GARUM
As they are with modern Romans, sauces and marinades were an essential element in ancient Roman cuisine. One of the most popular was garum, a salty, aromatic, fish-based sauce. Like so many other Roman treasures, it was borrowed from the ancient Greeks. Apicius used it in all his recipes, and the poet Martial wrote of it: "Accept this exquisite garum, a precious gift made with the first blood spilled from a living mackerel."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/roman/garum.html
Garum is really simple.
Fish, preferably
Mackerel, but any 'oily' one will do such as sardines.
Salt and then Herbs; dill, coriander, fennel, mint, oregano, etc.
Layer these
starting at the bottom with herbs, fish, salt, herbs, fish, salt, etc.
Fill container(s) with this and let sit in the SUN! After a week to ten days
stir/mix every other day for three weeks. Then filter it through coffee filters,
or cheese cloth until it looks like a slightly cloudy herb tea.
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Use fatty fish, for example, sardines, and a well-sealed (pitched) container
with a 26-35 quart capacity. Add dried, aromatic herbs possessing a strong
flavor, such as dill, coriander, fennel, celery, mint, oregano, and others,
making a layer on the bottom of the container; then put down a layer of fish
(if small, leave them whole, if large, use pieces) and over this, add a layer
of salt two fingers high. Repeat these layers until the container is filled.
Let it rest for seven days in the sun. Then mix the sauce daily for 20 days.
After that, it becomes a liquid.
- Gargilius
Martialis, De medicina et de virtute herbarum, reprinted from A Taste of Ancient
Rome
If you like Roman cooking try :
'A Taste of Ancient Rome' by Ilaria Gozzini Gicosa
ISBN 0-226-29032-8
OR
'Roman Cookery, Ancient Recipes forModern Kitchens' by Mark
Grant
ISBN 1-897959-39-7
Thanks to "Lucius Equitius Cincinnatus Augur" (a.k.a. Michael Cope), for sending me this recipe.
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