Fish sauce

Fish sauce is a condiment that is derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment. It is an essential ingredient in many curries and sauces. Fish sauce is a staple ingredient in Filipino, Vietnamese, Thai, Lao, and Cambodian cuisine and is used in other Southeast Asian countries. In addition to being added to dishes during the cooking process, fish sauce can also be used in mixed form as a dipping condiment, and it is done in many different ways by each country mentioned for fish, shrimp, pork, and chicken. In parts of southern China, it is used as an ingredient for soups and casseroles.

Fish sauce, and its derivatives, impart an umami flavor to food due to their glutamate content.^[1]

Types

Some fish sauces (extracts) 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.

Southeast Asian

Southeast Asian fish sauce is often made from anchovies, salt and water, and is often used in moderation because it is intensely flavoured. Anchovies and salt are arranged in wooden boxes to ferment and are slowly pressed, yielding the salty, fishy liquid. (The salt extracts the liquid via osmosis.) The variety from Vietnam is generally called nước mắm (well known by brand names including nước mắm Phú Quốc (Phu Quoc) and nước mắm Phan Thiết (Phan Thiet)) and similar condiments fromThailand and Burma are called nam pla (น้ำปลา) and ngan bya yay (ငံပြာရည်) respectively. In Lao/Isan it is called nam pa, but a chunkier, more aromatic version known as padaek is also used. InCambodia, it is known as teuk trei (ទឹកត្រី), of which there are a variety of sauces using fish sauce as a base.

The Indonesian semi-solid fish paste trasi, the Cambodian prahok and the Malay fermented krill brick belacan or budu from liquid anchovies are other popular variations of the same theme. The similarFilipino version common to Indochina is called patis. Patis which is a by-product of Bagoong is nearly always cooked prior to consumption (even if used as an accent to salads or other raw dishes), or used as a cooking ingredient. It is also used in place of table salt in meals to enhance the flavor of the food but instead of being poured on the food, it is often used as a dipping sauce.

Southeast Asians generally use fish sauce as a cooking sauce. However, there is a sweet and sour version of this sauce which is used more commonly as a dipping sauce (see nước chấm). In Thailand, fish sauce is used in cooking and is also kept in a jar at the table for use as a condiment. This jar often contains a mixture of fish sauce, lime juice, and chopped hot chilies, called prik nam pla.

It is mainly the ethnic Chinese (usually Hokkien and Teochew) who cook with fish sauce in Indonesia and Malaysia. Fish sauce is a staple of many dishes in cuisines such as Vietnamese, Thai and Cambodian.

Korean

In Korea, it is called aek jeot or Jeotgal, and is used as a crucial ingredient in many types of Kimchi (usually from myul chi, anchovy or kanari which is made from sand lance), both for taste and fermentation. The anchovy-based fish sauce lends itself well to the making of radish type kimchi. Kanari type fish sauce is more expensive than the anchovy-based fish sauce and is usually reserved for the preparation of special cabbage (baechu) kimchi. Sae woo jeot (shrimp) is also popular as side sauce.

Japanese

In Japan, it is used as a seasoning of local specialties. Ishiru in the Noto Peninsula is made from the sardine and the squid. Shottsuru of Akita Prefecture is chiefly made from the sailfin sandfish.Ikanago shoyu of Kagawa Prefecture is made from the sand lance. They are often reserved for the preparation of the Nabemono.

Western

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) and meligarum (mixed with honey). It was one of the trade specialties in Hispania Baetica. It was made of a variety of fish including tuna, mackerel, moray eel, and anchovies.^[2] Garum was frequently maligned as smelling bad or rotten, being called, for example, "evil-smelling fish sauce." 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 had a pleasant aroma for as long as it was usable.

In English it was formerly translated as fishpickle. The original Worcestershire sauce is a related product because it is fermented and contains anchovies.

Origin

The origin of fish sauce is still shrouded under speculation, although it has been suggested fish sauce first appeared in China. It was documented that the ancient Chinese used salt to make a fermented fish sauce which gradually evolved with the addition of soy beans as filler to become a fermented bean sauce known today as soy sauce.^[3] As the predominant Chinese population live away from the coast, fish sauce was not popular in China. In contrast, soya beans are the staples and fish sauce is mainly used in restaurants by professional cooks. Regions of China such as Fujian and Chaoshan, however, still widely use fish sauce and it is believed this is due to proximity to the coast.^{[citation needed]}

It is said^{[citation needed]} early fishing boats were unable to venture into the deeper ocean to catch larger fish, instead staying close to shore and netting many small fish lacking in meat. They found that by layering these many small fish in barrels with salt, they could produce a protein-rich sauce. Fish sauce as a primary source of protein, most often simply mixed with rice, continued through European colonization.

See also

• Bagoong terong
• Bagoong monamon
• Budu
• Conpoy
• Garum
• Padaek
• Saeujeot
• Shrimp paste
• Soy sauce

References

1. ^ From Poot-Poot to Fish Sauce to Umami to MSG Seashore Foraging & Fishing Study. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
2. ^ Introduction to Paul Wilkinson, Pompeii: The Last Day, London BBC Productions 2003.
3. ^ Mark Kurlansky (January 28, 2003). "Salt: A World History". Penguin (Non-Classics).

Chemical actions

The chemical actions of curing are highly complex with slow reactions of proteins and fats through autolysis and oxidation. These reactions can be driven by auto-oxidation alone though it is typically accompanied by enzymes in the curing food as well as beneficial fungi and bacteria.

To enable these slow curing reactions and prevent rapid decomposition through rotting, water is extracted from the food and the food is made inhospitable to microorganisms. This is usually done by applying salt and a combination of other ingredients to cure the food.

Salt

See also: Salting (food)

Table salt, which consists primarily of sodium chloride, is the most important ingredient for curing food and is used in relatively large quantities. Salt kills and inhibits the growth of microorganisms by drawing water out of the cells of both microbe and food alike through osmosis. Concentrations of salt up to 20% are required to kill most species of unwanted bacteria.

Once properly salted, the food's interior contains enough salt to exert osmotic pressures that prevent or retard the growth of many undesirable microbes.

Sugar

Although often used in curing to give a pleasant taste, sugar can also be used to encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria such as those of the Lactobacillus genus. Dextrose or sucrose that is used in this fashion ferments the food.

As the unwanted bacterial growth is delayed, the salt tolerant lactobacillus outcompetes them and further prevents their growth by generating an acidic environment (around 4.5 pH) through production of lactic acid. This inhibits the growth of other microbes and accounts for the tangy flavor of some cured products.

Nitrates and nitrites

Nitrates and nitrites not only help kill bacteria, but also produce a characteristic flavor, and give meat a pink or red color. Nitrate (NO₃⁻), supplied by e.g. sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate, is used as a source for nitrite (NO₂⁻). The nitrite further breaks down in the meat into nitric oxide (NO), which then binds to the iron atom in the center of myoglobin's heme group, reducing oxidation and causing a reddish-brown color (nitrosomyoglobin) when raw, and the characteristic pink color (nitrosohemochrome) when cooked.

The presence of nitrates and nitrites in food is controversial due to the development of nitrosamines when the food, primarily bacon, is cooked at high temperatures. The nitrate and nitrite compounds themselves are not harmful, however, and are among the antioxidants found in fresh vegetables. (National Academy 1981) The usage of either compound is carefully regulated in the production of cured products; in the United States, their concentration in finished products is limited to 200 ppm, and is usually lower. Finally, they are irreplaceable in the prevention of botulinum poisoning from consumption of dry-cured sausages by preventing spore germination.^[1]

A 2007 study by Columbia University suggests a link between eating cured meats and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Nitrites were posited as a possible cause.

Smoke

Smoking adds chemical compounds to the surface of an item which affect the ability of bacteria and fungi to grow, inhibit fat oxidation (and thus rancidity), and change flavor.

History

Historically, people around the world have cured meat, in order not to waste valuable food, and to insure against poor harvests or hunting seasons. Although a salt-rich diet is currently implicated in risk for heart disease, in the past food shortage was a greater problem.

Salt cod, which was air-dried in cool northern Europe, was a civilization-changing food product, in that a bountiful but perishable food supply could be converted to a form that allowed for wide travel and thus exploration. Salted meat was widely used as a food source on ships during the Age of Sail, as it is non-perishable and easily stored. Eric Newby wrote that salted meats constituted the majority of shipboard diet even as late as his cruise aboard Moshulu (which lacked any refrigeration) in 1938.

Salted meat and fish are commonly eaten as a staple of the diet in North Africa, Southern China and in the Arctic.

Some cured food products

• Cured animal products:
  • Beef
    • Corned beef
    • Bresaola
    • Tapa
    • Lomo
  • Pork
    • Ham
    • Prosciutto
    • Jambon de Bayonne
    • Jamón serrano
    • Jinhua ham
    • Coppa
    • Capicola
    • Lardon
    • Bacon and Pancetta
    • Elenski but
  • Sausage
    • Salami
    • Pepperoni
    • Chorizo
    • Linguiça
    • Chinese Sausage (lap cheung)
  • Fish
    • Anchovy
    • Salt cod
    • Lox (salmon)
    • Pickled herring
• Cured vegetable products:
  • Tofu
  • Sauerkraut
  • Kimchi
  • Pickled cucumbers
  • Pickled beets
  • Olive (fruit)

See also

• Curing salt
• Food preservation
• Smoking (cooking)
• brining
• Salting (food)
• pickling
• Sausage making

Notes and references

1. ^ De Vries, John (1997), Food Safety and Toxicity, CRC Press, pp. 70, ISBN 9780849394881

• McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking (revised). New York, NY: Scribner, 2004. ISBN 0-684-80001-2
• Bertolli, Paul. Cooking by Hand. New York, NY: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-609-60893-2
• National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council Academy of Life Sciences. "The Health Effects of Nitrate, Nitrite and N-Nitroso Compounds". Washington DC: National Academy Press, 1981.
• Article in The Scientist, Volume 13, No. 6:1, Mar. 15, 1999 (registration required)

External links

• National Center for Home Food Preservation - How do I...Cure & Smoke