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Liquamen ex piris (Palladius' pear liquamen)

Liquamen de piris castimoniale · Liquamen ex piris · Pear liquamen · Palladius pear sauce

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A late-antique Roman recipe in which very ripe pears are crushed with salt, matured for three months and drained, giving a pale liquid called liquamen.

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Illustrative reconstruction of pale pear liquamen based on Palladius; its exact historical appearance and vessel are unknown.

A fish-sauce name on a fruit

Palladius, a Roman writer generally dated to the late fourth or early fifth century CE, has a short passage on liquamen made from pears. Its opening line, Liquamen de piris castimoniale sic fiet, is usually rendered as how pear liquamen is made in a pure, ritual manner. Liquamen is the word used for the common whole-fish sauce of the Roman kitchen; here it names a product made without fish.

The passage shows that by late antiquity the name of a fish sauce could be applied to a plant preparation that follows the same logic of salt, time and draining. It does not show that the pear product replaced fish sauce, or that the two were the same food.

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The method

Very ripe pears are crushed whole with salt. Once the flesh has broken down, the mixture goes into small casks or earthenware vessels lined with pitch. After the third month the contents are hung so that the liquid drains from them. The liquid tastes pleasant but is pale, and the recipe advises adding some dark wine while the pears are salted to correct the colour.

A second, popular source gives a similar sequence: ripe pears are grated, mixed with salt into a pulp and left covered in a dish, and after three months the flesh is separated from the liquid. It calls the product garum, a name the Latin does not use.

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What it shares with fish liquamen, and what it does not

The raw material is pear, not a protein-rich fish, and the sources give no reason to think the pear breaks down as fish does. The chemistry is expected to differ, but no source read here measures it. What the recipe shares with fish liquamen is the sequence of salting, a period of maturation and draining the liquid; the name follows the process and the finished liquid, not the animal.

The word castimoniale is the hard point. One writer links it to castimonia and castus, pure or chaste, and notes a view that it refers to religious strictures; he leaves open whether the whole preparation was a ritual. Another reading is that the product is simply made in a pure state. Neither is settled.

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Limits of the evidence

The Latin gives no weight of pears and no salt ratio, and the dark wine is only some part. It does not say how long the pears were salted before the third month, how long the drip lasted, or the yield. The 25 to 50 per cent salt range quoted on one page is a modern writer's, not Palladius's.

This is one recipe in one text. It is good evidence that liquamen could name a salted, drained fruit product, and weak evidence about how common the practice was or whether anyone used it in place of fish sauce. The Latin was read as quoted on a single page; a critical edition was not checked.

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History

One recipe in one late-antique agricultural text; how common the practice was is not known.

Ingredients

Scaling: source batch only

Very ripe pearsCrushed whole.
Amount not stated
The Latin gives no weight.
Salt
Amount not stated
The Latin gives no ratio; a 25 to 50 per cent of pear weight range comes from a modern writer, not from Palladius.
Dark wine (optional)Added while the pears are salted, to correct the colour.
Amount not stated
"some part"; no quantity given

Method

Risks and precautions · Standard risk
No safety guidance

The sources give no food-safety guidance for this historical product; descriptions of its taste and colour do not show that it is safe to eat.

Hazard source

This is a historical record, not a validated method. Taste and colour do not establish safety.

  1. Take very ripe pears and crush them with salt until the flesh has broken down.
  2. Add some dark wine while the pears are salted, if the pale colour of the liquid is to be corrected.
  3. Put the mixture into small casks, or into earthenware vessels lined with pitch.
  4. After the third month, hang the contents so that the liquid drains from them.
  5. The liquid is described as pleasant in taste but pale in colour.

Places

Roman world

Historical attestation · Region evidence

A single agricultural text by Palladius; the sources do not say where it was made or how widely.

See Roman worldon the mapLocation source 1 →

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Made from

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