Ancient Romans Loved Fermented Fish Sauce

Forget elegant dining; the most popular Roman condiment was a pungent, salty fermented fish sauce called garum. It was added to almost everything, even desserts, and turned the culinary world of antiquity upside down.

Garum was produced by layering fish entrails with salt and leaving them to ferment in the sun for months. This liquid gold was so essential to the Roman diet that it was mass-produced in giant factories and traded across the empire. Because it provided a deep umami flavor, it acted as the Roman version of soy sauce or modern ketchup. Romans were obsessed with this funky ingredient to the point of putting it on almost every dish imaginable.