Anchovy paste is a fish paste food product prepared using anchovies as a primary ingredient. [1] It is used as a condiment and as an ingredient in various dishes, such as Scotch woodcock, and is a mass-produced product. It has been used for centuries to provide flavor to foods and as a source of nutrients, and it is a part of the cuisines of Great Britain, Italy, the Philippines and Vietnam. It is a major export product of Morocco.
Anchovy is used as a condiment and as an ingredient in various dishes. [1] [2] Basic ingredients in its preparation includes mashed anchovies, vinegar, spices and water, and some commercial preparations are produced using these ingredients. [3] Butter is also sometimes used as a base ingredient, and the resultant product is sometimes referred to as "anchovy butter", and in French as beurre d'anchois. [1] [4] [5] [6]
Anchovy paste has been used for centuries as a source of nutrients and to provide flavour to foods. [6] [7] Allec, a food byproduct used as a condiment that dates to the times of classical antiquity and Ancient Rome, is the paste left over from the preparation of liquamen (a predecessor to garum prepared using various oily fish, including anchovies) that has been described as a "precursor to anchovy paste". [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Anchovy paste has also been described as a "descendant of garum". [13]
Anchovy paste is a mass-produced product, and is sometimes produced using leftover anchovies from anchovy packing facilities that are processed, mixed with additional ingredients, and packaged into tubes. [2] Circa the early 1900s, food colouring was sometimes used in commercial preparations of the paste. [14] Today, anchovy paste is a major export product of Morocco. [13]
Gentleman's Relish is a brand of mass-produced spiced anchovy paste that was introduced in England in 1828. [15] [16]
Some uses of anchovy paste include its use as a condiment or ingredient in egg dishes and on toast. [17] It can be used as an ingredient in some hors d'oeuvre . [1] Anchovy paste is a common food in Italy, where it is used served atop canapés and vegetables and as an ingredient in sauces and pasta dishes. [18] It is also a part of the cuisine of the Philippines, where it is referred to as bagoong balayan , and of Vietnam, where it is referred to as mam nem. [19] [20] [21] Anchovy paste can be used as an ingredient in the preparation of anchovy sauce. [22]
Scotch woodcock is a British savoury dish prepared using scrambled eggs atop toast that has been spread with anchovy paste or Gentleman's Relish. [1] [23] [24] [25] Whole anchovies are also sometimes used in the dish. [26]
Worcestershire sauce, also called Worcester sauce, is a fermented liquid condiment invented by the pharmacists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins in the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England, during the first half of the 19th century. The inventors went on to form the company Lea & Perrins.
Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been coated in salt and fermented for up to two years. It is used as a staple seasoning in East Asian cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Some garum-related fish sauces have been used in the West since the Roman times.
In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsa, meaning salted. Possibly the oldest recorded European sauce is garum, the fish sauce used by the Ancient Romans, while doubanjiang, the Chinese soy bean paste is mentioned in Rites of Zhou in the 3rd century BC.
A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to impart a specific flavor, to enhance the flavor, or to complement the dish. A table condiment or table sauce is more specifically a condiment that is served separately from the food and is added to taste by the diner.
Garum is a fermented fish sauce that was used as a condiment in the cuisines of Phoenicia, ancient Greece, Rome, Carthage and later Byzantium. Liquamen is a similar preparation, and at times they were synonymous. Although garum enjoyed its greatest popularity in the Western Mediterranean and the Roman world, it was earlier used by the Greeks.
Fish paste is fish which has been chemically broken down by a fermentation process until it reaches the consistency of a soft creamy purée or paste. Alternatively it refers to cooked fish which has been physically broken down by pounding, grinding, pressing, mincing, blending, and/or sieving, until it reaches the consistency of paste. The term can be applied also to shellfish pastes, such as shrimp paste or crab paste.
Bagoóng is a Philippine condiment partially or completely made of either fermented fish or krill or shrimp paste with salt. The fermentation process also produces fish sauce known as patís.
Shrimp paste or prawn sauce is a fermented condiment commonly used in Southeast Asian and Southern Chinese cuisines. It is primarily made from finely crushed shrimp or krill mixed with salt, and then fermented for several weeks. They are either sold in their wet form or are sun-dried and either cut into rectangular blocks or sold in bulk. It is an essential ingredient in many curries, sauces and sambal. Shrimp paste can be found in many meals in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is often an ingredient in dip for fish or vegetables.
The generic term for condiments in the Filipino cuisine is sawsawan. Unlike sauces in other Southeast Asian regions, most sawsawan are not prepared beforehand, but are assembled on the table according to the preferences of the diner.
Bagoong monamon, bagoong monamon-dilis, or simply bagoong and bugguong munamon in Ilocano, is a common ingredient used in the Philippines and particularly in Northern Ilocano cuisine. It is made by fermenting salted anchovies which is not designed, nor customarily used for immediate consumption since it is completely raw.
Murrī or almorí was a type of fermented condiment made with barley flour, known from Maghrebi and Arab cuisines. Almost every substantial dish in medieval Arab cuisine used murrī in small quantities. It could be used as a substitute for salt or sumac, and has been compared to soy sauce by Rudolf Grewe, Charles Perry, and others due to its high glutamates content and resultant umami flavor.
Ngapi, formerly also spelled ngapee, nga-pee and gnapee, is a pungent paste made of either fish or shrimp in Burmese cuisine. Ngapi is usually made by fermenting fish or shrimp that is salted and ground then sundried. Like cheese, it can be distinguished based on main ingredient and regional origin. Ngapi can be distinguished by the type of fish used to make it. Ngapi can come from whole fish, from small fish or from prawns. Ngapi is a main ingredient of Lower Burmese cooking and is used as a condiment or additive in most dishes. Raw ngapi, with some exceptions, is not intended for direct consumption.
Anchovies are small, common saltwater forage fish in the family Engraulidae that are used as human food and fish bait. There are 144 species in 17 genera found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Anchovies are usually classified as oily fish. They are small, green fish with blue reflections due to a silver longitudinal stripe that runs from the base of the caudal fin. They range from 2 centimetres (0.79 in) to 40 centimetres (16 in) in adult length, and the body shape is variable, with more slender fish in northern populations.
A food paste is a semi-liquid colloidal suspension, emulsion, or aggregation used in food preparation or eaten directly as a spread. Pastes are often highly spicy or aromatic, are often prepared well in advance of actual usage, and are often made into a preserve for future use. Common pastes are some fruit preserves, curry pastes, and nut pastes. Purées are food pastes made from already cooked ingredients.
Sambal is an Indonesian chilli sauce or paste, typically made from a mixture of a variety of chilli peppers with secondary ingredients such as shrimp paste, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, and lime juice. Sambal is an Indonesian loanword of Javanese origin. It originated from the culinary traditions of Indonesia and is also an integral part of the cuisines of Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, and Sri Lanka. It has also spread through overseas Indonesian populations to the Netherlands and Suriname.