The Mysterious Anchovy
The Poster Child for Umami
Most people assume they don’t like anchovies. Who would admit to liking these brown, hairy, little strips of canned fish? But they’re very funny little creatures. While I wouldn’t eat them on top of a salad as some people do, I have been tackling recipes, lately, that use them as a subtle background flavor.
I was just reading Mark Bitten’s blog for the “New York Times” and ran across a post (by a guest author) that discussed using smoked anchovies in a stew to add the flavor that is now the darling of top chefs, umami. That reminded me of last night’s dinner, that was a very simple linguine dish with garlic, olive oil, bread crumbs, and anchovies. The 6-8 anchovies I used were chopped and sauteed with the oil, garlic, and bread crumbs. Everyone enjoyed the dinner, and the funny thing was that no one guessed there were anchovies in the dish. It wasn’t that I was hiding this fact deliberately, I just forgot to mention it. However, I believe if I had let it slip, dinner wouldn’t have been received as well. Instead, everyone enjoyed the slightly salty, umami flavor of the dinner and not a ribbon was left at the end of the meal.
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I know anchovies are a key ingredient in Worcestershire sauce not to mention the flavor it adds to Caesar salad. I’m not sure though if anchovies are always the same fish. Do you know?
As far as I know there’s only one kind of anchovy.