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Anchovy Liquor to Be Used in Fish Sauces

A liquid made by simmering anchovies with water, aromatics, and seasonings, then strained and bottled for use in fish sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Anchovy Liquor to Be Used in Fish Sauces

Ingredients

Directions

Make the liquor

  1. Put the anchovies, water, bay leaves, whole pepper, horseradish, thyme, mace, shallots, Port wine, lemon rind, and ketchup into a stewpan.

  2. Boil all together for 20 minutes.

  3. Rub the mixture through a tamis cloth using a wooden spoon.

Bottle and store

  1. Once the essence is cold, pour it into pint bottles, cork them tightly, and store in a dry place.

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. Horseradish + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together376 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Provide the main salty, savoury flavour that defines the liquor.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to balance the saltiness of the anchovies.
Shallots
Contribute a mild savoury sweetness and aromatic background to the liquid.
Ketchup
Adds acidity and tomato-based savouriness to the liquor.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, horseradish, thyme, shallot, port wine, lemon, ketchup):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, horseradish, thyme, shallot, port wine, lemon, ketchup. 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.

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