SC - Liquamen question

[DianaFiona at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/6/00 9:39:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time, mermayde at juno.com 
writes:

<< 
 In a pan greased with butter or liquamen, 
 
 In reading this line from the Armored Turnips recipe, I have to wonder
 about the greasy quality of liquamen.  I was not given to understand that
 it was an oily sauce, more of a dark brown fermented fish sauce.  Is
 there sufficient oil in liquamen to make a grease substitute, or is the
 reference talking about either greasing the pan or coating it with
 liquamen?
 Christianna
 pondering the finer points of rotted fish
  >>
    I'm sure others will fill in if my memory is faulty here, but from prior 
discussions of this I think I recall that we are dealing with a change in 
definition over the years. Apicius did indeed mean a fish sauce when he used 
the term "liquamen", but by the time we get to Platina, the term had come to 
mean "fat", probably lard or similar animal fats. So, with that knowledge the 
usage makes perfect sense! ;-) It's just confusing when you read the word in 
various different manuscripts separated by the centuries..........

                    Ldy Diana