Garum

Garum, similar to liquamen, was a type of fermented fish sauce condiment that was an essential flavour in Ancient Roman cooking, the supreme condiment. Although it enjoyed its greatest popularity in the Roman world, it originally came from the Greeks, gaining its name from the Greek words garos or gáron (γάρον), which named the fish whose intestines were originally used in the condiment's production.

For Romans, it was both a staple to the common diet and a luxury for the wealthy: the residue when the liquid was ladled off, called allec, was used by the poorest classes to flavour their staple porridge, while among the rich the best garum fetched prices for which the historian of food Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat found no parallel in caviar but rather with the precious essences used in perfumery. Garum appears in most of the recipes featured in Apicius, a Roman cookbook, which, however, offers a technique to render palatable garum that had gone bad. The sauce was generally made through the crushing and fermentation in brine of the innards of various fishes such as mackerel, tuna, eel, and others. While the finished product was apparently mild and subtle in flavor, the nobile garum of Martial's epigram, the actual production of garum created such unpleasant smells as to become relegated to the outskirts of cities so that the neighbors would not be offended by the odour.

When mixed with wine (oenogarum, a popular Byzantine sauce), vinegar, black pepper, or oil, garum was served to enhance the flavor of a wide variety of dishes, including boiled veal and steamed mussels, even pear-and-honey soufflé. Diluted with water (hydrogarum) it was distributed to Roman legions, or served at a public banquet by Elagabalus; Pliny remarked that it could be diluted to the colour of honey wine and drunk; as such a tonic, garum was also employed as a medicine—ancient Romans considered it to be one of the best cures available for many ailments, including dog bites, dysentery, and ulcers— and as an ingredient in cosmetics.

Garum was prepared from the intestines of small fishes, macerated in salt and cured in the sun for one to three months, where the mixture fermented and liquified in the dry warmth, the salt inhibiting the common agents of decay. Concentrated decoctions of aromatic herbs, varying according to the locale, were added. A fine strainer was inserted into the fermenting vessel and the thick liquid was ladled out.

The manufacture and export of garum was an element of the prosperity of coastal Greek emporia from the Ligurian coast of Gaul to the coast of Hispania Baetica, and, Toussaint-Samat observes, an impetus for Roman penetration of these coastal regions. Amphorae recovered from shipwreck sites off Ansérune and Agde bear the traces of the garum they contained and date as early as the fifth century BCE. Umbricius Scaurus' production of garum put the ancient city of Pompeii on the map. The factories where garum was produced in Pompeii have not been found yet, which has led many researchers to believe that the factories lay outside the walls of the city. Each port had its own traditional recipe, but by the time of Augustus Romans considered the best was garum from Cartagena and Gades in Baetica, garum sociorum, "garum of the allies."

According to Sally Grainger, co-author of The Classical Cookbook with Andrew Dalby:

"...what does it taste like. Well you can find a very similar product in a Chinese supermarket. Its called Nuc Nam or Nam Pla and appears to have a very similar method of production.. However, and its a big however, it does not have any extra fish intestines added, only those present in the fish anyway. You may think this is quite a good thing but of course it does mean that the pungency is greatly reduced. It is our only substitute and will serve. If my theory is correct and I make no claim that it is, then, at one time, a fish sauce just like the Vietnamese Nuc Nam did exist in the Roman world.

Roman food is quite distinctive and very reliant on fish sauce for its success. Wine, honey, vinegar, oil and fish sauce combine to create a balance of sweet-sour-salt that is quite unique and well worth trying. I have conducted experiments with recipes, using salt instead of fish sauce and found the result to be far less appetizing."

Ancient Garum Recipe
from A Taste of Ancient Rome by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa

Use fatty fish, for example, sardines, and a well-sealed (pitched) container with a 26-35 quart capacity. Add dried, aromatic herbs possessing a strong flavor, such as dill, coriander, fennel, celery, mint, oregano, and others, making a layer on the bottom of the container; then put down a layer of fish (if small, leave them whole, if large, use pieces) and over this, add a layer of salt two fingers high. Repeat these layers until the container is filled. Let it rest for seven days in the sun. Then mix the sauce daily for 20 days. After that, it becomes a liquid.
- Gargilius Martialis, De medicina et de virtute herbarum

Modern Garum Recipe
from A Taste of Ancient Rome by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa Cook a quart of grape juice, reducing it to one-tenth its original volume. Dilute two tablespoons of anchovy paste in the concentrated juice and mix in a pinch of oregano.

[Or use the Vietnamese fish sauce Nuc Nam or Nam Pla, as suggested by Sally Grainger above.]

Garum/Liquamen:
Marco Bernini writes, in a message archived in Stefan's Florilegium,

"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"