Jan 29, 2013

SALTED ANCHOVIES- MAGIC UMAMIBOMBS



Food is our common ground
A universial experience. James Beard
 
Salted anchovies contains a lot of free glutamate, the most important umami substance. This little magic fish is a very important ingredient in mediterranean cuisine, it is used as salt and in addition, you'll get the rich, complex umamitaste infused in your dish. Adding salted anchovies to a dish is an old european way of enhancing umami taste, similar to the use of fish sauce in asian food. And like fish sauce, It's not adding a fishy taste to your dish.

salted anchovies in olive oil, rich in umami!


Many known, and even more unknown mediterranean dishes include salted anchovies: Bagna Caôda is famous piedmontese dip with an abundant amount of salted anchovies.You'll find them as toppings on pizzas and in the pizza sauce, in tomatosauce for pasta. Anchovies will be used in sauces together with capers, tuna, tomatoes, but seldom together with the parmesan cheese. The famous dressing for Ceasars salat contains anchovies and/or worchestershiresauce, the latter beeing an anchovy sauce. The provencal anchoide is another example. As the name imply, this paste includes salted anchovies! 

The use of anchovies as a salty taste enhancer has ancient traditions in Europe.  The reminiscences of content in old emphoras from roman time have been analyzed and findings show they were filled with garum, a precious sauce in ancient Roman and Ottoman Empires, and produced in an almost identical way as todays oriental fishsauce!  For more information about the ancient Roman fish sauce, check this article. 

Enjoy anchovies in your food!




glass of turkish made salted anchovies



1 comment:

  1. I also want to eath this recipe because no fish out there that packs as much flavor as fresh anchovies. They are great fried and eaten whole, head and all. You have to trust me on this, its like eating a salty, savory explosion of ocean goodness.anchovies.co.uk

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