Fish Sauce

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Fish Sauce

• Fish sauce is star ingredient in Vietnamese, Lao, Thai, Cambodian, Filipino, and Burmese cuisines.

• In Southeast Asia, fish sauce is made by combining water, salt, and anchovies in wooden barrels. The salt and anchovies are left to ferment and are pressed in order to extract liquid. The liquid is then bottled and sold as fish sauce.

• Thai fish sauce is made with small ocean fish, typically anchovies but also other small fish such as sardines, herring, or carp. Fish sauce from Thailand is usually saltier than Vietnamese fish sauce.

• In Japan, fish sauce is made with different types of fish to create different blends of fish sauce that are meant to be used in very specific dishes.

Seasonality

Year-Round

Selection & Storage

• Store your fish sauce in a cool, dry area.

Cooking Tips

Fish sauce is great in caesar dressing. Combine 4 tablespoons of mayo, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1 grated garlic clove, black pepper and 1 teaspoon of fish sauce in a small bowl.

Instead of adding Worcestershire sauce to your bloody mary, try a bit of fish sauce for a similar but slightly different punch of umami.

Next time you’re making a batch of chicken stock, add a tiny bit of fish sauce at the end to add a depth and nuance to the flavor of the stock.

Clever Uses

• Combine lime juice, fish sauce, and honey and massage into kale for a quick and flavorful kale salad.

• For a refreshing dipping sauce to serve with spring rolls, combine 4 tablespoons of white vinegar, 4 tablespoons of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of white sugar, 2 tablespoons of lime juice, and 1 grated clove of garlic with red pepper chili flakes.

Health Benefits

Fish sauce can be used to replace some of the salt in certain dishes thus lowering the overall sodium content of the dish.

Fish sauce is a good source of protein and iron and is a low-calorie food.

Food Science

• Fish sauce is made when fish ferments. Fish and salt are combined in big vats where the fish breaks down over a period of 6 months. At the end of this period, the solid parts of the fish will fall to the bottom of the container while the liquid sits at the top. This liquid is then strained and bottled up to be sold.

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