Fish Sauce, What The Bleep Is It Really?
By
Fish Sauce, you may have heard of it, use it in cooking, or cringe when you hear the words, but do you really know what it is and how it is made? Our ingredient spotlight today will shed light on all things fish sauce, including: ingredients, what makes it special as a flavor, and how to know when to toss an old bottle.
Ingredient wise, it all boils down to the country of origin. Fish sauce is a principal cooking ingredient for curries, sauces, pastes and condiments in Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, and several other Southeast Asian countries. It always includes some type of fermented fish, but the type of fish varies, as well as the ingredients and spices added to it. In general, most fish sauces are made of three simple ingredients: fish, water, and salt. Anchovies are the most common fish used in fish sauce.
Now we’re going to get Alton Brown style geeky with you. Fish sauce, as well as aged cheeses and meats contain glutamates, the salts of the amino acid glutamic acid. Glutamates are flavor enhancers, and are the essential component of the hard to describe savory flavor known as Umami. So there is a scientific reason why fish sauce tastes good!
So, what brand of fish sauce is best? Of course that all depends on your personal tastes. Chef Ming Tsai recommends the Three Crabs brand, and Chowhounders here discuss several favorites, including: Golden Boy and Tra Chang from Thailand, and Colatura di Alici from the Amalfi Coast of Italy.
Does it go bad? Listen, everything goes bad eventually, everything! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Watch this video from Chow featuring Chef and Asian food expert Corinne Trang as she explains when it’s time to toss the sauce.
Similar Posts:
- Savory Ingredient Spotlight: Soy Sauce with Chef Ming Tsai
- Savory Ingredient Spotlight: The Truffle
- Savory Ingredient Spotlight – All About Asiago Cheese
Fish Sauce, What The Bleep Is It Really? http://bit.ly/7BzGRc
More Fish Sauce ,please. Great post.
Cheers
SAUCY
Enjoyed the post. I use fish sauce whenever I am cooking Asian food.
Worchestershire sauce is,at least in part, derived from fish sauce (anchovies are an ingredient) and came from the British in India trying to replicate it for British tastes. You are right by bringing up the flavoe enhancing quality. It give a lot of recipes Umami. That being the flavor you can’t quite describe but you know it belongs there.
Thanks for visiting Saucy, Cynthia, and Ed. Long live Umami!
Growing up in a Filipino household, my mom would keep several gallon jars of this pungent pantry item on the floor. In addition to these, there would always be a bottle of Tiparos brand fish sauce (Thailand) and several others such as Amor Nino or UFC (Phillipines).
My preference for fish sauce include Cock and Tiparos brands. I’ve yet to try the Thai brand of “premium” fish sauce that is reported to be from the first batch and with no water added.
I have tried Ming Tsai’s recommended Three Crabs brand but prefer not to use fish sauce with added ingredients such as sugar. I wonder why he doesn’t recommend fish sauce from China.