On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 21:25:23 +0100, Lazarus Cooke
wrote:

The best example of "rotten" food is probably that old roman sauce,
whose name I've forgotten, made from rotten fish.

Garum is not rotten (decayed by microorganisms entering the fish) but
;a result of autolysis, the cells own degrading system breaking down
the cells and lysing them to release the content. If not run to the
end, it is also known as tenderizing. The process that make meat
chewable.