Cookbook:Fish Sauce

| Southeast Asian cuisines

Fish Sauce, also nước mắm (Vietnam), nam pla (น้ำปลา - Thailand), jeotgal (Korea), patis (Philippines), is a sauce made by fermenting various types of fish (usually anchovies) and pressing to extract the liquid.

Fish sauce is very salty and has a strong flavour, not just of fish (due to the fermentation process). It is an essential ingredient in many South-East Asian recipes. It is also used as a basis for many other sauces.

When using fish sauce in a recipe, additional salt is generally unnecessary. Quantities of salt vary from country to country and from brand to brand, with Vietnamese fish sauces generally being saltier than those from Thailand. Additionally, some brands of fish sauce are more pungent and primarily for cooking, while others are more delicate and used mostly for salads as a dressing and to finish a dish.