Garum and Roman Fermented Fish — The Most Influential Condiment You've Never Heard Of

What garum was

Garum was a Roman fermented-fish condiment, made by salting whole small fish (often anchovies, sardines, or mackerel) and allowing them to ferment in the sun for weeks. The resulting liquid — clear, intensely savory, salty, deeply umami — was the universal seasoning of the Roman empire. It was used in virtually every dish; archaeologists find traces of it from Britain to Syria.

The production was industrial. Excavated factories at Baelo Claudia (in modern Spain) and Cotta (in modern Morocco) show large stone-lined fermentation tanks. The volume produced and traded was enormous.

What happened to it

Garum faded in Europe after the empire collapsed, surviving in fragments — colatura di alici (the Italian anchovy sauce still made in Cetara, on the Amalfi Coast) is essentially garum, by another name and at a smaller scale.

But the technique migrated. Or, more accurately, the technique is universal enough that similar products developed independently across many cuisines:

• Southeast Asian fish sauces — nuoc mam (Vietnam), nam pla (Thailand), patis (Philippines), kecap ikan (Indonesia). The dominant umami-providing condiment of Southeast Asian cuisine. Made the same way: small fish, salt, time.
• Worcestershire sauce — fermented anchovies, tamarind, molasses, vinegar. A direct, recognizable descendant.
• Asian fish paste / shrimp paste — bagoong, kapi, mam tom, belacan, terasi — slightly different but parallel.

Why it matters now

Two things:

• The umami point. Garum and its descendants are concentrated glutamates and inosinates — the molecules that produce the savory taste sensation. The Romans were systematically seasoning their food with what we now call umami. The cuisines that retained these condiments (Vietnamese, Thai, Italian-with-anchovies) build their flavor on the same foundation.
• The continuity point. Cooking with a fish sauce in 2026 is not exotic. It is a 2,500-year-old Mediterranean and Asian technique. When you add fish sauce to a stir-fry or anchovies to a pasta sauce, you are participating in a deeply continuous food history.

How to use it in a Western kitchen

If you cook Italian, French, Spanish, or Levantine food, anchovy is your garum. A tin of good anchovies (Cantabrian, oil-packed) is the underrated kitchen workhorse. Melt one or two into the oil before adding garlic for a pasta sauce; you won't taste fish, you'll taste depth.

If you cook Southeast Asian, fish sauce is the equivalent. Red Boat or Three Crabs are reliable supermarket-available brands. Used by the teaspoon.

If you're feeling experimental: René Redzepi and David Zilber, in The Noma Guide to Fermentation (2018), have a contemporary garum recipe that uses koji to accelerate the fermentation. The technique transfers home.

Reading

• Sally Grainger, The Story of Garum (2020) — the current scholarly treatment.
• The Noma Guide to Fermentation (2018) — contemporary kitchen approach.
• Andoni Luis Aduriz and Ferran Adrià writings on fermented sauces in modern kitchens.

What garum was

Garum was the fermented fish sauce of ancient Rome, produced
across the Mediterranean and traded as a commodity. The
manufacturing process: small fatty fish (sardines, anchovies,
mackerel) layered with salt in vats, left to ferment in the sun
for several months. The liquid that resulted — clear, salty,
rich in glutamates — was the seasoning that anchored Roman
cuisine.

The factories were enormous. Archaeological remains at
Baelo Claudia (Spain), Lixus (Morocco), and several other
Mediterranean coastal sites show industrial-scale operations
that produced garum for export across the empire. The trade
was lucrative; the fish-sauce factories were named in Roman
commerce as distinct industries.

The cuisine garum supported

Roman cuisine used garum in nearly every savory preparation.
Apicius — the Roman cookbook surviving in late-imperial form —
contains hundreds of recipes that include garum. The seasoning
served the same function as soy sauce in East Asian cuisines
or fish sauce in Southeast Asian cuisines: a universal
umami-deliverer that brings depth to meat, vegetable, and grain
preparations alike.

The Roman taste for the salt-fish-umami flavor profile shaped
broader Mediterranean cuisine for centuries. After the fall of
Rome, garum production declined and was largely lost in Europe.

What garum became

Roman garum has descendants in several modern cuisines:

• Colatura di alici. The southern Italian (Cetara,
  specifically) anchovy sauce that is the closest contemporary
  descendant of Roman garum. Still made by salt-fermenting
  anchovies for months; the resulting clear amber liquid is
  used as a condiment on pasta, vegetables, and fish.
• Worcestershire sauce. Developed in 19th-century England;
  the recipe includes anchovies and a long fermentation period.
  Lea & Perrins is the canonical brand; the sauce traces a
  line back through Roman garum traditions.
• Garum revival. The Noma Fermentation Lab (Copenhagen) has
  produced a series of contemporary garum-style sauces using
  non-traditional substrates (beef, pork, mushroom, locust)
  with the traditional fermentation method. The results are
  documented in the Noma fermentation book.

The Southeast Asian fish-sauce family

Garum's parallel tradition in Southeast Asia developed
independently and continues uninterrupted. The contemporary
fish-sauce production in Vietnam (nuoc mam), Thailand (nam pla),
the Philippines (patis), and surrounding regions follows
roughly the same process Roman garum-makers used. The Phu Quoc
and Nha Trang fish-sauce factories are the contemporary heirs of
the industrial fermentation tradition.

The connection between Roman garum and Southeast Asian fish
sauce is convergent invention rather than direct inheritance,
but the parallels — same substrate, same method, same flavor
profile — are striking.

What to do with this

A bottle of high-quality fish sauce (Red Boat 40N is the
canonical recommendation) plus a small bottle of colatura
covers the umami-from-fermented-fish flavor range for
contemporary home cooking. Both are inexpensive on a per-meal
basis and have substantial impact.

Further reading

• The Noma Fermentation book (René Redzepi and David Zilber,
  2018).
• Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History (2002) — includes
  garum discussion.
• Various Apicius translations.
• Andrea Nguyen and other Vietnamese cookbook authors on
  contemporary fish sauce.