Garum time!

Garum time! Well, not strictly garum as the method is very different. They were traditionally made around the Roman empire as a by-product of the fishing industry where fish guts were added to vats with salt and left to digest themselves for months until all that was left was a liquid full of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Nowadays Asian fish sauce is the nearest equivalent, though we have Worcestershire sauce, something quite similar. Both are packed with aminos and salt.

Making them traditionally requires either quite a lot of time, up to a year, or in a more modern approach, pioneered by Noma, holding 60C for several months with koji providing the enzymes. Noma also pioneered a technique with pork pancreas, which seemed to work even more quickly. It’s very hard to find this organ, unfortunately, as it’s left behind at the abattoir, so us folks at home can sub in food supplements. Pancreatin is what you’re looking for! Given the right quantities, this will break down a protein sludge in a few hours at 60C.

This rather gross sludge is all that’s left of solid matter of 500g of chicken breasts after about 6 hours in a bag inside a sous vide bath. I made a fish version as well, which clarified more quickly. The original version used a different supplement, I’m assuming that the clarification meant the proteins were breaking down, so left it longer. I measured the final liquid weight and added 11% salt, then Pasteurised.

As a test today, I used it as a ramen tare. I have to say it was excellent, I only added a tiny bit of salt and this was packed with umami and chicken flavour. Not vegan, but beats waiting around for months for your aminos.