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The Stinky Fish Sauce Ancient Romans Couldn’t Live Without
The Stinky Fish Sauce Ancient Romans Couldn’t Live Without
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0:00
If you were invited to a dinner party in Ancient Rome,
0:02
the spread might have looked a little bit like what you’d find in
0:05
your friend’s apartment today: bread, cheese, honey, some wine.
0:09
But there might have been some other delicacies that felt more…
0:12
unorthodox to our modern palates.
0:14
Like roasted pig udder or nut-fattened dormice—the rodent cousins of mice.
0:19
But no matter which dishes were on the buffet, every Ancient Roman chef
0:23
almost certainly had a not-so-secret sauce in their kitchen called garum.
0:27
Garum is a fish paste made by fermenting whole fish or fish guts
0:32
under the hot sun in barrels full of salt and other seasonings.
0:35
From what we can tell based on recipes and other writing from across
0:38
the centuries, garum was used by all social classes in sauces and dips.
0:43
Despite its pungent odor, it was widely beloved for its unique taste.
0:47
And modern researchers have been hungry
0:50
to know what was so special about this ancient condiment.
0:53
[♪ INTRO]
0:56
For the scientists and historians who wanted to recreate garum,
1:00
their first hurdle was figuring out what it even is.
1:02
Food historians have traced references to a stinky fish sauce
1:06
across countless texts in Greek and Latin.
1:08
Mysteriously, they found several different words that all seem
1:11
to refer to the same sauce…or maybe several variations of the sauce over time.
1:16
See, there’s the Greek word gáros, which may have originally
1:19
referred to the specific fish that was used for the sauce.
1:22
And garum was the Latin counterpart that Ancient Romans used and wrote about.
1:26
For example, Pliny the Elder wrote about garum’s quote “exquisite nature”
1:30
and “unpleasant smell” in his text Natural History,
1:34
describing how it was “prepared from the intestines of fish and various parts
1:39
which would otherwise be thrown away, macerated in salt;
1:43
so that it is, in fact, the result of their putrefaction.”
1:46
Pliny the Elder also wrote about garum’s…uh…medicinal properties.
1:51
He claimed it was a great treatment for wounds like dog bites, ulcers, or burns.
1:56
But, yanno, Pliny said a lot of things.
1:59
But there’s another word that was used by later Romans: liquamen.
2:02
Liquamen may have been a generic term for fish sauce,
2:05
since it appears throughout a very famous, very old Roman cookbook.
2:09
Or liquamen may have referred to a liquid extracted during the garum preparation process.
2:09
In any case, modern food scientists mostly use “garum”
2:12
to describe any and all of the old, Roman, fermented fish sauces.
2:17
So that’s what we’ll call it in this episode, too.
2:19
Now, garum isn’t special because the Ancient Romans were somehow
2:22
incredible geniuses who figured out fermentation science for the very first time.
2:27
Fermentation was already a well-established food preservation technique,
2:31
and cultures across Asia have been fermenting fish
2:33
in various ways for hundreds or thousands of years.
2:36
If you’ve ever cooked a Southeast Asian dish at home,
2:38
you might even have a bottle of fish sauce in your pantry!
2:41
Scholars aren’t sure if fish sauces in Southeast Asia are derivatives of garum
2:46
or were invented independently.
2:48
But it’s no surprise that fermented fish sauce caught on,
2:51
because fermentation is an incredibly cool and effective preservation method.
2:56
There are actually a couple different kinds of biochemical processes that fall
2:59
under the umbrella term of “fermentation.”
3:02
But they have a key principle in common: without oxygen around,
3:06
some microbes can thrive and break down food molecules,
3:09
like proteins and carbs, into molecules that we taste as unique flavors.
3:13
But there are also microbes that break food into compounds that can poison us.
3:17
So fermentation is a game about controlling the decomposition process
3:22
so that we get something yummy and safe to eat,
3:24
rather than an impending case of food poisoning.
3:27
To be fair to bacteria and fungi, they’re all just trying their best to survive.
3:31
But, for simplicity’s sake, because we’re talking about food that humans prepare
3:35
for humans to eat, we can draw a line between “heroes” and “villains”.
3:40
The microbes that don’t hurt us can be considered “good” or “beneficial”,
3:43
and the ones that can kill us are, well, “bad.”
3:46
For example, some of the microbial good guys
3:49
are Lactobacillus, or lactic acid bacteria.
3:52
They’re often found at the scene of fermentation because they thrive in
3:55
low-oxygen environments and can withstand some saltiness.
3:58
One of their main chemical byproducts is lactic acid,
4:02
which you’ll get whenever carbohydrates are broken down
4:04
into shorter sugar molecules without getting oxygen involved.
4:08
So you can thank Lactobacillus for contributing to the tart and umami flavors
4:12
in foods like pickles and yogurt, as well as garum.
4:15
More importantly, lactic acid also creates an environment hostile
4:19
to many kinds of bad bacteria and fungi.
4:21
As those good fermentation microbes chomp their way through our pickle jars,
4:25
they’re actively deterring other organisms that could hurt us.
4:28
Another way to control the decomposition process is by adding salt—
4:32
a crucial ingredient for garum, you might remember!
4:34
Salt can inhibit some types of potentially harmful bacteria, like E.coli,
4:38
by limiting their water access.
4:40
Too much salt, and the E.coli dry out and collapse.
4:43
Goodbye, tummyache!
4:44
Fermentation can break down the carbohydrates in vegetables and in meats,
4:48
but some Lactobacillus species are also good at
4:51
breaking proteins into shorter amino acid chains!
4:54
And that’s really important when you’re fermenting fish,
4:57
which are famously animals with protein in their flesh.
5:00
Basically I’m telling you that pickles and pickerel can both be fermented
5:03
by lactic-acid-producing bacteria!
5:06
But the exact species and macromolecules involved are a little bit different.
5:10
Fermentation is complicated enough, but there’s an additional,
5:13
extra weird thing going on with fish sauces in particular.
5:16
It turns out that the biochemistry of whole fish fermenting is closer to the rotting end
5:20
of the scale than your average pickle would be.
5:22
That’s because microbes aren’t the only ones involved.
5:25
See, for garum you usually just take the whole fish, cover it in salt,
5:30
and then stick it in a sealed container.
5:32
Then any microbes that can survive that super salty environment
5:36
get to work breaking stuff down, but the enzymes from within the fish’s own
5:40
digestive system also catalyze the protein-decomposition process.
5:44
This is a huge difference because enzymes aren’t alive.
5:48
Most of them are specialized proteins that help kick off
5:51
chemical reactions inside of living creatures.
5:53
Normally they’re contained in cells or stick to
5:56
certain areas of the body, like your gut.
5:58
But death makes everything…a little goopier.
6:01
Before I tell you about the flavors these fermentation processes create,
6:04
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Since the line between decay and fermentation can be so fine,
7:43
maybe it’s no surprise that this process can
7:45
produce flavors that are intense and…a little controversial.
7:48
Some amino acids that come from broken down proteins are responsible for
7:52
savory flavors, like salty, buttery, and—sometimes—stinky.
7:57
So garum and other fermented fish sauces are
7:59
notorious for their funky, polarizing flavors.
8:02
Dozens of Ancient Roman recipes called for some kind of garum.
8:06
In fact, it was such a common ingredient that there were words for garum
8:10
mixed with other kitchen staples: oenogarum was garum mixed with wine,
8:14
oxygarum had vinegar, hydrogarum had water…you get the gist.
8:19
But just because it was popular, that doesn’t mean it was universally beloved.
8:23
I mean, look at mustard!
8:26
Psychologically speaking, the feeling of disgust could warn us
8:29
that something is unsafe for us.
8:31
So an aversion to stinky foods might be connected to an urge to
8:35
avoid a rotten meal, or food that made us sick the last time we ate it.
8:38
But there are plenty of foods, like a stinky French cheese,
8:41
that aren’t dangerous for us to eat.
8:43
Their appeal is often precisely because they sit
8:46
on the edge between disgust and delish.
8:49
And the question of why some foods taste good to us is a big,
8:52
open question with lots of different hypotheses.
8:55
Several groups of scientists have proposed that savory or umami tastes could
9:00
indicate the presence of nutrients, like proteins and salts, that our bodies need.
9:04
But, unlike a nice, aged steak, the question of umami can’t just be cut and dry.
9:10
Some studies found that high-umami foods might have both positive and negative
9:15
health effects, including better nutritional balance
9:18
but also potentially increased headaches.
9:20
Basically, nutrition is complicated!
9:23
We don’t need to solve all of nutritional science today,
9:25
but we do need to get back to the reasons we do know fermentation is great for us.
9:30
For one, fermentation helps us preserve food for longer periods.
9:33
Humans can’t always eat freshly caught fish or ripe fruits and vegetables.
9:37
It’d sure be helpful to store up some of those good proteins, sugars, fats,
9:41
and other nutrients for later in the year, like the winter.
9:44
If you follow the right steps, fermentation is a really reliable way to
9:47
reduce the risk of bad microbes or pests making your food inedible.
9:51
Of course there are other food preservation methods, like freezing or drying.
9:55
But fermentation’s superpower is that it transforms the molecules inside food,
9:59
making them smaller and easier for our bodies to process.
10:03
In a way, fermentation sort of pre-digests our food
10:06
before we ever put it in our mouths.
10:08
And, depending on who you are, that’s either the coolest
10:11
or the grossest possible way I could have phrased that.
10:14
This transformative power is kind of why fermented foods
10:17
and drinks have taken off as modern-day “superfoods”.
10:20
There’s evidence that fermentation breaks down certain carbohydrates,
10:23
proteins, and fats that would be hard for us to digest on our own.
10:27
With the help of fermentation, our bodies absorb more nutrients from the food.
10:31
Plus, all that microbe and enzyme action doesn’t just produce lactic acid
10:35
and other substances that inhibit bad bacterial growth…
10:39
it also makes byproducts that are beneficial in other ways.
10:42
For instance, some species of Lactobacillus can make B or K vitamins
10:46
that we can’t make ourselves,
10:47
or acids that help combat inflammation in our immune systems.
10:51
Some of the living bacteria themselves could be considered probiotics,
10:54
which can join—and even reshape—the microbiome party in our guts.
10:58
All that to say, researchers aren’t just interested in studying fermented fish sauces
11:03
like garum because these condiments were an Ancient Roman fad.
11:06
Cracking garum’s composition can also help us understand how
11:10
our ancestors’ food technology improved taste, safety, and nutrition.
11:15
Although they’re probably partly studying it because it’s fun and weird.
11:19
Listen, humans are gonna human.
11:21
One research group recreated several different versions of garum in the lab.
11:25
Their recipes were inspired by six surprisingly well-preserved samples
11:29
found in buried vessels at a garum shop in Pompeii, Italy.
11:33
The vessels were unearthed in the 1960s and have been studied ever since.
11:37
Previous analyses of these trace amounts of garum showed that it was
11:40
probably made from anchovies, and the presence of pollen indicated it might have
11:44
been flavored with spices, such as thyme, sage, fennel, and mint,
11:49
which were common in recipes from the time.
11:50
These researchers measured the amino acids, fatty acids,
11:54
and mineral content of the ancient garum,
11:56
to serve as a benchmark for their attempts to recreate it!
11:59
They composed their fishy brews by layering whole anchovies, salt,
12:04
and spices in a 5 liter vessel.
12:06
To mimic a Roman garum vessel exposed to the sun,
12:09
they kept the temperature pretty constant at 50 degrees celsius.
12:13
After 25 days of the fish enzymes digesting through the goop,
12:17
they mushed up the dissolved fish bones and flesh into a fermented paste that,
12:22
uh, looks about as good as it sounds.
12:25
But then they strained out the solid chunks, leaving a transparent,
12:30
stinky, fishy liquid that was chockfull of glutamic acid—
12:34
an amino acid known for its strong umami.
12:37
With our modern understanding of fermentation,
12:39
we can look back at recipes from the past and see that our human ancestors
12:43
were finding creative ways to preserve food and make it tasty,
12:47
with an added fermented-goodness nutritional boost!
12:50
Even if some of the medicinal claims of fish sauce
12:53
may have been…a little far-fetched.
12:55
And not only do we have evidence that Ancient Romans
12:58
considered garum an essential condiment.
13:00
But, now, we can taste it ourselves.
13:02
Because beyond the lab, food technicians have started to bring
13:06
modern-day garum back to the public market!
13:09
They’re even making experimental garum—or, I guess, just fermented sauce—
13:13
out of other non-fishy things like grasshoppers or bee larvae.
13:17
Unfortunately I don’t have any to try here today…
13:20
but with these modern garum recreations,
13:23
that Ancient Roman-themed dinner party could be way
13:26
more authentic than I initially thought.
13:27
So whether you love a funky fish sauce or a tart kombucha,
13:31
you're joining in a scientific and culinary experiment that’s been
13:35
bubbling away since before Ancient Rome —
13:38
literally bubbling, in the sun, in a barrel full of fish intestines.
13:43
[♪ OUTRO]
