• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

CooksInfo

  • Home
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Recipes
  • Food Calendar
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar
×
Home » Condiments » Sauces » Fish Sauces » Liquamen

Liquamen

Liquamen was a Roman fish sauce.

Liquamen may originally have been a fish sauce different from the other Roman fish sauce, Garum. Some speculate that unlike Garum, Liquamen was originally just made from whatever fish and fish bits. The Romans were real snobs about food, and the fact that it wasn’t recorded in the 1st century AD may be that they didn’t think it was worth talking about, though that is pure speculation.

By the 400s, though, the word Garum had disappeared from usage, and been replaced by Liquamen. Apicius uses Liquamen in his recipes in the 300s. It may have just become a generic word for fish sauce.

Though there were many centres of Liquamen manufacture, such as Portugal and Spain, whose sauces were prized and sent all over the Empire, the Empire was a big place, and many people would have made their own versions with the fish they had to hand. Neither Garum nor Liquamen would have had a strong fishy taste at all, unlike today’s fish sauces.

In the 900s, the Byzantines were still making Liquamen. It disappeared, though, when Byzantium was conquered and occupied by the Muslims.

Substitutes

The thing to remember about Liquamen is that in fact it would not have tasted very fishy (see entry on Garum). Some suggest for 2 oz (50 ml) Liquamen substitute ½ teaspoon salt plus 2 oz (50 ml) white wine.

Other names

Latin: Liquamen

This page first published: Nov 9, 2003 · Updated: Jun 20, 2018.

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · Information on this site is Copyright © 2025· Feel free to cite correctly, but copying whole pages for your website is content theft and will be DCMA'd.

Tagged With: Roman Food

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I'm Skylar! This is a fake profile talking about how I switched to a paleo diet and it helped my eczema and I grew 4". Trust me, I'm an online doctor.

More about me →

Popular

  • E.D. Smith Pumpkin Purée
    E.D. Smith recipe for pumpkin pie

  • Libby's Pumpkin Pie
    Libby’s recipe for pumpkin pie

  • Pie crust
    Pie Crust Recipe

  • Smokey Maple Pepper Glaze for Ham
    Smokey Maple Pepper Glaze for Ham

You can duplicate your homepage's trending recipes section in the sidebar to reinforce the internal linking.

We no longer recommend using a search bar, newsletter form or category drop-down menu in the sidebar. See the Modern Sidebar post for details.

If the block editor is not narrower than usual, simply save the page and refresh it.

Search

    Today is

  • International Hummus Day
    Hummus
  • World Cocktail Day
    Cocktails
  • Apple Pie Day
    Woman with apple pie

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • About this site
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright enforced!
  • Terms & Conditions

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Site

  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · The text on this site is © Copyright.