How to Use Salt

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Published 2011

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Cooking Tip

Fish Sauce isn’t Just for Thai Curries!

My first chef and now good friend, Michael Pardus, changed my seasoning life when he said, “I season macaroni and cheese with fish sauce.”

It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did, and it’s a good example of how we’re conditioned to think inside the box. Fish sauce is Asian, so we use it in Asian preparations, not in Western cooking. The thing is, it’s a really powerful seasoning device across the board, just like that anchovy in the Caesar salad. It delivers salt and the umami effect of fermented fish, which is what it’s made from—one whiff and there’s no doubt about that. Umami, sometimes referred to as a “fifth taste” and described as “savoriness,” is achieved through a number of ingredients: salt, Parmigiano-Reggiano, mushrooms, and maybe nothing more so than fish sauce. How can something that smells nasty have such a powerfully good effect on foods? Umami. You would never want to sip this stuff straight. (Though find yourself drinking with Pardus at three A.M. and you may do a straight fish-sauce tasting of varying qualities; since quality differs, buy good-quality fish sauce at Asian markets.) But added to mac and cheese, to a salad dressing, to chicken soup, fish sauce can make all the difference.