roman world that probably have closer
ties to the culture of ancient Rome than Rome itself now does, some even
that have never been successively invaded and ruled by Visigoths,
Lombards and Normans. Oh, my!

One place, by the way, that garum appears to have survived into the
early Middle Ages at least is Byzantium. There's a wonderfully plaintive
passage in the writings of Luidprandt, Bishop of Cremona (vaguely
Carolingian) concerning his treatment as a not-especially-welcome envoy
to the Byzantine Court. He arrived to escort a Byzantine princess back
north to wed the Holy Roman/Frankish emperor, and was, among other
indignities, left standing outside the gates in the rain for several
days. Finally he was allowed into the city, and was fed what may have
been a typical Byzantine upper-class meal. He describes it as "...foul
and stinking, soused in oil like some drunkard's slops, and the whole
sprinkled with some vile fishy liquid." This would have been ~9th-10th
centuries C.E.

Adamantius

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 18:52:37 -0800
From: Lilinah biti-Anat <lilinah at grin.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Apicius site, some thoughts

Hauviette posted a long and interesting message:
>Garum or liquamen to me is a much more substantial sauce than the fish sauces
>so far mentioned, unless one of them is more substantial than the nuoc mam
>sauce I have seen and tasted. I prefer to use anchovy paste...
(snip)

and she includes a message from Marco Bernini:
>--I am probably going to ignite some controversy here but I do not agree that
>Nuoc mam and garum are the same thing at all.Nuoc mam is basically a fish
>based soy sauce originally made by fermenting anchovies in brine.  Today it
>is often made with concentrated extracts that arethen diluted, the resulting
>sauce is very watery and quite like fishy soy sauce.

Well, i have to disagree with Mr. Bernini's comment. Having lived in
Southeast Asia and also eaten and cooked a great deal of Southeast
Asian food in America, Southeast Asian fish sauces are not like
"fishy soy sauce". They are made by heavily salting small fish,
letting them stand from some time (i'm not sure for how long), then
straining the resultant mess, errr, mass. The resultant liquid is
fish sauce. There's no soy sauce in any i've had. And as far as i
know, the process producing soy sauce is different from that
producing fish sauce, although i could be under-informed...

Mr. Bernini describes the process:
>And at least some liquamen/garum recipes seem to indicate a similar
>procedure. Garum or liquamen has many recipes according to who you read,
>it is alternately made from whole fish, fish livers or fish guts and blood
>depending on whoís description you read.  This is then layered alternately
>with lots of salt and herbs of various sorts again depending on whoís recipe
>you use.  The container is then sealed and left to macerate NOT ROT as is
>commonly thought, it is impossible for the contents to rot due to the large
>amount of salt present.
>What happens is that the fish liquefy over time as the coarse salt melts and
>a thick lumpy brine is formed.  This is then strained either finely or
>coarsely depending on the use it is intended for

What i'm not certain of is: how different is the liquid from this
stuff, finely strained, is from fish sauce? How different is the
process of producing Southeast Asian fish sauce from that of
producing liquamen/garum?

I've watched the beginnings of making some shrimp paste in an
Indonesian village (strictly for local use), and it was basically
layering tiny shrimp with salt and letting it stand, although i don't
know if  there was some sort of "starter" (along the lines of mother
of vinegar, or yeast, or using yogurt to start a new batch) or
something was introduced later in the process...

as Mr. Bernini continues:
>My reasoning is based on the following:
>I am Roman, I was born in the city am 34 years old and live there today...
(snip)
>The crux of the
>matter is this; if garum was indeed as essential an ingredient in Roman
>cuisine as we are told by ancient texts then it is very likely that it would
>remain in the Roman diet in some prominent form today (much as soy sauce
>and Nuoc mam being very ancient still feature prominently in the far east).
>The fact that Italy has no Nuoc mam type sauce today nor has it had in living
>memory leads me to conclude that garum cannot have been a sauce like nuoc
>mam or it would remain in use today; not just in Italy but in Spain,
>Greece and
>North Africa,it is simply impossible for such an important ingredient to have
>disappeared from all of these countries without trace.

Well, i don't agree with him here. After reading enough old
cookbooks, it seems to me that some things have disappeared from
cuisines, while new things have become popular. I don't think it can
be assumed that if something was important in the Roman Empire it
would necessarily survive virtually unchanged for 1500 years. Maybe
it did, but it seems to me highly likely that time did not stand
still even in isolated Italian country villages.

However, i like anchovies on my pizza and in my Caesar salad (yeah, I
know, not Italian). And I have no objection to anchovy paste. So if
anchovy paste is like liquamen/garum, I can live with that.

So, Master Adamantius, since you've tasted a liquamen made the old
Roman way, how different is it from fish sauce? How different from
liquified anchovy paste? Would a blend of the two in any way
approximate it, or would that be far too different?

(I don't think I'm ready to keep a jar of fish and salt layered in my
kitchen, although possibly some day...)

Anahita

Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 07:06:04 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Apicius site, some thoughts

Lilinah biti-Anat wrote:
> Well, i have to disagree with Mr. Bernini's comment. Having lived in
> Southeast Asia and also eaten and cooked a great deal of Southeast
> Asian food in America, Southeast Asian fish sauces are not like
> "fishy soy sauce". They are made by heavily salting small fish,
> letting them stand from some time (i'm not sure for how long), then
> straining the resultant mess, errr, mass. The resultant liquid is
> fish sauce. There's no soy sauce in any i've had. And as far as i
> know, the process producing soy sauce is different from that
> producing fish sauce, although i could be under-informed...

The process is different, to say the least. Soybeans are boiled,
drained, mashed and formed into cakes, which are then left in a dark
place to grow a particular mold (as you mention in another context, a
starter may be added) in a process pretty similar to that used for
making sake. The mold-converted cakes are then steeped several times to
produce different grades of soy sauce, and some people eat the leftover
cakes, which are believed to be the cause of the extremely high rate of
stomach cancer in populations where soy sauce is made locally. Never
mind that so many Asians, even now, are chain smokers. But this is also,
I believe, the source of Charles Perry's theory that murri may be a
carcinogen, or contain carcinogens, because soy sauce is far, far more
like murri than like Asian fish sauce.

> Mr. Bernini describes the process:
> >And at least some liquamen/garum recipes seem to indicate a similar
> >procedure. Garum or liquamen has many recipes according to who you read,
> >it is alternately made from whole fish, fish livers or fish guts and blood
> >depending on whoís description you read.  This is then layered alternately
> >with lots of salt and herbs of various sorts again depending on whoís recipe
> >you use.

So, any claims anybody may make about garum are bound to be mostly
inaccurate because they won't apply across the board, while any
statements that _I_ may make, on the other hand, are accurate because of
common factors like salt...according to whose recipe you use? I don't
mean to wrong the man, but this seems a little too pat.

> >  The container is then sealed and left to macerate NOT ROT as is
> >commonly thought, it is impossible for the contents to rot due to the large
> >amount of salt present.
> >What happens is that the fish liquefy over time as the coarse salt melts and
> >a thick lumpy brine is formed.

And this is due not to the salt, either, but to the presence of enzymes
in great amounts in the fish entrails, and to a lesser extent in the
muscle itself (Some Philipino versions of bagoong, I think it's called,
are made with gutted fish: they'd likely be the source of the idea that
these sauces are supposed to be sour as well as salty and fishy).

> What i'm not certain of is: how different is the liquid from this
> stuff, finely strained, is from fish sauce? How different is the
> process of producing Southeast Asian fish sauce from that of
> producing liquamen/garum?

According to some authorities, not much, provided there's enough salt to
prevent lactic fermentation, which does occur in some Asian fish sauces,
but not in all.

> I've watched the beginnings of making some shrimp paste in an
> Indonesian village (strictly for local use), and it was basically
> layering tiny shrimp with salt and letting it stand, although i don't
> know if  there was some sort of "starter" (along the lines of mother
> of vinegar, or yeast, or using yogurt to start a new batch) or
> something was introduced later in the process...

No starter, AFAIK. I've seen this shrimp paste in jars in my
neighborhood, in several forms, some made from dried shrimp, producing a
mysterious purplish paste, others grey or nearly white, depending on
differences in the process according to different regional traditions.

> After reading enough old
> cookbooks, it seems to me that some things have disappeared from
> cuisines, while new things have become popular. I don't think it can
> be assumed that if something was important in the Roman Empire it
> would necessarily survive virtually unchanged for 1500 years. Maybe
> it did, but it seems to me highly likely that time did not stand
> still even in isolated Italian country villages.

Ya think? ;  )  As I said, the toga, real Latin, and a dislike for
Certain North African Empires comes to mind as social factors that have
simply become extinct. I'm sure there are other culinary examples that
come to mind: certain of the wine preparations, for example, the habit
of boiling and pureeing vegetables only to thicken them again into
custards, probably the extensive use of pennyroyal. I'm sure there are others.

> However, i like anchovies on my pizza and in my Caesar salad (yeah, i
> know, not Italian).

Mexican or Italian descent, however.

> And i have no objection to anchovy paste. So if
> anchovy paste is like liquamen/garum, i can live with that.
>
> So, Master Adamantius, since you've tasted a liquamen made the old
> Roman way, how different is it from fish sauce? How different from
> liquified anchovy paste? Would a blend of the two in any way
> approximate it, or would that be far too different?

Real garum seems to taste pretty close to anchovy paste, but the color
and texture aren't even close, and the aroma of either is actually
rather mild compared to what you might expect. I guess it would depend
on your use. What I tasted was a clear yellowish-to-amber liquid, with a
body or "mouth feel" like ale; it's as if it had a high enough specific
gravity you could taste it -- it's a bit heavier than the SE Asian fish
sauces I'm familiar with. A slight oiliness, but not much -- I assume
this is natural fish oil. Garum was always thought to be an extremely
healthy food product, provided you're not a tunny or a mackerel... . It
definitely tasted of anchovies, and then so did the nam pla that was
placed alongside it for comparison, but they weren't the same. I think
perhaps the trace of oil was missing from the nam pla. Maybe if one were
to blenderize a can of anchovies in oil in nam pla or another
non-vinegar-based fish sauce, then let the solids settle out, that'd be
a closer approximation. I'm also a bit surprised that some of the
"quick" boiled versions haven't been experimented with more. I think
it's what Flower and Rosenbaum used for their various trials of Roman
recipes.

Adamantius

Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 20:39:53 -0600
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Lady Seaton's Project

At 12:22 PM -0500 3/18/00, Elaine Koogler wrote:
>One other pitfall is the fact that recipes, particularly in Apicius 
>and Platina,
>as well as other sources, call for liquamen or "garum".  As this is a type of
>fish sauce, it cannot be consumed by vegetarians.

So far as I know, Apicius is the only period cookbook that calls for 
this ingredient. Platina, at least the translation Mallinkdrodt 
published (I haven't checked the new translation), refers to liquamen 
but describes it in a way that makes it clear it is an entirely 
different ingredient--not fish sauce but (I think) pork fat, or 
something similar. And Apicius, while "period" in the literal sense, 
is dubiously appropriate to SCA feasts, given how early it is.

Do you know of any post-roman cookbooks that use garum?

David Friedman
ddfr at best.com
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/

Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 09:10:07 EST
From: ChannonM at aol.com
Subject: SC - Re: garum in Anthimus

<< Do you know of any post-roman cookbooks that use garum? >>

In Mark Grant's On the Observance of Foods, a 6th Century letter to the King 
of the Franks, fish sauce is metioned, sometimes Anthimus discourages it's use, sometimes encouraging it. However, I do not have the original latin in order to verify whether the word is garum or fish sauce per se. Thomas, any thoughts?

Hauviette

Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 21:56:54 +0100
From: Thomas Gloning <gloning at Mailer.Uni-Marburg.DE>
Subject: SC - garum in Anthimus & Capitulare de villis

<<... whether the word is garum or fish sauce per se >>

In one place (Anthimus #9 De porco domestico), the word is _liquamen_, a
younger word, according to Andre in use since the 1st century, meaning
the same as _garum_: "nam _liquamen_ ex omni parte prohibimus", 'we
forbid the use of liquamen [in preparing porcus domesticus] totally'. 
The second place, already mentioned by Adamantius too, is recipe #34
with something like _egrogarium_, according to Karl Mras a late Latin
form of "hygrogarium", 'garum with water'.

More important seems a passage in the Capitulare de Villis (about 800),
where is stated that garum (and other stuff) must be produced
_carefully_, _diligently_:

"34. Omnino praevivendum est cum omni diligentia, ut quicquid manibus
laboraverint aut fecerint, id est lardum, siccamen, sulcia, niusaltus,
vinum, acetum, moratum, vinum, coctum, GARUM, sinape, formaticum,
butirum, bracios, cervisas, medum, mel, ceram, farinam, omnia cum summo
nitore sint facta vel parata". (Source: Boretius, A., ed., Capitularia
regum francorum, Tomus primus, Hannoverae 1883, p. 86).

Thomas

Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 11:53:28 EDT
From: DianaFiona at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Liquamen question

mermayde at juno.com writes:
<< In a pan greased with butter or liquamen, 
 
 In reading this line from the Armored Turnips recipe, I have to wonder
 about the greasy quality of liquamen.  I was not given to understand that
 it was an oily sauce, more of a dark brown fermented fish sauce.  Is
 there sufficient oil in liquamen to make a grease substitute, or is the
 reference talking about either greasing the pan or coating it with
 liquamen?
 Christianna
 pondering the finer points of rotted fish >>

    I'm sure others will fill in if my memory is faulty here, but from prior 
discussions of this I think I recall that we are dealing with a change in 
definition over the years. Apicius did indeed mean a fish sauce when he used 
the term "liquamen", but by the time we get to Platina, the term had come to 
mean "fat", probably lard or similar animal fats. So, with that knowledge the 
usage makes perfect sense! ;-) It's just confusing when you read the word in 
various different manuscripts separated by the centuries..........

                    Ldy Diana

Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 11:23:53 -0400
From: Gaylin <iasmin at home.com>
Subject: SC - Garum and Piscinae

So this book I've picked up because of my addiction. To books,
that is. Found it on remainder and just *had* to buy it. You
know how you get that feeling sometimes? The one that says
"I know this is absolutely necessary, but I don't know why"?
That's why I bought it. Here's the book:

    Higginbotham, James. (1997). Piscinae: Artificial Fishponds
    in Roman Italy. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North
    Carolina Press. ISBN: 0-8078-2329-5 [Ed. Note: I got this
    on remainder from Edward R. Hamilton Booksellers for about
    14$US. You might be able to find it cheaper elsewhere.]

As I was reading along this morning, I discovered something that
people here might find interesting about garum production,
including some references that I don't believe anyone has
mentioned before. This is going to be a long one, so stay with
me and accept my forgiveness for the cross-posting.

In the introduction, while discussing the modern scholarship
done on ancient piscinae (fishponds) Higginbottom writes:

    "Since Jacono [Ed.: Luigi Jacono's study on Naples seaside ruins
    of piscinae], the study of Roman pisciculture has progressed
    along several paths. The ancient fishing industry, involving the
    manufacture and trade of processed fish products such as garum,
    has received the lion's share of attention (5). These studies
    have focused on tanks and complexes in Spain, southern France,
    and North Africa. Though garum production certainly took place
    in Italy, the bulk of this trade emanated from the western
    provinces (6)". [page 2]

Here are the footnotes associated with the text, in which I've
separated out each reference to make it easier to read. I think
many of you will find these interesting:

    (5) M. Ponsich and M. Tarradell, _Garum et industries antiques
    de salaison dans la MÈditerranÈe occidentale_ (Pariis 1965);

    O. Da Veiga Ferreira, "Algunas consideracoes sobre as fabricas
    de conservas de peixed antiquidade encontradas em Portugal, "
    _Archivo de Beja_ 23-24 (1966-67) 123-34;

    R. Sanquer and P. Galliou, "Garum, sel et salaisons en Armorique
    gallo-romaine," _Gallia_ 30 (1972) 199-223;

    R.I. Curtis, _Garum and Salsamenta: Production and Commerce in
    Materia Medica_ (Leiden 1991);

    J. C. Edmondson, _Two Industries in Roman Lusitania: Mining and
    Garum Production, BAR International Series, 362 (Oxford 1987);

    M. Ponsich, _Asceite de oliva y salazones de pescado: Factores
    geo-econÛmicos de BÈtica y Tingitania_ (Madrid 1988).

    (6) For evidence of Italian production, see R. I. Curtis, "A.
    Umbricius Scaurus of Pompeii, " in _Studia Pompeiana et
    Classica in Honor of Wilhelmina F. Jashemski 1_ (New Rochelle,
    N.Y. 1988) 19-49, and _Garum and Salsameta_ (ibid.) 85-96.
    Fish sauce production is hypothesized at Cosa on the basis of rather
    tenuous evidence; see A. M. McCann, J. Bourgeois, E. K. Gazda, J. P.
    Oleson, and E. L. Will, _The Roman Port and Fishery of Cosa_
    (Princeton 1987) 340-41.

In his chapter on "Fishponds as Emblems of Social Status", the author
also writes:

    There was, however, great profit in the production of preserved
    fish and processed fish products. According to the literary record,
    several sites in Italy were known for the production of garum,
    liquamen, allec, muria, and other processed fish products. (6)

And again the footnote:

    (6) _RE_ 8 (1912) 841-49, s.v. Garum (R. Zahn):

    P. Grimal and T. Monod, "Sur le vÈritable nature du 'garum,'"
    _REA_ 54 (1952) 27-38;

    C. Jardin "Garum et sauces de poisson de l'antiguitÈ,"  _RStlig 27
    (1961) 70-96;

    T. H. Corcoran, "Roman Fish Sauces," _CJ_ 58 (1963) 204-10;

    R.I. Curtis, "In Defense of Garum," CJ 78 (1983) 232-40;

    R.I. Curtis, "Salted Fish Products in Ancient Medicine," _Journal
    of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences_ 39 (1984) 430-35;

    R.I. Curtis, _Garum and Salsamenta: Production and Commerce in
    Materia Medica_ (Leiden 1991).

The abbreviations of note: RStLig is "Rivista di studi liguri"; CJ is
"Classical Journal"; and RE is A. Pauly and G. Wissowa's "Real-
Encyclop‰die de klassishen Altertumswissenschaft".

My apologies for the bandwidth, again, but I'm certain at least someone
will find some use in these references considering the debate that
regularly occurs about acceptable substitutes for garum and liquamen
in the recipes we research. If you need copies of this information from
the book itself, let me know and we'll work something out.

Jasmine
Iasmin "Yes, I'm Addicted" de Cordoba, iasmin at home.com
AOL AIM: IasminDeCordoba

PS: Typos are most likely my own, especially on the non-English
articles. Also, apologies to those of you who get a little garbage in the
message from the accents and umlauts.

Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 08:00:15 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - fish (OP)

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Thanks, folks. Before hearing the descriptions and comments on 'fish
> sauce' here, I doubt I would have considered this dish. I also have a
> bottle or two of fish sauce here at home that I bought when exploring
> some of the Asian groceries here in town.

What kind of fish sauce did you buy? Nam pla, nuoc mam, patis, what? I
think nuoc mam is the mildest, and I've found that patis is about the
closest to the garum I tasted at the A&S event we did a while back, but
it is quite... aromatic, when heated You might want to cook with it when
your lady wife is out ;  ) . When I used patis in an Anthimus recipe
workshop, I turned my back for a minute and some bounder let off some
kind of fish-packed stink bomb on site. It was enough to put one off
one's patis.  

Adamantius

Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 00:07:13 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] RE: -cran wine/vinegar...

XvLoverCrimvX at aol.com wrote:
> Anyone know what kind of yeast you put in wine to ferment it. And if you
> ferment garum or liquamen, does it have a alcoholic tendency or do you put in
> a certain kind of yeast for that?
>
> Misha

The fermentation in fish sauce is lactobacillic, accomplished by
bacteria more akin to acidophilus than to yeasts. The fermentation is
secondary, though, to the enzymes from the fish entrails digesting the
fish guts and flesh. Ever eat a shrimp that had a sort of nasty, pasty,
creamy texture? Same principle. When shrimp are stored for too long at
the wrong temperature, the enzymes in their digestive tracts begin to
break down the flesh.

In the case of Roman and most Asian fish sauces, the presence of large
amounts of salt actually prevents much of the fermentation that would
otherwise occur.

There is no alcohol production worth speaking of, because there is no
yeast activity worth speaking of, and presumably precious little sugar, either.

Fish sauce isn't actively cultured/pitched/innoculated at all, although
it's possible that the wooden vats involved may have absorbed some
souring lactobacilli which go dormant between uses, as with certain
cheeses (most, actually), ales, etc.

I will try, eventually, to get to posting the recipes from the
Geoponica, for the "fermented" and the quick or boiled versions of
garum. I would think the fact that a quick, boiled version exists for
immediate use would preclude much in the way of souring in the
"fermented" product, assuming they are supposed to be interchangable as
far as usage goes. I mean, artificial vanilla, for example, should not
taste like chocolate or there'd be no point. It should taste, at least
to some recognizable extent, like vanilla. [And the first person who
tells me vanillin is an aromatic and not a flavoring gets a smack for
wasting everybody's time nitpicking. Kok ni ga haw!] My point is that if
an unfermented version could, in theory, pass for the fermented stuff,
the fermented stuff probably wasn't very fermented.

"Fermented", though, is a bit of a sore point for me; people simply
refuse to abandon use of the term in connection with things like fish
sauce, various preserved duck eggs, etc., because they want, deep down,
to misrepresent foods as more grotesque than they actually are.

Adamantius

From: "Amanda Poirier" <griet at rogers.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Two batches of Garum (for anyone here who knows)
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 13:02:34 GMT

"Robert Uhl" <ruhl at 4dv.net> wrote
> "JE Anderson" <eirika at shaw.ca> writes:
> > May I ask for the recipe and where you found it?  This is something I
> > would love to try making myself.
>
> ISTR that the Florilegium has a recipe.  It goes something like: get a
> cask; line the bottom with salt, then alternate layers of fish and salt
> until the cask is full, finishing with a layer of salt; set aside for a
> long while; when the cask is full of liquid and has cast a sediment, the
> garum is ready.  The garum is the liquid; the sediment has, to my
> knowledge, no use other than as fertiliser.
>
> Food preservation is _cool_.  The Lord's Salt preserved roast beef for
> six weeks (one week of which was in 100+ temperatures in Missouri), and
> prob. would have longer, had I not finished it off.  Right now I've
> pickled lemons & limes in my pantry, and I've onions & garlics pickling
> as well.  And I cannot wait to try the meat pies which last at least a
> fortnight.  Keeping meat, unrefrigerated, on one's counter for weeks is
> coolness itself.
>
> I am _perhaps_ just a bit of a geek on the subject:-)
> --
> Robert Uhl <ruhl at 4dv.net>

<G>
Basically what I am doing is just that, however not haveing much sun over
here, I have been using low oven temperature on and off with the oven light
as a sun source to help "ferment" the fish. The fish I used for my first
batch was a mixture of just about everything I could find... the second
batch was just Mackerel, sardines and anchovies (mostly mackerel).

Notes:
it did not juice up well until I made sure to get some really nice bloody
fish to the "stew" (that's what it looked like after a while) though I
avoided guts you will need blood to help it along.

You should use sea salt, I've tried both coarse and regular (both with no
additives) and they did not seem to make a difference in the end.

Do not be tempted to water the stuff down for more liquid... it will be
weaker fo course, but will not keep long at all. I used a bit of water to
soak the salt residue off of a pan... let it sit for about two days and it
smelled terrible and quickly developed a scum. This also shows how a high
salt level in the liquid is necessary, this liquid had quite a bit of salt
yet it went bad fairly quickly. When I salted my fish for the garum, I added
enough salt to cover the surface of the fish in each layer... after the
liquid started however I did stir it occasionally and checked for non salty
spots though few and far between.

Hope it helps!

Griet

MMm preserved lemons... did you salt them or use some other method?

Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 16:59:46 +0200
From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] ancient Roman cookery
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Am Donnerstag, 29. September 2005 15:52 schrieb Aurelia Coritana:
> I decided it really was about time for me to officially speak up on  
> this list! I am Aurelia Coritana in Ansteorra, a 1st c. Roman-Brit.
>
> My culinary interests are ancient Roman recipes (with fresh ingredients, of
> course, har har.) Does anyone else out there experiment with ancient
> cookery? If you've ever made anything with garum, I'd love to hear  
> from you.
>
> Aurelia

Me, I did. Regularly do. Not that being 'pre-period' is regarded highly in
central Drachenwald, but my secondary persona, Titus Flavius T.f. Artemidorus
is something of a gourmet.

I find that garum is a matter of quality and quantity. If you are using
Philippine 'bagoong balayam' as your substitute (barely filtered stuff,
grey-brown and opaque, quite nasty) it goes only with savoury fish or meat
dishes, and even then it usually 'tastes through' more delicate flavours. I
only use it in dishes with plenty of onions and/or garlic. A good (filtered,
liquid, brownish-red) Nuoc Mam or Nam Pla, on the other hand, harmonises with
almost any dish. I used a dash of it instead of the obligatory pinch of salt
with a honeyed pear patina, and eveybody praised it highly (unawares. Nobody
ever eats anything they know contains garum...)

Have you ever managed to get a Roman feast served? They're dead  
against it in my Shire.

Giano

Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 14:51:37 +0000
From: ekoogler1 at comcast.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] ancient Roman cookery
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I have done some Roman recipes from Cato and Apicius...and in a  
couple I used what i believe is a garum/liquamen equivalent...Nam  
Pla, or fish sauce, from Viet Nam, etc.  The descriptions I have read  
regarding garum seem to fit what nam pla is, so that's why I chose to  
use it.  I just haven't the "stomach" or whatever to try to make my  
own.  The dishes I used it in were mostly vegetable dishes...and the  
flavor of the fish sauce seemed to enhance the veggies' flavor.   
Otherwise it was so innocuous that I forgot on once occasion that I  
had used it and was taken to task (kindly, I might add) for  
representing it as a vegetarian dish!

Kiri

Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 11:49:25 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
	<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] ancient Roman cookery
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On Sep 29, 2005, at 10:51 AM, ekoogler1 at comcast.net wrote:
> I have done some Roman recipes from Cato and Apicius...and in a
> couple I used what i believe is a garum/liquamen equivalent...Nam
> Pla, or fish sauce, from Viet Nam, etc.  The descriptions I have
> read regarding garum seem to fit what nam pla is, so that's why I
> chose to use it.  I just haven't the "stomach" or whatever to try
> to make my own.  The dishes I used it in were mostly vegetable
> dishes...and the flavor of the fish sauce seemed to enhance the
> veggies' flavor.  Otherwise it was so innocuous that I forgot on
> once occasion that I had used it and was taken to task (kindly, I
> might add) for representing it as a vegetarian dish!
>
> Kiri

I like the Philippino "patis" fish sauce, myself, as it's more of a
salty, fishy richness, without either vinegar or that lactic-acid
tang (that the added vinegar is an attempt to reproduce, when it is
there) that some other SE Asian fish sauces have. I figure that the
quick, faux garum mentioned, I think, somewhere in the Geoponica, is
a boiled and strained fish, salt, and seasonings, and is mentioned as
being ready for immediate use, so I get the sense that no lactic
sourness would be achieved. And if it's not in the imitation, my
suspicion is that it is likely not in the original, either, or there
would surely be some quick way of approximating it, if that aspect
were desired.

I've used it in several dishes, both Apician and from Anthimus (and I
sneak it into curries a lot, too). My experience has been that it
reeks to high heaven for a few minutes after you add it to a hot pan,
but mellows considerably as it cooks. Used raw or cold, the smell is
not overpowering.

Adamantius

Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2007 19:55:43 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Garum was  To 10 pantry items
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I've doing a little housecleaning and a xerox copy of "Garum and Salsamenta"
has popped to the surface.  If anyone is serious about learning about garum,
I recommend reading it.  Curtis, Robert I., Garum and Salsamenta; E.J.
Brill, Leiden, 1991.

Bear

Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2007 21:51:12 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Garum was  To 10 pantry items
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On Aug 5, 2007, at 8:55 PM, Terry Decker wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ian Kusz" <sprucebranch at gmail.com>
>
>> huh....and no one included that roman fish sauce....:))))
>> (garum?  liquamen? whatever.)
>>
>> Of course, everyone I've heard mention it has said it's
>> concentrated evil, but, well.......
>
> And how do they know it's concentrated evil?  I don't think I've ever met
> anyone who has made garum, much less eaten it.  Modern fish sauces, yes.
> Garum no.

I recall being specifically sought out by a friend of mine who had a
friend who had made the quick-boiled "fake" liquamen, and found it so
entirely inoffensive in nature that he then went and did the actual
fish-entrails (or maybe it was whole, small fish) in a vat in the
August sun, to see of there was any serious difference between the two.

Interestingly enough, there wasn't. Both tasted like an ever-so-
slightly oregano-flavored Filipino patis: a clear (light amber),
thin, strong, very salty fish-broth with a slight oily sheen to its
surface.

I know there are some Asian fish sauces that are lacto-fermented, and
some that are made with anchovies and vinegar, but this didn't
resemble them very much.

Adamantius

Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 08:04:44 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] pantry - garum
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> Garum is being reproduced in Spain
> today. If I recall correctly it comes from Barcelona. I don't know how
> close is it is to what the 13th C Anon cookbook calls for. It tastes like
> bad anchovies to me.
> Terry continues:
> "There is also the fact that garum probably wouldn't be available to most
> medieval pantries as it became generally unavailable in the 5th and 6th
> Centuries. . ."
> No my understanding is that we continued our factories in Spain long after
> that. Perhaps you can inform me better but I have garum references up
> through the 18th C.
> Suey

Please note, I said, "generally unavailable."  Fish sauces have never
completely gone away around the Mediterranean but the use has been limited
and localized.  The commercial trade in garum collapsed approximately with
the end of the Western Empire making garum unavailable to much of Europe.
Thus it would likely not be found normally in a medieval pantry.

After the 6th Century, references to garum need to be carefully considered
as some of these references are copied from earlier sources.  On the
otherhand, the commercial garum industry in Spain has at least a six century
history under the Roman Empire and a later Spanish source might be
contemporary with actual production of garum.

Bear

Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 08:14:39 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] pantry - garum
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> Suey wrote:
>> Garum is being reproduced in Spain today. If I recall correctly it comes
>> from Barcelona. I don't know how close is it is to what the 13th C Anon
>> cookbook calls for. It tastes like bad anchovies to me.
>
> 13th c. Anon?
> --
> Adele de Maisieres

13th C. Anonymous Andalusian cookbook, AKA Kitab al-tabikh fi al-Maghrib
wal-Andalus .

You can find the webbed version of the Charles Perry translation of the
translation by Miranda on David Friedman's site here:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/ 
andalusian_contents.htm

Bear

Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 17:33:14 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] pantry - garum
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

>> 13th C. Anonymous Andalusian cookbook, AKA Kitab al-tabikh fi al- 
>> Maghrib wal-Andalus .
>
> Ah. Yes.  That's what I thought.  It's been a while since I read  
> it, but I don't recall that it mentions garum at all.
>
> Adele de Maisieres

There are references to "fish murri" in the Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook,
but I don't think there is a recipe available.  Fish murri is often
considered to be garum or liquamen by assuming that it is a fermented fish
sauce as murri is a fermented barley sauce.  While this may be a reasonable
assumption, there is, to my knowledge, no solid evidence to incontrovertably
support the idea.

I don't remember seeing references to fish murri outside of the Anonymous
Andalusian Cookbook, which may mean that the Andalusian Arabs took Spanish
garum into their cooking.  I will add that my knowledge of Arab cuisine is
limited, so someone else may have better information.

Howsa dat for hedging the bet.

Bear

Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 19:52:16 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Murri and muria was pantry - garum
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Here's a question for you:  What is the etymology of the word "murri?"  We
have recipes for murri and Byzantine murri.  We have references to murri
naqi and fish murri.  But do we have any idea from where the word  
derives?

Now, let me do some pure speculation.

According to Curtis, Roman fish sauces come in four forms; garum, allec,
liquamen and muria.  Garum is the liquid decanted from a couple of months of
salted, fermenting fish.  Allec is the residue left after the garum is
removed.  Liquamen seems to be a suace leeched from fermenting fish
(apparently similar to modern fish sauces like Worchestershire).  And muria
is a somewhat broadly defined term to refer to salt solutions extracted from
or used to preserve meats, fruits and vegetables.  All of these sauces were
used and made around the entire Mediterranean, up into the Black Sea  
and far south down the Nile.

I think it is highly possible that "murri" is an Arabic form of the Roman
(of Greek origin) "muria" brought into Arabic well before the Islamic
expansion.  That being said, I haven't seen any evidence to tie the two to
each other.  I also can't think of a way to prove or disprove my theory.
Anyone got any ideas?

Bear

> Terry Decker wrote:
>
>> There are references to "fish murri" in the Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook,
>> but I don't think there is a recipe available.  Fish murri is often
>> considered to be garum or liquamen by assuming that it is a fermented fish
>> sauce as murri is a fermented barley sauce.  While this may be a reasonable
>> assumption, there is, to my knowledge, no solid evidence to
>> incontrovertably support the idea.
>
> Cripes, I _had_ to look it up.  I could only find one reference to  
> "fish murri".
> -- 
> Adele de Maisieres

Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2007 01:02:11 -0400
From: Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] pantry - garum
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

Terry Decker wrote:
> There are references to "fish murri" in the Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook,
> but I don't think there is a recipe available.  Fish murri is often
> considered to be garum or liquamen by assuming that it is a fermented fish
> sauce as murri is a fermented barley sauce.

That is correct.

As per Carlos Azcoytia in his article "History and Mythical Evolution of
Garum" http://www.historiacocina.com/historia/articulos/garum.htm
garum was consumed in Spain until the middle of the 15th Century at
least. Abu Bakr Abd al Aziz Arbulo wrote a treaty in Almeria titled
"Murri al hut" between 1414 and 1425.

Azcoytia has found that is was consumed in a region called Bitinia,
today in Turkey until 1917 at least.

He says that he does not believe that what is sold today as "garum" is
like the original product. He explains that it was very costly as the
process is so complicated that only the affluent could afford it.
Further, Azcoytia points out that original recipes would be practically
impossible to make garum today for the requirements of fermentation,
ventilation and the hours that the mixture must be exposed to the sun.
Finally he notes that probably we wouldn't like it.

Antonio Gazquez refutes this in his article 'Garum: the sauce of Roman
Empire' saying that it is still being made in a town formally called
Baelo Claudia (Bolonia today) near Tarifa in the province of Cadiz,
Spain: http://www.afuegolento.com/noticias/80/firmas/agazquez/3073/ That
must be sold locally as I cannot find it for sale on internet.

My references continue up to the end of the 18th C. Then bread garums
were made in the shape of a tablet. Grain based garums continue to be
made. These are the result of the 13 C Afro-Andalusian creation of
innumerable wheat based mixtures which today are called by the Swiss:
Cenovis, the English: Marmite or the Spanish: /Bovil/ and bouillons or
bullion cubes (which originated from recycling fermented brewer?s
yeast). Translators of Arab manuscripts, however, currently advise the
use of nuoc-man,/ /soy sauce or Worchestershire sauce to substitute fish
garum in medieval recipes.

I have checked with el Corte Ingles a major supermarket chain in Spain
to see if I can buy garum but apparently what I tried was only sold as a
promotion on Leonese food a few years ago when a friend found it and 
made me try it (sorry not Barcelona as I previously stated)! Their garum
basically is a black olive and anchovy spread also sold in other regions
of Spain today.

By the way garum originated in Greece. The word comes from garos, a fish
that was extinct before the Romans made conquests in Iberia. After garum
spread to Italy, the Romans established major garum factories in Spain
between Cartagena and Huelva. In Spain it was made with tuna and other
fish (and their entrails) found in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
They did begin to die out with the fall of the Roman Empire but not
entirely as seen above.

Suey

Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 15:57:19 +0200 (CEST)
From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>
Subject: [Sca-cooks]  Garum
To: sca-cooks <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Garum was mentioned in one of the first Time Life
> cookbooks, the one on Italy.  I think it even had
> instructions on how to make.  The same book also
> had a ricotta cheese cake, claimed to be a very
> early Italian recipe.

Do you by any chance recall where the recipe was from?
There are garum-.like sauces still made today, but the
only historical recipe I know is from the Geoponica.

The ricotta cake could well have been Cato's
'placenta'. If it was - it's well worth making.

Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 18:59:43 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Garum
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

There are descriptions of the process for making garum in Manilius'
Astronomica, and texts attributed to Gargilius Martialis (3rd Century) and
Rufus Festus (4th Century).  The latter two texts may actually be medieval
texts attributed to the authors rather than written by them.

Bear

----- Original Message -----
From: "Volker Bach" <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>

Do you by any chance recall where the recipe was from?
There are garum-.like sauces still made today, but the
only historical recipe I know is from the Geoponica.

Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 00:40:33 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] pantry - garum
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

In Latin usage (as far as I can determine), garum is a specific item, a fish
sauce.  That means a grain-based sauce is not a garum.  The grain-based
sauce would fall under the more general term of muria.  If the term garum is
being used to refer to a grain-based sauce in 18th
Century Spain, then it is not a Roman sauce, but a Spanish sauce.

While garum might be for the affluent, I'm of the opinion that there were
varying grades with the high end made from tuna and mackeral and a low end
from catfish and carp with the high end garum being infused with spices and
wine to make it even finer and more costly.  Spain alone had at least
39 commercial fish salting operations (which includes garum manufacture) and
about another hundred scattered from northern Europe and around the western
Mediterranean.  About another hundred were located in the eastern
Mediterranean, Black Sea and along the Nile.

Seneca (1st Century) commented on the costliness of garum.  Pliny (1st
Century) commented that two congrii (approx. 1.5 gal.) sold for 1000
sesterces (or about 6000 sesterces per amphora).  A tariff schedule from the
early 3rd Century places a tariff of 1 sestertius on an amphora, which if
the tariff rate for Spanish wine at 2.5% reported by Columella holds true,
means that a six gallon amphora would sell for about 40 sesterces.  In the
early 4th Century, Diocletian set the price of liquamen primus at 16 denarii
and liquamen secundus at 12 denarii per sextus (roughly a pint).  If I've
done the calculations correctly, this would make an amphora of the best fish
sauce worth 4608 sesterces.  According to one source, the price set by
Diolcetian is roughly equivalent to that on must and honey, suggesting it
should be within the range of the average Roman.

It is my understanding that the "garos" or "garus," from which garum was
originally made, is not identifiable from the ancient texts, thus
determining whether or not it has gone extinct would be impossible.

And if you want to bring Barcelona into the mix, try Ausonius's Epistles
(4th Century Bordeaux) where he thanks a student for "some Barcelona  
sauce called muria" and goes on to comment on garum.

Bear

Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 05:23:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Interesting Garum article in the latest Petits
	Propos	Culinaires
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Issure 83 of PPC just arrived in my mailbox!  Yippee!!!

Starting on page 93 there is an interesting article by Sally  
Grainger, called "A New Approach to Roman Fish Sauce".  How apropos to our current discussion of garum!

Also in this issue are articles by Francois Soyer, "Dining at King's  
College in the Fifteenth Century" and by Constance B. Hieatt and Brenda M. Hosington, "Recipes for 'Turnsole' in Sloane MS 122."

Huette

Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:38:16 -0500
From: "Elise Fleming" <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Interesting Garum article in the latest
	Petits Propos Culinaires
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Suey asks:
> I do not receive this magazine and the article does not seem to be
> online yet but I would be very interested to know if she defines the
> differences between garum, liguamen and murri there or in her book which
> I am also lacking as well a international library loan at this time.
> From what I see of her work she is quite particular in saying they are
> not the same but am becoming confused between these terms and the
> definitions I have.

She expresses the same confusion and indicates that there was confusion in
period as well.  She mentions some differences in certain texts where blood
products are called by one word and the fish which have been liquified from
the inside out as another word.  It also appears that some forms were used
in the kitchen while others were mixed at the table.  Since the article is
a number of pages long, it's too difficult to summarize, and there is no
one clear definition for any of the sauces.  You might consider purchasing
this issue from the publisher.  I don't think the journal has ever been
online.

Alys Katharine

Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:52:25 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Geoponica garum recipe was Re:  Garum and
	cheesecak
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> What is this "Geoponica"? Do you have a copy of this historical garum
> recipe?
>
> Stefan

Geoponica is a 10th Century Greek agricultural manual which may  
derive from a 6th Century Latin text.

A translation of Geoponica 20.46:1-6 can be found in Curtis, Robert I.,
Garum and Salsamenta; E.J. Brill, 1991, pg 12-13.  To quote the text:

"1.  The so-called liquamen is made in this manner:  the intestines of fish
are thrown into a vessel and salted.  Small fish, either the best smelt, or
small mullets, or sprats, or wolffish, or whatever is deemed to be small,
are all salted together and, shaken frequently, are fermented in the sun.

2.  After it has been reduced in the heat, garum is obtained from it in this
way:  a large, strong basket is placed into the vessel of the aforementioned
fish, and the garum streams into the basket.  In this way, the so-called
liquamen is strained through the basket when it is taken up.  The remaining
refuse is alex.

3.  The Bythinians prepare it in this manner:  it is best if you take small
or large sprats, but if not, wolffish, or horse-mackeral, or mackeral, or
even alica, and a mixture of all, and throw these into a baker's kneading
trough, in which they are accustomed to knead meal.  Tossing into the modius
of fish two Italian sextarii of salt, mix up thoroughly in order to
strengthen it with salt.  After leaving it alone for one night throw it into
a vessel and palce it without a lid in the sun for two or three months,
agitating it with a shaft at intervals. Next take it, cover it, and  
store it away.

4.  Some add to one sextarius of fish, two sextarii of old wine.

5.  Next, if you wish to use the garum immediately, that is to say not
ferment it in the sun, but to boil it, you do it this way.  When the brine
has been tested, so that an egg having been thrown in floats (if it sinks,
it is not sufficiently salty), and throwing the fish into the brine in a
newly-made earthenware pot and adding in some oregano, you place it on a
sufficient fire until it is boiled, that is until it begins to reduce a
little.  Some throw in boiled down must.  Next, throwing the cooled liquid
into a filter you toss it a second and third time through the filter until
it turns out clear.  After having covered it, store it away.

6.  The best garum, the so-called haimation, is made in this way:  the
intestines of tunny along with the gills, juice and blood are taken and
sufficient salt is sprinkled on.  After having left it alone in the vessel
for two month at most, pierce the vessel and the garum, called haimation, is
withdrawn."

Three other texts (which I don't have available) describe the process of
preparing garum; (Marcus?) Manilius's Astronomica and texts attributed to
Gargilius Martialis and Rufus Festus.  Curtis warns that Martialis may
contain medieval intrusions and that the recipe attributed to Festus is
obviously of medieval date.

Bear

Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 19:10:36 -0400
From: "Elaine Koogler" <kiridono at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Could this actually be Garum?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Sounds like it...though I suspect that the Vietnamese fish sauce is a good
substitute as well...and it's a whole lot cheaper and more easily acquired!

Kiri

On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 7:07 PM, Barbara Benson <voxeight at gmail.com> wrote:
<<< I found this while browsing:

http://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=P-COL

Thoughts?
--
Serena da Riva >>>

Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 22:53:13 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Could this actually be Garum?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

<<< I found this while browsing:

http://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=P-COL

Thoughts?
--
Serena da Riva >>>

"...all salted fish were included under the word salsamenta.

Manufacturers did not waste any part of the fish, but used everything, such 
as the tail, stomach, neck or head.  The innards, gills, and any other parts 
normally considered refuse also had a use; these were made into fish sauce. 
The Romans produced four different sauces:  garum, liquamen, allec and 
muria.  Garum was the primary product, while allec (Pl 1b), the sediment 
created in making garum, was of secondary importance.  The Roman penchant 
for using the terms liquamen and muria imprecisely renders illusive a firm 
understanding of these products.  The former term, which probably designated 
a sauce distinct from garum, acquired before the fifth century A.D. almost 
generic value for any fish sauce, while the latter was a word sometimes used 
to mean garum and at other times to signify the liquid used in making garum 
or in packing salted fish products in vessels for transport."

Curtis, Robert I., Garum and Salsamenta, production and commerce in materia 
medica; E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, 1991, pg. 7.

"The appearance of ancient sauces is unknown, although the carmelized 
residue of what was probably garum has been found in a Roman saltery at 
Plomarc'h in Western Gaul and the bones of small fish found in the dolia in 
Pompeii may be the dessicative remains of allec (PL 1b).  From this and from 
numerous epigraphical and literary references one can postulate that ancient 
garum was a clear liquid; allec, the residue, was no doubt a mushy 
paste-like substance containing fish bones and other undissolved fish 
material.  Exactly what liquamen was remains unclear.  When viewed as a 
product distinct from garum, its appearance most likely resembled that of 
garum, but as a liquid it was probably weaker in salinity and color.  Muria, 
the solution resulting from salting fish, was probably similar to that of 
liquamen."

Curtis, Robert I., Garum and Salsamenta, production and commerce in materia 
medica; E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, 1991, pg. 14.

From these comments, I would say that the product they are calling garum, 
made from brining anchovies is definitely muria and possibly liquamen, but 
probably not true Roman garum.

Bear

Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:39:48 -0400
From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Could this actually be Garum?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

<<< I found this while browsing:

http://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=P-COL

Thoughts? >>>

The product is labeled "Garum Colatura Oil", in other words its not pure garum, but mixed with oil.  "One bottle is enough to season over a dozen dishes of pasta or vegetables."  A bottle of garum would go much farther than that, I think.  Which makes the $20 a bottle, even more of a rip off.

Ranvaig

Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:35:27 -0400
From: Sandra Kisner <sjk3 at cornell.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Garum and Pompeii's Destruction
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

<<< Found this on the internet:  "Sept. 29, 2008 -- Remains of rotten fish
entrails have helped establish the precise dating of Pompeii's destruction,
according to Italian researchers who have analyzed the town's last batch of
garum, a pungent, fish-based seasoning."  You can read the article at:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/29/pompeii-fish-sauce.html .  There's
a description of making garum in the article as well.

Alys Katharine >>>

There's also a link 
<http://www.italiancookingandliving.com/food/pf_text/ac_garum.html> to an 
article on another website that actually seems to know what garum is, 
instead of wondering why people would eat smelly rotten fish guts.

Sandra 

Date: Sun, 3 May 2015 17:16:40 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] "What Did the Romans Eat?"

<<< Anybody know how accurate this is?  It does mention garum (et al), and while 
not *too* disparaging (it says they are nutritious), it does refer to allec 
as "sludge."

http://madefrom.com/history/antiquity/roman-diet/

Sandra >>>

Accurate enough as far as it goes.  More problematic to me is the use of 
"corn" apparently as a specific grain (maize, presumably, although in this 
context it could be the general being attached to the most common specific, 
either barley or emmer).

According to Curtis (Curtis, Robert I., Garum and Salsamenta; E.J.Brill, 
Leiden, 1991.), Roman fish sauces come in four forms; garum, allec, liquamen 
and muria.  Garum is the liquid decanted from a couple of months of salted, 
fermenting fish.  Allec is the residue left after the garum is removed. 
Liquamen seems to be a sauce leeched from fermenting fish (apparently 
similar to modern fish sauces like Worchestershire).  And muria is a 
somewhat broadly defined term to refer to salt solutions extracted from or 
used to preserve meats, fruits and vegetables.  All of these sauces were 
used and made around the entire Mediterranean, up into the Black Sea and far 
south down the Nile.

Bear

Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2015 18:50:54 -0400
From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Salting watermelons

chefchristy at kingstaste.com writes:
<<< Fish sauce on melons is delicious.  I serve a cheater-version of liquamen  
at Roman Feasts and put it on cantaloupe and honeydew.  I think it is better 
on honeydew, and no different from salting melon slices. >>>

Ah. True enough.

I suppose one could say similar things about a lot of uses for garum (I've  
read that it was considered a cheap substitute for salt, though given that 
garum  itself could get pretty pricey, I have my doubts). 

And it's medieval too; it was still being imported in the early Middle Ages 
and Charlemagne had something by that name made on his estates (whatever 
it  really was).

Jim  Chevallier

<the end>

Edited by Mark S. Harris	garum-msg	Page  of