Liquamen/Garum -- Making Roman Empire Fish Sauce from Fish

Previously I had made liquamen at home via Sally Grainger's recipe using a premade fish sauce and adjusting the flavor with reduced white grape juice.  See the results here.

But now it is time to try making it on my own, from scratch, using fish.  I had talked to people at last February's Culinary Symposium about it, and they assured me it was a reasonable task to undertake.

Many websites talk about how to make it, and many bloggers have tried.  Let's see how this goes!


WARNING:  Some of the pictures show dead fish parts.  Decide before you look if you can stomach it.


Day 1

I started with about 5 lbs of bonita parts:  heads, skeletons (the leftover parts after removing the tasty flesh), innards (it is important to use the intestines for the enzymes they bring), and bits of meat that just weren't worth trying to cook.  I put them in a clean plastic bucket **that had a lid** along with about 1 lb of kosher salt.

I first put in a layer of salt, then some fish parts, then sprinkled the parts with more salt.  Then I kept layering until about 1 lb (20% by weight of the fish parts) was used.  I stirred the whole thing as best as I could (to coat the pieces), put the lid on, and placed the whole container out on the back patio, where it would get a lot of sun.

Salted bonita parts.  

You really need a lid, to keep out dirt but also to keep out the flies that are very attracted to it.  I put a heavy weight on top of it to discourage nighttime visitors from getting into it.

The Romans used unglazed ceramic containers.  Most of the bloggers used glass jars.  I didn't have a jar or a ceramic container big enough to hold all this, so I was glad for the advice to use a plastic bucket.

You can see that the fish parts filled about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bucket.

Day 2

The next day, when stirring it, I decided it needed more whole fish, so I bought some frozen mackerel, about 73 ounces worth, and added that and another 10 ounces of salt to the bucket.  Again, I stirred the whole thing as well as I could.  I noticed some liquid was already forming.  The smell was fishy and a little rotten, so I was glad I could get the brown liquid to coat everything.

Salty mackerel, before stirring.

The blogs that talk about it say the salt-to-fish ratio runs from 1/10 to 1/5, so I figured I was in the right range, without obsessing over exact quantities.

Day 3

I stirred everything again.  The mackerel was starting to break apart, so they were easily pushed down into the dark brown liquid that was now deeper than the day before.  The smell was fishy, but not rotten, which surprised me.  It actually smelled better than the day before.

Day 4

This time I didn't stir as much as I used the spoons to push the mackerel down into the liquid.  This broke them up a little more, too.  The liquid level was almost to the top of the fish.

The smell was very faint.  Very mildly fishy and I could not smell it at all outside the bucket.  I am astonished.

Day 7

The fish parts are all broken up and the whole quantity has compacted down to about 1/4 of the bucket's volume.  The liquid was thick and brown on top, but when I stirred it, I found thinner liquid underneath.  I think that stirring it was a good idea, as it took the pieces that were on top and got them coated in the salty liquid.

Day 22

I left the whole thing alone until today.  There was a layer of "stuff" floating on the surface, and lots of liquid underneath.  I could see bones (backbone and ribs) that were completely devoid of muscle and flesh.  Instead of stirring, I rotated the bucket around to splash the liquid up on the surface stuff and mix it up a bit.  The smell was pretty fishy but not disgusting, so I am letting it continue.

My fingers are crossed for luck!

Day 30

This is the one month mark, so I took pictures before and after stirring.

Before stirring.

After stirring.

I scooped out about 1 cup of the mixture.

As it was, right out of the container.

First I poured it through a small strainer, which removed the biggest bits and some of the gritty-looking parts.  Then I put it all into a fine filter, a metal coffee strainer that had never been used for making coffee.  This was put over a container and covered with plastic, so it could drip through.

The odor was fishy but not disgusting.  The cats thought the smell was amazing, so I gave them several drops of the liquid, which they quickly licked up.

I filtered it but could not get it clear, so I put the liquid into the refrigerator to see what would happen.  I noticed that everything the liquid touched had a greasy film on it, which wasn't very pleasant at all.

I tasted it and it was very, very fishy.  It did not have that slightly sweet taste the liquamen I made from the fish sauce and grape juice had.  I really didn't like it much but I do have to note that it wasn't too salty, and it didn't taste rotten.

So after one month of fermenting, I think it should continue.

Four Months

The mixture has been sitting on the patio for four months now, and it is time to finish it.  When I opened the container, I was really put off.  The smell was unpleasant and it looked weird, and I was unsure whether what I saw was fish oil or mold.  But before I reacted, I checked with my online friends who have done this before.



D G-T gave me this description:

Fishy salty sludge that looks like chucky mud?  That's OK.  Strain out the solids and you have liquid yuck.  Run that through a coffee filter or wet paper towel and you should get clear amber salty fishy goodness ... that's the goal.  It will flow through the filter VERY slowly.

I felt much better about my experiment and set about with the filtering.

The first round was done outside, using a ladle to get the liquid out of the tub and into two strainers, one a little finer mesh than the other.  I also had a trashcan nearby so I could empty the strainers regularly.  I worked quickly, so I could get it done before too many flies found me.



The result of this first round of filtering was, yes, liquid yuck.  I did notice that the scent wasn't bad at all:  fishy but not rotten or nasty, and I kept getting a hint of the fruity scent that the previous liquamen had.

First round yuck.

I could see all the particles in the liquid and knew I would have to filter them a lot to get it clear.

Filtering, round two, was done indoors.  I used the ladle to scoop the liquid into a strainer that was even finer mesh than the two I used in the first round.  One scoop would drain for a little while and then I had to rotate the strainer to put the liquid over areas that weren't clogged with particles.

Strainer after the liquid passed through.  Time to shake and rinse!

Then I shook the particles out into a bowl.  After every two or three shakes, I rinsed the strainer under clear water.  This worked well.

It didn't take long to accumulate 14 cups (3.5 quarts) of the second round filtered liquid.

Liquid not-so-yuck.

It is still not clear.  Next I will run it through my metal coffee filter to see how that works.

One aspect of this that made me laugh at myself:  All the while I kept thinking, "I need to find a place in the refrigerator for this big container."  Then I realized it had been sitting on my patio for four months and didn't need to be kept cold!  The beauty of salt!

Putting the liquid through the coffee filter helped a lot.  This left me with a slightly cloudy amber liquid, so I poured it through a wet paper towel to finish it off.

The result was an almost perfectly clear amber liquid that smelled fishy but was not bad.

The Verdict

Time for a taste test!

I put the fermented liquamen up against Thai fish sauce and my homemade liquamen that was a mixture of the Thai fish sauce and reduced white grape juice.

All about the same color.  Newest on the right.

I tasted a little of each one and drank a lot of water between tastes to clear my palate.

My fermented liquamen was very salty, slightly sweet, and had a deep umami flavor that I liked.  That umami really made my tastebuds dance and sing.

The Thai fish sauce was salty but not as much as my fermented sauce, it was not sweet, it had a tangy sensation that I didn't like much, and it had umami but the fermented sauce had more.

The fish sauce plus grape juice was definitely sweeter (remember that I mixed them so I controlled the sauce/juice ratio, and I like sweet), not as salty, no tang, and not as rich in umami. 

The fermented sauce had the most umami and the most salt.  The Thai sauce was thicker, almost syrupy, than the other two. 

D G-T says she gets the best results using 7 parts fish to 1 part salt.  Mine was about 6 parts fish to 1 part salt, so I am not surprised about the salt levels in mine.

So was there a clear winner?  Not quite but I would choose depending on my food prep goal.  The fermented sauce was very salty but very umami, so I would take that into account in my recipe.  If I didn't want so much salt, I would use the fish/juice sauce.  The Thai sauce will be used to make more of the fish/juice sauce. 

I declare this to be a success!

One point to note:  at the one month interval, I noted that there was a greasy residue that stuck to everything and bothered me.  This no longer was an issue.  I could see oil/fat in the mixture but it was not sticky nor did it make itself known. 

I'm so glad I did this; what a neat experiment!  My plastic tub resulted in about 14 cups of liquid yuck, which I am still filtering.  Trying to filter it 1/2 cup at a time in the coffee filter was not the best use of time, so I set up a jelly bag (cloth bag for filtering juice for making clear jelly) in a tall jar so I could put in nearly two cups of yuck to filter over time but still cover it to cut down on the fishy odor in the house and keep out bugs/dust/cats.

Very. Slow. Drip.

This can take its time filtering and then I can wash and reuse the bag for the next batch.  Each batch gets filtered through the wet paper towel as the last step, then stored in a corked bottle.  I suspect I will be sharing this liquamen with fellow foodies to get their take on it.  At least I hope I will.

I am thankful to the friends who gave me encouragement and advice on fermenting fish.  I would not have finished it without you.  Special kudos to D G-T!

Four Sauces for a Chicken -- Sauce #1: Roman Empire!

I had company coming, someone who has been experimented on before at my table, so I felt like trying something fun.  I decided to buy two roasted chickens and make sauces to be served with them.

But what sauces?  There are so many from a variety of cultures and eras.  Well, since my love for Roman Empire food is growing, I decided to try one that appeared to be a challenge to prepare.

This recipe comes from Cooking Apicius, by Sally Grainger.  I love this book and have used it several times before for this blog.  (Do a label search on "Roman Empire."  You will find them!)

ISBN 1-903018-44-7

This recipe is on page 60 and has the undistinguished title of

Sauce for Cooked Meat

Ms. Grainger explains that a person of the time would be eating while reclining on one side, using one hand to bring the food up to the mouth.  When at first she tried this sauce, she interpreted it in a modern fashion, making it "thin, hot, plentiful and pourable" and found it disappointing.  But "When I considered them more as a pickle or dipping sauce, the likely use of these sauces became clear."  In other words, the sauce needed to stick to the meat to avoid it dripping onto the diner.

The challenge, in my view, was to make this sauce and closely follow the complicated-looking directions.  Here goes!

1 heaping tsp cumin seeds
1 level tsp myrtle berries *  (see note below)
generous freshly ground black pepper
2 heaped tsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 small leek with the dark green removed
2 hard-boiled eggs, shelled
2 dessert spoons honey
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fish sauce

Ignore the dry parsley.  It butted its way into the picture unannounced.

Roast and grind the cumin and myrtle, mix with the pepper and combine with the parsley.  Chop the leek and cook in a little water.  Strain and place in a food processor or large mortar and grind or process into a paste.  Add the cooked eggs and process or grind again.  Add the spice and herb mixture, honey, vinegar, oil and fish sauce and blend by pulsing a few times.  Tip into a bowl and store until required.  Only store in the fridge if you are preparing or storing left-over sauce overnight.  Preparing it the day before does improve the flavour but bring back to room temperature before serving.

My Notes

*Special note:  I do not have any myrtle berries.  Apparently I could grow them but not in time for today's cooking spree.  To find a substitute I turned to The Epicenter which had a description:

Myrtle seeds are purple-black berries that are used whole or coarsely ground.  Its leaf is used whole or chopped.  Myrtle berries are sweet, with juniper and rosemary-like flavors.  The leaves have spice, astringent, and bitter taste [sic] with a refreshing, fragrant, and orangelike aroma.

Ah ha!  I decided to substitute in juniper berries, which I toasted, and then added a pinch of dried rosemary before grinding.

I toasted the juniper separately from the cumin seeds but combined them in the mortar.  I wasn't sure how long to toast the juniper but I stopped when I sniffed the berries and got a lovely resiny scent.

Toasted.

Ground (includes the rosemary).

I used about 1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper.

Honest, that was the smallest leek I could find in the store!  I used this much of it:

I used one of those big white pieces.

To cook the leeks, I put them in a pan with enough water to cover.  They simmered for a short while -- I stopped cooking them when most of the pieces were transparent.

In the beginning.

Processing that small amount of cooked leeks in my food processor was probably the most challenging part of making this sauce.  I had to stop it many times to scrape the leeks down off the walls.  But with persistence, I got it to nearly a paste consistency.

Adding the eggs helped even more.

I chose to use red wine vinegar for this recipe.

The instructions say to just pulse the mixture a few times after adding the herbs and spices and liquids, so I did.  But I wasn't convinced it was that well mixed.  So I stirred it after it went into the bowl.

It made about 3/4 of a cup.

The Verdict

I served it with thin slices of chicken for dipping.  We also had some fresh bread and a simple green salad.

Both light and dark meat.

I put all the sauces on plates.  There was one set of plates to be shared between every two people.

Roman sauce on the far left.  And this gives you a preview of the other sauces!

The idea was to dip your meat into the sauce and eat it but there was a problem.  The sauce was too thick to allow for easy dipping!  We ended up spooning some onto our plates and then spreading the sauce onto each piece.

You can see how firm the sauce is.

So how did it taste?

It was very intriguing.  Creamy, lightly spiced, slightly sweet, a little rich with a good mouthfeel.  It was hard to taste individual flavors but the blend was lovely.  The more I eat food with cumin, the more I love it and this sauce was no exception.  Success!

My guest tasters all enjoyed it.  Most of us agreed it was the best sauce of the four.  I certainly did.

I think the thickness was just right once I took it all out of the food processor, however the sauce sat for several hours before dinner and I think it thickened up.  If this happens again, I would double check the consistency just before serving and thin it with a little vinegar as needed.

As for the preparation challenge, I was pleasantly surprised to find it easy to make.  I thought the toasting, grinding, cooking, processing steps would be difficult but they weren't.  It is a definite do-again recipe.

I think I could just eat this sauce with a spoon.  Yes, it is that good.

Dulcia Domestica -- Roman Empire "Dates Alexandrine"

I have returned to my The Roman Cookery of Apicius book.  This time I have a dessert made with dates and almonds and cinnamon.

ISBN 0-88179-008-7

"Dulcia Domestica" means "homemade sweets".  The author who translated and redacted the recipes, John Edwards, said in the footnotes,

The word Alexandrine when used as an adjective by Apicius implied "expensive" or "best quality."  Alexandria itself was the great port of arrival for spices from India and China.

Dulcia Domestica:  The Original Recipe (Translated)

Take palms or dates, with the stones removed, and stuff them with nuts or nut kernels and ground pepper.  Salt the dates on top and bottom and fry in cooked honey, and serve.

Mr. Edwards also comments

In the preparation of sweets, Apicius used the word "pepper" loosely.  In the first century A.D., cinnamon and nutmeg were thought by the Romans to have common points of origin with pepper.  They were, in those days, prohibitively expensive.

So in his redaction, Mr. Edwards has us using cinnamon.

Dates Alexandria (page 173)

20 whole dates
20 blanched almonds
1 t. cinnamon
butter
salt
liquid honey

And olive oil for the pan

Remove pits from dates.  Roll almonds in cinnamon and stuff one in each date.  Place dates on a greased pan.  Sprinkle salt over the dates, then coat each one with honey.  Glaze in a 450 degree F oven for 10 minutes, then serve.

My Notes

I bought pitted dates, which was really convenient.  To slice them open to allow the almonds, I inserted the knife into the side hole and cut outwards.  This kept the date from being crushed by the knife.

It was easy to blanch the almonds.  The benefit was that the almonds were still damp so the cinnamon stuck to them well.  You really want a light dusting of cinnamon all over the almond.  Some will rub off on your fingers while stuffing and some will rub off to the inside of the date.

I kept rolling the almonds in the extra cinnamon as I was taking some out.

Some dates were big enough that I put in two almonds to make it look filled.

I think they would be better pushed closed, if possible.

I used kosher salt and sprinkled just a little over the tops.  None on the bottoms.

A little more is acceptable.

The pan was greased with olive oil (I think this is more realistic than using butter).

Then I drizzled each date with a bit of honey.  I did not try to coat each one thoroughly.

Just a zigzag drizzle across each.

I cooked them in a toaster oven.  Because of the close quarters and high heat, I cooked them for 5 minutes instead of ten.

I pulled it out when the honey smoked a little.

After they came out of the oven, I let them cool to the touch.  But get them out of the puddle of honey before it gets too cool, or they will stick to the pan despite the olive oil.

The Verdict

Confession time:  I made these once before but didn't document it.  They were good!  This time around didn't disappoint, either.

The nice part about cooking them in the honey is that the honey gets less sticky, making it a pleasure to eat the dates instead of a mess.

I loved the crunchy texture and cinnamon, sweet date flavors.  At first I thought the honey glaze was going to be too much sweet, but it really was just a back up flavor.  It made the overall taste deeper.  But what really startled me was the addition of the salt.

I know salt and sweet together can be good.  In fact, a little salt can make the sweet taste sweeter.  But this was a stronger salt sensation and, once I expected it, was a lovely complement to the sweet.  It reminded me a little of kettle corn, a sweet and salty crunchy version of candied popcorn.

Dates Alexandrine were a solid success.

Now here is the good part:  The second day they tasted even better!  What I noticed is that the salt dissolved into the honey and spread out over more of the date.  It was a lighter salt experience but still good.

I shared the dates with my colleagues.  I had wanted more cinnamon flavor (as did my guest tasters at dinner) but several of my colleagues admitted to disliking cinnamon.  However they did like the dates as given to them and thought the amount of cinnamon was just right.

So it is your choice!  If you think your diners love cinnamon, consider putting on more on the almonds or sprinkling some into the dates.  If you are not sure, go with the recipe.

I liked the author's idea to bake the dates.  However if I were to do this as a public demonstration, I would fry them as the original recipe indicates.

Finally, I would like to try this with pepper only, or a mixture of cinnamon and pepper, some time.  I think the bitter from the pepper would be intriguing and the whole flavor surprising.

Vitellina Fricta -- Roman Empire's Veal in Sweet and Sour Onion Sauce

Just to make sure we are all together in our thoughts here, veal is unusual and expensive around here, so I used some tri-tip steaks instead.

Last month I made the Vitellina along with Patina de Persicus, a Roman Empire peach dish with cumin.  I reported on the peaches and now I am writing up the vitellina.  I waited because I found I needed to do the recipe over again.

This recipe is also from The Roman Cookery of Apicius.

ISBN 0-88179-008-7

The translated Roman recipe is:

Vitellina Fricta  -- Fried Veal (Steak)

[Combine] pepper, lovage, celery seed, cumin, oregano, dried onion, raisins, honey, vinegar, stock, wine, olive oil, and boiled wine.

Mr. Edward's redaction is:

Veal in Sweet and Sour Onion Sauce (page 204)

1 lb 1/4" veal steak

Sauce:

1/4 t ground pepper
1 t lovage (or celery seed)
1/4 t celery seed
1/4 t cumin
1/2 t oregano
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 T raisins
1 t honey
1 t red wine vinegar
1/4 c red wine
2 t olive oil
1/2 c veal juices or beef stock

The honey is in the canning jar.  I used marjoram instead of oregano.

Saute the meat lightly in olive oil.  Skim the fat from the frying pan, preserve juices, and finish cooking in the following sauce.

For the sauce, first grind together pepper, lovage (or celery seed), celery seed, cumin, and oregano.  Add chopped onion, raisins, honey, vinegar, red wine, olive oil, and veal juices.  Blend.  Pour the sauce into the pan with the veal, cover, and cook very gently for 1 hour.

My Notes (Attempt #1)

I had two pounds of steak so I doubled the sauce recipe.  That turned out to be unnecessary, even a bad idea as there was too much liquid.

While the steak was browning in olive oil,



I started grinding the spices to make the sauce, using celery seed for the lovage.  Then I mixed in the other ingredients and blended them.

Sans beef stock.

Sauce complete.

Then, after I drained out the excess olive oil from the pan, I poured the sauce over the meat.

I think the steak was drowning.

As I mentioned before, it was pretty full and seemed like too much liquid.  But it did encourage me to keep the fire very, very low so the whole thing was at a very gentle simmer.

It struck me that cooking for 1 hour was too long but I went ahead and followed the recipe.

At the end of the hour I used a slotted spoon to remove the meat and other chunks.  Then I spooned a little of the pan sauce over the meat and put the rest into a small pitcher for serving at the table.

The Verdict (Attempt #1)

As I feared, the meat was terribly overcooked.  Chewy, rubbery, and difficult to eat.  The onions and raisins were cooked thoroughly.  I was disappointed at the sauce's flavor.

Not quite shoe leather but close.

Here's what I noticed:  During most of the cooking time the sauce smelled delicious.  I could not wait to taste it.  By the time the hour was up, most of the flavor had cooked out of the sauce and it was dull and unexciting.  My guest tasters and I ate our first servings but no one wanted seconds or to even save the leftovers for another meal.  That is telling.

I call it a failure.  Meh.  Blah.  

But it needed to be done again.  The cooking smells were too promising to abandon all hope now.

My Notes (Attempt #2)

This time I still had two pounds of steak but I only made a single batch of the sauce.  

I followed the same procedures.

You can actually see the meat!

This time I cooked it for 30 minutes only.  I tested the doneness by cutting the meat at 20 minutes and decided it could use a little more time.

The Verdict (Attempt #2)

The meat was still thick and juicy when it came out of the pan.  Not shriveled and tough-looking.

Yes, I made the peaches again!

I thought that it was cooked just to the right amount, where it was still pink inside.  It was still tender, too.

Yum.  Oh yes, yum!

I am so glad the shorter cooking time was a good idea!  

The sauce had an inviting scent throughout the process.  When I first tasted it, I was put off by the onions still being a little crunchy.  That made their flavor more potent than I anticipated and I felt that I didn't like the sauce at all.

But after I got past that, I realized that the sauce was quite flavorful.  The celery seed made an interesting musty,  mildly bitter flavor without being overwhelming.  The pepper was just a back-up bitter.  The raisins were a lovely sweet and I wanted more of them.  I felt the wine and red wine vinegar were too much in the background to really call this sauce "sour" but they blended nicely with the honey and other flavors to give a good, rich, and umami taste.  I liked it!

If I do this again, I would add more vinegar just to get some "zing" from the acidity.

I think the onions would have cooked more if I hadn't put them almost entirely on top of the steak.  I should have let them nestle in around the meat and add their flavor to it.  An alternative is to cook the onions a little before putting them in the sauce.  I would microwave them to get them "parboiled."

Success!  We all liked the meal and we ate the leftovers the next day, which were still tasty.  We hope to make it again soon.

Patina de Persicis -- A Dish of Peaches (Roman Empire)

I'm enjoying the book The Roman Cookery of Apicius by John Edwards.  It has a variety of recipes "translated and adapted for the Modern Kitchen" and that suits me just fine.  Mr. Edwards has made the adaptations very accessible for the 21st century, including his version of "fish-pickle", which is made from canned tuna or salmon (as opposed to the liquamen mentioned in this post).

ISBN 0-88179-008-7

Today I played with two different recipes to make dinner:  Patina de Persicis (A Dish of Peaches) and Vitellina Fricta (Fried Veal Steak).  I am presenting the results of the peaches recipe today and will follow up with the Vitellina next month.

The Roman version is simple (page 84):

Take peaches which have a firm texture and wash them.  Cut them into pieces and stew.  Put the peaches into a dish and sprinkle a few drops of olive oil over them.  Season with cumin, and serve.

Mr. Edward's version is also simple (page 83):

Take early peaches, wash, cut them in quarters, and remove pits.  Steam in water until soft.  Drain, reserve liquid, and put them in a cooking pot with a little of the peach liquid, a few drops of olive oil, and cumin to taste.  Simmer gently for a few minutes and serve hot.

It is not peach season right now but I really wanted to try this recipe.  So my version is simpler still:

Peaches Cooked with Cumin

Two cans sliced peaches, in light syrup or juice
Olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin

That's all!

Drain peaches; reserve 1/4 cup of the liquid.  Place the peaches into a small pan.

Mix the reserved liquid, four drops olive oil, and cumin in a small bowl.

Pour over peaches and stir gently so as not to break up the pieces.

They should not be swimming in liquid.

Over medium heat, bring peaches and liquid to a gentle simmer.  Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 5 - 10 minutes, until steaming hot all the way through.  Stir occasionally.

Remove peaches with a slotted spoon.  Add just a little of the liquid to the peaches in their serving dish.  Serve immediately.

Served with even less liquid in which they were cooked.

My Notes

This was my version of the recipe, so what you see above are my notes.  My canned peaches were in light syrup, so I worried that they might be too sweet.   I served the peaches with a slotted spoon so the liquid wouldn't spill all over the plate.  I served it as a side dish to the meat main course.

That dark stuff is the Vitellina

The Verdict

This was a big hit!  The cumin shifts the flavor to savory rather than sweet and that made it an excellent side dish.  One teaspoon of cumin was very good -- it was subtle and yet still noticeable and just a little spicy on the tongue.  My guest tasters and I (three in total) ate them all.  For more than three people, you will need to double the recipe, at least.

Success!  We all wanted more and I would make it again without hesitation.