Home made fish sauce

As the name suggests yes. My work is professional cooking. My goal as a angler and hunter is to maximize my take as an ethical outdoorsman should do. Every bit gets used no matter how big or small. The last trip out of Capitola there was anchovies galore. Usually I would just use them as bait and move on but the abundance of them had me thinking after launch. What if I caught them on my way in and iced em down immediately. What would I do with them? As I drifted my kayak among the power boaters catching a sturdy 27” halibut it dawned on me. Fish sauce!! It’s made with small fish high in oil. Anchovies!! Ok let’s go I said to myself. Dinner is caught for a few days. Time to move on to another endeavor. On the way in I used a Sabiiki to reel in just enough to try this out. David Zilber suggested a minimum of at least 25% salt. Ok he’s a pro at fermenting so I’ll follow his lead on this. My luck with fermentation has been hit or miss. There’s actually science involved and like baking you can’t stray to far and expect desired results. So 25% I went today. I mixed them all together with the salt and packed them neatly in a jar reserving just enough salt to give them a little salt pack on top. They will rest in my cellar for a year maybe less. Here comes the fun part. Like making vinegar or sourdough starter watching the process is half the fun. If it actually works then helllll yeahh fish sauce for the win! If not I’ll try again next year.  Anyone out there done this before?

Thanks for the info Yaknchef. Please let us know how it turns out when you consume it.

Reading the title I thought, yum, that sounds cool make some fish sauce!  Then seeing the before pic, I don't know how I feel about it now 

Cool! I've thought about doing the same but haven't made the effort - yet MalibuTwo on here has made a lot of fish sauce - hit him up if you need some tips.

Cheers,
Brad

Reading the title I thought, yum, that sounds cool make some fish sauce!  Then seeing the before pic, I don't know how I feel about it now 

The closeup of the staring eyeball 

Good luck Yakn

20% also salt works and heat helps speed things up.

I've also been experimenting with spices.  I have quite a few jars that are multiple years old that I need to strain. 

I think it's comparable to higher end fish sauce like Red Boat.  My spiced ones are more of a Roman garum.

I got anchovies this past weekend and scaled/headed/gutted/salted them and storing them in fridge.  Those are great on pizza or other dish toppings.

I encourage you to taste as you go, over several years even.  It's amazing how something that tastes like shit can end up pretty damn good after a couple years.

-Allen

Very cool!

very cool indeed!!

that is so outside my wheelhouse.