Fish Sauce
The roots of international cuisine are more intertwined than the lives of characters in a typical Maeve Binchey novel: wontons and ravioli; Armenian flatbreads and Mexican tortillas; Thai fish sauce and Worcestershire sauce?
Fish sauce, whether it goes by the Thai name of nam pla, or the Vietnamese nuoc nam, Philippino patis or Japanese shottsuru, is an integral flavour ingredient in these Asian cuisines. In these countries, fish sauce is used as other Asian countries use soy sauce: as a seasoning or dipping sauce. Thailand is the largest producer and consumer of this product, and prides itself on the ancient art of making the sauce.
The method of production is as traditional and regulated as is the making of a fine liquor. In order to be certified as “Pure Fish Oil,” there are rigid requirements to be met. This definitely seems to be a trend in the food industry: olive oil and balsamic vinegar are just some of the foods we enjoy today only when they cost more, come in tiny bottles and have a provenance noted on the label.
I now find myself reaching for this lovely amber fluid often when cooking. I can remember many years ago purchasing my first bottle of the stuff, only to be turned off by the pungent fishy smell (it reminded me of the beaches on Lake Erie days after the smelt run), as well as the unattractive sludgy appearance. (Which also reminded me of the beaches of Lake Erie!) Recently, I have discovered a more palatable and perhaps “white-bread” version of the sauce which is now being marketed in many grocery and health food stores. This new, more marketable product is clear, has a mild aroma, is guaranteed to be “from the first pressing,” and contains no MSG.
Traditional production of the sauce is started with fresh fish, generally of the anchovy family or other small fish that are not valuable commercially as food fish. The anchovy is a large family of small silvery fish found in most of the oceans of the world. The anchovy which we find tinned in oil is from the Mediterranean and is generally considered the only true anchovy, but each country seems to have its own “anchovy.”
What happens once the fish are unloaded from the boats is not a pretty story. They are rinsed then mixed with sea salt, and placed into large earthenware jars topped with more salt and covered with a bamboo mat. The jars are left in a sunny location for up to a year, while time-to-time they are uncovered to let them air out, and to expose the fish to direct sunshine which helps the degradation of the fish, turning them eventually to liquid. Man, I’d sure hate to be downwind of that factory! After about a year, there will be enough liquid formed to siphon off. This is filtered into clean jars and allowed to air for a few more weeks to dissipate some of the strong fish odour. This product is labelled “Grade A” or “First Pressing.”
After the first batch of liquid is taken off, saltwater is added to the jars and after a few months is removed to produce a lower quality sauce. Finally, the remains of fish, which by this time should be minimal, can be boiled and strained to make sauce of the lowest quality. A good quality sauce should have the colour of whisky and have no sediments. Sediment and a muddy colour are signs of improper fermentation or low quality sauce. And the smell should be a pleasant seaside aroma, not the overpowering stench of dead fish.
History has it written that in 1835, a nobleman from Worcestershire England, commissioned a pair of chemists, John Lea and William Perrins, to duplicate a sauce he had enjoyed while in India. Their first attempt at making this anchovy- spiced vinegar was a disaster and left to ferment quite by accident. When they found it several years later —What would possess grown men to taste it then? — they discovered that it had aged and mellowed into what was the predecessor of today’s Worcestershire sauce.
Both of these fish sauces can trace their roots to the Roman condiment, garum, which was produced in a method similar to the Thai traditional method. Evidence of this sauce has found in ancient ruins such as Pompeii, where amphorae have been found that still have the distinctive smell of fermented fish. (Why would grown men sniff these things?) Other garum factories have been found dating from the Roman empire along the coast of Spain, Italy and the shores of the Black Sea.
Today, Worcestershire is as common on the Cantonese table for use as a dipping sauce as is soy sauce, and good fish sauce can be used to replace Worcestershire sauce in Caesar salad. (It says so on the bottle.) If you can’t find a good quality fish sauce, you can substitute with anchovy paste mixed with soy sauce. The further we expand our food palate, the smaller the world becomes.
One other fabulous Thai flavouring that you will enjoy is
the Kaffir Lime Leaf. I will tell you about it in my next
article.