Fish sauce
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Fish sauce is a condiment derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment. The term describes a wide range of products used in many different countries, and by different cultures, throughout history. Fish sauce is frequently used in Southeast Asian and southern Chinese cooking to add saltiness to dishes. In Southeast Asian cuisines, it is also used as a dipping condiment for fish, shrimp, pork, and chicken. In southern China, it is only used as a cooking oil, or as an ingredient for soups and casseroles.
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Types
Some fish sauces are made from raw fish, others from dried fish, some from only a single species; others from whatever is dredged up in the net, including some shellfish; some from whole fish, others from only the blood or viscera. Some fish sauces contain only fish and salt, others add a variety of herbs and spices. Fish sauce that has been only briefly fermented has a pronounced fishy taste, while extended fermentation reduces this and gives the product a nuttier, cheesier flavor.
East Asian
Asian fish sauce is often made from anchovies, salt and water, and it needs to be used in moderation because it is intensely flavoured. The variety from Vietnam is generally called nước mắm, and the similar condiment from Thailand is called nam pla (น้ำปลา). In China, it is called yúlù (魚露), in Korea jeotgal (젓갈), in Indonesia kecap ikan and in the Philippines it is called patis. In Japan, three fish sauces are used; shottsuru in Akita Prefecture, ishiru in Ishikawa Prefecture, and ikanago-jōyu in Kagawa Prefecture.
The Indonesian semisolid fish paste trasi, the Cambodian prahok and the Malay fermented krill brick belacan are other popular variations of the same theme.
Laotian fish sauce, padek, is made exclusively from freshwater fish.
Western
Image:Baelo claudia factoria.jpg A similar fish sauce was ubiquitous in Classical Roman cooking, where in Latin it is known as garum or liquamen, and also existed in many varieties such as oxygarum (mixed with vinegar), meligarum (mixed with honey), etc. It was one of the trade specialties in Hispania Baetica.
Garum is frequently maligned as being bad smelling or rotten. For example, it has been described as an "evil-smelling fish sauce" made of fish ranging from tuna, mackerel, and moray eel to anchovies. (Introduction to Paul Wilkinson, Pompeii: The Last Day, London BBC Productions 2003.) This attitude derives in part from ancient authors who satirized the condiment, but mostly from the fact that fish sauce was generally unknown in the Western world until very recently. The truth is quite different, and in fact garum only smelled when it was being made. Once the process was complete it produced a pleasant aroma for as long as it was usable.[1]
In English it was formerly translated as fishpickle. The original Worcestershire sauce was a similar product, brought to England from India. Some have suggested anchovy paste as the modern descendant of garum, but it is not fermented.
Recipe
Here is a recipe from the 1881 Household Cyclopedia for an antique non-fermented fish sauce.
Take:
- 1 pound of anchovies
- a quart of claret (a dry red wine)
- a pint of white wine vinegar
- 1/2 an ounce of cloves and mace
- 2 rages of ginger sliced
- a little black pepper
- peel of a lemon
- a piece of horseradish
- a large onion
- a bunch of thyme and savory
Set all these over a slow fire to simmer an hour, then strain it through a sieve; when cold put it in a bottle with the spice, but not the herbs. To a large coffeecupful cold, put a pound of butter; stir it over the fire till it is as thick as cream; shake the bottle when used, and put no water to the butter.
External links
- Fish Sauce Recipes
- Fish Sauce - How it is Made, by Kasma Loha-unchit, a Thai cooking instructor and author living in the U.S.
- Garum!
- Italian Cooking And Living Article on Garumde:Fischsauce
fr:Nước mắm nl:Vissaus ja:魚醤 pl:Sos rybny sv:Fisksås vi:Nước mắm