Sauces & Condiments

Sauces began as a way to make a monotonous staple worth eating and a glut worth keeping. Salting and fermenting fish gave Rome its garum and Southeast Asia its fish sauces; fermenting soybeans gave East Asia its jiang and, later, soy sauce. The point was the same each time — concentrated salt and glutamate turning plain grain into a meal — and each region arrived at it on its own.

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