04-23-2005, 01:43 PM
The vietnamese fish sauce called nuoc mam is nothing else but garum. Only the fish are different. If I recall garum was made with several species of fish whereas good quality nuoc mam is made exclusively from fresh anchovies layered in a barrel with salt and fermented, producing the sauce.
Pliny the Elder writes that it was made with fish innards "that we usually discard". Remnants of garum found in amphoras reveal that it was usually mackerel.
Like olive oil, the first draining is the best. It was known as flos flos in roman times (flower of flower) or gari flos (virgin garum, as in virgin olive oil) and only perfume was more expensive. The most expensive garum was made with murenas.
It is used as salt in Vietnam but contrary to salt it is crammed full of protein and other good stuff like phosphor and iron, besides the fact that it tastes beautiful, to me at last..
But I'm french.. We love to eat things that do not smell good.. :lol:
Incidentally, in the french riviera (Nice and Antibes) they still make a fish paste called "pissalat", (peis salat/salted fish in local dialect) which is probably similar to the halex, a by-product of garum fabrication.
In the old days it was made with alevins of sardines (no more than 5 centimeters long), now that we've become environementally conscious, anchovies are used and the recipe is obviously straight from ancient Rome. Unfortunately, due to its long and complicated fabrication, it is more and more replaced by mere un-fermented anchovies paste in the local cuisine.
for those reading french: Everything you ever wanted to know about garum, oenogarum, hydrogarum, oleogarum, garum piperatum (hot),liquamen, lymphata, muria and even honey sweetened garum that you could drink..
Warning: if you're into "processed" foods and other nourishments coming out of clean plastic containers straight out of a big factory , do not read. You will be disgusted..
[url:37556b38]http://terroirs.denfrance.free.fr/p/encyclopedie/garum.html[/url]
Pliny the Elder writes that it was made with fish innards "that we usually discard". Remnants of garum found in amphoras reveal that it was usually mackerel.
Like olive oil, the first draining is the best. It was known as flos flos in roman times (flower of flower) or gari flos (virgin garum, as in virgin olive oil) and only perfume was more expensive. The most expensive garum was made with murenas.
It is used as salt in Vietnam but contrary to salt it is crammed full of protein and other good stuff like phosphor and iron, besides the fact that it tastes beautiful, to me at last..
But I'm french.. We love to eat things that do not smell good.. :lol:
Incidentally, in the french riviera (Nice and Antibes) they still make a fish paste called "pissalat", (peis salat/salted fish in local dialect) which is probably similar to the halex, a by-product of garum fabrication.
In the old days it was made with alevins of sardines (no more than 5 centimeters long), now that we've become environementally conscious, anchovies are used and the recipe is obviously straight from ancient Rome. Unfortunately, due to its long and complicated fabrication, it is more and more replaced by mere un-fermented anchovies paste in the local cuisine.
for those reading french: Everything you ever wanted to know about garum, oenogarum, hydrogarum, oleogarum, garum piperatum (hot),liquamen, lymphata, muria and even honey sweetened garum that you could drink..
Warning: if you're into "processed" foods and other nourishments coming out of clean plastic containers straight out of a big factory , do not read. You will be disgusted..
[url:37556b38]http://terroirs.denfrance.free.fr/p/encyclopedie/garum.html[/url]
Pascal Sabas
