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Sauce

Fish Sauce

A sauce made by simmering port wine, walnut pickle, mushroom ketchup, anchovies, shallots, soy sauce, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Port wine and mushroom work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 570 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine port wine, walnut pickle, mushroom ketchup, pounded anchovies, pounded shallots, soy sauce, and cayenne pepper in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer gently for 10 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

Bottle and store

  1. Pour the sauce into bottles, cork them well, and seal.

  2. Store in a cool place; it will keep for a considerable time.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Port wine + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Walnut + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Port wine + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Dissolve into the liquid to add deep savoury, salty flavour.
Mushroom catsup
Provides the concentrated umami base that gives the sauce its body and savouriness.
Walnut pickle
Adds a dark, tangy, slightly bitter note typical of walnut-based condiments.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, alcohol and fruity depth to the liquid base.

The step that matters

Simmer gently. Gentle heat concentrates flavour and blends the ingredients without boiling off too much liquid or making the sauce harsh. Straining afterward removes the pounded solids so the sauce stays clear and smooth.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, mushroom, sauce, pepper):

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Peasfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, mushroom, sauce, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More fish sauce recipes

Anchovy 24White 9Dutch 8Broiled 5Brown 5Walnut 5 See all 106 →

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