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Fish Sauce

A fermented fish sauce made with anchovies, shallots, wine, pickle, mushroom catsup, 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: Mushroom and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the shallots and anchovies very small before adding.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.

Make the sauce

  1. Simmer for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the sauce in airtight containers.

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. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Walnut + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Port wine + shallottop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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 umami flavour.
Shallots
Add aromatic sharpness and sweetness that mellows during simmering.
Walnut pickle
Provides the main concentrated flavour base for the sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and body, with acidity that rounds the savoury flavours.
Mushroom catsup
Contributes earthy, savoury depth typical of umami-rich condiments.
Soy sauce
Adds salty, fermented savoury flavour and colour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering. Simmering gently for the stated time concentrates and blends the flavours. Boiling hard can evaporate liquid too fast and make the sauce harsh, while stopping early leaves the flavours underdeveloped.

Swap the walnut

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, mushroom, shallot, 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.

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

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