Garum

Garum is an exclusive ingredient that was used in nearly every recipe in ancient times. Then it was forgotten, but now it’s experiencing a colossal boom worldwide, primarily thanks to the innovators from the Noma lab in Copenhagen.

Although production is complicated, anyone can cook with garum in the kitchen. It just takes a bit of adjusting.

The ecological ketchup of the new age

Cooks use garum sauces when they want to accentuate a meal, giving it depth, saltiness, and a powerful umami flavour. But there’s also something else interesting about garum. It’s one of the most sought-after candidates to replace animal protein and can reverse our habits of high meat consumption. That’s because it can carry the same flavour profile as beef steak, even if you simply pour it over vegetables.

It goes with nearly everything:

1. create sauces with distinct flavours and don’t shy away from mixing garum with vinegar, wine, fresh vegetables, meat, broths, and more.
2. pour it over roasted vegetables, chicken, mushrooms, fish, and beef in the pan
3. simply add it to broths, cabbage soup, borscht, and fish and vegetable soups
4. top off pasta, risotto, and even lentils with garum
5. use it to season mixed pastes, spreads, and hummus
6. try and experiment with sweet foods by spreading it over cakes, pastries, and bread, or add flavour with garum as a filling, or even use it to make ice cream

Production riddled with failures

In ancient Rome, they had it all figured out. They had giant manufacturing processes all over with stone baths that they would use to ferment small fish in the sun, usually with their innards and heads included, together with salt. The smell was horrible (which is why the production areas were kept outside the city), but the result was the most precious of ingredients, which went on to impact history.

Today, we make garum the modern way, in an incubator with controlled temperature and humidity but still, the journey has been full of failures and bad approaches.

With the help of the Japanese mould, Koji, the production time has shrunk by about half, and together with salt, water, and the right conditions, garum with a truly finely-tuned flavour can be made.

Millions of flavours

We’re currently standing at the very beginning of discovering garum’s possibilities. Eric has already tried dozens of flavours, using ingredients like pollen, oyster, chicken trimmings, yeast, and mushrooms. We’ve managed to fine-tune the mushroom creations enough that we’d like to offer you some to try. The White version is lighter and made of white mushrooms, while the Black version is stronger and made of brown mushrooms.

We’re proud that we were able to create them, but we’d still like to hear your feedback. Do you like the flavour? Are you finding a place for garum in your kitchen, and what other flavours would work for you? The fun is only beginning.

And we also have larger packages for gastro businesses, so don’t be afraid to reach out to us.