Hello All,
By a show of “hands,” who here likes the smell of fish sauce? I had never cooked with it before, but I knew how it was made. I did not know what to expect, but boy was it worse that I thought; rotten fish wise. However, after I cooked the little beef balls wrapped in Basil leaves (Thanks Raichlen) they were pretty tasty and liked by all.
[quote=“threeabuck”]
Hello All,
By a show of “hands,” who here likes the smell of fish sauce? I had never cooked with it before, but I knew how it was made. I did not know what to expect, but boy was it worse that I thought; rotten fish wise. However, after I cooked the little beef balls wrapped in Basil leaves (Thanks Raichlen) they were pretty tasty and liked by all.[/quote]
My hand is up, enthusiastically.
Fish sauce is amazing stuff. Right on about the aroma in the bottle…it can be off putting when you’re not used to it and the method of manufacture is surprising to say the least…but no question about it, it works magic in cooking. Congrats on discovering it!
It’s a great seasonong, much in the same way that anchovy can find its way into a variety of foods as a seasoning (usually where you wouldn’t expect to find anchovy at all).
In any case, a bottle of good Vietnamese fish sauce, a bottle of Chinese oyster sauce, and a tube of Italian anchovy paste are three things that are always found in my fridge.
My hands not up for liking the smell, but I do enjoy cooking with it.
Nasty smell, but I haven’t found anything that adds the same flavor. I like it.
+1. Don’t care for the smell, but I do like small amounts in any/all Asian sauces that I make from time to time. Fish sauce and sesame oil are staples in any Asian sauce I make. But both used in small amounts. Too much of either can overwhelm almost anything that you could/would use them in.
care to elaborate on what it adds to the flavor of sauces? I have found many a recipe that sounded great, but was turned off when I found out one of the ingredients needed was fish sauce(I hate fish). I am curious to know if there is a fishy taste that translates into the food it is cooked with, or does it add more of an earthy, salty taste??? please fill me in.
A little fishy, but extremely salty. Add a little to a sauce sometime. It adds an authentic Asian flavor.
Fish aren’t that fond of you!
Well this was my first time using it, so maybe someone can help out. However I kind of see it as a flavor enhancer-kind of like when you add Worcestershire sauce to hamburgers to add a little flavor/salt/and just kick it up a notch. My little beef balls were not fishy, and in fact I could not taste any fish sauce. But I could tell that it changed the flavor in a better way. Try it out and you shall see for yourself.
Fish sauce is actually an ingredient in Worcestershire sauce, at least it is if I read the wikipedia article right.
