What is fish sauce?
A: Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been
coated in salt and fermented for up to two years.
Due to its ability to add a savory umami flavor to
dishes, it has been embraced globally by whom?
A: Chefs and home cooks.
The umami flavor in fish sauce is due to what?
A: Its glutamate content.
Fish sauce is used as a seasoning during or after
cooking, and as a base in what?
A: Dipping sauces.
Soy sauce is regarded by some in the West as a what?
A: A vegetarian alternative to fish sauce though they are very different in
flavor.
Sauces that included fermented fish parts with other
ingredients such as meat and soybean were recorded in China how long ago?
A: 2300 years ago.
During the Zhou dynasty of ancient China, fish
fermented with soybeans and salt was used as a what?
A: A condiment.
By the time of the Han dynasty, soybeans were fermented
without the fish into what?
A: Soy paste and its by-product soy sauce.
A fish sauce, called kôechiap in Hokkien Chinese, might
be the precursor of what?
A: Ketchup.
By 50–100 BC, demand for fish sauces and fish pastes in
China had what?
A: Fallen drastically, with fermented bean products becoming a major trade
commodity.
Fish sauce, however, developed massive popularity
where?
A: In Southeast Asia.
Food scholars traditionally divide East Asia into what
two distinct condiment regions, separated by a bean-fish divide?
A: Southeast Asia, mainly using fermented fish (Vietnam,
Thailand,
Cambodia), and Northeast Asia, using mainly fermented beans (China, Korea,
Japan).
Fish sauce re-entered China in the 17th and 18th
centuries, brought from where, by Chinese traders?
A: Vietnam and Cambodia.
Fish sauces were widely used in what ancient cuisine?
A: Mediterranean.
When was the earliest recorded production?
A: It was between 4th–3rd century BC by the Ancient Greeks, who fermented
scraps of fish called garos into one.
It is believed to have been made with a lower “what”
than modern fish sauces?
A: Salt content.
The Romans made a similar condiment called what?
A: Either garum or liquamen.
Garum was made in the Roman outposts of Spain almost
exclusively from what?
A: Mackerel by salting the scrap fish innards, and then sun fermenting the
flesh until it fell apart, usually for several months.
The brown liquid would then be what?
A: Strained, bottled, and sold as a condiment.
The process lasted until the 16th century when garum
makers switched to what?
A: Anchovy and removed the innards.
The original Worcestershire sauce is a related product
because it is what?
A: Fermented and contains anchovies.
Fish sauces historically have been prepared from
different species of fish and shellfish, and from using the whole fish, or
by using just what?
A: Fish blood or viscera.
Most modern fish sauces contain only what?
A: Fish and salt, usually made from anchovy,
shrimp, mackerel, or other
strong-flavored, high oil fish.
For modern fish sauces, fish or shellfish are mixed
with salt at what concentration?
A: A concentration of 10% to 30%.
It is then sealed in a closed container for up to how
long?
A: Two years.