Garum/Liquamen (Fish Sauce)

Nothing is so synonymous with Roman cuisine as garum, and nothing is as misunderstood.  It will surely surprise you to learn that garum does not actually appear on its own in Apicius - rather, it is liquamen which we use when we cook Roman food.  Whilst both are sauces made from fermented fish, they are actually rather different in nature.

Garum

Garum is a condiment made from the fermented blood and innards of selected fish.  Being a condiment, it was something which was added to food after cooking, much as we might use soy sauce or tomato ketchup - it was the diner who used it, not the cook.

Garum, described by Pliny the Elder as "that exquisite liquor" (Natural History, 31.43), could be very expensive indeed.  Garum sociorum, a prized garum from New Carthage, sold for 1000 sestertii per 2 congii.  A congius was about 3 litres, and 1000 sestertii was a legionary's yearly wage.  Needless to say, not all garum was so expensive, but it could be a luxury item for those with a few sestertii to spare.

Liquamen

Liquamen on the other hand is a sauce made by fermenting the whole fish, rather than just its blood and innards.  This is exactly the same as modern day Asian fish sauces, such as nam pla and nuoc nam.

It saddens me to say, that despite being called Pass the Garum, garum won't actually feature in anything we cook.  It is liquamen, or our own approximation of it, that we will be using.  As the topic is immensely interesting, I have included a select bibliography at the end for those who wish to read more about Roman fish sauces.

Characteristics

Few ingredients make people feign illness or roll their eyes as much as fish sauce - for those of us not living in South East Asia at least.  People expect it to smell horrible and taste worse, and the idea of adding it to any meal is enough to make stomachs turn.  Fish sauce is, however, not very fishy at all.  Rather it is salty, with hints of cheese and meat.  Its purpose in a recipe is not to stand out on its own, but rather to bring the other flavours together in harmony, something which it does exceedingly well.

Finding It

Walk into the Asian food section of any large supermarket and you're sure to find a bottle of fish sauce.  If you live near an Asian supermarket then you'll do even better.  Failing that, it is possible to order online:

• Wai Yee Hong (UK)
• The Asian Cookshop (UK)
• (Please suggest links for your region)

For an idea of which brands are best, check out this guide for more information.  Whilst it's ok to use these fish sauces straight out of the bottle, generally they are much saltier than liquamen would have been.  We can easily adjust the fish sauce for our own purposes however.  To do this:

• Make up some Caroenum.
• Mix the fish sauce and caroenum in the ratio 1:3, but adjust as necessary.  You want the cheesy elements of the fish sauce, without the overpowering salt.
• Bottle it up for future use.

So, for example, I mixed 50ml of Blue Dragon fish sauce with 150ml of caroenum and found that it made a perfect mixture.  It's not pleasant, but taste it as you go along to ensure that you achieve the right balance.

Alternatives

Really there is no alternative to liquamen - it is quite unique.  However, having spent the last few hours slurping various sauces in the kitchen, I would say that if you are stuck, your best bet is to use dark soy sauce in its place.  If you can sweeten this a little, then even better.  I've often heard it said that Worcester Sauce is only three ingredients away from garum/liquamen - if this is true, then unfortunately those three ingredients have made Worcester Sauce unsuitable as an alternative - it is too spicy.

Bibliography

• Curtis, R., 'In Defense of Garum', The Classical Journal 78 (1983), pp. 232-240 (JSTOR Link)
• Grainger, S., Cooking Apicius, (Totnes, 2006)
• Grainger, S., 'Towards an Authentic Roman Sauce' in Hosking, R. (ed.) Authenticity in the Kitchen: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2005, (Totnes, 2006) pp. 206-210 (Google Books Link)

Date Paste

Dates are regularly used as a sweetener in Roman meals, alongside the likes of honey and grape syrup.  If Pliny the Elder's list is anything to go by, they had a lot of varieties to choose from - some juicy and fruity and sweet, others not so much.

Dates are usually listed with the liquids of the recipe, which has led some to conclude that it must be a date paste or syrup which is used, rather than the whole fruit.  I am inclined to agree with this; in my own experience you get more flavour from the paste than from just the fruit.  It is also easier to use, which helps speed up the cooking process.

You can choose between shop-bought Date Syrup, or home-made Date Paste.

Characteristics

Date paste is sweet, flavoured like the fruit it is made from.  However, because water is added when the paste is made, the taste of dates is more subtle than might be expected.  Date syrup on the other hand has a very strong flavour.  It is also much darker than the paste.

Finding It

Date syrup can generally be found in health-food stores.  If, like me, you don't have a local health-food shop then online is your answer.

• Meridian Date Syrup (UK)
• (Please suggest good suppliers for your own country, and I'll add them in)

Date paste, which I prefer, can be made at home very easily.  The great thing about making it for yourself is that you can make as much or as little as you want.   You'll need:

Ingredients

• A handful of dates (pits removed)
• Enough boiling water to cover them

Methods

• Soak the dates in boiling water for half an hour.
• Pour away most of the water so that only 2 or 3 tbsps are left.
• Blend (or mortar and pestle) it all together!
• Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a week or so.  If you want to freeze it, put it into a sandwich bag and spread it quite thinly.  This means that you can break off as much as you need, when you need it.

Alternatives

If your blender is broken, your mortar and pestle is on the fritz, and the postman keeps eating all your date syrup before it gets to you, then you can just use dried dates.  It might be a good idea to chop them up so that the flavour has a chance to shine. If you cannot find any dates, then use some honey instead!

Caroenum

Caroenum

Caroenum is barely mentioned in ancient texts, which makes identifying its true nature particularly difficult.  We know that it is a grape syrup, made by reducing grape juice/must.  According to Grainger and Dalby, it is reduced by 1/3 to 1/2.  They also believe that it was made from white grape juice, and that its purpose was to add 'bulk' to a meal, rather than to flavour it; this task falls to passum and defrutum instead.  Caroenum is also used to make 'oenogarum', a 'vinaigrette' made by mixing fish sauce, oil, wine, and spices.

Characteristics

Caroenum is sweet, but not sickeningly so.  It is a touch thicker than standard white grape juice.

Finding It

This is something you make at home rather than buy in the shops; as long as you can find a carton of white grape juice, you're set.  To make it, pour as much grape juice as you need into a pan and boil until it has reduced by 1/3 to 1/2. Using a pan with a wide base is recommended, as this will speed up the process of evaporation.  Once it has cooled, bottle it up for future use.

Alternatives

If needs be you can just use white grape juice - this will provide sweetness and 'bulk', albeit not as pronounced as with caroenum.

Lovage Seed

Lovage (Levisticum officinale)

The seed of the Lovage plant is reckoned by Grainger to be the single most common spice in Apicius. Whilst seed, root, and leaves are all edible, they are not commonly found in modern cuisine.  In Roman cuisine it is the seed, typically 'pounded with pepper', which we are interested in.  Despite its seeming necessity in Roman cooking, the ancient authors have little say, except Pliny the Elder who tells us that:

Lovage grows wild in the mountains of Liguria, its native country, but at the present day it is grown everywhere. - Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 19.50

Characteristics

Celery, celery, celery is the overwhelming flavour.  When ground up, it is also the overwhelming smell.  Where lovage seed differs from celery is in its bitterness, but this is not particularly overpowering.  I believe Lovage seed serves the same purpose in Roman cooking as celery does in Italian.  Italian cooking typically involves creating a Battuto or Soffritto, which provides a strong flavour base for the rest of the ingredients.

Finding it

For something once so popular, Lovage seed is a nightmare to find.  If you have a spice market or health-food shop nearby, then you might get lucky, but otherwise the answer is to hop online.  Be warned, there is a similar-but-not-quite-the-same spice called ajwain which is often sold under the name Lovage.

• Lovage Seeds (UK)
• Lovage Seeds (Amazon UK)
• Lovage Seeds (Amazon USA)

I've recommended buying so few seeds for two reasons.  Firstly, you can try the real thing, then quickly move on to the alternatives listed below.  Secondly, if you're still keen to use actual Lovage seed, then it only takes a few to grow one.  That's what I'm doing, following this advice.  Sowing time is February/March.

Alternatives

Celery - Crush some in a mortar and pestle, or blitz it in a processor.

Celery Salt - Celery salt is, rather surprisingly, made from Lovage seeds!

Asafoetida (Silphium)

Asafoetida (Silphium)

Let us start with Silphium, a spice so popular that its picture ended up on a coin, and so valuable that the Romans stored it in their public treasury.  Silphium grew only in a very small tract of land in ancient Cyrenaica (modern-day Libya), appearing, according to Pliny the Elder, after a mysterious black rain fell upon the land. (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 19.15)  Just as quickly as it appeared, however, it vanished.  The same passage of Pliny puts this down to over-grazing by the local sheep, and because it apparently could not be cultivated.  Whatever the reason, Silphium soon became a relic of the past:

Within living memory, only one stalk has been found, being sent to the Emperor Nero as a 'curiosity'. - Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 19.15

Bad Nero, eating the last of our Silphium like that.  However, whilst we might never experience the supposedly sensational taste of Silphium itself, we do have access to its inferior cousin, Asafoetida.  As Silphium slipped from Rome's grasp, Asafoetida, a poor substitute for the real thing, soon came to be called by that name.  Given that most the Apicius recipes were collected after Silphium had vanished, it is Asafoetida that they call for, and it is Asafoetida which we shall use.

Characteristics

Asafoetida doesn't exactly scream 'add me to your food', as it smells like an extremely pungent garlic/leek/onion crossover.  The flavour, like the smell, is  a combination of these three ingredients, and adds a savoury quality to food.  Asafoetida is rarely used in isolation, and is instead added to help harmonise other ingredients in a dish, a task which it performs well.

Finding it

If you're after Silphium, note that, according to Pliny, it makes sheep fall asleep and goats sneeze.  If your goats aren't sneezing, and your sheep are still jumping fences, then you might just have to settle for Asafoetida.  Luckily, Asafoetida is readily available; just check the spices at your local supermarket.  It is also sold as 'Hing' in Indian and Asian food stores if you happen to have any nearby.

Alternatives

• Leek - whilst it shares qualities with garlic, onion, and leek, it is leek which has the savoury undertones most closely matching Asafoetida.  Make sure to chop it up finely.
• Garlic Salt
• Onion Powder

Rue

Rue (Ruta graveolens)

A commonplace ingredient in Roman cooking, Rue is also the national herb of Lithuania, a literary symbol of regret, and, according to Pliny the Elder, a great weapon against caterpillar attacks (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 19.45). In the same passage Pliny also says that the Romans "held Rue in peculiar esteem", which, given its regular occurrence in Apician recipes, I can well believe.  Before you decide to fight off caterpillars or honour any Lithuanian heritage you might have, I need you to err on the side of caution.

CAUTION!

• Picking fresh Rue without gloves can cause lovely blisters.
• Rue is toxic in large quantities, causing everything from tummy ache to liver failure.  If you want to be completely scared off, check out this page of possible side-effects.
• FOR WOMEN: Rue can induce abortion and menstruation.  Do not eat if pregnant.  

Basically, don't go eating bowlfuls of the stuff, stick to whatever measures are suggested, and don't even think of touching it if you are even just the tiniest bit pregnant.  How people even discovered that this was edible, I do not know.

Characteristics

You know that stuff you put on your nails to stop you biting them?  It tastes like that.  Rue is extremely bitter.  This bitterness helps to tone down the characteristic sweetness of Roman foods.

Finding it

After months of visiting garden centres, herbalists, and spice stalls I finally found this herb in a shop in Durham Marketplace (Pauline's Health Cabin for all who fancy a visit, or you can send an email to thehealthcabin@hotmail.co.uk.)  I would recommend searching local herbalists in the hopes of finding some Rue.  Other than that, the only alternative is to buy some seeds online, and grow it yourself.

• Rue Seeds (UK)

Alternatives

Rue is as bitter as anything I've ever tasted, and it is hard to suggest an alternative.  Besides adding anti nail-biting polish to your Roman masterpiece, you might consider:

• Dandelion Leaves

Passum (Raisin Wine)

Passum (Raisin Wine)

Passum, a raisin wine supposedly originating in Carthage, was one of several sweeteners which the Romans added to their food.  If Polybius is to be believed, it was also a girly drink.  He writes that "among the Romans women are forbidden to drink wine; and they drink what is called passum." (Polybius, Histories, Fragments, 4.6.2)  Its manufacture sounds particularly complicated - see Columella, De agricultura, 12.39 (or click here if you fancy) for a lengthy description.

Characteristics

Rather unsurprisingly, Passum is a wine which tastes like raisins!  It is an almost sickeningly sweet wine, not unlike most dessert wines, so is best suited to cooking, where its flavour is tempered by other ingredients.

Finding it

Prepare to fork out an absolute fortune if you want the real thing.  If you're that way inclined, look out for wines with 'vin santo', 'passito', or 'straw wine' in the name.  Otherwise, let's make some cheat's Passum for ourselves:

Ingredients

• 1 Pint Red or White Wine
• 100g Raisins

Methods

• Add the raisins to the wine, then cover.  Leave for 3 days, allowing the raisins to swell.
• When the raisins have swollen, blend them with the wine.
• Pour this mixture through a sieve, squeezing as much liquid out of the raisin pulp as possible.
• Bottle it up - you're good to go!

Alternatives

The above method for making Passum is cheaper than any alternative wine might be, so unless you have some dessert wine going spare, I suggest making a batch.