While we can't get the exact taste of most ancient Roman dishes and sauces, we can attempt some close equivalents.


Defructum - take grape juice and reduce by simmering to one-third of its volume.

Caroenum - take red or white wine (according to the dish requirements) and reduce to two-thirds of its volume.

Sapa - take red or white wine and reduce to one-thirds of its volume. The best sapa is cooked with quinces in it and fig wood is added to the fire.

Passum - another prepared cooking wine to sweeten sauces. Take fully ripe grapes, removing moldy or damaged ones, spread them in the sun, covering at night so they don't get wet. When they have dried, put them in a wine jar or cask and pour the best possible must over them. When saturated, on the sixth day put them in a wicker basket and press them to extract the passum. Next tread the grape skins, mix together and put the whole mash through the wine-press. Put into vessels and seal immediately. After 30 days when it has ceased fermenting, strain into other vessels and seal.

Some modern cooks today use very sweet Spanish wine for passum, which provides the sweetness required, but not the original flavor.

Mulsum - wine mixed with honey. Often used as a drink with the first course of dinner as well as a sauce.
Take 10 lbs. of honey to three gallons of best must, mix thoroughly, put in wine-jars and seal. After 31 days open the jar and strain into another vessel, then again seal.
(This works out roughly to 6 oz. of honey to a pint of wine.)
Pliny makes his mulsum with dry wine, since it mixes better, whets the appetite for food, relieves stomach aches and doesn't cause flatulence. When Pollio Romilius was asked by Augustus how he reached the age of 100, he answered, "By using mulsum for the inside and oil for the outside."

Garum and Liquamen - fish sauces. Take small fish, sprats, mackerel, anchovy, or other small fish, salt and dry in the sun. Put in a fine-meshed basket or baking trough, using
two pints of salt per peck of fish and mix well. Leave for one day, then place in an earthernware vessel and leave it for 2 months, stirring occasionally. Pierce the vessel, and the best garum, called haimation will flow out.
Some people add old wine or defructum to their garum.
Liquamen mixed with wine is called oenogarum.
Liquamen mixed with water is called hydrogarum.
Liquamen mixed with vinegar is called oxygarum.

Allec or hallec - is a by-product of the liquamen manufacture. It is the residue that remains after the garum is removed, and became a luxury article. It was served with oysters, sea-urchins, and other delicacies.

Amulum - wheat starch used to thicken sauces while cooking.