[Sca-cooks] ancient Roman cookery

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Sep 29, 2005, at 10:51 AM, ekoogler1 at comcast.net wrote:

> I have done some Roman recipes from Cato and Apicius...and in a  
> couple I used what i believe is a garum/liquamen equivalent...Nam  
> Pla, or fish sauce, from Viet Nam, etc.  The descriptions I have  
> read regarding garum seem to fit what nam pla is, so that's why I  
> chose to use it.  I just haven't the "stomach" or whatever to try  
> to make my own.  The dishes I used it in were mostly vegetable  
> dishes...and the flavor of the fish sauce seemed to enhance the  
> veggies' flavor.  Otherwise it was so innocuous that I forgot on  
> once occasion that I had used it and was taken to task (kindly, I  
> might add) for representing it as a vegetarian dish!
>
> Kiri

I like the Philippino "patis" fish sauce, myself, as it's more of a  
salty, fishy richness, without either vinegar or that lactic-acid  
tang (that the added vinegar is an attempt to reproduce, when it is  
there) that some other SE Asian fish sauces have. I figure that the  
quick, faux garum mentioned, I think, somewhere in the Geoponica, is  
a boiled and strained fish, salt, and seasonings, and is mentioned as  
being ready for immediate use, so I get the sense that no lactic  
sourness would be achieved. And if it's not in the imitation, my  
suspicion is that it is likely not in the original, either, or there  
would surely be some quick way of approximating it, if that aspect  
were desired.

I've used it in several dishes, both Apician and from Anthimus (and I  
sneak it into curries a lot, too). My experience has been that it  
reeks to high heaven for a few minutes after you add it to a hot pan,  
but mellows considerably as it cooks. Used raw or cold, the smell is  
not overpowering.

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04