Just read about a Roman shipwreck found with jars of fish sauce still sealed

Came across an article from a dig in Spain. They pulled up a wreck off the coast near Cartagena. The cargo hold had hundreds of amphorae, and some still had their original stoppers in place. Lab tests showed the residue inside was garum, that fermented fish sauce Romans loved. Anyone know if they ever try to recreate the recipes from these finds?

2 comments

2 Comments

jadew6312h ago

Saw a documentary where a chef actually tried to make some based on those old jars. The smell was supposed to be unreal, like super strong and fishy. They said the taste was super salty and umami, way stronger than modern fish sauce. Kind of wild to think we're eating basically the same thing they did two thousand years ago.

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quinn_wood8h ago

But have you seen the research on how the Roman stuff was actually made? I read they used way more guts and blood, not just whole fish. That's a totally different process from most modern fish sauce, which is cleaner. So it might not be the same thing at all, just a similar idea.