{{Short description|Historical fermented fish sauce}} {{Redirect|Garon|the name|Garon (surname)}} [[File:Garumamphoren.JPG|thumb|upright|Garum amphorae from Pompeii]]
'''Garum''' is a fermented fish sauce that was used as a condiment<ref>(R. Zahn), ''Real-Encyclopaedia der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft'', s.v. "Garum", 1st Series '''7''' (1912) pp. 841–849.</ref> in the cuisines of Phoenicia,<ref>{{cite web |first=Ruth |last=Schuster |date=December 16, 2019 |url=https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2019-12-16/ty-article-magazine/.premium/ancient-roman-garum-factory-found-in-israel-suitably-far-away-from-town/0000017f-eff3-d223-a97f-efff95540000 |title=Ancient Roman Garum Factory Found in Israel, Suitably Far Away from Town |website=Haaretz |access-date=February 7, 2021}}</ref> ancient Greece, Rome,<ref>{{cite web |first=Ashlie D. |last=Stevens |date=February 7, 2021 |url=https://www.salon.com/2021/02/07/garum-the-funky-and-fishy-condiment-that-rose-and-fell-with-the-roman-empire/ |title=Garum, the Funky and Fishy Condiment that Rose and Fell with the Roman Empire |website=Salon |access-date=February 8, 2021}}</ref> 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 Greeks.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization |last=Miles |first=Richard |publisher=Viking Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780670022663 |edition=1st American |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kCrumgEACAAJ |lccn=2011004123 |author-link=Richard Miles (historian)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=A Roman Anchovy's Tale |journal=Gastronomica |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica/article/3/2/25/46650/A-Roman-Anchovy-s-Tale |last=Downie |first=David |date=2003-05-01 |issue=2 |volume=3 |pages=25–28 |publisher=University of California Press |doi=10.1525/gfc.2003.3.2.25 |issn=1529-3262|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The taste of garum is thought to have been comparable to that of today's Asian fish sauces.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Magness |first=Jodi |title=Jerusalem through the ages: from its beginnings to the Crusades |date=2024 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-093780-5 |location=New York, NY |pages=355}}</ref>
Like modern fermented fish sauce and soy sauce, garum was a rich source of umami flavoring due to the presence of glutamates.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HTqyTrJmVQC&q=garum%20monosodium%20glutamate&pg=PA296|title=Food and Foodways of Medieval Cairenes: Aspects of Life in an Islamic Metropolis of the Eastern Mediterranean|last1=Lewicka, Paulina|date=2011-08-25|isbn=9789004194724|page=296|publisher=Brill }}</ref> It was used along with murri in medieval Byzantine and Arab cuisine to give a savory flavor to dishes.<ref>{{Citation|last=Perry|first=Charles|title=The Soy Sauce That Wasn't|date=October 31, 2001|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-oct-31-fo-63688-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=12 January 2020}}</ref> Murri may derive from garum.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Wilder Shores of Gastronomy: Twenty Years of the Best Food Writing from the Journal Petits Propos Culinaires|last1=Davidson|first1=Alan|last2=Saberi|first2=Helen|last3=McGee|first3=Harold|publisher=Ten Speed Press|year=2002|isbn=978-1-580-08417-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/wildershoresofga00davi/page/358 358–360]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/wildershoresofga00davi/page/358}}</ref>
==Manufacture and export==
Pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville derive the Latin word {{lang|la|garum}} from the Greek {{lang|grc|γάρος}} ({{Transliteration|grc|gáros}}),<ref>''Origines'' 20.3.19; {{cite journal |last=Corcoran |first=Thomas H. |title=Roman Fish Sauces |journal=Classical Journal |volume=58 |issue=5 |pages=204–210 |year=1963 |jstor=3295259 |postscript=none}}, citing D'Arcy W. Thompson, ''A Glossary of Greek Fishes'' (London, 1947), p. 43.</ref> a food named by Aristophanes, Sophocles, and Aeschylus. '''Garos''' may have been a type of fish, or a fish sauce similar to garum.<ref name="Smith1998">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Andrew F. |editor=Walker, Harlan |chapter=From Garum to Ketchup. A Spicy Tale of Two Fish Sauces |title=Fish: Food from the Waters |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mPS0tH02IDUC&pg=PA299 |year=1998 |publisher=Oxford Symposium |isbn=978-0-907325-89-5 |pages=299–306}}</ref> Pliny stated that garum was made from fish intestines, with salt, creating a liquor, the garum, and the fish paste named (h)allec or allex (similar to {{lang|fil|bagoong}}, this paste was a byproduct of fish sauce production).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Curtis |first1=Robert Irvin |title=Garum and Salsamenta: Production and Commerce in Materia Medica |date=1991 |publisher=Brill |page=22 |isbn=9789004377264 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2d9DwAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref name=Smith1998/> A concentrated garum evaporated down to a thick paste with salt crystals was called muria;<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Roman fish sauce. An experiment in archaeology |editor=Saberi, Helen |title=Cured, Smoked, and Fermented: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTxvBQAAQBAJ |publisher=Prospect Books, Oxford Symposium, 2011 |date=2011 |page=121 |isbn=9781903018859}}</ref> it would have been used to salt and flavor foods.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://coquinaria.nl/en/roman-fish-sauce/|title=Recipe for Garum or liquamen, the Roman fish sauce|last=Muusers|first=Christianne|website=Coquinaria|access-date=2017-10-11}}</ref>
The 10th-century Byzantine manual ''Geōponika (Agricultural Pursuits)'' includes the following recipe for ''liquamen'':<ref>''Geōponika: Agricultural pursuits,'' Vol. II, pp. 299–300; translated from the Greek by Thomas Owen; London 1806.</ref> {{blockquote|What is called ''liquamen'' is thus made: the intestines of fish are thrown into a vessel, and are salted; and small fish, especially ''atherinae'', or small mullets, or ''maenae,'' or ''lycostomi,'' or any small fish, are all salted in the same manner; and they are seasoned in the sun, and frequently turned; and when they have been seasoned in the heat, the ''garum'' is thus taken from them. A small basket of close texture is laid in the vessel filled with the small fish already mentioned, and the ''garum'' will flow into the basket; and they take up what has been percolated through the basket, which is called ''liquamen;'' and the remainder of the feculence is made into ''allec''.}}
[[File:Factoría de salazones 001.jpg|thumb|Ruins of a garum factory in Baelo Claudia in Spain]] 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 {{lang|la|allec}}, were used by the poorest classes to flavor their staple porridge or farinata. The finished product—the {{lang|la|nobile garum}} of Martial's epigram<ref>Martial, ''Epigrams'' 13.</ref>—was apparently mild and subtle in flavor. The best garum fetched extraordinarily high prices,<ref>Toussaint-Samat, ''The History of Food'', revised ed. 2009, p. 338f.</ref>{{better source needed|reason=TS is full of poorly sourced material|date=July 2021}} and salt could be substituted for it in a simpler dish. Garum appears in many recipes featured in the Roman cookbook {{lang|la|Apicius}}. For example, Apicius (8.6.2–3) mentions garum being used as fish stock to flavor chopped mallow leaves fried in a skillet.<ref>''The Roman Cookery Book'', trans. Flower and Rosenbaum, pp. 188–89.</ref><ref>Apicius, ''De Re Coquinaria'' (Book III, section [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Apicius/3*.html#VIII VIII])</ref>
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''.<ref name=Curtis1983>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3297180 | jstor=3297180 | last1=Curtis | first1=Robert I. | title=In Defense of Garum | journal=The Classical Journal | year=1983 | volume=78 | issue=3 | pages=232–240 }}</ref> The available evidence suggests that the sauce was typically made by crushing the innards of (fatty) pelagic fishes—particularly anchovies, but also sprats, sardines, mackerel, or tuna—and then fermenting them in brine.<ref>Curtis RI (2009) [http://www.ajcn.org/contvent/90/3/712S.full "Umami and the foods of classical antiquity"] ''American Journal of Clinical Nutrition'', '''90''' (3): 712S–718S. {{doi|10.3945/ajcn.2009.27462C}}</ref><ref>Grainger S (2006) [https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=HflTVd898PAC&oi=fnd&pg=PT206&dq=garum+anchovy|anchovies&ots=HWlEvhc5IW&sig=CnqmVP-MpJ8wPY7ZQTxZGczrlmE#v=onepage&q=garum%20anchovy|anchovies&f=false "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. {{ISBN|9781903018477}}.</ref><ref>Jashemski WMF and Meyer FG (2002) [https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3xfjyTqqR7IC&oi=fnd&pg=PA274&dq=garum+anchovy|anchovies&ots=sL1KD-Lixc&sig=mqwv_vndkjQULDyLSOBKrnVj3pU#v=onepage&q=garum%20anchovy|anchovies&f=false ''The Natural History of Pompeii''] Cambridge University Press, page 274. {{ISBN|9780521800549}}.</ref><ref>Zaret, PM (2004) [http://cooks.aadl.org/files/cooks/repast/2004_Fall.pdf Liquamen and other fish sauces"] ''Repast'', '''20''' (4) : 3–4 and 8.</ref> In most surviving ''tituli picti'' inscribed on amphorae, where the fish ingredient is shown, the fish is mackerel.<ref name="Curtis1983"/> Under the best conditions, the fermentation process took about 48 hours.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Aquerreta|first1=Yolanda|last2=Astiasarán|first2=Iciar|last3=Bello|first3=José|date=2002-01-01|title=Use of exogenous enzymes to elaborate the Roman fish sauce 'garum'|journal=Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture|language=en|volume=82|issue=1|pages=107–112|doi=10.1002/jsfa.1013|bibcode=2002JSFA...82..107A |issn=1097-0010}}</ref>
The manufacture and export of garum was an element of the prosperity of coastal Greek emporia from the Ligurian coast of Gaul to the coast of Hispania Baetica, and perhaps an impetus for Roman penetration of these coastal regions.<ref name="Toussaint-Samat 2009">Toussaint-Samat (2009).</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/factory-for-romans-favorite-funky-fish-sauce-discovered-near-ashkelon/|title=Factory for Romans' favorite funky fish sauce discovered near Ashkelon|first=Amanda|last=Borschel-Dan|date=16 December 2019|website=The Times of Israel|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-18 |issn=0040-7909}}</ref><!-- let's find a better source--> A 2013 storm uncovered Neapolis, a major center of garum production, at Nabeul in Tunisia.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Day |first1=Joel |title=Archaeology breakthrough after storm uncovered lost ancient Roman city on Tunisian coast |url=https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1478573/archaeology-news-astounded-storm-strange-stones-ancient-roman-city-spt |website=Express.co.uk |language=en |date=19 August 2021}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite book | last = Marshak | first = Adam | title = The many faces of Herod the Great | publisher = William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company | location = Grand Rapids, Michigan | year = 2015 | page = 179 | isbn = 978-0802866059 }}</ref> In the ruins of Pompeii, jars were found containing ''kosher garum'',<ref>{{cite web |author=Harvey, Brian |title=Graffiti from Pompeii |url=http://www.pompeiana.org/resources/ancient/graffiti%20from%20pompeii.htm |quote=Herculaneum. Stamps on jars of garum. 2569: Kosher garum |access-date=2015-04-25 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303184129/http://www.pompeiana.org/resources/ancient/graffiti%20from%20pompeii.htm |url-status=usurped }}</ref> suggesting an equal popularity among Jews there.
thumb|Garum factory in Benalmádena 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".<ref name="Toussaint-Samat 2009" /> 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),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/arte/monumentos/cadiz/yacimiento-arqueologico-de-gadir.html |title=Gadir archaeological site |website=spain.info}}</ref> at Málaga under the Picasso museum, and at the Torremuelle site in Benalmádena.<ref>{{cite web |last=García |first=José Carlos |date=22 October 2025 |title=Benalmádena to invest 845,000 euros to make Roman salting factory accessible to visitors |url=https://www.surinenglish.com/malaga/benalmadena-torremolinos/benalmadena-invest-845000-euros-making-the-torremuelle-20251022071645-nt.html |work=Sur in English |access-date=7 February 2026}}</ref>
thumb|upright|Ancient Roman garum factory in Portugal 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.<ref>Millennium bcp Foundation, Rua dos Correeiros 21 [http://ind.millenniumbcp.pt/en/Institucional/fundacao/Pages/fundacao_NARC.aspx Fundação Millennium bcp—Núcleo Arqueológico]</ref> Fossae Marianae in southern Gaul, located on the southern tip of present-day France, served as a distribution hub for Western Europe, including Gaul, Germania, and Roman Britain.<ref name="Spanish">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.</ref> Garum factories were also located in the province of Mauretania Tingitana (modern Morocco), for example at Cotta and Lixus.<ref name="blacksea">{{Cite book|last1=Trakadas|first1=Athena|editor-last=Bekker-Nielsen|editor-first=Tonnes|title=Ancient Fishing and Fish Processing in the Black Sea Region|url=https://www.academia.edu/952713|series=Black Sea Studies 2|place=Aarhus|publisher=Aarhus University Press|date=2005|chapter=The Archaeological Evidence for Fish Processing in the Western Mediterranean|volume=110 |issue=3 |pages=64–66}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite web |last=Lorenzi |first=Rossella |url=http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/29/pompeii-fish-sauce.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127122522/http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/29/pompeii-fish-sauce.html |archive-date=November 27, 2012 |title=Fish Sauce Used to Date Pompeii Eruption |website=Discovery|date=2017-05-10 }}</ref>
==Cuisine== [[File:Garum Mosaik Pompeji.JPG|thumb|upright|Mosaic depicting a "Flower of Garum" jug with a ''titulus'' reading "from the workshop of the garum importer Aulus Umbricius Scaurus"<ref>G(ari) F(los) SCOM(bri) SCAURI EX OFFI(ci)NA SCAURI, from Pompeii</ref>]]
When mixed with ''oenogarum'' (a popular wine-based Byzantine sauce), vinegar, black pepper, or oil, garum enhanced the flavor of a wide variety of dishes, including boiled veal and steamed mussels, even pear-and-honey soufflé. Diluted with water (''hydrogarum'') it was distributed to Roman legions. Pliny (d. 79) remarked in his ''Natural History'' that it could be diluted to the colour of honey wine and drunk.<ref>Pliny, ''Historia Naturalis'' 13.93.</ref>
==Social aspects==
''Garum'' had a social dimension that might be compared to that of garlic in some modern Western societies, or to the adoption of fish sauce in Vietnamese cuisine (called ''nước mắm'' there).<ref name=Curtis1983 /> Seneca, holding the old-fashioned line against the expensive craze, cautioned against it, even though his family was from Baetian Corduba:
{{blockquote|text=Do you not realize that ''garum sociorum'', that expensive bloody mass of decayed fish, consumes the stomach with its salted putrefaction?|sign=Seneca|source=''Epistle'' 95.}}
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.<ref name=Curtis1983 />
The biological anthropologist Piers Mitchell suggests that garum may have helped spread fish tapeworms across Europe.<ref name="Tapeworms">{{cite journal |last=Mitchell |first=Piers D. |year=2017 |title=Human parasites in the Roman World: health consequences of conquering an empire |journal=Parasitology |volume=144 |issue=1 |pages=48–58 |doi=10.1017/S0031182015001651 |pmid=26741568 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
== As medicine == Garum was also employed as a medicine. It was thought to be one of the best cures for many ailments, including dog bites, dysentery, and ulcers, and to ease chronic diarrhea and treat constipation. Garum was even used as an ingredient in cosmetics and for removal of unwanted hair and freckles.<ref name = Medicine>{{cite journal |last=Curtis |first=Robert I. |year=1984 |title=Salted Fish Products in Ancient Medicine |journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=430–445 |jstor=24633198 |doi=10.1093/jhmas/39.4.430|pmid=6389686 }}</ref>
==Legacy== Garum remains of interest to food historians and chefs, and has been reintroduced into modern food preparation.<ref name="NPR">{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/10/26/240237774/fish-sauce-an-ancient-roman-condiment-rises-again|title=Fish Sauce: An Ancient Roman Condiment Rises Again|last1=Prichep|first1=Deena|date=26 October 2013|publisher=NPR|access-date=2 October 2016}}</ref> In Cádiz, Spain, in 2017, one chef used its flavors for a fish salad recipe, after Spanish archaeologists found evidence of garum in amphorae recovered in the ruins of Pompeii, dating to 79 AD.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20171011-the-ancient-condiment-that-came-back-from-the-dead|title=The ancient condiment that came back from the dead|last1=Valeri|first1=Salvatore|last2=Bika|first2=Koldo|date=12 October 2017|website=BBC|access-date=14 October 2017}}</ref>
Garum is believed to be the ancestor of the fermented anchovy sauce ''colatura di alici'', still produced in Campania, Italy,<ref name="NPR" /> as well as the fermented anchovy and sardine paste ''pissalat'' in the Nice region, France.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://fermentology.pubpub.org/pub/h0khkmbv |title=The Story of Garum: Roman Fish Sauce in a Modern Context |date=2021-01-21 |access-date=2023-07-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629174025/https://fermentology.pubpub.org/pub/h0khkmbv/release/1 |archive-date=2023-06-29 |url-status=live |journal=Fermentology |last=Grainger |first=Sally |publisher=NC State University Libraries |editor-last=Gannon |editor-first=Kathryn |doi=10.52750/793108 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
==See also== {{portal|Food}} * List of ancient dishes * List of fish sauces * Fermented fish * Other historic sauces: ** Cameline sauce ** Murri (condiment)
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{commons category|Garum}} * [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/garum.html Garum], in James Grout's ''Encyclopædia Romana''
{{Fish sauce}} {{seafood}} {{Ancient Rome topics}}
Category:Fish sauces Category:Fermented fish Category:Roman fish processing Category:Food in ancient Rome Category:Byzantine cuisine Category:Umami enhancers Category:Fish products Category:Ancient Greek cuisine Category:Ancient dishes