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Essence of Anchovies

A liquid extract made by boiling anchovies in water, then straining and preserving with beef brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Essence of Anchovies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the anchovies and remove the bones.

Make the essence

  1. Add the chopped anchovies to the water and boil gently until dissolved.

  2. Once cooled, strain the mixture and bottle it.

Preserve

  1. To preserve anchovies, pour beef-brine over them.

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Provide the main savoury flavour, dissolving into the water to give the essence its depth.
Water
Acts as the liquid that dissolves the anchovies and carries their flavour into the essence.

The step that matters

Boil gently until dissolved. Gentle heat slowly draws flavour out of the anchovies without breaking them down harshly, while a hard boil can make the liquid cloudy and give it a bitter, scorched taste.

“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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