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Garum is a fermented fish sauce that was used as a condiment(R. Zahn), Real-Encyclopaedia der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, s.v. "Garum", 1st Series 7 (1912) pp. 841–849. in the of Phoenicia, ancient Greece, Rome, Carthage and later Byzantium. Liquamen is a similar preparation, and at times they were synonymous. Although garum enjoyed its greatest popularity in the Western Mediterranean and the Roman world, it was in earlier use by the Ancient Greece. The taste of garum is thought to be comparable to that of today's Asian fish sauces.
Like modern fermented fish sauce and soy sauce, garum was a rich source of umami flavoring due to the presence of glutamates. It was used along with murri in medieval Byzantine and Arab cuisine to give a savory flavor to dishes. Murri may derive from garum.
The 10th-century Byzantine manual Geoponica (Agricultural Pursuits) includes the following recipe for liquamen: Geoponica: Agricultural pursuits, Vol. II, pp. 299–300; translated from the Greek by Thomas Owen; London 1806.
Garum was produced in various grades and consumed by all social classes. After the liquid was ladled off the top of the mixture, the remains of the fish, called allec, were used by the poorest classes to flavor their staple porridge or farinata. The finished product—the nobile garum of Martial's epigramMartial, Epigrams 13.—was apparently mild and subtle in flavor. The best garum fetched extraordinarily high prices,Toussaint-Samat, The History of Food, revised ed. 2009, p. 338f. and salt could be substituted for it in a simpler dish. Garum appears in many recipes featured in the Roman cookbook Apicius. For example, Apicius (8.6.2–3) gives a recipe for lamb stew, calling for the meat to be cooked with onion and coriander, pepper, lovage, cumin, liquamen, oil, and wine, then thickened with flour. The Roman Cookery Book, trans. Flower and Rosenbaum, pp. 188–89. The same cookbook mentions garum being used as Broth to flavor chopped mallow leaves fried in a skillet.Apicius, De Re Coquinaria (Book III, section VIII)
In the 1st century AD, liquamen was a sauce distinct from garum, as indicated throughout the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum IV. By the 5th century or earlier, however, liquamen had come to refer to garum. The available evidence suggests that the sauce was typically made by crushing the innards of (fatty) , particularly anchovies, but also , sardines, mackerel, or tuna, and then fermenting them in brine.Curtis RI (2009) "Umami and the foods of classical antiquity" American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 90 (3): 712S–718S. Grainger S (2006) "Towards an Authentic Roman Sauce" In: Pages 206–210, Richard Hosking (Ed.) Authenticity in the Kitchen, Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 2005. .Jashemski WMF and Meyer FG (2002) The Natural History of Pompeii Cambridge University Press, page 274. .Zaret, PM (2004) Liquamen and other fish sauces" Repast, 20 (4) : 3–4 and 8. In most surviving Titulus pictus inscribed on amphorae, where the fish ingredient is shown, the fish is mackerel. Under the best conditions, the fermentation process took about 48 hours.
The manufacture and export of garum was an element of the prosperity of coastal Greek emporia from the coast of Gaul to the coast of Hispania Baetica, and perhaps an impetus for Roman penetration of these coastal regions.Toussaint-Samat (2009). Although garum was a staple of the Roman Empire's cuisine, few production sites are known to have existed in the Eastern Mediterranean. In 2019 a small 1st-century factory was discovered near Ashkelon. A 2013 storm uncovered Neapolis, a major center of garum production, at Nabeul in Tunisia.
Pliny the Elder spoke of a type of garum that Roman Jews may have used, as normal garum may not have contained exclusively kosher seafood. In the ruins of Pompeii, jars were found containing kosher garum, suggesting an equal popularity among Jews there.
Each port had its own traditional recipe, but by the time of Augustus, Romans considered the best to be garum from Cartagena and Gades in Baetica. This product was called garum sociorum, "garum of the allies". The ruins of a garum factory remain at the Baetian site of Baelo Claudia (in present-day Tarifa) and Carteia (San Roque). Other sites are a large garum factory at Gades (Cadiz) and at Málaga under the Picasso museum.
Garum was a major export product from Hispania to Rome, and gained the towns a certain amount of prestige. The garum of Lusitania (in present-day Portugal) was also highly prized in Rome, and was shipped directly from the harbour of Lacobriga (Lagos). A former Roman garum factory can be visited in the Baixa area of central Lisbon.Millennium bcp Foundation, Rua dos Correeiros 21 Fundação Millennium bcp—Núcleo Arqueológico Fossae Marianae in Narbonensis, located on the southern tip of present-day France, served as a distribution hub for Western Europe, including Gaul, Germania, and Roman Britain.Curtis, Robert I. 1988. Spanish Trade in Salted Fish Products in the 1st and 2nd Centuries A.D. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration. XXXIX. 205–210. Garum factories were also located in the province of Mauretania Tingitana (modern Morocco), for example at Ancient Cotta and Lixus.
Umbricius Scaurus' production of garum was key to the economy of Pompeii. The factories where garum was produced in Pompeii have not been uncovered, perhaps indicating that they lay outside the walls of the city. The production of garum created such unpleasant smells that factories were generally relegated to the outskirts of cities. In 2008, archaeologists used the residue from garum found in containers in Pompeii to confirm the August date of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The garum had been made entirely of bogues, fish that congregate in the summer months.
A surviving fragment of Plato Comicus speaks of "putrid garum". Martial congratulates a friend on keeping up amorous advances to a girl who had indulged in six helpings of it.
The biological anthropologist Piers Mitchell suggests that garum may have helped spread Diphyllobothrium across Europe.
Garum is believed to be the ancestor of the fermented anchovy sauce colatura di alici, still produced in Campania, Italy, as well as the fermented anchovy and sardine paste pissalat in the Nice region, France.
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