Barley and oat porridge (Viking Age)
Crushed or milled barley cooked in water until the starch softens and the mixture thickens, the plainest way a northern household turned stored grain into a meal, here with apple and hazelnut.
Modern method
Mushroom garum (koji garum)
Smoked mushroom garum · Koji mushroom garum · Mushroom koji garum
Mushroom garum is a savoury, smoked sauce made by crushing mushrooms with salt and rice koji and letting the mixture brew for months, a modern use of the garum method without fish.
A garum without fish
Mushroom garum keeps the structure of a garum: salt and a fungal culture act on a mass of raw material over a long time, and the savoury liquid is the product. Here the raw material is mushroom rather than fish, and the culture is rice koji rather than the fish's own enzymes or a fermented fish mass.
The modern garums cover fish, insect, game and plant or fungal versions. A 2017 study compared fermented sauces made from fish, insects, game and peas, and examined both composition and sensory properties. Mushroom garum belongs to the same wider group, and the sources here do not trace it to any older mushroom sauce.
Sources for this section
Making it
The method crushes mushrooms together with salt and rice koji. The mixture is then left to brew for months, in a vessel the sources do not describe. The garum is made in Noma's Fermentation Lab, cold-smoked and bottled. The sources give no brewing temperature, no smoking temperature and no batch size.
The smoked character comes from the cold-smoking step, which the launch article gives without its duration or wood.
Sources for this section
Later formulation
The Noma Projects product page documents an oat-based garum component alongside mushrooms and rice koji. The launch article describes the 2022 product as made from mushrooms, salt and rice koji only, so the oat component is not part of that description. The sources do not give the proportions of either version.
Sources for this section
Using it
The sauce is sold as an umami-rich cooking sauce. The launch article suggests stirring it into sautéed mushrooms to add depth, or adding it to ramen broth.
Sources for this section
Notes
The sources do not state the brewing temperature, the length of the brew in days, the smoking method or the bottling method. They also do not give the mushroom species. Those are open questions for anyone reproducing the product.
Sources for this section
History
Noma Projects released its smoked mushroom garum in 2022. The product page documents mushrooms, rice koji and an oat-based garum component. The release date describes this product only.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
MushroomsCrushed together with the salt and rice koji. The sources do not name a species.
Amount not stated
No quantity given in the sources.Rice kojiMixed into the crushed mushrooms with the salt.
Amount not stated
No quantity given in the sources.SaltCrushed with the mushrooms and koji.
Amount not stated
No quantity given in the sources.Method
Risks and precautions · High risk
Months-long brew of a mushroom mixture
The mixture brews for months at a temperature the sources do not give. No pathogen control, measured endpoint or validation is stated.
Hazard sourceThe sources give no critical limit for brewing or smoking, and this page does not supply one.
Do not reproduce this method at home without a validated process. Taste and smell do not show that the product is safe.
- Crush the mushrooms together with the salt and rice koji.
- Leave the mixture to brew for months. The sources give no brewing temperature.
- Make the garum in a fermentation lab, then cold-smoke it.
- Bottle the smoked garum.
Places
Copenhagen
Modern adaptation · Locality evidenceMade in the Fermentation Lab of Noma Projects, a commercial line of the Copenhagen restaurant Noma. A modern commercial product, not a documented traditional preparation.
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Sources
Wallpaper*Method · Uses
Noma Projects launches with smoked mushroom garumSmoked mushroom garum is made by crushing mushrooms with salt and rice koji; the mixture brews for months; it is made in Noma's Fermentation Lab, cold-smoked and bottled.
It is used as a cooking sauce: stirred into sauteed mushrooms or added to ramen broth.
Cited in: Making it; Later formulation; Using it; Notes
Noma ProjectsMethod · History
Mushroom GarumDocumented ingredients include mushrooms, rice koji and an oat-based garum component.
Released by Noma Projects in 2022.
Cited in: A garum without fish; Later formulation
ScienceDirect (Elsevier)History
Flavour of fermented fish, insect, game, and pea sauces: Garum revisitedA 2017 study compared fermented sauces made from fish, insects, game and peas, examining composition and sensory properties.
Cited in: A garum without fish