Fish Sauce: My First Batch

It was just bones and sludge.

20% salt seemed close to Red Boat saltiness when I did a side by side taste test. 

Stoked to try this Malibu_Two! Thanks for sharing the recipe and your experience!
Here are my steps, it was quite easy to do and I’m looking forward to the results!

Using my digital scale, I weighed out my herring to 1458g. I then chopped these up and placed in a mixing bowl.

I then weighed out ~297g of kosher salt, representing 20% of weight.

Added to the bowl and mixed thoroughly. I then distributed the contents into 3 large mason jars for long term storage.

It was cool to add all that salt to the fish. So simple yet felt like an ancient time tested technique for preservation. Hope I did everything right and it turns out well!

That looks just like mine! You might shake them up every few days in the beginning to make sure you get everything evenly coated.
Post up again when you're ready to filter. If you keep it heated it'll be sooner than if you just let it sit at room temperature.

Yeah Buddy!  Like a chili cook off or Mac and cheese cookoff, we should have a fish sauce shots party with rice ball chasers and sorbet to cleanse the palette...

Has anyone tried this with sardines?  I have an excess of fresh sardines coming via SeaForager today, so I'm going to give it a go.  Going to stick with the same 20% salt ratio that others have mentioned to be successful.  Let me know if any of you have any better ideas, though!!

I bet this would work great with sardines, no question.
It seems to me that oily fish are ideal.
Be sure and chop the fish up and mix thoroughly with the salt.
I've been keeping mine - I have 12 gallons total - in an insulated bag with heating pads at 105ºF.

Good luck!

One last thing...I've been using 15% salt instead of 20% for my latest batch.
This stuff is so salty it does make me question whether it's even good for me.

who cares , it's damn good! Nothing like the magical umami taste it adds. Thanks for the sampler

One last thing...I've been using 15% salt instead of 20% for my latest batch.
This stuff is so salty it does make me question whether it's even good for me.

One last thing...I've been using 15% salt instead of 20% for my latest batch.
This stuff is so salty it does make me question whether it's even good for me.

Thanks for the info!  I'll start with 15% salt and I can always backsalt if needed.

No worries!
Report back with progress! I have a gallon jar that's going on 18 months. I kinda don't want to filter it, like not drinking an old wine.
I'm really surprised at how nice some of it smells after a long time. The aroma just gets richer and fuller.

It would be fun to do a tasting of different species, different vintages, etc.