[Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 26, Issue 13

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jul 6, 2005, at 4:34 AM, Jessica Tiffin wrote:

> At 05:32 AM 7/6/05, various people wrote:
>
>> Am Dienstag, 5. Juli 2005 20:10 schrieb lilinah at earthlink.net:
>> > >Meanwhile, I have a jar of Anchovette (brought back from South
>> > >Africa by our former receptionist, who also procured me some
>> > >Marmite). Haven't dared try it yet ... any recommendations for  
>> that
>> > >one?
>> > >
>> > >Gianotta
>> >
>> > What, pray tell, is Anchovette... I LOVE anchovies... (salivate,
>> > salivate, salivate)
>>
>
> Anchovy paste.  Very strong flavour which I occasionally find  
> myself craving :>. Treat like Marmite, i.e. spread on toast, except  
> you can slather it on more thickly than Marmite, depending on your  
> anchovy tolerance. The thing to remember is that it _must_ be  
> refrigerated after opening, and you should try and finish it within  
> a week or so - it grows savage moulds remarkably fast.
>
> Darn, now I want anchovy toast.

I was wondering about that myself. I was afraid it was another yeast  
extract made to taste or otherwise resemble anchovy paste.

With regard to mold, I'm a little surprised. The stuff is presumably  
quite salty, contains fish or other oils (such as olive) to help  
exclude air, and is reduced to a paste to further exclude air from  
anything but an obviously exposed surface. Is this perhaps some  
evidence to suggest that South Africans refrigerate less of their  
food, overall, than the typical paranoid American? Or is it perhaps a  
matter of packaging? I imagine this is packed in a glass or plastic  
jar (or is it in a non-resealable tin?). Most of the anchovy paste  
I've encountered has either been homemade and essentially been potted  
in a glass jar under a little bit of oil, or comes commercially in a  
squeeze-tube, like toothpaste, and as far as I know, either form will  
keep for months if refrigerated, maybe upwards of a year. I must be  
missing something...

Adamantius, recent survivor of eating two-week-old tapenade... ;-)





"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04