Fish Sauce

[HungryChris]

The first one I tried was Squid brand. It is funny how reluctant I was to use it at first. It took courage to shake out the first few drops into a dish. Over time I have come to depend on it as a staple in a lot of cooking. I now measure it out by the shot glass so it is ready when just when I need it. Based on what I have read, Golden Boy and Tra Chang are on my list of primium brands to try. I have been searching CT, MA and RI for the last few weeks and have not seen any of those brands. I hope to visit A dong's in West Hartford soon and I expect to score at least one there.

HC

[snowangel]

I know that at my LAM (Local Asian Market), they sell far more Tiparos than any other brand. I've been a Tiparose girl since the late 60's when I lived in Thailand, but I'm wondering if this "turn-over" factor is important?

[Hugh]

Golden Boy is definitely my favourite so far. Seems to work the best in a greater variety of dishes and I think it makes a far better nuoc cham than the squid brand. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any real Viet brands yet, so I'm going to wait and see and maybe scrounge up some Tra Chang.

Edited January 3, 2008 by Hugh (log)

[hummingbirdkiss]

the top of my fish sauce list is Phu Quoc I have tried three of them they are all three the best fish sauces I have ever had ...something about that beautiful island I guess! (that is a bottle of Phu Quoc in front of me in the avatar!)

second is of course Squid brand ..at less than 2 bucks a bottle here sometimes ...for consistantly good results it is a huge bargain!

I keep both Phu Quoc (for Cambodian, Vietnamese and Lao food) and Squid brand ( for Thai food) on hand all the time so I have two differing types to work with

Edited January 3, 2008 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[Dianabanana]

Just what it says--I stored a big bottle of fish sauce in the fridge, not because I think it needs to be refrigerated but because it fits in there and doesn't on the pantry shelf, and the salt precipitated out. Lesson learned. I thought it would just dissolve back in if I shook the bottle, but it's been a couple of days of fooling around with it and there are still big chunks, like rock salt, in the bottom of the bottle. Worse, I'm in the middle of a big Vietnamese cooking bender and I need my fish sauce! What to do?

[cdh]

Same happened to me, and I never stored mine in the fridge. Still tastes fine.

[Octaveman]

Do nothing. It's happened to a few bottles of mine too. Not all brands do this either. I store my bottles in the pantry

[nickrey]

Fish sauce in the fridge leads to salt crystals.

Olive oil in the fridge leads to a viscous gloop.

Having experienced both, I now keep these items only in the pantry.

Have you tried gently heating the fish sauce and stirring to try to get the salt back into solution?

We also had an interesting article on choosing the best Asian ingredients in one of our newspaper magazines on the weekend. They recommended Viet Huong Three Crabs brand fish sauce. Having discovered this a while ago myself, I can fully endorse that recommendation. The taste difference from widely used fish sauces is like moving from cheap to vintage wine. If this is not what you are using in your Vietnamese cooking, why not try and get some of this instead?

[scubadoo97]

I have 3 crab in the pantry but this Thai chef and food author recommends other brands. I've purchased Squid brand before and found it good as well

http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/brands.html

[Shalmanese]

I've always been told that fish sauce can be kept indefinitely, just leave it on the shelf & don't worry about it. After finally going through a giant bottle of squid brand fish sauce over the course of 2 years, I thought I would show you what old & new fish sauce looks like:

On the left is the remnants of the two year old fish sauce. It's inky black, almost the color of soy sauce & has a predominantly salty flavor. On the right is fish sauce I picked up that morning. It's noticeably paler in color & has a pungent, fishy flavor.

If your fish sauce is over a year old, do yourself a favor, throw it out & buy a new bottle.

[heidih]

The new bottle was the same brand? I have noticed fish sauce crystallize and get darker with age and then tend to use it in cooked dishes rather than dipping sauces. I have also noticed that bottles of the same brand are not always consistent.

[Chris Amirault]

Shalmanese, were samples from both bottles taken from the top of the container, or was the older one dregs at the bottom? Seems like sediment settling might account for at least some of the effect.

[Shalmanese]

Both were squid brand fish sauce and the new bottle was consistently clear all the way through. The difference was even more noticeable in the bottle.

[baroness]

Shalmanese: do you refrigerate your fish sauce?

[Shalmanese]

Nope, pantry.

[baroness]

I just checked on my refrigerated 'Three Crabs,' which is almost a year old. Still looks mint!

[Bonnie Ruth]

I have definitely had fish sauce go bad. I had to throw out a whole dish because of it. Now if I have had some open for a while, I smell it before using.

[abooja]

I have noticed fish sauce crystallize and get darker with age and then tend to use it in cooked dishes rather than dipping sauces.

Funny you should mention that, because I recently cooked with my pantry-stored Tiparos fish sauce, and it sounded as if someone had added a handful of mica crystals to the bottle. I used it anyway, and the dish turned out fine. I've owned this bottle for less than a year.

I can only imagine how bad spoiled fish sauce must smell, since I find the odor of even the fresh stuff quite repulsive. I suppose I should start storing it in the fridge. I don't use it nearly often enough.

[OliverB]

I can't quite imagine how fish sauce would go bad? It's so salty that I doubt anything would survive in there?

OTOH it is somewhat curious that some fish sauce says to refrigerate after opening, some says explicitly not to do so, and some say nothing.

The crystals are just salt, nothing to worry about. My guess is that over the storage time some liquid evaporates and as you can only put so much salt into liquid, what's too much crystallizes out. Of course this might just be armchair science, but as it's nothing to worry about it doesn't really matter.

As for the difference in color above, my guess would be that different batches have different color, and yes, age darkens it too. I think to really compare you'd have to buy two bottles and store one dark and cool w/o opening for year, then compare.

Of course, as this stuff is really not expensive I'd just throw it out once it throws you off and get some new. And maybe shake a bottle before using, though I don't really see anything in there that would shake up. Except the salt crystals.

[C. sapidus]

If your fish sauce is over a year old, do yourself a favor, throw it out & buy a new bottle.

If your fish sauce is over a year old, you aren’t using enough fish sauce.

Formation of crystals means that the salt is dropping out of solution. I have had this happen, and if you add fish sauce to taste when you do your final seasoning, the slightly higher concentration of salt don't seem to affect the flavor of cooked dishes. I do choose lower-salt brands of fish sauce so that I can enjoy more of the addictive funky-fishy flavor without oversalting.

[TheCulinaryLibrary]

I've been searching for brands of Asian fish sauces trying to find the better quality ones to do a taste test and review. The Vietnamese Red Boat and Three Crab brands both seem to get excellent reviews. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[nickrey]

David Thompson has recommended the Megachef brand (he's the brand ambassador). Andrea Nguyen's review of the sauce can be found here.

I've used it and it is very good and available in Sydney.

Edited May 1, 2013 by nickrey (log)

[budrichard]

The Red Boat sauces are the best I have ever used.

The '40' is used for soups and cooking and the '50' for dipping sauces.

There just is no other sauce comparable, available to to those of us in the US.-Dick

[Keith_W]

Right now in my pantry, I have Megachef and Red Boat fish sauce. In my humble opinion, Megachef easily beats Red Boat. Both are equally salty, but the Megachef carries a bigger umami punch.

[Syzygies]

Here is an ingredient page by my Thai cooking teacher, Kasma loha-Unchit:

Kasma's Favorite Brands

Her favorite brands of fish sauce are Tra Chang and Golden Boy. We routinely debate this on her mailing list, and she's quick to point out unwanted additives in various other brands. In other words, read the label.

I'm quite fond of Italian colatura ("garum", dating to Roman times). Purist may object, along with the frugal. I like how it tastes.