Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been coated in salt and fermented for up to two years.[1][2]:234 It is widely used as a staple seasoning in East and Southeast Asian cuisine.
Following widespread recognition of its ability to impart a savory umami flavor to dishes, it has been embraced globally by chefs and home cooks. The umami flavor in fish sauce is due to its glutamate content.[3] Soy sauce is regarded by some in the West as a vegetarian alternative to fish sauce though they are very different in flavor.[1]:234
Fish sauce is not only added to dishes as a seasoning, but also used as a base in dipping sauces.
Sauces that included fermented fish parts with other ingredients such as meat and soy bean were recorded in China 2300 years ago.[4] During the Zhou dynasty of ancient China, fish fermented with soybeans and salt was used as a condiment.[5][6] By the time of the Han dynasty, soy beans were fermented without the fish into soy paste and its by-product soy sauce.[7]:346, 358–359 with fermented fish-based sauces developing separately into fish sauce.[8] A fish sauce, called kôechiap in Hokkien Chinese, or kecap in Indonesia might be the precursor of ketchup.[9][1]:233
By 50–100 BC, demand for fish pastes in China had fallen drastically, with fermented bean products having become a major trade commodity. Fish sauce, however, developed massive popularity in Southeast Asia. Food scholars traditionally divide East Asia into two distinct condiment regions, separated by a bean-fish divide: Southeast Asia, mainly using fermented fish (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia) and Northeast Asia, using mainly fermented beans (China, Korea, Japan). Fish sauce re-entered China in the 17th and 18th centuries, brought from Vietnam and Cambodia by Chinese traders up the coast of the southern provinces Guangdong and Fujian.
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