[Sca-cooks] pantry - garum

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Sun Aug 5 19:54:42 PDT 2007


On Aug 5, 2007, at 10:21 PM, Suey wrote:

> Terry wrote:
> "And how do they know it's concentrated evil?  I don't think I've  
> ever metanyone who has made garum, much less eaten it.  Modern fish  
> sauces, yes. Garum no."
> I overlook that quote - not from you Terry but from one us -  
> because that is from someone who does not like it as I, someone who  
> cannot appreciate it like Phil finds morcilla disgusting.

No, I don't find morcilla disgusting at all. I said something like,  
"the scariest thing was morcilla", because we were speaking of foods  
many people find scary. I love morcilla. Cracking open my egg and  
finding little bones and feathers in it... now that's pretty  
disgusting, IMO.

I also don't mind garum... as I mentioned earlier, it's a little  
stinky when you add it to a simmering pot (probably some slightly  
volatile chemicals in the oily phase of the liquid), and then it  
disperses. Apart from that, unless you're putting it in ice cream or  
something, it's fine.

> Garum is being reproduced in Spain today. If I recall correctly it  
> comes from Barcelona. I don't know how close is it is to what the  
> 13th C Anon cookbook calls for. It tastes like bad anchovies to me.

It seems as if various descendants of garum are still being produced  
all around the Mediterranean coast, but for the most part, it also  
seems as if these products are mostly used locally, unless you count  
the export market for anchovy paste, which tastes vaguely similar to  
some of them, but isn't really the same thing.

Adamantius


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