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The idea that you can't make garrum at home in the traditional way (salt, fish, time) is false. I've done it, yes there's a smell, but it isn't as bad as people

by Niksko 5y ago

The idea that you can't make garrum at home in the traditional way (salt, fish, time) is false. I've done it, yes there's a smell, but it isn't as bad as people suggest, and the result is worth it. Traditional garrum making is also practiced by lots of fermentation focused restaurants, as well as more modern techniques that use koji as an enzymatic source. The quick garrum presented in that video is really just a salty fish stock, and I suspect would lack the protein breakdown products that make garrum so special. You can however make garrum quickly, with the protein breakdown products, albeit lacking a little complexity from the extended ageing (primarily maillard reaction products, but probably other lactic fermentation and more complex breakdown chains). Preston Landers has created a technique [1] that uses dietary supplements as a source of very high enzyme concentrations. I've done this method, and it's pretty easy to accomplish, and produces really great results, in about 3 hours. [1]: https://www.culinarycrush.biz/all/3-hour-garum-recipe https://www.culinarycrush.biz/all/3-hour-garum-recipe

rwmj 5y ago
How different is it from anchovy-based fish sauces like nam pla? The method of making it (fermenting whole fish for a long time) seems fairly similar.
- Niksko 5y ago
  Very similar I'd say. Temperature, fish variety, small changes in method or salt content, all of these likely change the end product. But it's fundamentally the same set of reactions.
MichaelMoser123 5y ago
In Russia they have salted fish - Balyk and Vobla. Never salted it myself, but I didn't find the result too offputting either; it goes well with beer.
- krisoft 5y ago
  The russian salted fish appears to be very different from garum. With Balyk you salt the fish-flesh to make it dry out and to conserve it. Then you eat the dry fish. Do i see that right? With garum you salt the fish to drive a fishy liquid out of it then you ferment this liquid. The end product is the fermented fish-juice which is used as a condiment. Both involves fish and salt but they appear to be very different beasts. About how offputing garum is: obviously it wasn’t offputting for the romans. They consumed huge ammounts of it. That doesn’t necessarily means that the production wasn’t offputting. After all it is basically letting a pile of fish rot in a controlled manner. By all accounts i have read they produced it at industrial scale outside of the cities not in people’s homes. The other problem one might run into is that the exact art of the process needs reverse engineering. Imagine if all you would read about cheese making is a few paragraphs. Further imagine that you have never eaten cheese nor you know anyone who has ever did. Good luck figuring out where to start making chesse, let alone if what you got at the end is good cheese. This means that while real garum was definietly not offputting to romans, the process of experimenting with producing it now might be. And at the end you might end up with something weird and you won’t know if you just haven’t acquired a taste for it, or if perhaps it went off so badly that not even a roman would consume it.
bitcurious 5y ago
> The idea that you can't make garrum at home in the traditional way (salt, fish, time) is false. When I researched this question maybe 8 years ago, the technique was well understood. The outstanding question was which fish was used for this historically, and back then there were a few contenders. Has this since been settled or did you just pick one?

by Niksko 5y ago

rwmj 5y ago

How different is it from anchovy-based fish sauces like nam pla? The method of making it (fermenting whole fish for a long time) seems fairly similar.

Niksko 5y ago
Very similar I'd say. Temperature, fish variety, small changes in method or salt content, all of these likely change the end product. But it's fundamentally the same set of reactions.

MichaelMoser123 5y ago

In Russia they have salted fish - Balyk and Vobla. Never salted it myself, but I didn't find the result too offputting either; it goes well with beer.

krisoft 5y ago
The russian salted fish appears to be very different from garum. With Balyk you salt the fish-flesh to make it dry out and to conserve it. Then you eat the dry fish. Do i see that right? With garum you salt the fish to drive a fishy liquid out of it then you ferment this liquid. The end product is the fermented fish-juice which is used as a condiment. Both involves fish and salt but they appear to be very different beasts. About how offputing garum is: obviously it wasn’t offputting for the romans. They consumed huge ammounts of it. That doesn’t necessarily means that the production wasn’t offputting. After all it is basically letting a pile of fish rot in a controlled manner. By all accounts i have read they produced it at industrial scale outside of the cities not in people’s homes. The other problem one might run into is that the exact art of the process needs reverse engineering. Imagine if all you would read about cheese making is a few paragraphs. Further imagine that you have never eaten cheese nor you know anyone who has ever did. Good luck figuring out where to start making chesse, let alone if what you got at the end is good cheese. This means that while real garum was definietly not offputting to romans, the process of experimenting with producing it now might be. And at the end you might end up with something weird and you won’t know if you just haven’t acquired a taste for it, or if perhaps it went off so badly that not even a roman would consume it.

bitcurious 5y ago

> The idea that you can't make garrum at home in the traditional way (salt, fish, time) is false. When I researched this question maybe 8 years ago, the technique was well understood. The outstanding question was which fish was used for this historically, and back then there were a few contenders. Has this since been settled or did you just pick one?