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

[johnna holloway]

It would be interesting to have
Alan Davidson's take on this report...
don't you think....
I'd still like to see the chemical analysis...
though..

I just looked David Derbyshire up. He seems to be
the correspondent that covers "ancient Roman" stuff
for the Daily Telegraph... in the past 6 months he
has written on " Unique Roman water wheels found in London,"
"Iron Age baby's bones unearthed at Roman villa," and
"Bulldozer unearths fine Roman mosaic Discovery is
the most important for 50 years, reports David Derbyshire,
BY DAVID DERBYSHIRE".

And while looking this up I came across this article:

from the Sunday Times (London) of 23 December 2001
HEADLINE: Romans dine like Caesar on dormice and nipples
 BYLINE: John Follain Rome

 THE chopped dormice were too chewy and the parrot's
 tongue was too small to be worth the bother, but
 sow's nipples may live to see another day. So say
 the organisers of a new restaurant devoted to ancient Roman food.

 Enter the Magna Roma restaurant in the shadow of
 the Colosseum in Rome and you are greeted by Franco
 Nicastro, a portly archeologist who describes
 himself as "an unashamed gourmet". He translated
1,000 recipes from ancient writings and sampled
 about 100, of which 50 have made it onto the menu.
 "It wasn't easy choosing what we could offer people.
 Some of the things we tried out would have lost us
 customers," said Nicastro, who goes from table to
 table offering advice and historical
 information.

 With Duilio Tuveri, a Sardinian chef, Nicastro
 experimented for six months to draw up a menu
 before they opened. Three dormice, a delicacy of
 the Roman empire, were roasted with spices, and
 Tuveri would have liked to see them on the menu, but
 supply proved too much of a problem.

 The most startling ancient Roman recipes included
 boiled sow's vulva and nipples, and boiled tongue
 of flamingo or parrot.

 Among the dishes served last week were octopus
 roasted with garum, a paste made from putrefied
 anchovies that was a Roman staple; ostrich stew with
 dates, vinegar and honey; and moray in onion sauce.
The eel were apparently so prized by the
 Romans that they fed the flesh of dead slaves to them.

 No forks are supplied at Magna Roma: such cutlery
 did not exist under the Romans. Guests make do with
 a metal spoon and a fearsome-looking knife.

 Most of the customers are well-heeled professionals.
 Many seem surprised that the dishes are so tasty, while others are
 confused by the mixture of flavours.

 "Not bad," said one guest after a starter of chestnut
 soup laced with honey, "but wouldn't it make more
 sense to serve it at the end of the meal?"

So perhaps this garum pursuit is for the
modern restaurant trade.

Johnna Holloway  Johnnae

Philip & Susan Troy commented about...>
> >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. snipped>
> Adamantius