SC - Murri = Muria = Garum?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

david friedman wrote:
> 
> At 2:03 PM -0500 3/19/00, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> 
> >And in the "I have no blinkin' hard evidence" department, it was
> >suggested somewhere recently (maybe the Apicius list?) that muria, a
> >known Roman garum variant (I'm not sure which one it is, maybe the
> >version made with gutted fish, or maybe just fish innards instead of
> >whole fish) is related both in name and process to murri. Do we know
> >where murri comes from? Could it be a vegetarian version of a fish
> >sauce? Considering that soy sauce is exactly that, it makes a bit of
> >sense. That, of course, doesn't make it true.
> 
> I had wondered about a connection too. Note that the fake Murri
> recipe I have is called "Byzantine Murri," which suggests some
> connection (but it isn't made from fish).

That was part of the extended illogic I applied. Soy sauce, which is
fairly similar to murri, is a vegetarian product believed to be related
etymologically to the SE Asian fish sauces. Not necessarily in the
culture that created it first, but the connection is there, if muddy.
Kat jep can be either soy sauce or fish sauce, so, for example, kecap
manis is a thick, sweet Indonesian soy sauce, but kat jep is derived
from Chinese terms meaning, roughly, the brine of pickled fish.

So yes, murri is vegetarian, but the process whereby it is made is
clearly related to the process used to make soy sauce: a starch is
"malted", using a mold spore, either wild or cultured, then salted and
subjected to a controlled fermentation. At least, that's my recollection
of the process -- I could be mistaken.

I wonder if perhaps the grain-based version of murri was "invented" to
fill the need in an area where fish was not available. Possibly not as
simple as it sounds, though, since the modern cuisines of places like
Iraq, Turkey, and parts further east, as well as period sources like
al-Baghdadi, do contain several fish recipes.
    
'Tis a puzzlement...

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com