[Sca-cooks] Re: Anchovette

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jul 6, 2005, at 12:03 PM, Jessica Tiffin wrote:

> bugger, sorry, forgot to change the subject line on my last post.
>
> At 02:52 PM 7/6/05, Adamantius wrote:
>
>> 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?
>>
> um.... I dunno... :>.  OK,  having dug out the jar saved from the  
> last one ... Contains four sorts of fish (including actual anchovies),

Really? What sorts of fish, if you don't mind my asking?

> salt, sugar, spices, thickener, some weird stuff with numbers,  
> ascorbic acid, smoke essence.  (The cheats).  No added oil, and  
> it's not hugely salty to taste - far less so than marmite.  Lid  
> insists that it should be refrigerated after opening and used  
> within ten days, so it's not just me being paranoid.  We live in a  
> pretty hot climate, we refrigerate most things, promise!

That was the impression I got, but one never knows.

>> 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...
>>
> It comes in a little jar, with a lid with one of those pop-up  
> safety buttons,  like baby food.  (If American baby food does, in  
> fact, have pop-up buttons).

Yep.

> I suspect that American versions infuse the hell out of it with  
> preservatives, which the South African product doesn't seem to do.

I'm not sure if there _is_ an American version, to be honest. I'd say  
(and others may or may not agree) that for the most part, the anchovy  
hasn't made much headway into American cookery, at least not in this  
century. Plenty of anchovies get eaten in the form of tapenade,  
Caesar Salads, Salades Nicoise, pissaladieres and pizzas, and in  
other more-or-less Mediterranean venues (and Caesar Salad in its  
original form has almost completely vanished in favor of something  
_called_ Caesar Salad, but which is merely lettuce with croutons,  
grated Parmigiano and a non-descript creamy "Caesar  
Dressing" [pfooey! double-bleh pfooey!]).

However, thinking about common Angliski uses of anchovy, such as  
stirring a mashed fillet into a gravy, studding a roast with them, or  
making little sandwiches for tea, we pretty much never do that.  
More's the pity.

What this all comes down to is that when we buy anchovy paste, it's  
pretty much made from anchovies. There may be preservatives, although  
with the oil present in the fish itself and the salt, it scarcely  
seems necessary, but as far as I know, there's nothing else in the  
way of bulk ingredients; no other fish, no salt (or at least no more  
than would otherwise occur if you mashed up a tin of anchovies with a  
fork), no sugar, etc.

Essentially, it sounds like what you're describing as anchovy paste  
is a prepared food, rather than what we'd think of as an ingredient.  
Perhaps the difference is not on the same scale as the difference  
between tinned tuna and prepared tuna salad, but there will certainly  
be differences in relative properties.

>   (Generally, I'd say we probably don't go for huge amounts of  
> preservatives in things).

I wish we were better in that regard, although this particular matter  
may be a reversal of prevailing conditions.

> Anchovette certainly goes off remarkably quickly even if you do  
> refrigerate it - as I say, grows interesting green mould.

I'll have to take your word for that ;-) .

> comparative food anthropology, endlessly fascinating!

What, ME get into a long and endlessly detailed conversation about  
food anthropology? Never!

Adamantius (eyeing the one-pound jar of anchovy fillets in olive oil  
and saying, "Hmmmmm...")




"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