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Garum

Garum

Garum was arguably the Roman’s favorite condiment. Made from rotted, fermented fish guts, it was a type of fish sauce produced across the empire. Ancient sources describe the different types of garum and how it was made.

The generic name GARUM is normally used to define a series of products of different composition and consistency, such as sauces and pastes obtained through fermentation in brine, through enzymes, part of fish or all of them.

 The picture of fish sauce that emerges from the ancient literature is complex. The ancient writers who discuss these products do so without the precision we need and often contradict each other sothat a precise understanding of which sauce corresponds to which recipe, production process or name is less than clear in Sally Grainger

The highly proteic garum enhanced the flavor and was very appreciated in classic times. It could be obtained from different types of fish - anchovies, mackerel, tuna, morays and others - which determined quality and price.

We tried to summarize in general terms the most common designations and what they correspond to, based on the works that can be accessed through the attached links.

Garum, liquamen and muria: a new approach to the problem of definition. Sally Grainger

In Search of Garum. The “Colatura d’alici” from the Amalfitan Coast
(Campania, Italy): an Heir of the Ancient Mediterranean Fermented Fish
Sauces. Alfredo Carannante, Claudio Giardino, Umberto Savarese

GARUM

Originally realized with a not well identified ichthyic species whose Greek name was garos (from which came the name of the sauce, garon, in Greek), the Roman garum was produced from different species of fish: Isidore states “ex infinito genere pisciorum”. However, many other species, among which morays, eels and grey mullets, were used to produce garum, sometimes realized through the fermentation of different species together. 

NIGRUM - BLACK GARUM

The best garum nigrum was produced from mackerel (Scomber scombrus Linnaeus 1758)

SOCIORUM

In the 1st century A.D. the garum sociorum, produced in Spain from the maceration of mackerel, was considered the best garum. Its cost was comparable only to that of the best perfumes (with a thousand sesterces you got two congi, equivalent to about six liters). Marcus Valerius Martialis (1st centuryA.D.) praises the luxury of the garum produced from the first blood spurted from mackerel just slaughtered, considered a particularly luxurious and appreciated present.

MURIA

The muria was produced from tuna (Thunnus thynnus Linnaeus 1758), but also anchovies (Engraulis encrasicolus Linnaeus 1758) were at the basis of a valuable kind of garum.

BUZZONAGLIA

Other times the garum was produced only with fish entrails, such as those of the tuna, mixing some entrails with blood and the fat abdominal fascia, the so-called “buzzonaglia". The origin of this product might be traced back in the recycling of fish rejects such as entrails, blood and fat parts, and whole smaller fish which were more difficult to keep.

FLOS GARI LÍMPIDO & LIQUAMEN GARI

The quality of the garum derived not only from the species and the parts used, but also from the filtering process. At the end of the maceration, in fact, the garum was filtered through baskets and different qualities were obtained: the limpid flos gari (“flower” of garum) obtained from the first filtered liquid and the liquamen gari, less valuable liquid part, with solid elements, obtained from the filtering of the roughest deposits.

LINQUAMEN

The general product made from preserving fish with salt. Later becomes interchangeable in word use with liquamen. Earlier sources indicate that this particular classification was made from blood and innards of larger fish, such as tuna and mackerel.

In Apicius, liquamen is the universal term for the primary fish sauce and even when we find garum, with two exceptions, it is part of a compoundterm directly transliterated from the Greek : όıνογαρον (oenogaron = oenogarum) and therefore referring to the original whole fish sauce.

FLOS FLOS GARI

Besides those two qualities ( Flos Gari e Linqumen) another one must be added: the “flos flos gari”, “the cream”, whose origin and the species used, usually mackerel or tuna, were always specified.

ALEC

The paste collected in the filters, often containing fish bones, was called allec (with the variations of hallec, hallex o allex), word which originally meant “putrefaction” or “dregs”, and represented the worst product often given to the slaves as companage. The allec, however, could also derive from the production of the best qualities of garum; in this case, the product resulting from the filtering after the maceration of the entrails, blood, or chosen pieces of mackerel or tuna, was considered valuable and was served seasoned with salt and pepper, wine and carrots, to stimulate the appetite before meals.
Moreover, there were luxurious variations of allec, produced from oysters, eggs of sea-urchin, sea anemones and mullet livers.

GARUM WITH INGREDIENTS

The best garum was obtained without adding other ingredients, but there were several varieties obtained adding vinegar (oxygarum), oil (oleogarum), wine (oenogarum), water (hydrogarum), honey (melligarum / mellogarum)

Apicius, in his famous treatise about cuisine, gives a recipe of oenogarum to dress tubers, composed by spices, liquamen, honey and little oil, and another recipe of oxygarum used as a digestive sauce, composed by a mixture of spices kneaded with honey and diluted with liquamen and vinegar.

OXYGARUM

adding vinegar

OLEOGARUM

adding oil

OENOGARUM

adding wine

HYDROGARUM

adding water

MELLIGARUM/MELLOGARUM

adding honey

"Colatura d’alici"

Today in the village of Cetara, on the Amalfitan Coast, a fish sauce which presents strong resemblances with the ancient garum is produced: the “colatura d’alici” whose name means “filtering of anchovies”. The “colatura” is an amber-coloured liquid obtained from the process of maceration of the anchovies under salt.

HAIMATION

In the first centuries of our era the production and the commerce of garum were important elements for the economy; after the Roman Empire fall the economical scenery in the Mediterranean changed. Nevertheless, the production on small scale of pickle fish continued with different destinies as it can be seen in all the cultural realities heirs of the Romans.

In Byzantium, in the 10th century, the Geoponica, an important collection of books about agriculture promoted by Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (913-959 A.D.), were drawn up. In this work a recipe is given for the production of garum, significantly “in pot”: “Put in a container entrails of fish and small fish with salt and leave them in the sun mixing frequently. When the pickle has been obtained filter everything in a basket, where the solid part, the allec, remains. Those who want to use this garum soon without leaving it in the sun, can boil it filtering carefully the pickle two or three times, until the filter is clean. The best granum is called “haimation” and it is made with tuna entrails, gills, serum and blood. They are left to ferment in the salt for about two months, in a pot. Then the pot is holed and the garum is stilled.”

MURRI

In the medieval Islamic cuisine although a lot recipes byApicius and a lot of cuisine from the Roman times were used, the garum was substituted by a new product widely mentioned by Iraqi gastronomes since the beginning of 9th century: the murri. The murri was very different from the garum: it was a powder of fish dried in the sun and salted, diluted in sweet wine with oregano and put in ferment in an oiled amphora with quince apples and pieces of onions. It also existed a kind of murri produced from toasted cereals, with a simpler and faster processing.

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selo de mar BOTTARGA - OVAS

Atlantic Wreckfish bottarga

Atlantic Wreckfish bottarga

Atlantic Wreckfish bottarga dehydrated in a controlled environment and coated with beeswax

Ingredients: Atlantic Wreckfish roe (96.5%), fleur de sel (1%)

Artisan product

Wild caught, Omega 3, contains no colouring nor conservative

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Garum Publications and papers

Roman Fish Sauce

Roman Fish Sauce: Fish Bones Residues and the Practicalities of Supply

SALLY GRAINGER
Timberua Glen road. Grayshott Hindhead. Surrey GU266NB, UK sallygrain@aol.com
(Received 2 November 2012; Revised 14 May 2013; Accepted 22 May 2013)

ABSTRACT: In this paper I will report on the results of experiments, conducted from 2009 through to 2011, to manufacture Roman fish sauce, using the ancient recipes. More specifical- ly, it will consider the nature of the fish sauce residue, known as allec, observe its formation and assess its qualities. The paper concludes that many shipwrecks currently identified as having transported amphorae that contained a salted fish product made from mackerel may in fact be shipping a semi processed fish sauce which will go on to produce a quality liquamen type sauce at its destination. This paper offers a new interpretation of the archaeological remains found in ancient transport amphorae and provides new insights into the commerce of processed fish products in the Roman Mediterranean.

RESUMEN: En este trabajo se exponen los resultados de experimentos realizados entre 2009 y 2011 para manufacturar salsas de pescado romano siguiendo las recetas antiguas. En concreto, se considerará la naturaleza del residuo de salsa de pescado conocido como allec, y se detalla- rán su génesis y sus características. El trabajo concluye que muchos pecios, actualmente rese- ñados como portadores de ánforas que contenían una salazón de caballas, podrían de hecho haber contenido una salsa de pescado a medio procesar que habría servido de base para produ- cir una salsa de calidad tipo liquamen en destino. Este trabajo ofrece por tanto una nueva inter- pretación de los restos arqueológicos de peces recuperados en antiguas ánforas de transporte al tiempo que proporciona nuevas perspectivas en torno al comercio de productos procesados de pescado en el Mediterráneo romano.

INTRODUCTION

In this paper I report on the results of experiments, conducted from 2009 through to 2011, to manufacture Roman fish sauce, using the ancient recipes. More specifically this study examines the nature of the fish sauce residue, known as allec, observes its formation and assesses its qualities. Currently, our ability to recognize evidence of fish sauce through its residues in the archaeological record is limited by a lack of basic empirical knowledge of the products themselves. Van Neer & Ervynck (2002: 208) consider that fish sauce can only be identified where «fish bones are present» which is clearly a limiting factor for fishbone specialists interested in finding fish sauce in the archaeological record. The fish sauce associated with these residues of bone is perceived to be of lower status, while the fish sauce of quality is understood to be a clear free-flowing liquid and therefore largely invisible in the archaeological record (Desse-Berset & Desse, 2000: 75). In archaeology, we also continue to consider garum as a luxury fish sauce, and refer to classical archaeologists such as Curtis who necessarily use ancient «elite» perspectives from Rome to define the sauces (Corcoran, 1962; Curtis, 1991, 2009). The archaeological evidence for fish sauce, however, provides the sub-elite and even lower status perspective as the residues we find are largely identified as either the bulk commonplace sauce or the bony fish paste which is considered a slave ration. It has been difficult to reconcile and inte- grate the two worlds, the elite perspectives derived from literature and the lower status perspective from the archaeological record, to form a coherent picture of the ancient trade in fish sauce (Van Neer & Ervynck, 2002: 208). This paper offers a close study of the preparation of various fish sauces along with their residues in order to offer a new interpretation of the archaeological remains found in ancient transport amphorae and to understand more clearly Roman commerce of processed fish products1.

My approach has been multi disciplinary exam- ining and analyzing information from a variety of sources: the archaeological record for processing sites, the amphorae trade and the fish bone studies from ship wrecks and urban deposits, as well as ancient and modern literature pertaining to fish sauce production and use. My backgrounds are ideally suited to this study as I am a trained chef, have an ancient history degree, a published Roman food historian with a specialty in the Apicius recipe text where fish sauce is a commonplace ingredient, and I am trained in archaeology, having earned a MA in this discipline (Dalby & Grainger, 1996; Grainger, 2006; Grocock & Grainger, 2006). Thus I was able to integrate all the available evidence for fish sauce, both ancient and modern, in order to attempt to answer some of the more perplexing questions about this product and how it was traded.

1 My research forms part of a MA dissertation on fish sauce conducted at Reading University.

FISH SAUCE: THE BASICS

Both ancient and modern fish sauce is a liquid derived from the maceration and liquefaction of whole fish with salt. The process is known as enzyme hydrolysis. The enzymes are present in the viscera in large quantities, particularly the liver and spleen, and it is their action that converts the solid protein in the muscle tissue into amino acids and peptides dissolvable in the water (Mciver et al., 1982: 1017; Curtis, 2009: 712). The «sauce» is effectively the water contained within the fish, enriched with protein, as well as additional brine which takes on the same characteristics. The protein causes the fluid to be stained in various shades of yellow to brown. The sauces are often considered fermented, but, strictly speaking, fermentation requires bacterial action in relatively low salt conditions which are not mentioned in the ancient recipes (Owens & Mendoza, 1985: 273). There are various methods employed by modern South East Asian manufacturers which we find mirrored in the ancient recipes. The small Clupeidae and Sparidae commonly used are either, on a small scale, contained in sealed vessels, or, on a large scale, covered in concrete-lined tanks, which expose the product to the heat of the sun and some evaporation. Sometimes the fish are compressed in sealed barrels, which allow the fluid to drain from the bottom of the vessel while the residue remains intact. This compressed residue is then re-brined, often many times to extract all the potential nutrients before the residue is finally discarded or used for fertilizer, in contrast to ancient fish sauce residues which are used as another food source. Modern fish sauce is also produced in levels of salt considered excessive, 25-40% by weight. These levels of salt, which are acceptable in South East Asia, actually reduce enzyme activity and there- fore the potential nutritional value of the sauces (Crisan & Sands, 1975: 106; Lopetcharat, 2001: 65-68).

Ancient recipes for fish sauce survive in late Imperial Greek and Latin texts, though they are considered problematic for many reasons. The key text, the manuscript of the Geoponica is from Greek-speaking Byzantium and has been consid- ered too far removed in time from the manufacture of fish sauce envisioned in the western Mediterranean of the 1st century AD to be considered accurate (Comis & Re, 2009: 35). It is rarely suffi- ciently acknowledged, however, that fish sauces were Greek in origin in terms of the textual evidence, and their origins geographically were obscure 2. The cuisine we think of as Roman was originally devised and initially recorded in Greek texts during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. It subsequently spread and became an international Mediterranean cuisine rather than simply «Roman». Nevertheless, there remained key differences between the two culinary cultures, while, at the same time, a complex linguistic culinary crossover developed3. In fact, it is recognized in classical studies that the knowledge associated with all practical preparations was predominantly of Greek origin and found in veterinary, medicinal and culinary literature. The Romans in the western Mediterranean did not value practical skills and considered the labour associated with preparing fish sauce as demeaning, and, therefore, frequent- ly relied on the skills of Greek practitioners (Cicero de off. 1.150; Adams, 1995: 1-209; Dalby, 1996: 179; Grant, 2000: 3). The Geoponica was a farming manual preserved in a 10th century AD manuscript but containing material dated to the 6th century AD. It has recently been re-evaluated and correctly recognized as a manual preserving knowledge from the agricultural tradition of the entire Roman period rather than from the later periods and as such would, in fact, provide a reli- able account of fish sauce manufacture (Dalby, 2011: 13).

2 The process itself has either been attributed to Greeks via colonies in the Black Sea or a Phoenico-Punic one in Spain (Trakadas, 2004: 47).

3 The language of the kitchen was Greek in the same way as French dominated the professional kitchen of 19th/20th century. Cooking as a skill was dominated by Greek speaking/under- standing Romans who might be bilingual in the kitchen but not elsewhere and many terms were simply transliterated and a «culinary syntheses» emerged (Dalby,1996: 179).

There are three recipes that survive in the literature: two in the Geoponica, and one attributed to Gargilius Martialis, a 3rd century AD Latin writer. This text, however, is considered a medieval gloss and is not included in the recent Les belle Lettres series. It is also clear that a number of ingredients listed in the recipe were unavailable in Roman times, and, as a result, it is far less reliable in illustrating classical Roman practices (Curtis, 1984: 148; Maire, 2002). The texts are sited in full in the appendix. The recipes suggest that two basic types of sauce existed, though many different species of fish and different methods were used.

1 A mixture of small whole fish of the Clupeidae and Sparidae families considered small enough with the addition of extra viscera from other fish and salt added, allowing the mixture to liquefy in the sun until pickled. Liquid is then taken when the sauce flows through a basket and can be ladled out (Geo- ponica). This is a liquamen in Latin and garon in Greek4.

2 A mixture of somewhat larger fish, dominated by Scombridae as well as Clupeidae and Sparidae. These are cut up with salt and also the residue from previous fish sauce production known as allec 5 added. Apparently, no additional viscera was needed. Extra liquid (wine) could be used. This is pickled for 2-3 months (Geoponica). This is also liquamen in Latin and garon in Greek.

3 A similar variety of fish but the whole process is made in a sealed vessel and on a smaller scale (Gargilius Martialis). This is liquamen.

4 A quick and clearly domestic method where whole fish are boiled in brine until all flavour and nutrients are transferred to the liquid. The mixture is then fully strained (Geoponi- ca). This is also liquamen in Latin and garon in Greek.

5  A luxury sauce made with viscera and blood from tuna (though clearly other fish, such as mackerel, were used) and salt. This is allowed to ferment for two months and then removed by piercing the vessel and the sauce flows out from below (Geoponica). This is garum in Latin and either garon haimation (bloody) or melan (black) in Greek (Galen: Kuhn, 1965: 637)6.

6 A fish brine derived from the salting of cleaned fish. This is also a type of fish sauce seasoning and was considered cheaper or more commonplace (Ausonius Epis.21). As a fish brine, it actually seems to have been val- ued too (Olsen & Sens, 2000: 159). This is muria in Latin and halma/yris in Greek. Some modern scholars also considered it a form of garum 7.

The recipes suggest that there were many different ways to make fish sauce. In fact, from a literary study, which will be published elsewhere, it is clear that there were multiple qualities of fish sauce and defining them in terms of expensive or cheap is too simple; each variety could exist in varying qualities. It is clear that the perception of the quality of the product consumed depended on so many factors: taste; the use(s) of the sauce as different sauces do seem to have different roles within the cuisine; choice; income; and the consumer’s social position and where he viewed him- self/ herself within the social order. The sauce considered an expensive garum made from just blood and viscera will not be further discussed here.

4 The term is later transliterated into garum and the distinction between the two terms depends on the apparent early use of garum and the apparent later Latin usage of liquamen (Ettienne, 2006: 6; Curtis, 2009: 713). It is clear, however, that liquamen had a distinct and separate meaning from garum in the 1st century AD which I believe was maintained into the late empire (Grainger, 2013 forthcoming).

5 Curtis (1984) believes this usage of allec refers to its other meaning as a generic term for small fish of the Clupeidae and Sparidae families. As anchovy is specifically named in this recipe, such a definition seems to me unfounded.

6 It is my belief that garos and garum are not in fact equivalent (liquamen is equivalent to garos, garos melan/haimation is equivalent to garum. For a detailed discussion of this theory see Grainger (2013 forthcoming). For other references to «bloody» and «black» garos see papyri: P. Anst. inv. no 44; Aetius 3.83.

7 I have elsewhere published that I doubt that these elite ref- erences to muria (Martial Epigrams 13.103) being a form of blood/viscera sauce, with reference to the use of tuna viscera in the Geoponica, are correct. It is unlikely that tuna would make a whole-fish sauce but rather a blood/viscera sauce or a brine as a secondary product from salted fish (Grainger 2010: 25; Grainger, 2013, forthcoming). But see Corcoran (1963: 206) and Studer (1994: 195) for a different view.

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR FISH SAUCE: THE FISH BONE REMAINS

The apparent residues of an ancient fish sauce have been found throughout the Roman Mediterranean, northern Europe and Roman Britain in the form of large amounts of discarded small-fish bones. The most important sites are listed in Table 1. The bones were dominated by poorly preserved small Clupeidae and Sparidae, 5-20 cm in length (Van Neer & Ervynck, 2002: 208). These residues were often inside or near the discarded amphorae, at ports or trading sites in the Mediterranean where the sauces were processed or sold. They were also identified inside the cetaria at processing sites in Southern Spain, North Africa and Portugal. These bone residues are generally interpreted as a form of allec, i.e., the fish sauce residue described in the Geoponica after the desirable sauce had been taken (Dalby, 2011: 349, l. 7). This was also considered a marketable product in its own right, i.e. a bony fish paste not unlike a gentlemen’s relish or pissalat with a potential market among the poor and slaves (Delaval & Poignant, 2007: 59-66). It has been pointed out by Van Neer & Ervynck (2002: 208) that it seems economically irrational to widely transport a residue which was perceived to be of low quality. The fish bone residues found at Masada that have been identified as allec by Cotton et al. (1996: 231) were derived from very small sardines (3-5 cm in length) from the Western Mediterranean, probably Spain, and, according to a passage in Pliny which will be discussed below, were identified as a luxury product traded into Palestine. These tiny bones may have been con- sumed along with the paste but I doubt such a product could have been considered elite or even remotely desirable. It is also important to note that the Geoponica actually states that the residue «makes allec» not that the residue is allec, which implies the bones were not an integral part of this product. Other examples of allec were derived from much more substantial Clupeidae and Spari- dae bones. Ultimately one has to imagine the bones being removed from the paste by the con- sumer as and when required which is not a simple procedure. Of course, had this in fact been the case, the bones would not be found in one discrete place, but rather would be distributed all over the archaeological record and be unrecognizable. It is only because the discarded bones have been found in large quantities that we can recognize them as some sort of fish sauce residue. It is not really clear what process was involved in discarding the sauce represented by the bones in or near amphorae. It has been suggested that spoilage of the sauce caused these events but this does not seem to be an adequate explanation for all the evi- dence (Hamilton-Dyer, 2001: 4).

Urban sites
• Saltsberg Clupeidae and Sparidae 4-12 cm (Lepsikaar, 1986)
• Masada Clupeidae 4-5 cm (Cotton et al., 1996)
• Cerro del Mar, Málaga multiple samples including Clupeidae and Sparidae 10-20 cm (Driesch, 1980) • Olbia 1 Clupeidae and Sparidae 15-20 cm (Bruschi & Wilkins, 1996; Dellusi & Wilkins, 2000)
• Olbia 2 Clupeidae and Sparidae 5-10 cm (Bruschi & Wilkins, 1996; Dellusi & Wilkins, 2000)
• London Peninsula house Sprattus sprattus and Clupea harengus – 8 cm (Bateman & Locker, 1982)
• York, Dorchester Sprattus sprattus and Clupea harengus 7-10 (Hamilton-Dyer, 2008)
• Tienen Clupeidae 5 cm (Van Neer et al., 2005)
• Setubal Clupeidae and Sparidae 8-19 cm (Desse-Berset & Desse, 2000)
Ship wrecks
• Randello c.300AD, Almagro 50, sardine 10-17 cm (Wheeler & Locker, 1984)

TABLE 1
Fish sauce residues considered allec from urban and shipwreck sites.

The ancient literature on allec is very confusing and therefore needs to be re-examined. Pliny the Elder is the text most often cited:

«Allec is the sediment of garum, the dregs neither strained nor whole. It has, however, begun to be made separately from tiny fish, otherwise of no use. The Romans call it apua, the Greeks aphye, because this tiny fish is bred out of rain. …….. Then allex became a luxury and its various kinds have come to be innumerable…… Thus allex has come to be made from oysters, sea urchins, sea anemones, and mullet’s liver, and salt to be cor- rupted in numberless ways so as to suit all palates».

Pliny the Elder HN. 31.96

The passage is neutral about the value of allec made from «apua» and the luxury tag is only really associated with the bone-free fish pastes made from sea food such as sea urchins and oysters. The evidence from amphorae tituli picti and elite literary references also make it clear that, in fact, the best fish sauces was made specifically from mackerel. We may assume that the best allec would have been derived from this meaty fish too. Curtis (1991: 195) records one tituli picti designating the allec from mackerel.
The artisanal fish paste known as pissalat made in the region of France between Nice and Marseille was made from anchovies of various sizes. The bones were not removed from those tiny anchovies used to make pissalat in Antibes, Figure 1; «Born of rain» seems particularly apt (Delaval & Poignant, 2007: 62). I had a conversation with an artisanal pissalat maker at a Nice market who told me that, if the sardines are any bigger, the bones are sieved out. It seems clear that the reference by Pliny to allec becoming a luxury was not concerned with fish sauce or its residue at all. Rather, this allec that was a smooth fish paste did not generate a sauce. The nutrients were retained in the paste, it did not hydrolyze into a liquid, and the bones were sieved out while the fish were soft but not dissolved. It appears that the most commonplace and non-elite fish sauce that we know was traded so widely was in fact represented by bones from the Clupeidae and Sparidae family in a 5-20 cm size range, as noted by Desse-Berset & Desse (2000: 91), and which, in fact, we find associated with amphorae across the Roman Empire and at processing sites.

The evidence for the best fish sauce made exclusively from mackerel has not been easy to find. There is, however, extensive evidence from imperial Roman shipwrecks for the transporting of mackerel stored in amphorae that, though appearing to be designed for a liquid fish sauce, have been identified as transporting a salted Spanish mackerel. The shipwreck sites are listed in Table 2. The identification of the product as salted fish has been largely due to the comparatively large size of the Spanish mackerel and other Clupeidae and Sparidae when compared to those associated withallec, and to the extremely high quality of its preservation (Desse-Berset & Desse, 2000: 91). The theory has been that a fish sauce product would result in fragmentary bone, and this, in fact, does seem to be the case in some of the land-based evidence for allec. All the shipwreck bone evidence, however, is quite unique in being so well-preserved, and this may be due to the specific anti-bacterial environmental conditions of the sea.

FIGURE 1 Sardine used to make pissalat which are aptly described as «born of rain» by Pliny (HN 61.95; Delaval & Poignant, 2007: 62).

page6image37990592

Sud Perduto II. Dressel 7/9, 1st Century AD, Scomber japonicus 40-48 cm (Parker, 1992: 1121; Desse- Berset, 1993: 343, Desse-Berset & Desse, 2000: 76-79)
Cape Bear III (Port Vendres) Dressel 12, Scomber japonicus 28-40 cm (Parker, 1992: 171; Desse-Berset & Desse, 2000: 80)
Port Vendres II Dressel 7, Scomber japonicus size unknown (Colls et al., 1977: 40-43; Parker, 1992: 331; García Vargas, 1998; Desse-Berset & Desse, 2000: 81)
St Gervaise III, Beltran 2b, Trachurus trachurus 40-50 cm (Parker, 1992: 373; Desse-Berset & Desse, 2000: 81)
Anse Gerbal (Port Vendres 1) c.325 AD, Almagro 50/51 Sardina pilchardus 22-25 cm (Parker, 1992: 874; Desse-Berset & Desse, 2000: 92)
Elba II (Chiessi), mid 1st century AD, Scomber japonicus 30 cm (Bruschi & Wilkins, 1996: 167; Dellusi & Wilkins, 2000)
Grado , 2nd century AD, Scomber japonicus 30 cm and Sardina pilchardus size unknown (Auriemma, 2000: 31-49; Dellusi & Wilkins, 2000: 53-65).
Cala Reale al Asinara, 4/5th century AD, Almagro 51, Sardina pilchardus size unknown (Dellusi & Wilkins, 2000; Desse-Berset & Desse, 2000).

TABLE 2 Ship wreck evidence currently considered salted fish.

Only one Roman shipwreck has been tentatively identified as carrying a fish sauce allec and that is Randello (see Table 1; Wheeler & Locker, 1984). This is due to the large number of fishes represented relative to the size of the amphora, and their very small size. There are two key shipwreck sites that require discussion. Grado, a 2nd century AD wreck in the northern Adriatic is exceptional in having large quantities of well-preserved mackerel and sardine bones in numerous different types of large African amphorae as well as small but empty amphorae with a tituli picti stating the product as a liq(uamen) Flos. The bones are currently identified as a salted fish (Auriemma, 2000: 31-49; Dellusu & Wilkens, 2000: 53-65). The 1st century AD wreck at Cape Bear III at Port Vendres contained Dressel 12 amphorae, and the mackerel apparently transported in them were up to 40 cm in length. I do not think it is possible for mackerel this large to be put inside such an amphora even in pieces: it would have been impossible to get them in or get them out as can be seen from their shape (Desse-Berset & Desse, 2000: 79-81).

The Dressel 12 amphorae (Figure 2) are clearly a liquid container and it is my contention that these shipwrecks as well as many others transporting mackerel (or uniform Clupeidae and Sparidae of a similar nature) were actually carrying a form of mackerel allec.
I was unsure for what economic purpose this served until my experiments demonstrated the logic behind this practice.

http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/ view/amphora_ahrb_2005/drawings.cfm?id=67&CFID=2827207&CFTOKEN=41216567.

FIGURE 2 Dressel 12 amphora.

THE EXPERIMENTS

Over the last three years, I made 10 different sauces, sticking closely to the basic recipes but adjusting the variables each time in order to determine the perfect conditions required to maximise speed of liquefaction as well as nutritional and culinary quality in the bulk process indicated by the large cetaria (salting tanks) found in Southern Spain and North Africa. I processed my fish in a green house in fish tanks which allowed me to duplicate Mediterranean temperatures quite closely. Most of the data I used to determine these ideal conditions were based on an early observational study which was both complex and time-consuming to relate in detail here. The variables were as follows:

SALT LEVELS: These are stated to be 15% or 7 parts fish to 1 part salt in the Geoponica. The Gargilius recipe is estimated at 3:1 which is much closer to modern fish sauce salt levels and has also been demonstrated to reduce nutritional yield (Klomklao et al., 2006: 443).

PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF ADDITIONAL VISCERA: In one recipe, smaller fish were pickled with extra viscera, while the other two made no mention of additional viscera. As a bulk catch of Clupeidae and Sparidae could not sensibly be individually processed, this may suggest that the extra viscera was designed to aid the liquefaction process where the viscera cavity was not exposed.

PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF ADDITIONAL LIQUID: One Geoponica recipe calls for wine at a ratio of 1 fish to 2 wine. This was assumed to be a later stage in production, i.e. the oenogarum sauces mentioned in recipes (Grainger, 2007: 106) and also excessive. The other two recipes, however, made no mention of extra liquid.

FISH VARIETY AND SIZE: I used sprat (5-10 cm) caught and frozen on board ship, sardine (8-24 cm) caught the night before in Scottish waters and mackerel (25-35 cm) caught and salted by myself in the Solent near Portsmouth.

TEMPERATURE: The air temperature of the coastal regions around Cádiz and Gibraltar during the summer range from 15-35°C with an average midday temperature in June, July and August of 30°C. These temperatures were mirrored inside the green house over the duration of the experiments. The liquid temperature of the sauce during the hottest period of the day never reached above 20°C.

CLOSED OR OPEN VESSEL: If the vessel or salting tank was open to the sun, as suggested in the Geoponica, then evaporation will eventually result in a gradual reduction in volume. Either the
sauce was taken before this can happen or extra liquid was added.

OPEN OR CLOSED ABDOMINAL CAVITY: Small fish were left whole. From the Gargilius recipe, it appears that larger fish were cut into pieces, thus exposing the viscera. The Geoponica does not stipulate cutting but implies pieces by the instruction to kneed the fish with salt.

COOKING OR NOT: One of the suggested ways to make fish sauce was to boil the fish in brine and strain the liquor. The text made it clear that this was certainly a separate domestic and small-scale process and that fermentation and cooking were not combined in the bulk process. Modern fish sauce production considers that excessive heat destroys the enzymes that hydrolyse the protein (Geoponica 20.46; Klomklao et al., 2006: 444).

LENGTH OF PROCESSING TIME: The recipes in the Geoponica suggested 2-3 months for the whole fish sauce and 2 months for the blood and viscera sauce. A further Geoponica recipe did not stipulate a time limit, and the Gargilius Martialis recipe appeared to suggest just a few weeks.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS AFTER 3-YEAR OBSERVATION

The exposed and/or extra viscera initially maximized the brine yield. Without one or the other of these and ideally both, the yield of natural water from the fish was too small in volume to dissolve the salt, resulting in a crunchy fish mash. Similar findings were reported by Commis & Re (2009).

As I conjectured, the brine that was generated steadily evaporated, and the sauce yield was limited in the thick gray paste that formed. I lost up to 15% of volume over the first 2 weeks in the first sardine and sprat sauces. I found that when sufficient digesting enzyme activity was present (exposed and/or additional viscera), the skin begun to disappear in the liquid and the muscle tissue appeared to «explode in slow motion» within a few days, i.e. the tissue softened and separated into small particles which floated free within the liquid. This was what formed the dense paste. These particles could rapidly saturate the limited liquid that was present, and, when this happened no further disintegration could take place. It was the smallest fish that dissolved first, while the majority of larger sardine and mackerel pieces remained undissolved, most likely due to the lack of sufficient liquid for the process to take place. The ratio of extra liquid suggested in the Geoponica, (wine but brine was more likely) was 1 fish: 2 liquid. This seemed likely to dilute the sauce too much, and so early experiments used a reversal of this ratio, i.e. 2 fish: 1 brine in sauces with and without additional viscera. The process of disintegration restarted in this new liquid and the thick grey paste became an emulsion. Initially, the dark clear sauce emerged on the top of the tank, while the particles sank and merged with the remaining fish pieces. But as the process of stirring continued, this was reversed, and the particles rose to the surface causing the desirable sauce to be trapped underneath. It is con- jectured that the liquid had become enriched in protein as the density was increased, forcing the particles to float over the heavier liquid. At this point evaporation ceased.

The sauce made from sardines (8-24 cm), without the additional viscera but with 2 fish: 1 extra brine, generated a copious emulsion after three months of processing. At least 40% of the sardine in the 15-24 cm size range, however, remained structurally intact though the viscera cavity was eroded as can be seen in Figure 3.

FIGURE 3

Sardines over 15 cm after 3 months of fermentation with their cavity eroded but the majority of muscle tissue intact. This sauce had sufficient liquid but did not contain extra viscera and therefore did not have enough enzyme activity to dissolve the larger fish.

It was possible to re-brine this volume of remaining fish flesh and generate a second sauce which was by no means of second quality. In order to determine whether extra viscerae or more brine or both were necessary to ensure more of the fish were dissolved, an experiment was developed using a batch of mackerel sauce made with the fish cut into 3 pieces and with additional viscera at 10% and the original ratio of brine at 1 part fish to 2 parts brine.

This recipe resulted in a dramatic liquefaction. It took from one week to ten days to liquefy and disarticulate up to 8 kg of mackerel. This was clearly too fast, and, as it was accompanied by fairly rapid spoilage of the sauce in the following months, it was determined that this ratio of extra liquid resulted in a weak and unstable sauce. It also seemed likely that the manufacturer would not want to dilute the sauce in the early stages any more than necessary, particularly as a concentrated fish sauce would be more economical to transport. Further experiments using more viscera and a liquid ratio of 2:1 continued to leave 25-30% of the fish flesh un-liquefied. See Figure 4 for the bony allec from this mackerel sauce.

It seemed likely that the enzymes could not liquefy any more fish in these conditions. A ratio of 2 parts fish to 1 part brine with 10% extra viscera proved the most effective in producing a sauce efficiently liquefied with maximum nutrition while leaving sufficient remaining fish to generate a good second sauce. One may imagine that it would be highly profitable for fish sauce manufacturers to generate two equal sauces in terms of nutrition and taste from one batch of fish.

FIGURE 4

A residue (allec) of unliquefied mackerel, having been cut into pieces and processed with sufficient extra viscera and extra liquid to generate a saturated emulsion after 2 months fermentation.

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THE SAUCE ITSELF AND ITS NATURE

In ideal conditions of high enzyme activity (provided by the extra viscera, sufficient liquid, and heat), the cartilage is also digested by the enzyme action, and this results in complete disar- ticulation of the smaller fish skeletons (5-10 cm). In these ideal conditions, many of the larger pieces or whole fish still did not fully liquefy in the increased volume of fluid. All the fish pieces and disarticulated bone initially remain suspended if small and then fell to the bottom throughout the majority of the process. With an extended processing time (over 2 months), however, the sauce became so rich in protein that the density of the sauce increased. The bones and even large pieces of undissolved fish rose through the thick layer of fish particles to the surface. Prior to this while the bones were still largely at the bottom, the tank was full of a thick emulsion which could be easily removed with minimal bone contamination. This emulsion constituted the unfiltered sauce. I have been able to demonstrate through laboratory test- ing that the nutritional value of the final sauce was greatly improved by storage in this unfiltered state. After discussing this product with Robert Curtis, he agreed that this unfiltered sauce could well be identified with the tituli picti «flos». When these identifying labels signify flos flos or floris, it is possible that a filtered sauce, i.e a sauce derived from the flos («flower of the flower»), was intended, though we can also see from tituli picti that other ways to signify a filtered sauce were possi- ble [CIL 4.7110: liquamen optimum saccatum «the best filtered fish sauce»; Curtis (1991: 195), Grainger (2010: 69)]. Had this product been put directly into an amphora, it would continue to set- tle out with the desirable sauce in the base spike while the paste forms a plug near the top. Figure 5 shows a mackerel flos liquamen after it has settled.

Currently, I am experimenting with the possibility that this emulsion was diluted at this stage (with reference to common tituli picti for lymphatum) to reduce the specific gravity and cause the bone-free allec to settle into the spike and free up the sauce so it can be accessed. This would then constitute the bone-free allec valued as a fish paste.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BONES

When larger fish such as mackerel (20-40 cm) are used, I estimate that as much as 40% of the fish can remain undissolved and clearly constitute a potential second sauce. When smaller and very small fish (5-10 cm) are used such as Sprattus sprattus, the majority of the flesh is dissolved and the bones disarticulate, but the layer of bone is thick and rich in allec and able to generate a second sauce of lesser quality if diluted. In both scenarios, re-brining could occur either in situ or, as I would like to suggest, once the allec has been put into other amphorae. This would free up the processing tank for another batch of fish while they are in abundance during the summer months and allow the second sauces to be generated in transit.

The small-scale recipes recommended using a basket to filter the sauce of bone when it was removed. On a large scale, this seems both unwieldy and hard to envision. Without a bone filter, as the emulsion was removed, more of the thick sauce will be contaminated by the bone. In fact, it is likely the process of removal of the sauce did not stop, i.e. as the bone was revealed, it sim- ply went into other amphorae. In this way, early amphorae used for the flos product would have small amounts of bone, while later ones, probably of a different shape, contained larger amounts. In each case, it was the liquid fish sauce that was the final product. The bones were transported because they still retained flesh or were in a thick paste and could not be easily removed if disarticulated. We have been looking for a rational economic reason why what appears to be a very bony fish sauce residue was shipped so widely. We believe we now have a logical reason. Rather than the bony allec being a fish paste of limited value, it was simply a semi-processed fish sauce waiting further processing. In transit, the sauce developed its protein levels, and, at the port, market, or place of use, the new flos emulsion would be poured off the bones remaining in the amphora. It is very likely that many of the urban sites with evidence of allec will undoubtedly represent this discarded bone (see Table 2).

One of the defining characters of the fish sauces» residues found on land, first identified by Desse-Berset & Desse (2000: 91), was the quality of the preservation. The bones were often fragmentary, even described as fish bone flour. This damage was judged to be caused by the fermentation process and decomposition. Also, it was assumed that, as cooking is considered to be part of the process, this would have also damaged the bone (Desse-Berset & Desse, 2000: 93). It is important to note that there was no apparent dam- age to the bones caused by the fermentation process (Figure 6 shows mackerel opercula after a successful fermentation).

There was also no evidence of digestion in the form of acid etching. As already noted, cooking of a fish sauce appeared to be a separate and domestic process that was unlikely to have been used in conjunction with fermentation, and modern fish sauce techniques confirm this (Klomklao et al., 2006: 444). It is therefore possible to demonstrate that a shipment of mackerel allec subsequently ship-wrecked in the Mediterranean only a few weeks after processing would contain substantial amounts of flesh on articulated skeletons. In these circumstances, it would be impossible to distinguish between a salted fish product and one intended to be a fish sauce, using the current criteria identified by Desse-Berset & Desse (2000: 93). It seems like- ly that the defining factor in a case like Cape bear III would be the shape and size of the amphorae. In this case, the Dressel 12 amphorae, with their narrow elongated body and narrow neck, would clearly suggest semi-liquid rather than solid pieces. The Grado wreck is also of great significance. Many of the sardines remained articulated, and organic matter was present which suggest the ship may have gone down very shortly after departing. We can now see that the empty amphorae labelled as liquamen flos may have held the first sauce while the fish bones, placed in whatever amphorae were available, represented the second sauce being generated in transit.

FIGURE 5
The sauce in the form of an emulsion removed from fermented sardine, demonstrating the particles of muscle tissue in the liquid. We may considered this a «flos liquamen».

FIGURE 6
Mackerel opercula from an efficient mackerel liquamen demonstrating little damage or acid erosion.

page13image38740608

CONCLUSIONS

It has been possible to demonstrate that the residue of ancient fish sauce known as allec probably existed in two forms: the bone, and semi-digested fish mash which constituted a fish sauce concentrate being generated in transit and a runny bone free fish paste. The latter was likely found in the spike of fish sauce amphorae and was probably consumed as a relish or even re-brined to generate the genuine second-quality sauces that we find on amphora tituli picti. I believe it can also be demonstrated that, when whole fish sauce was manufactured, a «second sauce» from the same batch of fish may also have been shipped alongside the first sauce, and this constituted the allec currently identified as a separate bony fish paste. Both products may have needed further processing by traders and merchants before being ready for sale. The fish bone evidence associated with shipwrecks and discarded amphorae from urban sites needs re-evaluating in light of these findings. It may be possible, when finding in the future new shipwrecks, to compare the shape of amphorae with the fish bone evidence inside the vessels and determine just what was being shipped. Many of the fish bones currently considered a salted fish product were shipped in the Dressel 7-14 forms which amphorae specialists consider a fish sauce vessel rather than a salted fish vessel. One may imagine that liquids and solids would ideally be shipped in vessels designed for this purpose as Opait (2007: 117) has pointed out. The choice of vessel would clearly depend on circumstances and availability, and the re-use of amphorae make the whole issue very much more complex. The fact of re-use may render any firm conclusions about the products inside impossible. These preliminary conclusions have opened up the issue of the trade in fish across the Mediterranean. In turn, they may have profound consequences not only for our interpretation of the fish bone evidence associated with fish sauce but also much wider implications for our interpretation of the ancient economy and more particularly the relationship between Spain and Italy in terms of the trade in fish and other products.

APPENDIX 1

The Geoponica 46. Making gara

The so-called liquamen is made thus. Fish entrails are put in a container and salted; and little fish, especially sand-smelt or small red mullet or mendole or anchovy, or any small enough, are all similarly salted; and left to pickle in the sun, stirring frequently. When the heat has pickled them, the garos is got from them thus: a deep close woven basket is inserted into the centre of the vessel containing these fish, and the garos flows into the basket. This, then, is how the liquamen is obtained by filtering through the basket; the residue makes alix.

The Bithynians make it thus. Take preferably small or large mendole, or, if none, anchovy or scad or mackerel, or also alix, and a mixture of all these, and put them into a baker’s bowl of the kind in which dough is kneaded; to one modios of fish knead in 6 Italian pints of salt so that it is well mixed with the fish, and leaving it overnight put it in an earthenware vessel and leave it uncovered in the sun for 2 or 3 months, occasionally stirring with a stick, then take [the fluid?], cover and store. Some add 2 pints of old wine to each pint of fish.

If you want to use the garon at once, that is, not by ageing in the sun but by cooking, make it thus. Into pure brine, which you have tested by floating an egg in it (if it sinks, the brine is not salty enough) in a new bowl, put the fish; add oregano; place over a sufficient fire, until it boils, that is, until it begins to reduce a little. Some also add grape syrup. Then cool and filter it; filter a second and a third time until it runs clear; cover and store. A rather high quality garos, called haimation, is made thus. Take tunny entrails with the gills, fluid and blood, sprinkle with sufficient salt, leave in a vessel for two months at the most; then pierce the jar, and the garos called haimation flows out.

Translation: Andrew Dalby (2011), The Geoponica Prospect Books.

(Pseudo) Gargilius Martialis, Medicinae ex holeribus et pomis 62.

A confection of liquamen which is called oenogarum.
Naturally oily fishes are caught/ taken, such as are salmon and eels and shad and sardines or herrings, and an arrangement of the following kind is made of them along with dried fragrant herbs with salt/ they are put together with fragrant died herbs and salt in this way. A good, sturdy vessel. well pitched, with a capacity of three or four modii, is got ready, and dried herbs with a good fragrance are taken – these can be garden or field herbs – namely dill, coriander, fennel, celery, sicareia, sclareia?, rue, mint, sisymbrium (?wild thyme), lovage, pennyroyal, oregano, bettony, argemonia, and the first layer is spread out at the bottom of the vessel using these. Then the second layer is laid down using fish –whole if they are small, cut in pieces if they are larger – over this is added the third layer of salt two fingers deep, and the vessel is to be filled right to the top in this, with succes- sive triple layers of herbs, fish and salt. It should then be closed up with a lid fitted and put aside as it is for seven days.

When the seven days are over, the mixture should be stirred right to the bottom, using a wooden paddle shaped like an oar, twice or three times every day. When this process is complete, the liquor which flows out of this mixture is collected. And in this way liquamen or oenogarum is made from it. Two sextarii of this liquor are taken and are mixed with half a sextarius of wine, then single bundles of (each of) four herbs – viz. dill, coriander, savoury and sclareia. A (one) little handful of fenugreek seed is also thrown in, and of the aromatics thirty or forty grains of pepper, three pennies of costum by weight, the same of cinnamon, the same of clove, and when pounded up finely these are mixed with the same liquor.

Then this mixture should be cooked in an iron or a bronze pan until it reduced to a sextarius in volume. But before it is cooked half a pound of purified honey ought to be added to it. When it has been cooked it ought to be strained through a bag like a medicine until it is clear – it needs to be boiling when it is poured into the bag. When clarified and cooled it is kept in a well-pitched vessel in order to give flavour to opsonia.

Translation Dr C. Grocock

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In Search of Garum

In Search of Garum

The “Colatura d’alici” from the Amalfitan Coast

Atti del 4o Convegno Nazionale di Etnoarcheologia, Roma, 17-19 maggio 2006
Proceedings of the 4th Italian Congress of Ethnoarchaeology, Rome, 17-19 May, 2006
Edited by
Francesca Lugli
Alessandra Assunta Stoppiello
Stefano Biagetti
BAR International Series 2235
2011

Published by Archaeopress
Publishers of British Archaeological Reports
Gordon House 276 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7ED England
bar@archaeopress.com
www.archaeopress.com

In Search of Garum. The “Colatura d’alici” from the Amalfitan Coast

(Campania, Italy): an Heir of the Ancient Mediterranean Fermented Fish Sauces.
Alfredo Carannante, Claudio Giardino, Umberto Savarese

In Cetara, a small village in Campania on the Amalfitan coast (Fig. 1), the alimentary tradition of a sauce obtained from the fermentation of pickled anchoviesEngraulis encrasicolusstill survives. Sauces of fermented fish had a great importance in the gastronomy and the economy of the ancient Mediterranean people. The aim of this work is to evaluate if the modern sauce from Campania can be compared to the ancient products and if it derived from those.

To this end common features of the various fish sauces have been analyzed and ancient and modern techniques of production have been described and compared; then a short history of the ancient sauces has been retold up to point of their maximum success.

In particular, information about fish sauces in Campania has been collected, in those places where this ancient tradition is still present.

Fig. 1. Map of the mentioned sites.

The garum and the sauces of fermented fish

The generic name GARUM is normally used to define a series of products of different composition and consistency, such as sauces and pastes obtained through fermentation in brine, through enzymes, part of fish or all of them.

The highly proteic garum enhanced the flavor and was very appreciated in classic times. It could be obtained from different types of fish - anchovies, mackerel, tuna, morays and others - which determined quality and price.

Apicius, the most famous Roman gastronomist, in the De Re Coquinaria seasoned most of his dishes with garum, which he called liquamen.

The appraisal of the garum in ancient times was probably due to the high concentration of monosodic glutamate, a molecule present in organism in two forms: bound to amino acids in complex proteins or loose. Loose glutamate enhances the flavor of vegetable and animal foods which contain it in different concentration.

Some foods where this effect is particularly enhanced are, for example, mature cheese, salami, mushrooms and dried tomatoes.

O glutamato monossódico melhora o sabor dos vegetais e alimentos de origem animal que o contenham em diferentes concentrações. Alguns alimentos onde esse efeito é particularmente melhorado são, por exemplo, queijo, salame, cogumelos e tomates secos.

The comparison among the main modern exalters of flavor shows how the concentration of monosodic glutamate is particularly high in sauces produced by the fermentation in pickle of marine organisms, such as anchovy paste, widely used in the Mediterranean countries, oyster sauce, very much appreciated in the Chinese gastronomy, and different sauces, often prepared from small anchovy, sardine etc., used in South-east Asiatic cuisine (Nuoc nam in Vietnam, Nam-plam in Thailand)1.

mg/100g
Anchovy paste 630
Stock cube 498
Oyster sauce 900
Soja sauce 782
Nam plam (fish sauce) 950
Free glutamate in seasonings

Moreover, besides glutamate garum contained peptides similar to neuropeptides, polyunsaturated fatty acids (complex “omega-3”, an anti-oxidizing protector of the cellular membranes), and vitamins A and E.

Garum is often imagined as a sauce produced by means of the putrefaction of fish, therefore unacceptable to a modern palate.

To fully understand the importance and the success of the fish preserves in ancient and modern diets and to dispel biases about their taste we must mention the complex biochemical and enzymatic processes which produce them.

After death, fish, as all other animals, goes through a series of processes of decay whose first step is the autolysis: the degeneration of the cells and the organs through chemical processes triggered by intracellular enzymes. The speed of the autolytic process increases with the increase of the environmental temperature, but they can be stopped if the textures are rapidly frozen or dehydrated.

In consequence of the autolytic degeneration of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract, the bacterial flora there gets spread in the rest of the corpse starting a process called putrefaction, the second phase of the decomposition..

The bacterial activity produces initially gases such as sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane etc and it continues with the destruction of the muscular proteins and the production of toxic ammine complex such as the cadaverine and the putrescine.

The real salting, the one used to produce salty fish and meat, produces a dehydration of the tissues blocking the autolysis but it needs a high quantity of sodium chloride (NaCl). An environment with less, even though still high, saltiness - such as a pickle at 10-20% of NaCl- does not impede the advance of the autolytic processes but it is enough to impede the beginning of the putrefaction stopping the bacterial development.

After a while the result of the decomposition in pickle brings to the formation of a perfectly edible, often amber coloured, liquid very salty and full of proteins, iodine and fluorine, istadine and vitamins A and D (lat. garum, liquamen). You obtain a very salty, pasty substance (lat. allec) with excellent nutritional value too 2.

The “colatura d’alici” of Cetara: methods of productions

Today in the village of Cetara, on the Amalfitan Coast, a fish sauce which presents strong resemblances with the ancient garum is produced: the “colatura d’alici” whose name means “filtering of anchovies”.

The “colatura” is an amber-coloured liquid obtained from the process of maceration of the anchovies under salt, following an old procedure handed on from father to son by the village fishermen.

The initial primary product is anchovies (Engraulis encrasicolus Linnaeus 1758) fished with the so-called “cianciòlo” technique in the Gulf of Salerno in spring time, from the end of March to the beginning of July.

The anchovies, freshly fished, are beheaded and eviscerated (“scapezzate”) by hand; they are then put in a container and spread (“inzuscate”) with a lot of marine salt. After being kept from 12 to 24 hours in this pickle called “increscatura” to get rid of the blood.

The anchovies are taken and put in a container, arranged according to the “head-tail” technique in alternated layers of salt and fish. Once the layers are finished, the container is covered with a wooden disk (the so-called “tompagno”), on which weights are put, usually sea rocks. For the first 48 hours a stronger pressing is exerted, then it gets lighter by diminishing the number and the dimension of the rocks.

The liquid, because of the pressing, starts coming up to the surface as the “ripening” of the anchovies goes on (Fig. 2). In the traditional process of storage of the anchovies that liquid is taken and eliminated; whereas it is at the basis of the production of the “colatura”.

The liquid is in fact filtered using special linen cloths, the so-called “cappucci” or “lambicchi” (Fig. 3). The final result is an amber-coloured limpid distillate which can be filtered several times (Fig. 4). Altogether the process lasts 2-3 months. In some families the filtering is traditionally kept in bottles containing some oregano.

According to some scholars of local traditions originally the maceration took place in a sort of durmast container called “terzigno”, obtained re-using the third of a barrel (Fig. 5)3.

Besides the one in the “terzigni”, another type of maceration in varnish pottery vase (Fig. 6) was and still is widely used, in domestic production on a small scale. In this case the process follows the same phases, but the quantity produced is pretty small (Fig. 7).

At the moment, although a domestic production in pots still exists, the “terzigni” are generally substituted by plastic containers for food, according to the EC regulations.

Fig. 2. The liquid raw sauce starts coming up to the surface.

Fig. 4. The filtered product is an amber-coloured limpid liquid quite different from the raw soaked sauce.

Fig. 3. The filtering of the “colatura” trough the “lambicco”.

The origin of the garum: the pre-Roman age

Originalmente realizado com espécies e partes de peixe não bem identificadas, cujo nome grego era garos (de onde veio o nome do molho garon, em grego) , o garum romano foi produzido a partir de diferentes espécies de peixes. Isidore afirma: “Ex infinito genere pisciorum”.

Os géneros mais apreciados foram obtidos de anchova, sardinha etc: o melhor garum, nigrum foi produzido a partir de cavala (Scomber scombrus),  muria foi produzido a partir de atum (Thunnus thynnus), mas também anchovas (Engraulis encrasicolus) que estavam na base de um valioso tipo de garum.

De acordo com alguns autores, o garos grego é identificável com anchovas. Plínio afirma que o garum mais antigo era produzido a partir de um “peixinho pequeno e insignificante” que os gregos chamavam de “aphye” (afiado), que corresponde ao biqueirão.

No entanto, muitas outras espécies, entre as quais moreias, enguias, tainhas, eram usadas para produzir garum, às vezes realizado através da fermentação de diferentes espécies juntas.

Outras vezes, o garum era produzido apenas com entranhas de peixe, como as do atum, misturando algumas entranhas com sangue e a fáscia abdominal gorda, o chamado “Buzzonaglia”. A origem deste garum baseava-se na reciclagem de rejeitos de peixe, como entranhas, partes de sangue e gordura, e peixes menores inteiros, mais difíceis de conservar.

O aparecimento da salmoura de peixe no Mediterrâneo Oriental, anterior à sua propagação no mundo romano, está, portanto, relacionado com a necessidade de manter grandes quantidades de peixes perecíveis para abastecimento durante longas viagens ou para exportação.

Os gregos tinham duas maneiras de preservar os peixes: os tarichos (lat. salsamentum): a desidratação de peixes sem cabeça, eviscerados, peixes desfeitos, por meio de salga e / ou a secagem ao sol ,e o garon (lat. garum): fermentação de peixes em salmoura que, comparados com a salga, permitiam uma menor utilização de sal.

As fábricas mais antigas de garon localizavam-se em Corinto e na ilha de Delos, na Grécia, embora este molho se espalhe mais tarde sobretudo em Cartago e em Roma.

É ainda mais difícil datar a introdução das técnicas de salga de peixe no Mare Nostrum, devido à falta de vestígios arqueológicos no Mediterrâneo Oriental.

O garum pode ter sido introduzido pelos fenícios já nos séculos IX-VIII a.C., talvez importados diretamente do Oriente, ou a partir dos gregos, que poderiam conhecê-lo desde o século VII a.C. , durante suas viagens de abastecimento ao longo da costa do Mar Negro, região muito rica em peixe.

No mundo grego, a mais antiga evidência arqueológica remonta a meados do século V a.C. Pesquisas realizadas na cidade de Corinto encontraram o que deveria ter sido o armazém de produtos alimentares de um comerciante abastado, mais tarde reconvertido para armazenamento de vinho e peixe, apelidado pelos arqueólogos de  “Casa das ânforas púnicas” por causa da grande presença de ânforas fenícias aí encontradas.

Foram encontrados pedaços de peixe, sobretudo pargos (Pagrus pagrus) e atum – cortados em pedaços de cerca de 6 x 4,5 cm, misturado com fragmentos de ânforas; não foi possível, no entanto, determinar se o peixe foi colocado em salmoura ou salgados e se o processo tivesse sido ali realizado.

Foram descobertas em Cádiz, a antiga Gades, fábricas púnicas para o fabrico de peixe referentes ao mesmo período. O fabrico de peixe floresceu na cidade espanhola entre 430 e 325 a.C., para desaparecer após 200 a.C. Esse declínio deveu-se provavelmente às consequências que a segunda guerra púnica tiveram na economia cartaginense.

A presença de centros cujos nomes estiveram ligados à indústria do peixe são significativos: Cetaria, hoje Getares, e Tarichea, hoje Tarifa).

Fig. 5. The “terzigno”: the traditional container for the“colatura” production. A stone is put on the top to press the soaking anchovies.

Fig. 6. The typical varnish pot used for domestic production of the “colatura”

Fig. 7. Small quantities of “colatura” are produced in clay
vessels.

O garum no mundo romano

O mundo romano foi com certeza influenciado pelos dois polos produtivos, gregos e púnicos, e aprendeu tanto as suas técnicas de fabricação como a tipologia de estruturas onde o fabrico ocorria. A procura deste tempero, que se tornou muito apreciado, aumentou entre os Romanos e isso favoreceu o nascimento da produção em escala industrial em diversas áreas do Mediterrâneo, Mar Negro e ao longo das costas ibéricas no Oceano Atlântico e no norte da África.

Esses centros foram estritamente associados às áreas de captura de atum e com a necessidade de preservar uma enorme quantidade de peixe; não é por acaso que, na área do Estreito de Gibraltar, muitos centros, que certamente exploraram a migração do atum, o representavam nas suas moedas.

As estruturas produtivas

O fabrico acontecia geralmente  no próprio local de pesca, em tanques especiais de fermentação revestidos com opus signinum (chamado taricheai em grego ou cetariae em latim).

Eram geralmente quadrados ou retangulares, com bordas arredondadas, o que garantia uma estrutura mais forte e fazia com que circulação da água e limpeza fosse mais fácil; variaram em tamanho de acordo com o uso: os maiores foram utilizados para a salga de peixe, e os menores para produzir garum.

De acordo com a morfologia da costa, os tanque eram construídos na praia, em opus caementicium coberto de louça de barro ou nas colinas em frente à costa, escavadas na rocha; também poderiam ser construídos na cidade, em edifícios especiais destinados a esse tipo de produção.

NOTA: podemos visitar as diferentes tipologias de locais de fabrico em Setúbal, na cidade, na praia do Creiro e em Tróia.

Em regra geral, estas estruturas produziam peixe salgado, garum e allec: de facto, os últimos constituíam produtos secundários da indústria de salga.

Até há algum tempo atrás, antes do relançamento turístico do “Colatura”, o que também aconteceu em Cetara, o interesse primário da indústria era a produção de anchovas, para serem comercializadas no exterior. Já a filtragem foi um subproduto da salga e o seu uso era estritamente local.

Além das fábricas para a fabrico de peixe em salga, existiam tanques para a criação de peixes, que davam uma constante reserva de pescado durante todo o ano, mesmo quando o clima era adverso e se tornava perigoso pescar por barco.

Os tanques de peixes marítimos floresceram desde o final do período republicano (meados do século I a.C.) e desenvolvidos imensamente durante o Império (até o século II d.C.).

Inicialmente espalhado na Campânia e depois em Lácio e na Etrúria, provavelmente funcionaram até o século IV d.C., quando o ataques dos bárbaros tornaram as costas inseguras forçando a abandonar ou a fortalecer as estrutura produtivas na costa.

Técnicas de produção do garum

O fabrico do garum durava dois ou três meses sob o calor do sol, mas podia ser acelerado através de fornos artificiais.

O sal marinho era essencial para o funcionamento das fábricas de produção de garum e era necessária a mesma quantidade de sal e de peixe. Por esse motivo, as fábricas eram geralmente construído perto de salinas.

No século I d.C. , em Columella, (Lúcio Júnio Moderato – escritor romano, reconhecido pelos seus tratados sobre agronomia) no livro De Re Rustica, após descrever a técnica de conservação de carne de porco através do sal, afirma que era semelhante à utilizada para peixe:

“… A carne é então cortada em pedaços de uma libra cada; depois é necessário um pote ou um barril, e é colocada uma camada de sal, espalhada no fundo: os pedaços de carne são depois postos de modo a ficarem muito próximos uns aos outros e é colocado sal em cima de cada camada. Quando se atinge o topo do recipiente, a última parte é totalmente preenchida com sal e o mesmo é tapado e coberto com pesos. Pode-se utilizar esta carne em qualquer altura; é mantida em picles como tal peixe com sal ”.

Neste texto, Columella utiliza a palavra “seria“, que pode ser traduzida como “vaso” ou “barril”; o significado “barril” tem analogia com o uso do “terzigni” na produção da “Colatura“.

Qualidade e variedade do garum no mundo romano

In the 1st century A.D. the garum sociorum, produzido em Espanha a partir da maceração de cavala, era considerado o melhor garum. O seu custo era comparável apenas ao dos melhores perfumes (com mil sestércios, compram-se dois congi, o equivalente a cerca de seis litros)

Marcus Valerius Martialis (Século I d.C.) elogia o luxo do garum produzido desde que o primeiro sangue jorrou da cavala recém cortada, considerado um particularmente luxuoso e apreciado presente.

Uma passagem no livro Satyricon, de Petrónio, escritor romano, mestre na prosa da literatura latina, satirista notável, no capítulo “O Banquete de Trimálquio”, descreve a apresentação de um dos cursos mais célebres no jantar de Trimálquio, uma das personagens do livro, conhecido pela pompa e ostentação dos seus banquetes, nos quais serve pratos exóticos e extravagantes.

Trimálquio disse: “Vamos comer! Este é o melhor dos banquetes”. Quatro escravos […] tiraram a tampa da bandeja colocada na mesa […]. Nos cantos da bandeja, quatro estátuas de Marsias estavam a derramar garum piperatum de pequenas bolsas de couro. ”

The passage shows how the garum was not only an ever present seasoning in the gastronomy (and was obviously liquid), but that it was a real status symbol showed off during the most luxurious banquets.

O Edictum de pretiis, (Édito máximo) de Diocleciano (301 d.C.), foi um decreto promulgado a fim de combater o aumento da inflação no Império, estabeleceu um tecto máximo para os custos do garum e separou o liquamen primum, cujo preço chegava a atingir dezesseis denários por sextário (cerca de 3072 sestércios por ânfora), do liquamen secundário, de segunda opção, que não poderia exceder doze denários.

A qualidade do garum derivada não apenas das espécies de pescado e das partes utilizadas, mas também do processo de filtragem.

No final da maceração, o garum era filtrado através de cestas e era obtidas diferentes qualidades:

O flos gari límpido (“flor” do garum) obtido a partir do primeiro líquido filtrado e liquamen gari, líquido menos valioso, por vezes com elementos sólidos, obtido a partir da filtragem dos depósitos mais rudes.

Linquamen, mesmo que originalmente diferente do garum, foi usado genericamente para definir o molho de peixe desde o século III d.C.

Além destas duas qualidades, ainda outra deve ser adicionada: a “flos flos gari”, “nata”, cuja origem e espécies usadas, geralmente cavala ou atum, sempre foram especificados.

A pasta recolhida nos filtros, geralmente contendo espinhas e restos de peixe, foi chamada allec (com as variações de hallec, hallex, allex), palavra que originalmente significava “putrefação” ou “resíduos” e representava o pior produto, frequentemente dado a os escravos.

O allec, no entanto, também poderia derivar da produção das melhores qualidades de garum; Neste caso, o produto resultante da filtragem após a maceração das entranhas, sangue ou pedaços de cavala ou atum, foi considerado valioso e servido temperado com sal e pimenta, vinho e cenoura, para estimular o apetite antes das refeições.

Moreover, there were luxurious variations of allec, produced from oysters, eggs of sea-urchin, sea anemones and mullet livers.

The best garum was obtained without adding other ingredients, but there were several varieties obtained adding vinegar (oxygarum), oil (oleogarum), wine (oenogarum), water (hydrogarum), honey (melligarum / mellogarum)

No seu famoso tratado sobre cozinha, Apício, fornece uma receita de oenogarum para temperar tubérculos, composto por especiarias, liquamen, mel, um pouco de óleo, e outra receita de oxygarum usada como molho digestivo, composto por uma mistura de especiarias amassadas com mel e diluída com liquamen e vinagre.

Foram frequentemente adicionadas especiarias aromáticas (potherbs) ao peixe e ao sal.

O Garum e liquamen foram produzidos de forma caseira e industrial.

A produção em massa em tanques, pelo menos na era imperial, é certificado paralelamente ao potes. Gargilius Martialis (Século III dC) no De Medicina et de Virtutae Herbarum fornece uma descrição:

“Deve-se usar peixes, como salmão, enguias, sardinhas e anchovas; A estes peixes deve -se adicionar sal e potherbs como endro, hortelã, coentro, levístico, e tomilho selvagem. Devem-se dispor as ervas numa primeira camada no fundo de uma panela. A seguir coloca-se uma camada de peixe inteiro, se for pequeno, caso contrário, se for peixe maior, cortado em pedaços. Cobre-se com uma camada de sal de aproximadamente dois dedos e a repetição destas três camadas deve ser feira até que o pote esteja cheio.

O pote deve ser fechado e assim ficar por sete dias. Depois é necessário mexer tudo e descansar outros vinte dias. Em seguida, deve ser coado o líquido,  filtrando-o cuidadosamente usando um pano. ”

Esta receita corresponde perfeitamente à utilizada ainda hoje para a produção da

“Colatura” num  vertente familiar em Cetara, onde são utilizados vasos cilíndricos especiais para esse objetivo. Ollae cilíndricas de cerâmica comum, uma espécie de potes, muito semelhantes às modernas usados em Cetara, foram encontrados ligadas à produção de garum no oeste Mediterrâneo . Muitos desses recipientes vêm de Cotta (Marrocos); o diâmetro varia entre 22 e 24cm e são datados entre os séculos I B.C. e III A.D.

O seu uso está correlacionado com a produção do garum, talvez para facilitar a concentração do molho através do calor; de facto, os sistemas de transformação através do calor foram descoberto em Cotta.

O “Colatura d’alici”: um valioso garum

A partir das informações apresentadas até agora, é evidente como os processos na base da produção deste molho são semelhantes aos usados ​​hoje para a “Colatura di alici” em Cetara, Itália.

A matéria-prima – as anchovas – é semelhante; segundo Plínio as anchovas estão desde o início presentes na produção de garum; os métodos de produção através da fermentação do peixe em conserva; os recipientes utilizados na produção em escala familiar são semelhantes, assim como alguns dos produtos obtidos.

O garum piperatum que jorra das estauetas Marsii  com “garrafas de couro” na bandeja de Trimálquio é o melhor testemunho escrito de que a melhor qualidade do garum era perfeitamente líquida, como a “Colatura”.

Outro paralelismo importante entre o molho antigo e o produto moderno da região da Campânia pode ser encontrado em Plínio, que diz que o garum mais valioso é

“Aquele que assume a cor do vinho envelhecido ou do mel”: esta é a descrição perfeita da cor âmbar da “Colatura”. Portanto, o “Colatura di alici” de Cetara pode ser definido como um garum muito refinado e em particularmente como um “flos gari”.

No entanto, molhos muito semelhantes aos antigos garum podem ser encontrados no Extremo Oriente, mesmo que não haja  conexão histórica com o antigo molho mediterrânico e que induz a verificar se o produto Cetara continua uma tradição romana ou é uma invenção moderna.

Portanto, será possível reconhecer uma filiação direta entre o “Colatura” e o garum?

Para responder a esta pergunta é necessário examinar a história do garum na Campânia e verificar a continuidade da produção na região.

O garum em Pompéia

Diversas fontes confirmam a existência, nos tempos antigos, de um flos gari feito de anchovas e Plínio sustenta que a origem do próprio garum deve ser pesquisada na conservação desse peixe muito pequeno; é notável que tal é certificado arqueologicamente na própria região de Campania.  Foram encontrados na casa de Marcus Fabius Rufus em Pompéia, no fundo de uma pequena olla, milhares de pequenas espinhas de peixe.

Todos os restos são atribuíveis a Engraulis encrasicolus e a presença de vértebras e de apenas alguns elementos postopercoular, atestam o uso em Pompéia de um garum obtido apartir da imersão de anchovas.

Plínio afirma que Carthagena, Clazomenae, Leptis Magna e Pompéia eram centros de produção de garum tão famoso como Baetica e Mauritânia. Pompéia era, certamente, um dos principais pólos da produção de garum no Mediterrâneo.

Os principais centros de produção do garum na Campânia ainda não foram encontrados, mas certamente estavam na costa. Um dos lugares mais importantes para a venda deste produto, foi localizado em meio urbano, no perímetro de Pompéia, a chamada “loja Garum”.

Descoberta entre o final de 1960 e o início de 1961, está situada no lado oeste do anfiteatro e tem uma pequena entrada perto da Via dell’Abbondanza. Dentro o peristilo (a galeria de colunas que rodeia um edifício ou parte dele) foram encontrados seis dolii que estavam destinados à conservação do garum e continha espinhas de peixe.

No jardim foram encontradas inúmeras ânforas viradas ao contrário, provavelmente destinados ao transporte entrega de garum.

Nas ânforas foram encontrados restos semelhantes aos contidos nos dolii, e no fundo de uma delas havia um funil para transferir o garum. Algumas tinham as iniciais VR (vinum rubrum – vinho tinto) pintadas, para indicar o seu conteúdo inicial.

Como confirmação do papel predominante que Aulus Umbricius Scaurus teve no comércio de garum, calcula-se que cerca de 29% das ânforas e urceis encontrados em Herculano, Pompéia e Boscoreale tiveram seu nome inscrito. Uma magnífica casa encontrada em Pompéia (VII, 15 Ins. Occ., 12-15) que pertenceu a Alvo Umbricius Scaurus, o rico comerciante decorava o átrio com mosaicos representando, nos quatro cantos, os urceis, bilhas de barro típicas do garum, para mostrar que sua riqueza vinha do comércio deste precioso condimento.

figura9colatura

Fig. 9. Plan of the “Garum shop” in Pompeii (from CURTIS 1979, modified).

Fig. 8. Ancient and modern: a Roman clay olla from Cotta (Morocco) used for garum (in the box: from Ponsich, Tarradell 1965), compared to the typical modern clay vessel used in Cetara.

O garum no final da antiguidade clássica e na Idade Média

Nos primeiros séculos da nossa era, a produção e o comércio de garum foram elementos muito importantes para a economia; após o Império Romano cair o cenário econômico no Mediterrâneo mudou. A menor procura, já não globalizada, tornou a indústria de produção em tanques de garum menos rentáveis. Essa situação causou a deterioração em todos os locais das grandes fábricas equipadas com cetárias.

No entanto, a produção em pequena escala continuou em locais diferentes, como pode ser visto em todas as realidades culturais herdeiras dos costumes romanos.

Temos ainda de levar em conta que o garum não era apenas empregado na culinária, mas foi usado para tratar diferentes patologias devido à sua alta concentração de cloreto de sódio e na presença de enzimas proteolíticas que produziam qualidades desinfetantes s comparáveis ​​a um anti inflamatório. Plínio dá uma grande relevância ao uso médico do garum, e sugere a sua utilização como remédio para vários tipos de inflamações.

Aconselha a utilização a pasta de allec para tratar doenças de pele e mordidas de cães, e a usar garum líquido em queimaduras recentes ou para enxaguar a cavidade oral inflamada, ou para curar inflamações intestinais. Também sugere medicamentos à base de garum: como vinagre para curar picadas de insetos, com óleo de linhaça e vinagre para curar picadas de escorpião, e com água morna com mel e hissopo para colocar em olhos inflamados.

Também Columella, em De Re Rustica, menciona o liquamen, administrado através das narinas, como um remédio eficaz contra Pestifera Lebes, doença que leva os cavalos à morte em poucos dias.

Como medicamento ou ainda como integrador de alimentos, pode ser encontrado no sul do Mediterrâneo na Idade Média. O Médico andaluz Ibn-Razīn, no século X, recomenda-o contra varíola.

Na cozinha islâmica medieval, embora presente em muitas receitas de Apicius e na cozinhadesde os tempos romanos, o garum era substituído por um novo produto amplamente mencionado pelos gastrônomos iraquianos desde o início do século IX: o murri.

O murri era muito diferente do garum: consistia num pó de peixe seco ao sol e salgado, diluído em vinho doce com orégão e colocado em fermentação numa ânfora oleada com marmelo e pedaços de cebola. Também existia um tipo de murri produzido a partir de cereais tostados, com um processamento mais rápido.

O uso de garum, como se fazia à moda antiga, sobreviveu no mundo bizantino, que se manteve com fortes ligações com a tradição helênica-romana. As fábricas estavam na Grécia, em Bizâncio e na costa leste de a região do Adriático (Ístria), como sabemos, graças a uma carta escrita por Cassiodoro no século VI.

Em Bizâncio, no século XX, o Geoponica, foi elaborada uma importante coleção de livros sobre agricultura, promovida por Constantino VII Porphyrogennetos (913-959 A.D.)

Neste trabalho é dada uma receita para a produção de garum, “em panela”:

  • Coloque num recipiente as entranhas de peixe e peixe pequeno com sal e deixe-os ao sol misturando-os com frequência.
  • Quando o picles tiver sido obtido, filtre tudo numa cesta, onde permanece a parte sólida, o allec.
  • Quem quiser usar esse garum de imediato, sem o deixar ao sol, pode-o ferver, filtrando cuidadosamente dois ou três vezes, até que o filtro esteja limpo.

O melhor granum é chamado de “haimation” e é feito com entranhas, brânquias, soro e sangue de atum.

A mistura é deixada a fermentar num recipiente, com sal ,por cerca de dois meses. Então a e recipiente é aberto e o garum é estabilizado. ”

Uma prova significativa sobre o uso tardio de garum vem da corte imperial bizantina: o bispo Liutprand Cremona, que serviu Otto I da Saxônia, fundador do Sacro Império Alemão, foi enviado a Constantinopla em 968, sob o reinado de Nikephoros II Phokas (963-969).

O embaixador, descreveu no seu relatório, depreciativamente o mundo bizantino em contraste com o mundo ocidental.  Também criticou os hábitos alimentares daquele local.

Definiu “vergonhoso e indecente” um jantar oferecido pelo Imperador durante o qual a comida foi “embebida em óleo e, ainda mais, mergulhado em um certo líquido de peixe da pior qualidade ”. Outro jantar é definido como “odioso” porque “Cheirava a alho e cebola e embebido em óleo e garum ”.

Embora tenha reclamado sobre a cozinha bizantina, para ele demasiado condimentada, Liutprand pronuncia-se sobre um “cordeiro gordo … generosamente temperado com alho, cebola e alho-porro e embebido em garum “, que é chamado, em grego, garon, que considerou excelente.

O uso de garum, ou de molhos de peixe, foi preservado no Leste também depois dos bizantinos. Pierre Belon (1547-1549), um viajante europeu durante o império otomano, relata:

“Existe um líquido […] que eu verifiquei estar muito na moda na Turquia […]. Todos os dias preparam peixe fresco que vendem já frito […]; molham-no no picles e transformam em garum ”.

É um bom exemplo de como este hábito local em relação à comida do mar foi transmitido aos turcos.

Contudo, a utilização de garum com peixe frito na Turquia tem raízes antigas. Um poeta, provavelmente um monge, que viveu no idade do Comnemi, menciona o garum entre os alimentos servido durante um elegante banquete de dois padres superiores num convento em Constantinopla.

O garum permaneceu na tradição da alta gastronomia medieval também nos países ocidentais.

Liutprand, um rei Longobard (712-744), deu a um seu oficial como salário, um solidus de ouro, um litro de óleo, um litro de garum e duas onças de pimenta.

Também no século VIII, os comerciantes de Comacchio, empreenderam o comércio do garum ao longo do rio Po. Os soberanos Longobard compravam-lhe o produto, no porto fluvial Parmisano. Ainda no século IX, o mosteiro de Bobbio, nos Apeninos Piacentino, comprava o garum no mercado de Gênova, como está registrado nos  arquivos monásticos.

O garum era ainda usado em França; o produto é mencionado num diploma de 29 de abril de 716, emitido pela Abadia de Corbie.

Confirma-se assim que nas idade média o uso de garum sobreviveu na Europa Ocidental, especialmente em âmbito monástico.

O regime beneditino proíbe os monges da Ordem de comer carne vermelha, exceto em caso de doença grave. Permite apenas peixes, ou outros animais aquáticos e aves; os recursos marinhos são portanto, muito importantes na dieta monástica.

A continuidade do uso e a provável produção de garum no âmbito beneditino é certificado no século X por um presente oferecido pelos monges de Santa Maria dos Amalfitanos

Quando visitam Santo Atanásio de Athos ,no mosteiro por ele fundada no Monte Athos. Embora os ortodoxos do mosteiro terem garum na sua despensa, durante o jantar o santo ordenou que trouxessem para a mesa o presente, descrito como “Precioso”.

O garum na região de Amalfi nas idade média

As informações mencionadas são testemunha significativa do uso de garum no principio da Idade Média, no âmbito monástico a leste e oeste e mostra que em Amalfi esse molho era ainda importante e precioso no século X.

Amalfi foi fundada pelos romanos em 553 d.C., tornou-se diocese e castrum bizantino após a vitória de Narsetes sobre os Godos. No altura das lutas entre Bizantinos e Longobards, no século VIII-IX, fazia parte do Ducado de Nápoles e ambos eram dependentes de Constantinopla.

Benevento foi conquistado pelos Longobards em 838 e em Amalfi rebelaram no mesmo ano criando um governo autônomo tendo à cabeça de um Comes. O poder marítimo de Amalfi começou neste tempo e a cidade de mar enriquecia com os seus negócios de navegação, estendendo o seu poder no território entre o Ducado de Nápoles e o Principado de Salerno.

Sérgio I apoiado por Constantinopla foi proclamado Dux em 958. Nesse período, Amalfi estendeu seu controle comercial até o Oriente Próximo chegando a possuir colônias em Constantinopla, Síria, Palestina e em Alexandria. A forte relação entre os monges Beneditinos em Amalfi e os ortodoxos do Monte Athos data do mesmo período.

Entre o século VIII e o século XII, Amalfi teve relações próximas com o mundo bizantino.

Os eventos históricos de Cetara nas idade média são bastante misteriosos. A vila foi um enclave sarraceno durante cerca de um século, desde 879.

No início do século X, Cetara, que delimitavaa fronteira entre a República de Amalfi e os Longobard, Principado de Salerno, teve uma importante função estratégica e foi enganada pelo mosteiro de Santa Maria de Erchie. Cetara era naquele tempo uma aldeia de pescadores da República Marítima de Amalfi e a salga do biqueirão representou uma importante atividade econômica, como atestam fontes medievais. É possível que o mencionado “precioso” garum dos Monges amalfitanos fossem produzidos em Cetara para os religiosos da comunidade de Amalfi.

Em 1092, Cetara passou a estar sob o controle dos poderosos da Abadia da Santíssima Trindade em Cava. A Abadia Beneditina cobrou o dízimo do pescado e adquiriu os direitos de ancoragem determinando uma contração da atividade marinha tradicional em Cetara.

O poder beneditino em Cetara, tanto econômico quanto territorial, tornou-se absoluto após a anexação definitiva do mosteiro de Erchie para a Abadia de Cava em 1128.

O atestado mais antigo da produção de um molho de anchovas fermentadas na costa de Amalfi remonta ao século XII, em que o nome “colatura di alici” aparece em St. Peter na reitoria de Tozcolo em Amalfi pela primeira vez.

Nessa época os monges Amalfitanos possuíam uma frota utilizada sazonalmente para a pesca do biqueirão.

É muito provável que os monges de Amalfi tivessem sido uma das as comunidades monásticas medievais que preservaram a conhecimento sobre a preparação do garum e a tradição do seu uso.

Os contínuos ataques de piratas na costa de Amalfitan tornou incontrolável e obsoleto o antigo sistema de salga em tanques (lat. cetaria), e fosse mais fácil para esse fim reutilizar os barris que já não tinham utilidade para guardar o vinho produzido na Reitoria.

Além disso, a tradição bizantina documentada pelo Geoponica, atesta a recusa do setor industrial da continuidade de produção em tanques, a favor de um sistema mais simples que tinha sido mantido por toda a antiguidade, embora utilizado principalmente para uso doméstico.

O próprio nome Cetara, relacionado com as ainda existentes redes de pesca de atum, pode se tornar mais compreensível considerando que, na antiguidade clássica, todas oas redes dos pescadores de atum estavam associadas a uma área de salga de atum equipada com tanques, cetarias, destinadas à produção de garum. Esta hipótese parece confirmada pela toponímia medieval na qual a vila atual aparece com o nome de Cetaria (como é certificado em alguns documentos 980 e 982).

Os centros medievais de pesca de atum com redes de pesca, tomaram conta dos antigos centros de produção de garum.  É provável que na era romana um centro de captura de peixes, com seus tanques (cetariae) tivesse surgido na área de Cetara.

Geralmente as estruturas para a produção de garum foram fundidas após a queda do Império Romano, embora a pesca em Cetara e as suas tradições alimentares do molho de peixe continuaram.

Portanto, é provável que a tradição de anchovas na Campânia, atestada em Pompéia, tenha sido preservada na península de Sorrento durante a idade média através dos Bizantinos.

A comunidade monástica em Amalfi, de forma a suprir as suas necessidades, teria permitido e ajudado à sobrevivência de uma técnica para preservar peixes que se tornaram, com o tempo, patrimônio da cultura popular da comunidade em Cetara.

É possível dizer que a “colatura di alici” moderna é um verdadeiro “fóssil vivo” de um dos mais importantes produto gastronômico da antiga região do Mediterrâneo.

Este processo de preservação cultural pode ter sido ajudado por um relativo isolamento geográfico das aldeias da península de Sorrento, ainda não facilmente alcançáveis por terra.

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The “Colatura d’alici” from the Amalfitan Coast
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