Anchovies

[Deleted]

For most of my childhood, I knew nothing about anchovies other than they created debates in television series and movies about whether a pizza should have anchovies or not. "Not" seemed to be the majority opinion, but where I grew up, we had neither pizzas nor anchovies, so I had to wait to pursue the investigation.

When I was finally exposed to anchovies on a pizza, I liked them, but I understood how anybody who hates fishy things would find them to be an abomination.

Settling in France as a young adult, I discovered anchovies on +salade niçoise+ which seemed to be another good use for them, always with parsimony, of course.

At the moment, the current fad is marinated anchovy fillets with herbs and olive oil, which you eat with miniature forks (often snail forks) or toothpicks at apéritif time. These are the best yet, as far as I am concerned, because the anchovies are fresher and not drowned in salt.

There are also various sorts of savoury pastes containing anchovies to be spread on little pieces of bread (also for apéritif) and naturally we cannot forget olives stuffed with anchovies.

So now I am wondering about anchovies in the rest of the world. Are they popular? Are they abhorred? Are there uses for anchovies of which I am not aware?

Tell me about your anchovies.

[Deleted]

I adore anchovies,whether in a paste, whole, or simply the oil they have marinated in.
I don't recall my first intro into them but I took an immediate liking to them. Not too many per serving as they can be overpowering and subtlety is key IMHO.
I found that that they were much more costly the last time I bought a small jar of them while in NY last trip.
I'm not a real big fan of ultra salty foods per say but,these gems are most certainly the exception to my palette.
They are one of the few things I can tolerate on a pizza, being the pizza snob, purist that I am.

[lagatta]

I've eaten them (occasionally) since childhood, and have always liked them, but I've always had a "salt tooth", and have always liked fish.

One of the pizza types in Italy that always has anchovies is the "Sicilian pizza", which I'd happily order.

I'd like the marinated fillets; have never had that here at an apéro. What does one drink with them?

Kerouac, also la pissaladière, but googling I see that the fish paste on those also contains sardines. Do we have a thread on sardines?

[bixaorellana]

I could have sworn there was a thread called "the fish thread" in On the Menu, wasn't there? There's this thread in The Galley: Fish!, but no Sardine thread that I could find. (I do find the Search functions to be very moody, though.)

I love anchovies & don't see enough of them around here. Dumb question -- is anchovy paste just anchovies mashed to a paste, or does it have other ingredients?

[Don Cuevas]

Anchovies: Yum.

[lagatta]

bixa, check the label. I think it is just puréed anchovies, and salt of course.

[lugg]

Anchovies in herbs and oil popular here too and are sold in many of supermarkets, actually I am not as fond of them in this way.

I love anchovies with lamb and always add them when I make a
panzanella salad.

[fumobici]

Reading this inspired me to eat an entire tin of anchovies I had in the cupboard, something I'd never done before.

[bixaorellana]

Anchovies with lamb ~~ interesting!

Fumo, I hope you had beer!

[Deleted]

Baz Faz also reported using anchovies when cooking lamb.

On a similar thread that I have running elsewhere, the general sentiment is that anchovy is a flavour enhancer (just like nuoc mam - fish sauce) and does not impart a fishy taste. It just improves the main item.

Another interesting idea was to use anchovies with mozzarella (which many of us find insufferably bland).

[lagatta]

Nuoc mam is usually made with anchovies.

Real mozzarella is made with buffalo milk and has somewhat more flavour than its cow's milk imitations, but is still pretty mild, as is goat's milk mozzarella (intended mostly for people with cow's milk allergies).

[Deleted]

I visited a nuoc mam factory in Vietnam, and just about everything went into the pot except the kitchen sink. They had a special net for pulling out the dead rats because anything that fell into the fermentation pot died immediately.

[lagatta]

So the "anchovies" is mislabelling? Not surprised. "Dead rat" is not a very appealing ingredient.

[Deleted]

Well, that's why the pull them out with the nets! Actually, they showed us the start -- a big vat of fish to ferment, and then the later manifestation with foam and scum and so toxic that nobody can approach it except foolhardy rats, and then after about two months they strain the 'juice' out through the bottom, at which point it is distilled and filtered into nuoc mam. Frankly, if you have ever seen a vat of fermenting grapes before it becomes wine, this should not shock you.

[tod2]

Feb 28, 2013 18:39:06 GMT kerouac2 said:

I visited a nuoc mam factory in Vietnam, and just about everything went into the pot except the kitchen sink. They had a special net for pulling out the dead rats because anything that fell into the fermentation pot died immediately.

I'm not surprised hearing this. A South African friend of ours who served in Vietnam, to this day cannot abide the smell of 'fish sauce'. He said the stench was everywhere and still turns his stomach. He also won't eat chicken. I think that's all they lived on.

[Deleted]

I tried a really fabulous recipe this week for an anchovy butter served with Swiss chard.
We served it aside a steak aux Poivre.
If anyone is interested I will post it in recipes.

[tod2]

Yes definitely, this sounds like pepping up the old boiled chard, for a nice change! Thanks!

[Deleted]

It really does give the chard some zing!! I hope you can get really fresh chard there to use to make this. I did it with the red and the green varieties from the neighborhood garden.