Modern recreation of garum
Fermented fish gut sauce, flamingo tongue, lamprey pie, fat mice stuffed with pork… culture, the need for survival and science have created some of the strangest meals in history. Some have since fallen into disuse.
By modern standards, the diets of some ancient civilizations may appear frankly bizarre.
Just think about fermented fish left in open-air vats for months, insects roasted whole, or stuffed rodents with pork presented in a clay casserole.
For ancient diners, these foods were nutritious, medicinal and, in some cases, sacred — as much as they may make modern-day epicures shudder, says .
For ancient societies, these bizarre foods provided sustenance in times of famine, were efficient in resource-limited environments and checked spiritual, cultural or medicinal benefits that have been lost over the millennia.
Second Nawal Nasrallahauthor and historian specializing in Arab food culture, what makes a food bizarre for a culture and normal for another depends on several factors.
“I think in most cases, how bizarre a food is depends largely on the availability of this food in a given region, which determines its familiarity or strangeness”, says Nasrallah.
Furthermore, our sensory reactions what we are used to eating can play a role,” he adds. “I come from Iraq, for example, where culture of eating crustaceans is practically non-existentand I can’t even bear to look at diners slurping raw oysters.”
In the Peruvian Andes, for example, the guinea pigremains a popular dish. It’s an old dish, rich in protein, dating back 5000 years. Just as one person’s trash can be another’s treasure, one group’s bizarre food may simply be your new favorite snack, notes the historian.
Leirãos: an ancient delicacy
Take for example the leirão (Eliomys quercinus). It is a fat, mouse-sized rodent that lives in the trees of southern Europe and was once a favorite dish of some ancient societies, including the ancient romans.
Stuffed in a clay casseroleroasted in the oven or cooked in a pan, it is thought that the meal was prepared with porksmall pieces of piglet meat trimmings, and crushed with pepper and dried fruits. Apparently there is a squirrel-like flavor and texture.
“For the ancient Mesopotamians, it was an acquired taste, and those who dared to try it say that they liked its delicate flavor“, says Nasrallah. “However, We don’t know exactly how it was preparedbut most likely it was roasted or grilledlike they used to do with grasshoppers.”
Dormouse were originally considered an elite delicacy, but documents suggest that the rodents appeared in large numbers every year after the Nile flooded. This boom population allowed the lower class of medieval Egypt to enjoy free and nutritious protein at the expense of the leirãos.
Currently, however, the delicacy has lost popularity.
“Although they are still consumed in some areas of Eastern EuropeI think the general public doesn’t like the idea of eating a rodentjust like what happened with squirrels. Our awareness of the dangers of handling and consuming rodents has been a strong deterrent,” explains Nasrallah.
Garum: a fish intestine sauce
Among their many historical reputations, the ancient Romans also had a knack for bizarre foods. One of these delicacies was garum, or garoa dish that consisted of fermented fish intestines left for months in open-air vats filled with salt until they liquefy into a sauce.
According to one published in 2025 in the magazine Antiquity by a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, led by the Portuguese Paula Campo, the Romans were among the first societies to industrialize fishing in their oceans, and established factories to ferment garum along their coasts.
According to the authors of the study, the delicacy was, and these “rotten fish intestines at a luxury price” were a guaranteed presence on the tables of the Empire.
Lamprey pie: fit for a King
As lampreys They are one of the oldest fish on Earth, and probably one of the most terrifying. But despite this, it is one of the most popular dishes in some countries, including in Portugalwhere it is usually made Bordeaux style or as lamprey rice.
Estes jawless fish have a suction disc-shaped mouth filled with alarming fang-like teeth, the remains of which researchers have used to reveal an ancient way of preparing this European delicacy: lamprey pie.
According to one conducted in 2018 by archaeologists from the Museum of London Archeology and published in Current Archaeologythese scary fish were baked into pies for medieval British nobility.
In fact, the upper-class Brits enjoyed lamprey pies so much which is rumored to be after enjoying an “excess of lampreys”.
Flamingo languages and other specialties
In his famous encyclopedic work “Natural History”, the 1st century author and historian Pliny the Eldermakes known the flamingo tongue as a delicacy, which makes sense given that eat exotic bird parts it was considered a high-status subculture in ancient Rome.
“Apicius, the most gluttonous glutton of all wastrels, launched the idea that Flamingo’s tongue has an especially refined flavor“, writes Plínio, the Elder, who attributes the discovery of this culinary strangeness to the Roman gastronome Marco Gávio Apício.
It is said, in fact, that the gastronome of the ancient Roman Empire liked flamingo tongue so much, that upon realizing that I no longer had money enough to maintain your diet.
Other favorites of the Roman elite included peacock tonguesflamingo brains, partridge eggs, parrot heads and mullet beards.
What causes food to fall into disuse?
Although some of these bizarre foods are a thing of the past, some are still regularly consumed, such as fermented sharkor Hákarl, in Iceland. But what makes a diet go out of fashion, and why do some delicacies remain in vogue?
According to Nasrallah, it is a combination of changes in cultural valuesunderstanding of health and safetyand changes in environmental conditions.
“It could be the growing awareness of the unsafe nature of this food, or it could be its scarcity, as in Egypt, when the floods stopped happening”, says the historian.
“Or they could be cultural prohibitions or restrictions. Food fads can easily go in and out of style, simply because they are not staple foods,” concludes Nasrallah.
Sadly, this is the case with cow marrowwhich is practically no longer available in butchers, following cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathycalled “mad cow disease”, which killed hundreds of people in the 1990s — but which .
