Garum

A dictionary of Spanish history and culture

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Garum was a hugely popular sauce probably made from fermented (rotten) fish guts and herbs such as cumin, garlic and poppy seeds during Roman times. Production was centred around Gadir (Cadiz) and the sauce was exported throughout the Empire. Making garum was said to be so foul that common folk were banned from doing it in their own homes. Contemporary versions of garum have begun to appear on the menus of innovative restaurants, though it is unclear as to whether they bear any semblance to the real stuff which is said to resemble the present-day Vietnamese sauce nuoc-nám.

You can see a garum factory at the site of Baelo Claudia some 20km outside Tarifa.

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