garum-msg - 2/24/08
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.
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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.
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Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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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 ³garum² a translation of ³liquamen² 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 thai¹s 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 who¹s description you read. This is then layered alternately
with lots of salt and herbs of various sorts again depending on who¹s 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 Œpesci azzurri¹ (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 Œsea¹ 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, that¹s 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