Can I make ancient Roman "Garum" AKA "fish sauce" - Do any recipes survive?

[astro]

Garum

[Frylock]

No answer, but a comment:

@the linked article

For Romans, it was both a staple to the common diet and a luxury for the wealthy.

How is that possible?

-FrL-

[puppygod]

I always thought, that it was just kind of fish sauce - similar to those used in east Asian cooking. I followed link from wikipedia and it seems I was right. Their suggestion is:

@Ancient Cooking

However, there is no need to break out the fish guts and brine. Instead, rather than scare off the neighbors by experimenting with your own garum fermentation processes, pick up a bottle of Vietnamese nuos nam or Thai nam pla fish sauce. For these products, just check out a local Chinese supermarket, or ask for advice from the nearest Thai or Vietnamese restaurant.

I have bottle of nam pla in fridge and it is… wait a second… salty and not at all unpleasant. Not fishy, but more like a soy sauce without vegetably aftertaste and more… well, taste yourself. It’s available in stores.

[TWDuke]

I wouldn’t actually try this at home.

@Gargilius Martialis

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.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/roman/garum.html

[OtakuLoki]

FTM common worcestershire sauce is another fermented fish sauce.
The idea may be gross sounding, but I bet you’ve had some at one point or another.

[aruvqan]

Garum.oenugarum, liquamen and all sorts of variants.

Some people could only afford the cheapest sort of garum, others bougth the expensive sort that had wine and herbs added, so yes the statement about rich and poor using different ranges of garuma re correct.

You can make it at home, and there is even a non fish based sauce that can substitute for garum - in http://www.florilegium.org/ [use the search function - type in garum, and the first message that pops up is extensively about fish sauces.]

There is a byzantine sauce called murri that is similar to soy sauce, in that it is bread, honey and spices fermented in a manner similar to soy sauce or garum, just search for the message thread about murri…

[BrainGlutton]

Old thread.

[Catamount]

My high school Latin teacher tried to make garum one year. He did not have successful results. Probably better to go to the Vietnamese market and get a bottle of their fish sauce.

[Johnny_L.A]

@puppygod

I have bottle of nam pla in fridge and it is… wait a second… salty and not at all unpleasant. Not fishy, but more like a soy sauce without vegetably aftertaste and more… well, taste yourself. It’s available in stores.

I’ve had the bottled fish sauce at Vietnamese restaurants.

It’s horrid. Nasty. Rank. Vomitous. It tastes rancid.

The stuff they serve in the bowls, however, has almost always been quite delicious. Only once have I encountered fish sauce served in a bowl that had the rancid taste of the bottled stuff they have on the table.

[Sage_Rat]

@Johnny L.A.

I’ve had the bottled fish sauce at Vietnamese restaurants.

It’s horrid. Nasty. Rank. Vomitous. It tastes rancid.

The stuff they serve in the bowls, however, has almost always been quite delicious. Only once have I encountered fish sauce served in a bowl that had the rancid taste of the bottled stuff they have on the table.

Possibly because it’s been sitting out on a table for days on end. A new bottle might be an entirely different thing.

I made some Tom Yum Goong a couple months ago, and I’m pretty sure I tried the fish sauce by itself before putting it in, and it tasted fine. But it was a newly bought bottle.

[Cervaise]

@puppygod

I have bottle of nam pla in fridge

You don’t need to keep it in the fridge. It’s already as spoiled as it’s going to get.

[Helen_s_Eidolon]

A quick scan of the abstracts of some articles written about garum suggests that nuoc-mam is pretty darn close.