garum

In ancient times, Romans used umami-rich garum the way Americans use ketchup. Much like modern Asian fish sauce, garum was made from salted fermented fish guts, then shipped in special amphorae.

In the 5th-century BC, the Greeks had an early version of the sauce called garos, the origin of the Latin garum. Roman chefs loved it kept the moisture in dishes that were libel to dry out when salted. In the famous 1st-century AD cookery book, De re coquinaria ('On the Subject of Cooking') Marcus Gavius Apicius considered garum and other fish sauces as essential condiments.

There were all kinds, some cheap such as fishy paste residue called allec, that even the poorest could afford to flavour their mush, and luxury versions such as garum sociorum made of mackerel from Cartagena in Spain, which Pliny considered more fragrant than the finest perfumes. It also came in several varieties—infused with oil (oleagarum), pepper (garum piperatum), vinegar (oxygarum), or wine (oenogarum).