January 26, 2019 by AdamAH

Guest Post: Archaeology and Living History: A Tasty Look at the Life of a Roman Re-enactor

Salvete, history lovers!

This week on the blog, I’m thrilled to invite archaeologist, Roman history re-enactor, and owner of Apicius Sauces Ltd., Rita Roberts, to share her story about her wonderful experiences with living history and how, through a bit of serendipity and creativity, she was able to launch a successful (and tasty!) enterprise with a little help from the famous gastronome of ancient Rome, Apicius.

Get ready for a fascinating look at the life of a Roman re-enactor. Be sure to read all the way to the end for an amazing recipe!

Take it away, Rita!

Living History

While working as an archaeologist at the Hereford and Worcestershire Archaeology Section in England, analyzing ancient pottery, I had the opportunity to travel around schools of the area. At this particular time, the Roman period was entered in the school curriculum. This meant that on occasion I was able to talk to the children in a class whose age varied between eight and twelve years old about the Roman pottery which I had been working on.

At this age children are very receptive and were eager to learn, besides the fact I had the original roman pots for them to see and handle. I was delighted at their reaction and soon realized that the living history, and hands on the objects, I was demonstrating was likely to be a real boost for education purposes.

Roman re-enactor of Legio Vlll Augusta

Once teachers heard of my enterprise I was called to some of the schools regularly, especially to review the homework I gave the children once I had finished talking about the different types of Roman pottery. I was amazed as the teacher had made them draw the different shapes of the vessels.

One of the children wanted to know what kind of food was cooked, and in which vessel it was cooked in. It was from this little girl’s question I decided that on my next visit to a school, I would take along with me a Roman mortarium and mix the sauce which would have been served with chicken. Their teacher had already agreed on my return visit to demonstrate this to the class. Upon my arrival, and with the ingredients needed to make the sauce, I found the history teacher was waiting with the children who were all dressed up in Roman style outfits.

A Roman ‘mortarium’ (Wikimedia Commons)

This seemed to make the children even more excited because after all, it was a living history lesson and they were eager for me to proceed. But first I needed to explain about the Roman cook Apicius.

Gaius Apicius lived during the reign of Emperor Tiberius in the 1^stcentury A.D. The cookery books which he wrote were published some three hundred years later and are the main source of our knowledge of Roman food.

Apicius was able to buy a large selection of herbs and spices from Roman and Greek traders who travelled to the spice markets of South Asia. These were then offered for sale in the markets of Rome. Some of the sauces made by Apicius were flavoured with up to twelve different herbs and spices. Many spices such as pepper, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves came from India, Sri Lanka and China.

The highly flavoured sauces made by Apicius were often used to mask food which may have become stale or rancid because of over-storing. The most commonly-used seasoning was called liquamen. Apicius became a very wealthy man, but it is believed he committed suicide by poisoning himself. As a result of his buying so many expensive foods from every part of the known world, he realized that he had only about ten million sesterces left and he did not consider this enough to maintain his high standard of living.

Rita always displayed this Living History leaflet on the stall at each historical venue she attended.

Procedure for Making Apicius Sauce

Once I had the ingredients displayed on the table in front of the class, the children interacted by passing the herbs and taking turns in grinding them in a Roman mortarium, after which the liquids were added. The sauce was then ready for tasting. Mr Townsend, the history teacher, had the first sample. Then one by one the pupils very gingerly came forward to taste. There were many different comments such as ‘it’s quite nice really’, or ‘better than I expected’. Some of them did not like it at all. Another said it tasted a bit like curry.

However, Mr. Townsend was quite impressed, saying it had a unique flavour and that I should market it. I thought about this but knowing there would be a lot involved such as adhering to the Trading Standards and Health and Safety regulations. But first I thought about a trial period where I could sell my produce from a stall at The Woman’s Institute, and also The Woman’s Guild, which held events all year round. This proved successful, so after passing all exams needed for Trading Standards and Health and Safety Regulations, Apicius Sauces Ltd., was launched.

I had approached many museums, historical houses, English Heritage and The National Trust who all agreed to sell Apicius Sauces in their gift shops. We were also producing a variety of sauces from other historical times by request, ranging from the Medieval to the Stuart and Tudor times. Also, we were invited to join the Re-enactors Societies with the offer of a special stall with which to trade from. Below are some photographs taken at Kirby Hall.

Rita with an Indian Scout outside a re-enactor’s stall.

Re-enactor outside a stall at Tewkesbury.

Rita at her stall. The jars displayed in the dish were for people to sample. The taste surprise always led them to purchase not only for themselves, but to take home for friends who could not attend the re-enactment show.

Our product proved a positive success for almost fifteen years. We then retired to the island of Crete Greece.

The following is my recipe for ‘Sauce Apicius’ adapted for the modern kitchen and to be used with chicken. This recipe is for just one serving.

Ingredients for Sauce Apicius

A pinch each of – Pepper, cumin, thyme, fennel seeds, mint and rue.

A drop of asafoetida essence – obtained from a pharmacy and used sparingly

2 tablespoons of vinegar

4 oz of stoned dates

1 tablespoon of honey

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon of anchovy essence. This is to replace the roman liquamen or garum as anchovy was one of the ingredients used by the Roman cook to make the liquamen.

Method

First mince the dates then pound all the herbs in a mortar and moisten with the asafoetida essence. Add the vinegar and minced dates and pound until well blended. Stir in the honey, olive oil and anchovy essence. The mixture will then become a little sticky. Stir again until a smooth consistency is formed. Of course this is much easier with modern equipment. Serve with your favourite poultry warm or cold. You can also spread a little over the chicken once cooked and pop it back in the oven for about 5-10 mins giving it a nice crispy coating.

It took many hours, in fact days, to work out the quantities of herbs and the liquids needed to make a large mix of the sauce, for an order of about 96 of each variety for the British Museum. This was their usual order per month. Besides other people’s orders we had to meet.

Although referred to as a sauce I prefer to use it as a relish but if you require it as a pouring sauce just add a little more of the liquids to your liking.

Try the sauce with turkey, ham, or even pork pie.

My book Toffee Apples & Togas can be obtained from Amazon Books.

I’d like to thank Rita for taking the time to tell us her story. It really was fascinating, and I can’t wait to try out that sauce recipe!

Having worked as an historical re-enactor myself in museums, I can stress enough how effective living history is in getting people interested in history, especially children who always love to see history come to life. It’s so much more interesting than being lectured to!

Living history demonstrations and re-enactors also do a lot to further our knowledge of the ancient world, so it is thanks to people like Rita, who have a passion for history, that we are able to sample a bit of the ancient world.

Be sure to check out Rita’s book, Toffee Apples and Togas, for a more in-depth look at her life and the journey she has taken. You can get a copy by CLICKING HERE.

If you have any questions for Rita, be sure to leave a comment a the bottom of the blog.

Thank you again to Rita, and as ever, thank you to all of you for reading.

November 30, 2018 by AdamAH

Ancient Everyday – Food and Dining in Ancient Rome – Part II

Welcome back, Romanophiles!

In part one of this two-part series on food and dining in ancient Rome, we looked at the various foods that would have appeared on the tables of average Romans and how this varied depending on economic status or geographical region. If you missed that post CLICK HERE to read it.

This week, in part two, we’re going to take a brief look at the eating habits and formalities of dining in ancient Rome.

When it comes to eating, we seem to have inherited some of our modern-day habits from the Romans.

They normally ate one large, main meal a day, along with two smaller ones. However, the ientaculum, that is, breakfast, to the Romans, was not the most important meal of the day as we are sometimes told. In fact, Romans might have skipped this altogether before heading down to the Forum or visiting with clients or benefactors.

Breakfast in ancient Rome was light, and most likely involved puls, a sort of porridge, or some bread, perhaps dipped in honey or olive oil. They didn’t attack the day with a lumberjack breakfast in their stomachs!

In the early days, the midday meal or lunch, known as the cena, was the main, large meal of the day. This would perhaps have coincided with the sexta, the sixth hour of daylight or siesta time of day. For more about the Roman siesta, CLICK HERE.

Lastly, the Romans would have enjoyed a lighter evening meal called the vesperna, perhaps involving bread and cheese, or some fruit.

Sensible eating for those early Romans!

Over time, however, the midday lunch became a lighter meal known as the prandium, and the cena, the main meal, was moved to the evening.

For the poor, most meals would have consisted of puls or bread, sometimes with some sort of meat, or vegetables if they were available. There was certainly less variety among the different meals of the day if one was not wealthy or at least well-off.

For the rich and well-to-do, things were different. As the cena was the large meal of the day it would have included three courses of food.

The first course was the gustatio or promulsis, and this would have involved appetizers of olives, eggs, raw vegetables, and simple fish or shell fish.

The second, or main course, the prima mensa, often included cooked vegetables and meats, the types and amounts varying greatly, depending on the occasion and wealth of the family or individual.

And lastly came the sweet course, the secunda mensa. This is when fruit and sweet pastries would have been served.

Fresco of eggs, wine, and songbirds. The makings of a cena, perhaps?

But what about the etiquette of dining? What was the etiquette? How did they sit? Did the Romans just move from course to course, gobbling up all that was placed before them?

Not exactly. In fact, there was a rigid system of seating, or placement. Contrary to modern views, most Romans ate while sitting, but when it came to the wealthy, they tended to recline on couches, especially at dinner parties.

At a banquet, or convivium, there would also have been entertainment between courses, perhaps by clowns, dancers, or readings by poets.

Food was eaten with fingers, and cut with knives. Spoons were also used, but forks were not.

Hypothetical triclinium visualisation (created by Martin Blazeby)

Today, when one attends a dinner, there are sometimes places assigned to guests. There might even be name cards, and some hosts might distance themselves from their least favourite guests at the table.

Well, this was also true in ancient Rome!

I want you to imagine you’re invited to an evening cenaat a senator’s home. You’re greeted in the atrium and led through the house to the dining room, the triclinium, just off of the peristyle garden. It’s dark out, and the scent of lemon blossoms and jasmine are on the night air. After a cup of watered wine, you’re shown into the triclinium by one of the well-dressed slaves who shows you to the couch known as the lectus medius, the middle couch of three, the couch of honour.

At this point, you’re very happy, for your host, seated with his wife on the lectus imus, the low couch, has honoured you above all other guests. The other guests behind you grin and bear it as they are shown to the high couch. From where you are, you have a wondrous view of the night garden and all of the other guests, and conversation comes easily, for you do not have to twist and turn.

Sound like a good evening? It could be. But the Romans took seating of this sort very seriously.

Horace (65 B.C. – 8 B.C.), in Satire VIII presents us with a scene depicting the seating arrangements and the trials of being a host in ancient Rome:

‘I was there at the head, and next to me Viscus

From Thurii, and below him Varius if I

Remember correctly: then Servilius Balatro

And Vibidius, Maecenas’ shadows, whom he brought

With him. Above our host was Nomentanus, below

Porcius, that jester, gulping whole cakes at a time:

Nomentanus was by to point out with his finger

Anything that escaped our attention: since the rest

Of the crew, that’s us I mean, were eating oysters,

Fish and fowl, hiding far different flavours than usual:

Soon obvious for instance when he offered me

Fillets of plaice and turbot cooked in ways new to me.

Then he taught me that sweet apples were red when picked

By the light of a waning moon. What difference that makes

You’d be better asking him. Then Vibidius said

To Balatro: “We’ll die unavenged if we don’t drink him

Bankrupt”, and called for larger glasses. Then the host’s face

Went white, fearing nothing so much as hard drinkers,

Who abuse each other too freely, while fiery wines

Dull the palate’s sensitivity. Vibidius

And Balatro were tipping whole jugs full of wine

Into goblets from Allifae, the rest followed suit,

Only the guests on the lowest couch sparing the drink.’

Horace (by Giacomo Di Chirico) Is he writing about the banquet he attended the night before?

Seems like Horace had a lot of fun with this, and his satires are certainly good for a laugh! I do feel for that host.

But what was all this ‘status seating’ about?

In a relatively well-off Roman household, three couches in a triclinium were standard. These were arranged around a low table, or mensa, and these couches had specific names and purposes.

The lectus medius, the middle couch, was the couch of honour, and was where important guests were placed. Because of its position, guests seated here were able to talk easily with other guests and had the best view, whether onto a peristyle garden or some sort of rural landscape.

The lectus imus, the low couch, was reserved for the hosts. It allowed them to speak with the high status guests on the lectus medius, and also the guests sitting directly across on the lectus summus.

Last and least, the lectus summus, or the high couch. This was not like the high table at a wedding today. No. The lectus summus in ancient Rome was the opposite. It was reserved for the lower status guests, maybe even for children if they were permitted to attend. This couch possessed less of a view, though still allowed its occupants the chance to participate in the conversation, though they might have had to turn awkwardly to do so. If you were shown to the lectus summus, then it seems you knew your place at the gathering.

If it was a rather large banquet, we can assume that the farther from the hosts and guest of honour you were on lectus summus side of the triclinium, the less important you were considered, or at least less influential.

Plan of typical Roman couch placement in a triclinium (from Reclining and Dining (and Drinking) in Ancient Rome by Shelby Brown; The Iris – Behind the Scenes at the Getty)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this two-part blog series on food and dining in ancient Rome.

In researching this for the books Saturnalia: A Tale of Wickedness and Redemption in Ancient Rome, and the forthcoming title Isle of the Blessed, I found that some of the modern perceptions we have about Roman banquets are indeed true, while others are clearly not. If one was eating in a tenement in the Suburra, you were not reclining on a couch eating grapes and drinking wine. It was a table and chair for you.

The food consumed, as well as the eating and dining habits of the poor and the rich were often separated by a wide gulf. Nevertheless, the wonderful colour and variety of the world of ancient Rome never ceases to delight me!

Thank you for reading.

November 23, 2018 by AdamAH

Ancient Everyday – Food and Dining in Ancient Rome – Part I

Salvete history-lovers!

The holiday season has begun for many of us whom Fortuna has blessed, and even if you might not be one for the orgy of buying and selling presents that usually occurs at this time of year, you no doubt think of food, drink, and friendly gatherings.

And so, I thought it was time for a new, two-part Ancient Everyday series on food and dining in ancient Rome.

Recreation of Roman foods

In this first blog, we’re going to touch briefly on food, what the average Roman diet entailed, and cooking. This is a vast topic, so we’re taking a general look at this subject, a little something to whet your appetite.

In the Roman Empire, diet, and the food that made up that diet, changed according to geographic region and the economic situation of the folk you are talking about. It wasn’t like today where we can just head down the street and buy a pineapple at any time of year. As a rule, there was no mass, global transportation of foods. Romans ate local for the most part, unless you were talking about wine, olive oil, olives and specialty items like garum. We’ll talk about those later.

First off, we need to dismiss the perception that Romans always ate elaborate meals with trays of songbirds, dormice, buckets of wine, and mountains of exotic fruits. This was not a usual occurrence, and when it did happen, it was usually the super-rich or imperial family who ate like that, and then, only once in a while.

The truth is that the Roman diet was rather simple and, dare I say it, probably pretty healthy. Think Mediterranean diet.

Generally, the staples were various grains, often used in a sort of porridge known as puls, and breads made from a species of wheat known as frumentum. There was no such thing as pasta in ancient Rome! Panem et pulswere the go-tos! Beans and lentils were also staples, and research has shown that these, rather than meat, were the breakfast of champions for gladiators!

To hear more about various types of grains from Pliny the Elder, CLICK HERE.

Fruits such as figs, grapes, and olives (yes, olives are technically, a fruit!) were eaten when available, as were a large variety of vegetables that made up the Roman diet. They did not have tomatoes or potatoes in ancient Rome, but they did eat a lot of cabbage, onions, garlic, parsnips, marrows, radishes, lettuce (not Caesar salad BTW!), asparagus, beets, and celery.

Mosaic depicting asparagus

When it came to meats, these were usually consumed as part of the main meal of the day, however that was not as likely or often for the poor. Sausages and domestic fowl were relatively common, as was pork, the latter being a special feature of certain festivals such as Saturnalia. Oysters and fish were very popular in ancient Rome, but there was the constant challenge of keeping them fresh when being delivered from the seaside to the city. It has been suggested that these were transported live, in barrels, to the places where they were to be consumed.

Needless to say, food poisoning may have been a common occurrence in ancient Rome, especially if one had a taste for oyster and other shell fish.

But let’s not think that there was nothing exotic on the Roman dining table. Well-to-do Romans would have consumed game such as venison or wild boar, snails and dormice (yes, little mice!) that were especially bred for the purpose of consumption, as well as small, wild birds or songbirds. If one attended a really fancy convivium, or banquet, one might even have had the chance to eat some peacock or swan.

Mosaic depicting typical Roman foods

With all of the foods mentioned above, I would be remiss if I did not make mention of the wide variety of fresh herbs and spices (too many to name here!) that Romans put on their food.

Romans liked their food highly spiced and cooked in sauces. Garum, a fermented fish sauce, was among the most popular. You can read more about garum, by CLICKING HERE.

And there were desserts too! But these were not sweetened with sugar as we know it, but rather with honey. Romans, when they did have sweets, had a variety of cakes, pastries and tarts all sweetened with sticky goodness from our buzzing apian friends.

Lastly, what Roman shopping list would be complete without the two greatest liquid staples in the Empire? I am, of course, talking about wine and olive oil. These were both common in any household and came in varying qualities, depending on one’s income.

Amphorae that would have been used to transport and store wine and olive oil.

So how and where were all of these foods prepared?

Once again, this depended on the means of the household. Some kitchens were bigger than others, the same as today. In the case of tenement apartments in the Suburra, for instance, they did not have kitchens or cooking spaces which would have taken up much-needed space and been a severe fire-risk in the building.

In the case of tenement dwellers without kitchens of their own, there were communal ovens that were used, as well as plenty of food stalls where meals could be purchased – ancient Rome’s answer to take-out curry!

For those homes that did have kitchens (indoor or outdoor) the space often consisted of a round, or domed oven where a cook-fire was kindled with wood or charcoal. Cauldrons were also suspended over fires, as were frying pans or skillets.

When meat was cooked, it was more often boiled with a sauce, rather than roasted or grilled, although skewered roast meats were available, likely sold street-side.

I tell you, souvlaki has been around a long time!

Preservation of food was also important in ancient Rome, and so the curing and smoking of meats was common, as was the use of salt and pickling in vinegar for preservation.

What some archaeologists believe to be a sort of ancient souvlaki rack

Now we come to it, however, the nectar of the gods – wine!

Eight glasses of water a day?

Not in ancient Rome.

The most common drink in ancient Rome was wine. It was usually watered down, as it was considered barbaric to drink it undiluted, which is a shame if you ask me. But watered wine is not so bad. Go on, give it a try!

Just as with olive oil and garum, there were varying qualities of wines made at home and outside of the Italian peninsula.

Wine and bread? Yes please!

In addition to the fine Falernian and Chian vintages that might have graced the tables of the wealthy, there was also a wine concentrate that had to be diluted in water.

Among the poor, the drink of choice was posca, a sort of watered down acetumakin to wine vinegar. It might have had a bite, but perhaps it helped to keep one’s innards clean?

I prefer medieval Chianti Classico myself.

In Rome, beer and mead were not widely available and were much more common in the northern provinces.

And milk? Not so much. It was considered uncivilized to drink, the preferred use of dairy being to make cheeses, which were central to the Roman diet.

What’s available in the market today?

As mentioned, we have only scratched the surface of the topic of food in ancient Rome, but I hope this has given you an idea as to the day-to-day flavour of what might have graced the tables of Romans rich and poor.

If you would like to read more about specific recipes, the surviving go-to text for cooking in ancient Rome is by gourmand of the rich and well-to-do of Rome, Apicius.

You can read more about him and try out his recipe for Roman hamburgers by CLICKING HERE.

Apicius’ Roman hamburgers

That concludes part one of this short series on food and dining in ancient Rome.

Stay tuned for part two in which we will be looking at the eating habits of the rich and poor, as well as some of the formalities of dining itself.

Cheers, and thank you for reading!

What Roman food surprises you? If you’ve come across a particularly surprising dish in your own reading or research, please share it with us in the comments below.

June 29, 2018 by AdamAH

Roman BBQ

Salvete readers and history-lovers!

Well, Summer has finally arrived in the northern hemisphere, and that means dining al fresco with friends and family, sunny days (one hopes!), and time spent beside bodies of water.

It also means people will be firing up their barbecues! And so, with the upcoming North American holidays of Canada Day (July 1^st) and Independence Day in the USA (July 4^th), I thought it would be fun to talk briefly about food!

This isn’t just a history post about food in ancient Rome. It’s a practical post, because at the end I’m going to share a recipe with you that is easily done. But first…

We can’t really have a discussion about food in ancient Rome without talking about one man in particular.

He was the gastronome du jour during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, and his recipes were used for hundreds of years after his passing.

I’m speaking, of course, about Apicius, or, more formally Marcus Gavius Apicius (25 B.C. – A.D.37).

An imagined likeness of Apicius

Apicius was a man who was largely concerned with fine living and fine food in ancient Rome and his work ‘On Cookery’, also known as ‘Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome’, which has come down to us, is chock-full of recipes from wines and oils, to desserts, sauces, broths, a lovely array of vegetables, and spices.

There is also a lot about different meats and sea foods, and their preparation and uses, and several of them are quite disturbing if not entertaining.

Apicius’ ‘book’ might have been a sort of Julia Child cookery book of the ancient world, widely used in the kitchens of well-to-do Romans. Here is a picture of a manuscript copy from the A.D. 900:

Apicius manuscript from A.D. 900 (Wikimedia Commons)

When I think of Roman cooking, the first things that I imagine are outlandish dishes and meats that I would never consider eating myself. And if you peruse Apicius, you will indeed read about some things abhorrent to your modern tastes.

Book II of Apicius, dealing with ‘Minces’ includes recipes for Isicia de cerebellis (bain sausage),and Vulvulae Botelli (a dish of sow’s matrix). Or how about Book IV which deals with ‘Miscellanea’ such as Patina Frisilis (vegetable and brain pudding)?

Book VII on ‘Sumptuous Dishes’ has recipes for Vulvae Steriles (spayed sow’s womb), andAliter in Pulmonibus (another way to cook lung). Because I guess, one needs choices when cooking lung!

And then there is everyone’s favourite in Book VIII on ‘Quadrupeds’ which goes into detail about Glires (stuffed dormice).

Dormice – Would you eat these cute little guys? The Romans would!

If you read through the text of Apicius, however, you will see that most of the dishes are quite appealing. There are a lot of wonderful vegetable dishes, and some recipes for meats that would make your mouth water.

With that – and BBQ season – in mind, I thought I would share one of Apicius’ more well-known recipes with you.

What is it?

Hamburgers.

Yes. You heard that correctly. Hamburgers, or, to be more precise, Isicia Omentata.

So, how do you make hamburgers from a 2000 year-old recipe? Let’s see what Apicius says in Book II (chapter 1, 47) on ‘Minces’:

Finely cut pulp of pork is ground with the hearts of winter wheat [fine wheat flour or cream of wheat] and diluted with wine. Flavor lightly with pepper and broth and if you like add a moderate quantity of myrtle berries also crushed, and after you have added crushed nuts and pepper [pepper corns or allspice] shape the forcemeat into small rolls, wrap these in caul, fry, and serve with wine gravy. (Apicius on Cookery)

That’s it. Not much to go on, but the basic ingredients are there. Beef was not as commonly eaten, so it is not surprising that pork was the meat of choice, though you could make this with just about any kind of mince, including a modern veggie mince option.

Order up!

Another translation of the text reveals some different ingredients too. Here is a simplified version:

500g minced meat (or a vegan mince substitute)

60g pine kernels

3 tsp. Garum (Roman fish sauce – you can use a fish sauce from the grocery store, or just regular sea salt)

Ground pepper

Handful of coriander

Juniper berries (optional) – this is a coniferous berry that is used in cooking, but be sure to buy the edible kind, for some species, like Juniperus sabina, are toxic!

Caul fat (optional) – this is the thin membrane which surrounds the internal organs of some animals

Reenactor, Joe Jackson, making Roman Burgers at Birdoswald Roman Fort (Photo by English Heritage)

I admit that I had to look up what ‘Caul fat’ is and, well, I think I would leave that part out. The meat will hold together without it if you use bread or wheat in the mixture. As with many Roman dishes in Apicius, the spices are exotic and interesting, so whether you opt for a meaty or meat-free version of this recipe, it should be a tasty treat hot off the grill!

If you try this out, let us know how it goes in the comments, and whether or not you made any adjustments to the recipe.

To read the full text of Apicius, you can do so for free on the Project Gutenberg website here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29728

Have a look at the dishes throughout. You never know! You might just have the makings of a Roman BBQ fit for an emperor!

Thank you for reading!

November 2, 2016 by AdamAH

Ancient Everyday – Garum: MSG of the Roman World

Here is lordly garum, a costly gift, made from the blood

of a still-gasping mackerel

(Marcus Valerius Martialis)

If you are a fan of the Roman Empire, or read any fiction or non-fiction about Roman civilization, chances are you will come across a certain salty condiment that many ancients went mad for.

In this edition of Ancient Everyday, we’re going to look at garum.

Now, let me say this: I’m not a big fish-eater.

Yes, I know, I’m half island Greek and don’t all Greeks love to eat fish?

Not this one.

So let me tell you that when I first found out what garum was, what it was made of, I had a titanic wave of nausea wash over me.

But whereas garum would have had me running, most Romans across the Empire loved this stuff!

So, as this is supposed to be an educational piece, I shall set aside my disgust and press on in the interests of history.

A Roman Banquet – spot the hints of garum!

So, what exactly is garum?

Basically, it is fermented fish sauce that was used as a condiment on just about anything. It was created from fish intestines and other parts mixed with salt.

It was immensely popular and supposedly quite healthy in that it was packed with protein, amino acids, minerals and vitamin B.

It was also rich in monosodium glutamate. That’s right…MSG!

Many of you will know MSG as a long-standing chemical compound used in modern food flavouring. It’s been called a ‘silent killer’, and linked to adverse health effects including something called ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’.

fish-parts-and-salt-the-main-ingredients-for-garum

Fish bits used to make garum

Now I don’t know if the Romans experienced anything like garumitis (today’s made-up word), and that doesn’t really matter here. What we need to know is that Romans put it on everything from seafood and chicken, to olives, porridge and more. It was the food seasoning of choice for those who could afford it.

They couldn’t get enough of garum!

Here is Pliny the Elder, the famed natural historian, speaking about garum:

Another liquid, too, of a very exquisite nature, is that known as “garum:” it is prepared from the intestines of fish and various parts which would otherwise be thrown away, macerated in salt; so that it is, in fact, the result of their putrefaction. Garum was formerly prepared from a fish, called “garos” by the Greeks; who assert, also, that a fumigation made with its head has the effect of bringing away the afterbirth.

At the present day, however, the most esteemed kind of garum is that prepared from the scomber, in the fisheries of Carthago Spartaria: it is known as “garum of the allies,” and for a couple of congii we have to pay but little less than one thousand sesterces. Indeed, there is no liquid hardly, with the exception of the unguents, that has sold at higher prices of late; so much so, that the nations which produce it have become quite ennobled thereby. There are fisheries, too, of the scomber on the coasts of Mauretania and at Carteia in Bætica, near the Straits which lie at the entrance to the Ocean; this being the only use that is made of the fish. For the production of garum, Clazomenæ is also famed, Pompeii, too, and Leptis; while for their muria, Antipolis, Thurii, and of late, Dalmatia, enjoy a high reputation.

(Pliny the Elder, Natural History 31.43)

Artist impression of a garum factory

After the garum liquid was extracted, the macerated remains, a pulp called allec, was used by the poorer classes, those who could not afford garum, to flavour their porridge – a grisly tapenade of sorts.

FYI – I prefer maple syrup on my porridge.

Garum production and export was a BIG industry in the Roman Empire, with production centres, a system of distribution by land and sea, amphora marked by the producer etc. etc.

It was also a smelly industry, for obvious reasons, so garum factories were often located outside of cities.

Garum amphorae

Just as with wine and olive oil, there were different grades of garum that were priced accordingly, as Pliny alludes to in the quote above.

Not all gara were created equal, and there were different recipes from different ports. The best was said to be from the Iberian Peninsula, in Hispania, particularly from Carthago Novo (Cartagena), and Gades (modern Cadiz in Andalusia).

Ruins of a garum factory in Spain

Different fish were used in garum too, depending on the company, recipe, and place where it was made. Some of the most common were mackerel, anchovies, sprats, sardines, tuna, and even shell fish. Archaeology has also revealed the production of kosher garum among Roman Jews.

You might think that every person in the Empire loved garum, but not everyone was a fan, including Seneca, whose family was from Hispania:

What? Do you suppose that those oysters, a sluggish food fattened on slime, do not weigh one down with mud-begotten heaviness? What? Do you not think that the so-called “Sauce from the Provinces,” the costly extract of poisonous fish, burns up the stomach with its salted putrefaction? What? Do you judge that the corrupted dishes which a man swallows almost burning from the kitchen fire, are quenched in the digestive system without doing harm? How repulsive, then, and how unhealthy are their belchings, and how disgusted men are with themselves when they breathe forth the fumes of yesterday’s debauch! You may be sure that their food is not being digested, but is rotting.

(Seneca, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales 95.25)

Seneca seemed like a rather more health-conscious person, so, perhaps like people today who ask for their Chinese food without MSG, he was aware (or disgusted by) the adverse effects of consuming too much of the over-pricey liquid that Pliny believed was “exquisite in nature”.

I suppose the tastes of the people in the Roman world were as vast and varied as the Empire itself.

Modern garum

For myself, I’ll give garum or its modern equivalent a miss, but that’s not to say people don’t go in for it today. Maybe you do as well?