Explanation: Romans had a taste for garum, fermented fish paste. They put it on everything - bread, meat, fruit, even in their wine! Garum was considered so vital that it was a part of many slaves’ rations; and while low-quality garum was everywhere, high quality garum, like high-quality wine, could go for truly exorbitant prices - some garum off the coast of modern Portugal went for 1000 sestercii for a gallon and a half - over a year’s wages for a common worker!
It’s easy to think how ridiculous that price sounds until you realize there are plenty of similar examples in this day and age. Take wine for instance. Though, the expensive stuff is usually ages wine, but still.
Yeah, it’s like paying $20k for a bottle of wine. On one hand, ridiculous. On the other hand, very much a thing that still happens!
Fermented fish guts, but I suppose fermentation is just rotting with style.
I put modern fish sauce in all kinds of things, so I get it. 塩辛 Shiokara is also a popular food here and it’s fermented seafood parts/guts (squid is most popular, but it could be anything, I think).
I just have to shamelessly plug the two episodes of Tasting History with Max Miller - one where he makes ‘quick garum’ and one where he does the traditional slow-fermentation method.
He also makes several recipes with it!
He’s amazing. I love that he does the context and style but also the “ehhh this will get you close” substitutions. I can’t recall a specific recipie, but I know there’s plenty where he goes “I spent way to much on this for this ingredient, and it wasn’t worth it” VS. “OK, you can get by but this is absolutely worth finding”.
With the time and continent jumps he’s done, I’ve definitely added some weird flare to my cooking there’s no way I would have on my own.
What’s this from?
Barbarians, Season 1.
Season 1 was good - Season 2 was awful.
It started out so strong, but ended up going too fast imo. I feel like the first season should have just been him turning against Rome, then season 2 should have been moving against Rome and teutoburg
I just started my first batch of fish sauce from about 20 tilapia I raised about week ago after reading the art of fermentation
This is amazing
