Ingredient

Anchovy

An anchovy melted into a hot pan does not make food taste of fish. It makes it taste more of itself — deeper, rounder, more savoury — and it is one of the most useful things in a larder for exactly that reason.

Why it disappears

Anchovies are cured for months, during which enzymes break the fish protein down into free amino acids — chiefly glutamates, which are what the tongue reads as savoury depth.

Melted into hot oil, the fish structure dissolves entirely and what remains is that savouriness distributed through the dish. There is no fishy texture left and, in a cooked dish, very little recognisably fishy flavour.

This is why anchovy appears in so many things that are not fish dishes: lamb, beef stews, tomato sauces, dressings, braised greens, Worcestershire sauce, and Caesar salad. People who are certain they dislike anchovies have usually been eating them for years.

The forms

Oil-packed fillets

The common tinned or jarred kind. Ready to use, and quality varies enormously — good ones are firm and pinkish, poor ones are mushy and grey.

Salt-packed whole

Better flavour and firmer texture. They need rinsing and filleting, which takes a few minutes.

Anchovy paste

Convenient, milder, and usually saltier. Fine for stirring into sauces.

Colatura

The liquid drained from curing anchovies. An Italian fish sauce, used by the drop.

Fresh anchovies

A completely different food — mild, delicate, usually fried or marinated. Not a substitute.

White anchovies (boquerones)

Vinegar-cured rather than salt-cured. Mild, sharp, eaten as they are.

Where to use them

• Melted into oil at the start of a sauce — with garlic, as the base of a tomato sauce or braised greens.
• With lamb. Anchovy and rosemary pushed into a leg of lamb is one of the best things you can do to it, and nobody tastes fish.
• In a dressing. Caesar, or simply mashed with garlic, lemon and oil.
• In a beef stew or a ragù, one or two fillets, for depth.
• On toast with butter, or in a puttanesca, where they are meant to be recognisable.
• In place of some salt. They season as well as add savour, so reduce the salt elsewhere.

Practical points

• Two fillets is enough to change a dish for four people. More than that and they start to be noticeable as anchovy.
• Melt them in warm oil over a low heat, pressing with a spoon. They dissolve in a minute or two.
• Salt-packed ones need rinsing under cold water and the backbone pulling out. It takes seconds once you have done it once.
• Keep an opened jar in the fridge with the fillets submerged in oil. They keep for weeks.
• The oil in the tin is worth using rather than discarding.
• If you want the savour without fish at all, miso, soy sauce and mushroom do a related job — see miso.

The wider family: colatura, garum and fish sauce

Anchovies preserved in salt release a liquid, and that liquid is one of the oldest seasonings in European cooking.

• Colatura di alici. The amber liquid drawn off barrels of salted anchovies in Campania. A few drops on pasta with garlic, oil and parsley is a whole dish.
• Garum. The Roman ancestor of the same thing, and the reason Roman cooking tasted savoury rather than bland.
• Southeast Asian fish sauce. The same process, different fish, and it does the same job in a dish.
• Worcestershire sauce, which contains anchovy and is why it works on almost anything savoury.
• Gentlemen's Relish and anchovy paste, both concentrated and both far saltier than the fillets.
• They are interchangeable in principle and not in flavour. A teaspoon of fish sauce will do an anchovy fillet's job in a stew.
• All of them season rather than flavour. Used at the right quantity nobody tastes fish; they taste depth.

Common questions