I was astonished that the production of garum was so central to the economy in the Mediterranean, and how it disappeared completely. I had never heard of it until I visited Empúries. I can only imagine how it must have smelled to produce it at an industrial scale.
Not really. It evolved into things like Worcestershire, ketchup and a bunch of less known sauces. Colatura di alici is probably closest in spirit to the Roman preparation.
>> Too much salt stops autolysis altogether; too little invites botulism.
>>Our garum is very salty, very concentrated
Yup. Salt was very expensive in Roman times. (It is linked to "salary" for good reason.) I'd bet money that nobody today would dare sell or even make something anywhere close to the actual ancient product, the cheap low-salt stuff used by normal people. Botulism is not something to toy around with.
It's common for printed magazines to carry dates that are a month or two after the magazine is actually printed, because that was when subscribers would get their copy or it would appear on the news stand. I think this became common so buyers wouldn't think they were getting an old issue.
I made my own garum - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29011872 - Oct 2021 (96 comments)