I bought industrial protease
My 3-hour garum recipe is possible thanks to protease enzymes found in pancreatic dietary supplements. It works great, but can we do better?
I ordered specialized industrial protease enzymes from China to find out.
In this post, I detail my experience buying and using Flavourzyme protease enzymes for homemade garum. If you’re new to quick-garums like these, check out my three hour garum recipe here and my deep-dive on the technique here.
The hunt for better protease
Garum (a sauce made from fermented proteins) owes its umami-rich taste to protease enzymes. Protease enzymes break down proteins into their component parts (one of which is include glutamate, the source of umami) and in doing so unlock new and better flavors. While fish sauce is the most popular garum, you can make garum from just about any protein — including bee pollen or ants!
While traditional garum is made from the protease in fish intestines and more modern garum is made from the protease in koji, my garum recipe uses the protease in pork pancreas supplements. These supplements have far more protease than fish intestines and koji, so I can create a garum in 1/1000th of the time.
These enzymes are awesome, but they’re not perfect for a few reasons:
They’re not vegetarian. I want to serve my garums to friends that don’t eat pork or other animal products.
They have other enzymes that I don’t want. Koji, fish intestines, and pork pancreas contain more than just protease enzymes. They also contain amylase (to break down starches) and lipase (to break down fats) in differing amounts. Since lipase in particular break down fats in ways that can make food taste soapy, the ideal source of protease enzymes would be one with very little lipase. This could allow for garum recipes with high fat (think bacon garum!).
They weren’t specifically bred for maximum umami. Some protease enzymes create garum that is more bitter while others create garum that is more umami-rich. Apparently, the bitterness is a result of how the proteins are broken down, and you need protease enzymes with both exo-peptidase and endo-peptidase activity to avoid bitterness.
They’re kind of expensive! Okay, so the $26 pills linked above are enough to make many gallons of garum. But if I want to do this at scale, I don’t want to have to open pills each time!
When I found this study on the broad range of protease enzymes for umami applications, I searched far and wide for better protease. To my surprise, I learned that it’s a huge industry.
Enter flavourzyme
Someone on Instagram suggested I check out Flavourzyme, an industrial product for animal protein extraction. Flavourzyme is used for everything from dairy products (to reduce bitterness) to dog food (to liquify bird feathers to make use of waste!). Derived from koji, it checks all the boxes — it’s specifically designed to reduce bitterness and increase umami. It also comes with great documentation (e.g. preferred temperatures and pH levels) that would make using it a breeze.
Unfortunately, Flavourzyme is not designed for consumer use. It’s made by the global Danish company Novozymes, where they proudly boast that “an estimated 5.9 billion people used products made with our solutions on a weekly basis.” That sort of volume is literally insane. This made me realize that home garum production is like industrial flavor production with artisanal ingredients.
I reached out through their Sales channels to buy a sample. No luck. I tried to buy through various US distributors. Also no luck: they aren’t allowed to sell it to consumers! Only to labs and licensed commercial operations.
Thankfully, we have other channels when everything in America fails. Channels like Alibaba. I found a Chinese distributor on Alibaba willing to sell “my company” 2.5 KG of Flavourzyme for $160 including shipping. It sounds like a lot of money, but if it is as strong as the pork pancreas (which I assumed it was), that would be enough to make over 300 kilograms of finished garum! And to think — the seller still thought of this as a sample.
The process
Here’s how my Alibaba package arrived two weeks later. Sketchy… it was clearly ripped open at some point. The box contained two sealed bags of off-white powder.
The directions said to store the powder in a cool, dark place (but do not freeze) and to keep out of reach from eyes and skin. That makes sense — I’d like to avoid making eye garum where possible. I ended up researching a bit on industrial protease safety, and they do indeed recommend wearing protective gear and to avoid inhaling the enzymes as aerosols.
I decided to test the enzymes in a side-by-side comparison with the pork pancreas enzymes. To test, I bought beef tenderloin, cut off any visible fat, and seared it. Then I followed my standard 3-hour garum recipe with each enzyme.
Results and analysis
Yield
The yield (i.e. weight of liquid after straining the final result) of the Flavourzyme was slightly lower than the yield of the pancreas supplements. But this is not necessarily a good thing! The pancreas supplements also have lipase and amylase, so the extra yield from the pancreas supplements might be from flavors I don’t actually want.
I used my beef garum in a glaze for grilled king crab.
Flavor
The Flavourzyme definitely had lower bitterness! A huge win! I didn’t even notice the bitterness in the pork pancreas batch until I tried the Flavourzyme one. Without question, the flavor is superior with Flavourzyme.
Ease of use
The unfortunate part of Flavourzyme is that, ironically, it is too easy to use. Since the powder is in a giant bag that could easily spill or dust up, you have to be worried about safety (i.e. accidentally getting some on you or in the air). It’s the COVID era, so I’m totally used to wearing a mask and it’s no big deal. But in some ways the pill form of the pancreas supplements makes the whole thing more home-friendly.
Final verdict
With its better taste, Flavourzyme wins. I make garum enough that I’ll save money with this big batch in the long run, and the safety precautions are no big deal.
For most people (especially those just trying out this garum hobby), I’d still recommend the pork pancreas pills. The bitterness I describe is subtle, and you can largely avoid it by avoiding fats.
My next tests will be using fatty substrates that would not be possible with koji or pork pancreas (due to their lipase content). Can’t wait!
