[Sca-cooks] Brown Sauce vs. Garum vs Nuoc Mam

[Smith, Judith]

Greetings,
A friend just sent me this article that I thought I would share with you for
comment or edification or whatever. This is the reprint from the
Anthropology in the News website for the Anthropology Dept. at Texas A&M. It
appeared first on 2/2/02 in the Telegraph and on their website in the UK.
This may be a subject that you all have rehashed several times, but it was
before my time. Without further comment.....
Grafin Judith
The source of Roman brown sauce
By David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 01/02/2002)
A SET of Roman fish tanks that may have been used to produce a pungent sauce
enjoyed by the wealthy citizens of Pompeii has been uncovered by British
archaeologists.
The six tanks, unearthed on a commercial street at the edge of the city, may
have been used to make garum, the Roman elite's equivalent of brown sauce.
An intact skeleton of a sardine-like fish and a collection of fish bones
were found at the bottom of one of the tanks by a team from Bradford
University.
Production of garum was big business and from the first century BC to the
end of the Roman period the sauce was produced in large salting plants in
many cities. The condiment was made by leaving fish to rot in salted water.
The tanks measure about three feet deep and 18in wide and date to the second
century BC. They were abandoned and covered long before Vesuvius smothered
Pompeii with ash in AD79.
Dr Rick Jones, a member of the team that found the tanks between the remains
of Roman shops and bars, believes that they may have been used to make
garum, or to store live fish before being sold at market.
"In this part of Pompeii we are dealing with some of the richest people,"
said Dr Jones.
"Because fish rots so quickly it becomes expensive. It was the food of the
rich, and the Pompeians had pictures on their walls of the fish species they
were actually eating.
"To find a complete fish together like this is exciting. It means we can
move on a step in understanding what people were actually doing in the
city."
A chemical analysis of the concrete-like lining should reveal whether the
tanks were used to make the sauce or store live fish. The team is building
up a picture of the social background of Pompeii's citizens.
They have found evidence that social inequality was increasing sharply from
the first century BC.