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+---- Thread: Worcestershire Sauce = Garum ??? (/showthread.php?tid=3152)
Worcestershire Sauce = Garum ??? - richsc - 01-30-2004
Looking up a source for fish sauce, I saw this:<br>
<br>
"You've probably heard the story of how Worcestershire Sauce was invented â€â€Â
Re:worcestshire sauce=garum? - Anonymous - 02-03-2004
Lea and Perrins Worcestshire sauce ingredients:<br>
Malt vinegar (from barley), spirit vinegar, molasses, sugar, salt, anchovies, tamarind extract, onions, garlic, spices, flavouring.<br>
<br>
The ingredients are fermented for a long time in the vinegar, strained and then transferred to wooden casks for further fermenting, the whole process taking three years!<br>
<br>
According to Delia Smith only the best anchovies from the Basque Region of Spain are used.<br>
<br>
You know, I'm beginning to think garum might not have been as bad as it sounds...<br>
<p></p><i></i>
Re: Re:worcestshire sauce=garum? - aitor iriarte - 02-03-2004
Well, therefore I have the best possible anchovies at hand ! (the joke is that I live in Bilbao, the main port in the Basque Country1 )<br>
Anyway, I'm not very inclined to ferment anything by myself and I ask, is it (as it seems from the last post) possible to get commercially made Worcestshire sauce? Is it Lea and Perrins a brand? Maybe a British one?<br>
<br>
Aitor <p></p><i></i>
Re: Re:worcestshire sauce=garum? - aitor iriarte - 02-03-2004
I've made my homework and I've answered myself my former questions<br>
It seems that worcestershire sauce is quite a common thing and I'll try to buy a bottle tomorrow to taste it. If i succeed I'll tell you about my experience !<br>
<br>
Aitor <p></p><i></i>
Re: Re:worcestshire sauce=garum? - rekirts - 02-03-2004
OMG, I've been using worcestershire sauce for years--in stews and other meat dishes. I didn't know it had anchovies in it!!! I never read the ingredient list before.<br>
<br>
Wendy <p>"I am an admirer of the ancients,but not like some people so as to despise the talent of our own times." Pliny the Younger</p><i></i>
Re: Re:worcestshire sauce=garum? - aitor iriarte - 02-04-2004
Now I've got a bottle of L&P worcestershire sauce!<br>
Now I'm doubting whether I'll drink it directly from the bottle's mouth or wheter I'll use a glass (more proper). No! perhaps I'll try dipping my hardtack in it!<br>
I'll tell you!<br>
<br>
Aitor <p></p><i></i>
Re: Re:worcestshire sauce=garum? - aitor iriarte - 02-04-2004
Hey, quite edible and slightly spicy, nice stuff!<br>
I think that Worcestershire sauce would be a good garum/liquamen for your lucanian sausages, Rich.<br>
I must now look for a similar sauce, called Tai sauce, it is made of fermented fish too...<br>
Valete<br>
<br>
Aitor <p></p><i></i>
Re:Re:Worcestershire sauce=garum? - Anonymous - 02-04-2004
Wendy, I have to admit that until I got the Lea and Perrins bottle out of the cupboard yesterday to check the ingredients I didn't know either!<br>
<br>
So, what is the verdict Aitor?<br>
I don't think swigging it straight out of the bottle is too advisable-as you might have discovered by now. But if you go for the glass add some vodka and tomato juice too.<br>
<br>
As Wendy said, it's good for seasoning stews etc...pretty much the same function as garum in fact.<br>
<br>
Jane Renfrew in Food and Cooking in roman Britain suggests using anchovy essence as a substitute for garum.<br>
There is also a translation from Geoponica XX 46,1-6 that gives three different ways of preparing garum. One was salting the fish and leaving them out into the sun to dry and then straining them through a fine meshed basket.<br>
Another method:<br>
"If you wish to use the garum at once i.e not expose it to the sun but boil it-make it in the following manner. Take brine and test it's strength by throwing an egg into it to try if it floats: if it sinks the brine does not contain enough salt. Put the fish (atherinae or red mullet or sprats or anchovy) into the brine in a new earthernware pot, add origan, put it on a good fire until it boils...let it cool and strain it over two or three times until clear, seal and store away."<br>
The third method-and the best garum-was produced from the entrails of tunny fish, it's gills, juice and blood and enough salt. These were to be left in a vessel for a maximum of two months before piercing the side of the vessel and letting the resulting garum flow out.<br>
<br>
The second one doesn't seem too difficult to try out.<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>
Re:Re:Worcestershire sauce=garum? - Anonymous - 02-04-2004
I didn't notice your last post Aitor...strange, I could have sworn it wasn't there when I started writing mine out but looking at the times guess it must have been.<br>
Now I've found the garum recipes I'm thinking the taste must have been quite different without all the additions of vinegar, garlic, onions etc etc-much saltier and stronger-and fishier!<br>
<br>
Our local grocery stocks quite a good selection of Thai food, so I'm going to check out if there is any of that fish sauce stuff too. <p></p><i></i>
Re: Re:Re:Worcestershire sauce=garum? - aitor iriarte - 02-05-2004
Anaten,<br>
You know, Ezboard's misterious ways...<br>
Maybe garum/liquamen was saltier than Worcestershire sauce but we cannot be sure of its 'fishy' flavour! Remember that Worc' sauce is made of anchovies and we'd never realized it!<br>
If we succeed tasting Tai sauce or the vietnamese Nuoc Nam (or something sounding like that!) we'll have a broader base to judge if fermented fish sauces taste like fish or not.<br>
In any case, the lesson that we've learned is that garum was a liquid sauce and that it was surely by no means the exotic foul-smelling thing that we'd previously envisaged<br>
<br>
Aitor <p></p><i></i>
Re: Re:Re:Worcestershire sauce=garum? - rekirts - 02-07-2004
I think I've tasted fish sauce at a Vietnamese restaurant and it smelled awful, but tasted ok...if it was fish sauce, that is.<br>
<br>
Wendy <p>"I am an admirer of the ancients,but not like some people so as to despise the talent of our own times." Pliny the Younger</p><i></i>
Re: Worcestershire Sauce = Garum ??? - richsc - 02-08-2004
This from the BBC on worcestershire sauce<br>
<br>
www.bbc.co.uk/herefordand...rins.shtml<br>
<br>
note the 'aging in barrels' that sounds so much like the garum recipes. <p>Legio XX<br>
Caupona Asellinae</p><i></i>
Re: Re:Re:Worcestershire sauce=garum? - aitor iriarte - 02-09-2004
Wendy,<br>
Did that vietnamese fish sauce smell or taste to fish?<br>
Do you know if it was fermented?<br>
Anaten,<br>
Still looking for Tai sauce. I've found some allegedly 'Tai' sauces, but no fish (fermented or not) was present as ingredient!<br>
<br>
Aitor <p></p><i></i>
Re: Re:Re:Worcestershire sauce=garum? - rekirts - 02-09-2004
Aitor,<br>
<br>
I'm not sure how it was made. It just came in a little bowl for dipping the spring rolls in. My daughter kept asking, "What smells like wet dog?"--and it turned out to be the fish sauce. It didn't have a strong flavour, though, and it was clear in colour. I can't really remember what it tasted like except that it wasn't unpleasant.<br>
<br>
Wendy <p>"I am an admirer of the ancients,but not like some people so as to despise the talent of our own times." Pliny the Younger</p><i></i>
Re: Re:Re:Worcestershire sauce=garum? - aitor iriarte - 02-09-2004
Wet dog? Mmmmh, that really promises as a good sustitute for garum!<br>
Aitor <p></p><i></i>