A pungent, salty liquid condiment made by fermenting fish, most often anchovies, with salt for months; foundational to the cuisines of Thailand, Vietnam and the wider Southeast Asian coast.
Facts
Disputed
Earliest Documented Use, From (Year)Sourced to the subject's own accountThe earliest documented antecedent is a Chinese fermented fish-and-soybean sauce recorded about 2300 years ago; the Southeast Asian fish sauce tradition this entity describes has no precisely dated early record of its own, so this pins the ancestral practice rather than a confirmed date for the regional product. Origin RegionMainland Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, building on an earlier Chinese tradition of fermented fish-and-soybean sauces; Vietnam's Phan Thiet is often named as the birthplace of the Vietnamese style, but no single national origin is firmly settled among the Southeast Asian traditions. 1 Sourced to the subject's own accountFood scholars split East Asian condiment traditions along a bean-fish divide, Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia) on fermented fish and Northeast Asia on fermented beans; which Southeast Asian nation's fish-sauce tradition is oldest is not documented, so this names the region and the candidate traditions rather than picking one. Classification
AllergenSourced to the subject's own account Fish Sauce
Filter Results2 entries
Connections
Expresses Tradition
Used By
Source Larousse Gastronomique
Source Larousse Gastronomique
Source The Oxford Companion to FoodAlan Davidson
Pho, Dishes Fish sauce seasons the broth itself rather than serving only as a table condiment.
Source What Pho Can Teach Us About the History of Vietnam (National Geographic)Ryley Graham
Source The Oxford Companion to FoodAlan Davidson
Source A Taste of Vietnam, from Hearty Sour Broths to Fragrantly Spiced Street Food (National Geographic)Thuy Diem Pham
Uses Ingredient
Source Fish Sauce (Wikipedia)
Source Fish Sauce (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Fish Sauce (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHistory, Asia section
Sauces that included fermented fish parts with other ingredients such as meat and soybean were recorded in China, 2300 years ago.
Wikipedia, description lead (allergen)
A pungent, salty liquid condiment made by fermenting fish, most often anchovies
Uses Ingredient: Filipino Cuisine, Regional variations, Southeast Asia, Philippines
It is one of the most important ingredients in Filipino cuisine.
Uses Ingredient: Thai Cuisine, Introduction, first paragraph
It is used as a staple seasoning in East Asian cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
View the Source On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
Harold McGee, Scribner, 2004ch. on sauces, fermented fish sauces
The Oxford Companion to Food
Alan Davidson, Oxford University Press, 2014- Used By: Pad Thai
- Used By: Tom Yum
A Taste of Vietnam, from Hearty Sour Broths to Fragrantly Spiced Street Food (National Geographic)
Thuy Diem Pham, National Geographic, 2023Used By: Vietnamese CuisineView the Source What Pho Can Teach Us About the History of Vietnam (National Geographic)
Larousse Gastronomique
Hamlyn, 2009- Used By: Burmese Cuisine, entry: Fish Sauce
- Used By: Cambodian Cuisine, entry: Fish Sauce
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