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Foodstuffs for the Roman Legionary in the field
#16
I'd puke if I ate Garum...<br>
<br>
Rotting fish guts and blood...NO THANKS!!!<br>
<br>
Heheheheh <p>Magnus/Matt<br>
Legio XXX "Ulpia Victrix"<br>
Niagara Falls, Canada</p><i></i>
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#17
My Thanks to all the people who supplied me with info. Dont worry Matt, no rotting fish sauce I promise. If any one knows were I can obtain a tri-pod and a Roman Pot for cooking in, I would be grateful Cheers Caius/Thom <p></p><i></i>
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#18
Interesting article, Magnus, but I think it sensationalizes a bit. I'd like to see an original citation about the smell of making garum, since one of my guys has made it several times and reports little smell at all. Perhaps it was the discarded waste products which were festering and stinking, after the garum was finished and shipped off. I do know that tanneries were pretty noxious, and generally had to be downwind of any nearby settlement.<br>
<br>
Garum-making is NOT ROTTING. It's fermentation or pickling (I'm not sure of the exact chemistry). Ever drink beer? Comparable process, different ingredients. Mind you, I don't touch garum either, so I can sympathize, but let's stick to the facts and not get TOO carried away.<br>
<br>
I understand that a couple modern garum equivalents are Asian nam pla (which was mentioned) or nuc mam (not to be confused with nuke mom, a housewife who uses the microwave a lot!).<br>
<br>
Caius, can't help you with the tripod, unfortunately. The hunt is on for a regular source for paterae, one current possibility being Tony Feldon. Other decent ones have been gotten from Michael Simkins or from armorers such as Joe Piela.<br>
<br>
Valete,<br>
<br>
Matthew/Quintus, Legio XX <p></p><i></i>
Matthew Amt (Quintus)
Legio XX, USA
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.larp.com/legioxx/">http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
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#19
Tiberius- ever eat Worchester sauce? Read the ingredients; it contains anchovies. Fermented anchovies. <p></p><i></i>
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#20
There are many varieties of commercial fish sauce..."garum".. One Oriental themed grocery store here in S Diego must stock 2 dozen varieties..<br>
<br>
Hibernicus <p></p><i></i>
Hibernicus

LEGIO IX HISPANA, USA

You cannot dig ditches in a toga!

[url:194jujcw]http://www.legio-ix-hispana.org[/url]
A nationwide club with chapters across N America
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#21
Yeah, I like worchestershire sauce.<br>
<br>
Does Garum taste like it? <p>Magnus/Matt<br>
Legio XXX "Ulpia Victrix"<br>
Niagara Falls, Canada</p><i></i>
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#22
Not really; fish sauce tastes like fish sauce, quite unique. But it doesn't taste rotten. <p></p><i></i>
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#23
I'm going to have to get me some Nuoc Mam or this Nam Pla to try out a modern garum equivalent.<br>
<br>
Mmmm <p></p><i></i>
~ Paul Elliott

The Last Legionary
This book details the lives of Late Roman legionaries garrisoned in Britain in 400AD. It covers everything from battle to rations, camp duties to clothing.
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#24
This post has been removed by the author. I do not see a point to being on a forum where moderators such as Matt Lanteigne aka Magnus can practice harassment and hypocritical behavior. RAT seems to have slipped into a place where people of this ilk can do or say whatever they want AND since he's a moderator, I guess it's all okay w/ the forum owners. Good luck, but I am done here.
DECIMvS MERCATIvS VARIANvS
a.k.a.: Marsh Wise
Legio IX Hispana www.legioix.org

Alteris renumera duplum de quoquo tibi numeraverunt

"A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired." -- Alexander Hamilton

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.... But then I repeat myself." ~Mark Twain

[img size=150]http://www.romanobritain.org/Graphics/marsh_qr1.png[/img]
(Oooh, Marshall, you cannot use an icky modern QR code, it is against all policies and rules.)
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#25
I can easily imagine large scale production producing wicked smells; not from the process itself but from by products and waste. Ever smell a brewery? Beer doesn't make it smell bad, but spilled, spoiled beer does. <p></p><i></i>
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#26
Decimus,<br>
Portuguese fish sauce? I've never heard of it, but there are so many things that I ignore...<br>
Do you have any details about it?<br>
<br>
M. Didius,<br>
I think that you're right. You'd never think that olive oil smells foul until you approach any olive oil producing factory! Nothing to do with a fur factory or tannery but it is overwhelming!<br>
<br>
Aitor <p></p><i></i>
It\'s all an accident, an accident of hands. Mine, others, all without mind, from one extreme to another, but neither works nor will ever.

Rolf Steiner
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#27
<br>
The name of the <em>garum</em> comes from the name of the small mediterranean fishes early used in making this sauce: the <em>garos</em> or <em>garus</em> The smell of the garum depended a lot from its quality, it could be done firstly with fish entrails scrap, till to oysters only... And while the first filtered one smelled quite good, the final one really stinked...<br>
<br>
It seems that the best garum was produced in Spain by a carthaginian company and was called <em>garum sociorum</em> (the society garum, Plinius N.H. XXXI, 94), it was made just with mackerels pieces, not entrails. In the normal garum making, the first and purest filtered liquid was the <em>gari flos</em>, and the most reputed was the <em>garum nigrum</em>. The first garum was consumed pure, but the worst one had to be obviously corrected by any sort of added ingredients due to its disgusting stink.<br>
The worst one was often the only food given with the bread to the slaves... You can easily guess its "smell" and quality...<br>
<br>
Once all the liquid was filtered, the final result mass was the <em>allec</em>. Even the allec could be different in quality dependig from the fishes kind and pieces. Apicius got a very special kind of allec with livers of red mullets killed only in the garum sauce (Plinius N.H. IX, 66). He invented many kinds of special garum like <em>oxygarum, hydrogarum, oenogarum,</em> etc. But it's clear that <em>garum</em> and <em>allec</em> were made in hundreds of ways and flavours by any cook, or thermopolium, or housewife.<br>
<br>
This is the classic fish sauce you commonly find in Italy (and in France, Spain or Portugal, I guess), it's the closest modern subsitute of the allec:<br>
<br>
"Pasta d'acciughe": ground anchovy packed in stone jars, covered with a mixture of common salt, saltpetre, bay salt, sal prunella, and a few grains of cochineal; allowed to ripen for 6 months (Europe); ground and packed in jars, cans or tubes as consistent sauce.<br>
<br>
You could take it as part of your field food and eat it cold with bread, cheese and olive oil.<br>
<br>
You can find hundreds of recipes, but maybe the simplest, quickest and delicious is:<br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration:underline">crostini con mozzarella e pasta d'acciughe al forno</span><br>
<br>
Put in a pan some really good extravirgin olive oil, then put sliced bread, put the pan in your warm oven till the bread will be toasted, then put on the bread some original italian sliced mozzarella cheese, put on the mozzarella cheese a good mix of olive oil and pasta d'acciughe, then put the pan in the oven again, till the mozzarellla will be almost melted, don't burn the mozzarella and enjoy the "crostini" well hot!<br>
<br>
Valete,<br>
Titus<br>
<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>
TITVS/Daniele Sabatini

... Tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum
desinet ac toto surget Gens Aurea mundo,
casta faue Lucina; tuus iam regnat Apollo ...


Vergilius, Bucolicae, ecloga IV, 4-10
[Image: PRIMANI_ban2.gif]
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#28
I know the thread got a little hung up on garum there, but I still think there's got to be a huge list of foodstuffs we can compile as 'acceptable camp rations'.<br>
<br>
Apples and other fresh fruits<br>
Dried fruits (apricots, raisins ...)<br>
Bread (round loaves)<br>
Cheese (not yellow .. hard or soft?)<br>
Bacon<br>
Sausages<br>
Cooked Lentils<br>
Various beans<br>
<br>
EDIT: Just remembered boiled eggs and olives - although the latter is doubtful for us legionnaries stuck in damp Britannia<br>
<br>
Anything else? Obviously Roman cookery stretches to alot more, but it's what you can carry around for your packed luch I'm interested in in this thread.<br>
<br>
<p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p200.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=mithras@romanarmytalk>Mithras</A> at: 5/7/04 4:52 pm<br></i>
~ Paul Elliott

The Last Legionary
This book details the lives of Late Roman legionaries garrisoned in Britain in 400AD. It covers everything from battle to rations, camp duties to clothing.
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#29
Why no yellow cheese? <p></p><i></i>
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#30
No yellow cheese? Someone mentioned it in an earlier post but I've just been Googling around and discovered that hard cheeses were as popular as softer goats and sheeps cheeses (feta?). Apple smoked cheese was apparently popular (mmmm!). I can buy feta and smoked cheese - making my trail rations suddenly very very appealing <p>Paul Elliott<br>
<br>
<strong>Heroes of Delphi</strong> - Classical Greece gone D20<br>
<strong>Zenobia</strong> - Fantasy RPG in the Eastern Roman Empire<br>
<strong>Warlords of Alexander</strong> - Kingdoms in conflict for the ruins of Alexander's Empire<br>
<br>
www.geocities.com/mithrapolis/games.html</p><i></i>
~ Paul Elliott

The Last Legionary
This book details the lives of Late Roman legionaries garrisoned in Britain in 400AD. It covers everything from battle to rations, camp duties to clothing.
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