Have you ever asked yourself what would happen if I left 8 pounds of fish and one pound of salt to sit in a jar in the sun for 2 months? Well, of course, you have. Well, the answer is you'd make garum, the fermented fish sauce of ancient Rome. So, thank you to Factor for sponsoring this video as I make true fermented garum this time on Tasting History. So, what exactly is garum? Well, one 7th-century author, Isidore of Seville, said, Garum, a salted liquid of fish, which formerly was made from the fish that the Greeks called garos, and although it is now made from an infinite variety of fish, it retains the original name that it had at its beginning. But I feel Isidore had never actually seen the product being made because yes, it is a salted liquid of fish, but it's how you get to that product that is so interesting.

Now the Roman poet Marcus Manilius, he did write about the process of taking fish and salt, and putting them in a terracotta vat and letting them ferment, and then being a poet, he describes the end result in some flourishing language. Their inward parts melt and issue forth as a stream of decomposition... Here a precious exudate flows out, which vomits up the flower of the gore, and mixed with salt balances taste in the mouth. Yeah, that's what I'm about to make. It's actually that stream of And to make that I needed to find a proper ancient recipe. Now 3 and 1/2 years ago, shortly after I started this channel, I did a video on garum. In fact, it's how most people found this channel. It's why I made a t-shirt that says 'You Had Me At Garum.' But it was the beginning of the pandemic, and I was living in a tiny little condo.

so I wasn't about to ferment a bunch of fish in my condo 'cause I'm not that crazy. So instead, I followed a recipe for quick garum, which did come from an ancient document called Geoponica, which is a treatise on farming. And the Geoponica also has some more traditional ways of making garum. The Bithynians make it thus. Take preferably small or large mendole, or if none, anchovy or scad or mackerel... and put them into a baker's bowl of the kind in which dough is kneaded; to one modius of fish need in 6 Italian pints of salt so that it is well mixed with the fish... Put it in an earth andwar vessel and leave it uncovered in the sun for 2 or 3 months, occasionally stirring with a stick, then take the fluid, cover and store. And that is what I am doing.

Also, I really have to thank culinary historian Sally Grainger for helping me through the process and ensuring that I don't poison myself at the end of this episode. So, for this recipe, all you need is fish and salt, but it's the ratio that is so important. One modius of fish to six Italian pints of salt. Unfortunately, it's hard to buy fish by the modius these days, but it comes out to be an 8:1 ratio or 12.5% salinity at the end of the process, and it's important to hit that because that's going to kill pretty much all of the bad bacteria that you don't want in this condiment. Now, most modern fish sauces have even a higher salinity, 25 to 35% in some cases, but I am going to go with the ancient Roman percentages. DO NOT MAKE THIS. Leave this to me. Watch and be satisfied with this.

Do not make it, but if you do want to try garum. I will put links to where you can get certain modern versions of garum that are made that are definitely not poisonous. It's what I use here on the channel very often, so I'll put links to that down there, but this version, leave it to me. So first, I went to my local fish market to buy the freshest fish that I could find. They didn't have the suggested mendole, or scad, or anchovy, but they did have mackerel, so that's what I ended up getting, 8 pounds of it, and then 1 pound of the finest Italian sea salt that I could find. Then I chopped up the fish into large pieces. What I did not do is clean the fish, gut the fish, because you want the enzymes that are in the digestive tract of the fish to be in the jar, because that's actually what's going to do a lot of the breaking down for you.

So, I chopped up the fish and started to add them to the jar along with the salt. And I wanted to make sure that the salt was rubbed into each piece of fish before dropping it in. Now, I'm using a glass jar because I want to see the process as it goes, but more historical would be a terracotta jar of some sort. Once the fish and salt were added, I gave it a good plunging or two to make sure that everything was mixed together. What I did not add was any kind of liquid, so it's actually kind of hard to get it mixed together without liquid. Then, I set it out in the sun, and I did cover mine 'cause I didn't want any critters getting into it. We got raccoons, but I was opening the jar several times a day to make sure that enough oxygen was getting in, which helps to stop botulism.

Now, before I said all that, you needed fish and salt, but really, you also need a third ingredient, and that is time. Specifically, time out in the sun, at least 2 months out in the sun. So, if you're looking for something that's not going to take 2 months, might I suggest a meal from today's sponsor, Factor. Factor delivers fresh, never frozen meals right to your door, and they are fully prepared. Now, I love to cook, obviously, and I've used Hellofresh for a long time, but Hellofresh, which now owns Factor, knows that sometimes you don't have time to cook at all. So, they have Factor to deliver fully prepared meals to your door, and I've actually been using them for years, long before I started Tasting History. When I was working a job where I actually had to leave the house, I would bring Factor meals to lunch every single day, pretty much, because they're never frozen. They just take a couple of minutes to heat up, either in the microwave.

or just a few minutes in the oven. And they have loads of options, over 35 different selections every single week, and they have options that are meat and pescatarian, keto, vegetarian. They got it all. So, to give Factor a try, go to factor75.com or click the link in the description and use my code TASTIGHISTORY50 to get 50% off of your first Factor box. That's 50% using TASTIGHISTORY50 at factor75.com. Now, while Factor may offer you a meal in an instant, the same cannot be said for garum because, like I said, it takes 2 months, but it is an active 2 months. The day after I set the jar out, I got to mixing. And the first thing that I noticed was there was a lot more liquid, and it turns out that the salt that is added by osmosis draws the liquid out of the fish's flesh.

and so it became a lot easier to stir even by day two. And every day I would go out at least once, preferably twice a day and mix the garum. And within just 4 or 5 days I noticed that the fish really started to break down. Fins were falling off, bones were sticking out, it was it was something out of a horror film, but it wasn't until a little bit later about at the 2 and a half week mark that the fish were no longer recognizable as fish. There were still some bones yes but overall it was a thick brownish gray liquid that had a golden sheen of fat floating on top. Something reminiscent of a liquid that you'd see flowing out of a sewer pipe. Now does that look nasty? Yes it does but what was shocking was the odor, or rather lack thereof. It did smell, it had a very strong smell but it smelled like a fish market,

if you go to a fish market and you just kind of get that fish smell, that's what it smelled like pretty much all the way through the process. I expected it to be putrid and kind of rotten smelling, but it wasn't. One of my favorite things to do all summer was to invite friends over to look at the garum and to smell it, and you know, it was always kind of shocking that it didn't smell nearly as bad as it looked. Though there were actually laws in ancient Rome that dictated that these garum factories had to be a certain distance from population centers because the smell was so bad, so I was a little worried that I was missing something, but we'll come back to that... So my summer was spent mixing garum every morning and every afternoon. I felt like the Dunkin Donuts guy, time to mix the garum. And every day it got a little more liquidy and a little less fish sludgy.

and every day I expected the stench to hit, but it didn't until it came time to strain it. After a little over 2 months, I dipped the ladle in to pull out the brown sludge, and the moment that it came above the jar, tears welled up in my eyes. X_x Flames on the side of my face. And I knew right away why there were laws about this being made away from towns because it was potent. Now it didn't smell like rotten fish; it was more - it was like stinging, like that stinging burn in the nostrils when you smell something fermented. So I think that I knew that I had done something right. So I soldiered on; I had put in two months of work, and I wasn't about to give up, so I kept going. What I didn't understand was how possibly that brown-gray sludge was going to turn into the beautiful clear amber-colored liquid.

that liquamen, which is the end product that we're making, is supposed to be like. Now for the straining, the Geoponica says, A deep close-woven basket is inserted into the center of the jar containing these fish, and the liquid flows into the basket, and so liquamen is obtained filtered through the basket. And I suppose if you have a really close-woven basket, you could do it in one step. I'm not exactly sure how with all the sludge and everything, but maybe. But I ended up having to do it a few times, and I tried a few different mediums. I started with just a regular mesh strainer and then graduated to several layers of cheesecloth, and it strained out most of the big pieces, and it became kind of this fish paste, which is known as allec, which they actually used culinarily as well. But the liquid that was left behind was still really cloudy, and it just didn't look like something I wanted to put in my body.

so I graduated to a coffee filter, and then finally, and probably most useful, finally woven muslin. And I passed it through that a few times, and it came through painfully slow, just drops, but what came out was indeed the clear amber-colored liquid that I was hoping to get. And while I strained enough to actually get a taste, let me tell you a little bit more about the history of garum. So, as I mentioned, I have already done a video talking about the history of garum way back when I started the channel before I had a beard. Truly Tasting History is the house that garum built, but since then, I have found so much more new information, so while some of this may overlap with that original video, most everything is actually new information. So, why garum? Why were the ancient Romans and the ancient Greeks just obsessed with this fish sauce? The answer is salt. Salt was used very often as a preservative but very rarely was it mentioned as an ingredient in food.

but being human, they still loved that salty taste. As Pliny the Elder says, In innumerable seasonings, it is the taste of salt that predominates, and it is looked for when we eat garum. So, it was just a different, more complex way of salting your food. Even today, many Asian countries still produce fish sauce for just that reason, and not only fish but also soy sauce; it's the same idea. A way to add a saltiness, umami-ish (is that a word?) Umami-ish flavor to your food, it's just so much more complex than just adding salt. In fact, when it comes to soy sauce, it's likely that it was used as a vegetarian alternative to a Japanese fish sauce called gyoshō. It could be made with all sorts of fish, but the most prized versions were actually made from squid, and it turns out that garum too could be made with seafood other than fish.

Garum could also be flavored with different herbs like oregano. There's actually a recipe attributed to Gargilius Martialis which calls for layers of salt and fish, and herbs, salt and fish and herbs, though even he - so he lived in the 3rd century but it's likely that the recipe was altered much, much later because it mentions spices as well like cinnamon and clove that were not used in ancient Roman cooking. And that recipe also says to Let it rest for seven days in the sun. Then mix the sauce daily for twenty days. After that time it becomes a liquid. And I got to say I don't really think that's long enough but who knows I haven't tried it. Now what I am trying today is a homemade garum which is good but it's not the best. The ancients write about what is the best garum and it was called garum sociorum,

or garum of allies, garum of friends. And it was made from all mackerel that came from Southern Spain and Northern Africa. Nowadays the most prized garum is made from mackerel in the fisheries of Carthage, it is called sociorum: 1,000 sesterces are paid for two congii of this exquisite liquor. Hardly any other liquid, other than perfumes, command such a price... Marcus Apicius... Thought it especially desirable for mullets to be drowned in a bath of garum sociorum. And it was this garum sociorum that the poet Martial suggested as a wonderful gift to be given during the mid December Festival of saturnalia which celebrated the agricultural god Saturn, and included gift giving. And he says that when you send this gift you should include an epigram Accept this exquisite garam made from the first blood spilt of mackerel still breathing its last;

an expensive gift. Though I don't think it's very classy to tell people that it's an expensive gift when you give it, but it was an expensive gift because Pliny said that it was 1,000 sesterces for two congii, that's about one year's pay for the average Roman legionary at the time. That's a lot of money and not everyone could afford that. Luckily Martial has an epigram to be sent if you're sending less quality garum. Inferior garum. I am, I confess it, the offspring of the tunny-fish of Antipolis; had I been that of a mackerel, I should not have been sent to you. But that makes it seem that you sent this inferior garum not because you couldn't afford the garum sociorum but rather if you had got the good garum you would have kept it for yourself.

Yet even while garum was prized, some calling it the most noble of liquors, its pungency made it an easy punching bag for the ancient Roman authors. Martial has an epigram about the eating habits of his friend Baeticus. Neither mullet, Baeticus, nor turtle-dove delights you; nor is hare ever acceptable to you, or wild boar, nor do sweetmeats please you, or slices of cake... Instead, you devour capers and onions swimming in disgusting garum, and the soft part of a gammon of bacon, whose freshness is questionable... I suspect that there must be some other more secret vice in your stomach; for why Baeticus, do you eat such disgusting things? Though my favorite of his garum-deriding epigrams is to his friend Flaccus. You are a man of iron, Flaccus,

if you are able to make love to a woman after she has had six helpings of garum. Garum was so potent that sometimes even animals shied away. Columella in his 'Treatise on Agriculture' wrote, Great care must be taken by the man in charge, who feeds the bees, when he must handle the hives, that the day before he has abstained from sexual relations and... garum and all the liquids which accompany it. But while the ancient writers love to poke fun at garum, it's clear that they also love the stuff because they're always talking about where the best garum came from. Some said that it came from the Black Sea, others from what is now Spain, but one of the most famous garum-producing cities was actually Pompeii, and we even know the name of one of the top manufacturers who lived there, Aulus Scaurus. Bottles with his mark on them are found all over the Mediterranean.

and a full one-third of the garum bottles found in the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum came from him. It's also from his workshop that there was found a famous mosaic that bears a label which translates to the flower of garum, made of the mackerel, a product of Scaurus, from the shop of Scaurus. Though he also offered a product called the flower of liquamen which would infer that at that time garum and liquamen were two different things. Now throughout history the terms sometimes have been used synonymously but by the early Empire it does seem that they were slightly different products. It's possible that liquamen referred to what we're making today, and then garum was made with more of the blood and viscera of fish, and so it was a darker color and more pungent but it's not exactly certain. And as time goes on other words begin to pop up that are referring to this same fish sauce.

Around the year 390, the Roman poet Ausonius wrote to his student, thanking him for a gift of some fish from Barcelona. He says that it's called muria but complains that the term muria is hard for him to pronounce, and that he prefers the older term garum. But by whatever name that 'liquor of allies' is called, I'll flood my plate: this juice, too little used by our forefathers, must overflow the spoon. And when he says too little used by our forefathers, he surely isn't meaning those people who lived during the Roman Republican early Empire because garum was everywhere, but by the end of the 2nd century, garum factories had begun to dwindle in the Roman Empire. People probably began having to make it at home or not use it at all as an ingredient, but by the end of the Roman Empire, we see it mostly being used as a medicine.

It's found in numerous medical texts going back for centuries, and it could be used to heal burns, cure ulcers, and even treat the bites of dogs and crocodiles. And if you're feeling a little backed up, garum was a go-to laxative. Again, the bowels are moved by leavened bread... fat small birds, snails, garum, pickled fish... And about 50 other things. Now Columella says that if your horse is having too much phlegm, then pouring some garum into the horse's nostril will help to alleviate that problem, a garum neti pot. Blech. The first-century physician Dioscorides really fanboyed over the stuff, saying that it could treat all sorts of things. If you had sores in your mouth, you could swish garum around, and it would fix them. And Garum, applied, represses gangrenous ulcers in the cheeks,

heals those bitten by dogs, and is sometimes given as a suppository for dysentery and sciatica... Fortunately for me, this is Tasting History, so a garum suppository is not in my future, but I will be tasting the stuff. So, after many hours, all weekend actually, I had finally strained enough liquid to fill a full bottle of liquamen or garum, the fish sauce of ancient Rome. Now I'm going to taste this garum just plain, but that's not how it would have been eaten. It's meant to be an ingredient. Sometimes it would be made into different sauces. It would be mixed with vinegar to make oxygarum, or oenogarum, which was mixing it with wine, that was a very common way of having it, or else just mixed into like a marinade or something else, but I'm just having it plain. So, it smells fishy yet sweet,

and briny? Interesting. Let's give it a try. Just a spoonful of garum makes the breakfast come up, hopefully not on camera. Wish me luck. Oh, interesting. Oh, that's very, very different than the other garum. So, I've had this before [Flor de Garum]. Yeah, you wouldn't want to kiss me after that. That is potent X_X, but it's almost got some spice to it, like a little burn in a good way, and it's not fishy. It's meaty. And it's kind of- it feels- not acidic. It's pungent. It's just like- and it kind of draws all of the liquid out of your mouth, kind of mouth drying. There's a word for that I can't remember what it is, but that's what it's doing. Now, what's really interesting is it is not nearly as salty as

the other types of garum that I've had, or any East Asian fish sauce or soy sauce, which are really, really salty. This has a mild saltiness, so you're actually getting more flavor than the saltiness, which is interesting. Now, had this garum gone off, I'm not exactly sure how you know if it's gone off, but Apicius says that if your garum has gone off, he has a recipe to fix it, to make it good garum again. To correct garum: if the garum develops a bad odor, invert an empty container, smoke it with burning bay and cypress wood, then pour in it the garum that has previously been exposed to the air. If it is too salty, add a sextarius of honey and stir, and it will be adjusted. But fresh must also provides the same result. Now, if you are cooking from Apicius, who was the major ancient Roman cooking author that we still have works from.

you need garum or liquamen because it's in almost every single recipe that he has. It's in all of the sauces that he mentions, and when people talk about garum being the ketchup of ancient Rome, it's actually those sauces that they're referring to. People weren't usually just eating the garum, but it's also in savory dishes and sweet dishes. There's even a dessert patina of pears that's a sweet dish that uses fish sauce, and I included it in my cookbook, so I'll probably need to do an episode where I actually make it on the show. So thank you again for watching, and make sure to like and subscribe. It really does help out the channel, and I will see you next time on Tasting History.

Ancient Roman Garum Revisited

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Ancient Roman Garum Revisited

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