Roman Steak Sauce
Sweet Roman steak sauce with spices and garum
City/Region: Rome
Time Period: 1st Century
This recipe uses some classic ancient Roman ingredients that we do our best to substitute with modern ingredients. The garum (fermented fish sauce) adds some saltiness and an unfamiliar umami flavor that I’ve come to associate with ancient Roman food. The defrutum (reduction of grape must) has a pretty close equivalent in modern saba, and it’s sweet and complex. There’s a lot of it in this recipe, and it’s fairly expensive, so you can reduce some grape juice down and have something that’s close enough. You could also use regular black pepper, but if you’ve never had long pepper, it’s worth a try. There’s an aromatic, almost floral quality to it that’s really nice.
This comes together to be a sweet sauce that reminds me of modern barbecue sauce. Use the recipe as a baseline and taste and adjust the amounts of ingredients as you go to be how you like. I had mine with steak, but it would go well with any meat.
“Aliter Assaturas
(Another Sauce for Meat)
Grind dried, pitted myrtle berries with cumin, pepper, honey, garum, defrutum, and oil; heat and thicken with starch. Boil the meat, then roast with salt, and pour the sauce over it. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.”
Ingredients:
Steak
6 myrtle or juniper berries*
- 1/2 teaspoon long pepper* or black pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon garum*
- 3/4 cup (175 ml) defrutum*
- 2 teaspoons wheat starch or cornstarch*
*See notes below.
Instructions:
- Cook the steak however you like. The Apicius recipe says to boil it first, but I can’t bring myself to do that. I seared mine with some salt and pepper, then roasted it in the oven, but you can grill it or do whatever you like.
- Grind the myrtle berries and pepper in a mortar and pestle. In a bowl, combine this mixture with the oil, honey, cumin, garum, and defrutum.
- Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and set it over medium-low heat to simmer for about 10 minutes. Taste and add a little more of any of the ingredients if you wish.
- After the sauce has reduced a bit, stir in the starch. Simmer for another 5 minutes, or until it thickens a bit more, then remove it from the heat. Serve it forth immediately with the steak.
Notes
Long pepper was very popular in ancient Rome. It's hotter than black pepper and has a more aromatic, almost flowery quality to it that's wonderful.
Garum was a fermented fish sauce that was used in a lot of ancient Roman cooking. You can buy a modern equivalent or use an Asian fish sauce.
Defrutum was a 1/3 reduction of grape must and is sweet and delicious. Today saba is pretty much the same thing. It can be expensive, so you can reduce some grape juice instead. It won't be as complex as saba, but it will work just fine
They wouldn’t have had cornstarch, but it’s much easier to find and does the same thing.
Link to juniper berries: https://amzn.to/3sw4WEh
Link to long pepper: https://amzn.to/3ZfRLDR
Link to modern garum: https://amzn.to/3ulTKKW
Link to saba: https://amzn.to/3JGkbyK
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