SC - Re: Apicius site, some thoughts

[ChannonM at aol.com]

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based soy sauce originally made by fermenting anchovies in brine.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 arethen 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 
thoughI 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 (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.
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 ¾ 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) ½ 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
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