= Preface =
There are many chaoshi condiments and dips are also very many, so there is always a saying of "one dish and one piece of cake", and the dipping sauce of each dish is different. Some of these many seasonings and dips are traditional sauces that have been used for a long time, such as puning bean paste fermented with soybeans, and some are "imported sauces" that have only been introduced and improved in Chaoshan in modern times, such as shacha sauce.
Among them, there is a taste, China is a very traditional and ancient condiment in the coastal areas, not only widely used in Chaoshan Province, but also directly or indirectly affects other cuisines in the world, that is, with pickles, preserved vegetables and called "Chaoshan Three Treasures" - fish sauce.
= Past and present lives of fish sauce =
Fish sauce is a very traditional and ancient condiment in China's coastal areas, and the earliest traceable written record found so far is the "Qi Min Zhi Shu" written by the agronomist Jia Sixun in the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty more than 1400 years ago.
In the section on sauce methods in the book, there is a reference to a sauce called "fish sauce": "No need to cut." Remove the scales, wash them, wipe them dry, cut them like a broken strand, and remove the bones. A large rate of adult fish a bucket, with three liters of yellow clothing, one liter of full use, two liters as the end. Two liters of white salt, yellow salt is bitter. One liter of dried ginger, the end. The orange peel is combined and the wisps are cut. And order to be evenly adjusted, in the inner urn, mud sealed, daily exposure. Do not leak air. Cooked with good wine to solve it. ”
Roughly speaking, raw fish is used to wash the scales, remove the bones and add salt, and seal the fermentation. This kind of fresh fish does not go to the guts, salted in a yard, and the method of taking its marinade juice is the same as the traditional fish sauce method, but it was called fish sauce at that time. Jia Sixun also quoted the method of making fish sauce with wine in Cui Hao's "Food Classic", using wine to help fermentation, which can be eaten in one day. Although Cui Hao's "Food Classic" has long been lost, it can be seen from this that the emergence of the fish sauce preparation method was earlier than the Northern Wei Dynasty where Jia Sixun was located. And Jia Sixun also mentioned the legend of the origin of fish sauce, believing that it was a sauce making process found by local fishermen by chance when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was on the seashore, if the record is true, then the birth of fish sauce is at least more than two thousand years ago.
In Yang Jian's article "Analysis of Fish Sauce Processing in the Qi Min Zhi Shu", the similarities and differences of different methods in the fish sauce method are also compared in detail, and the use of marine fish as raw materials is often used, and it is believed that this practice has been very mature in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and it is a sauce making process that has been inherited from the Han Dynasty and developed by leaps and bounds. Hong Guang, who lived in the article "A Preliminary Study on the Origin of Fish Sauce in China", mentioned that the origin of fish sauce can be traced back to at least the fish sauce of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but the earlier origin may be the fish sauce of the Han Dynasty 2000 years ago, which is also the sauce produced during the marinating process of fish fish (that is, bad fish).
As for when the fish sauce process entered Chaoshan Province, there is no exact historical record of this. The fish sauce recorded in the "Qiming Technique" is mainly a reflection of the situation of the coastal fishery in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River at that time. As Huang Ting said in the "History of Chaoshan", most of the ancestors of Chaoshan entered Fujian from the north and then moved from Fujian to Chaoshan, whether fish sauce is also the same transmission path, there is no accurate historical data to study. However, from the word "醢" of fish, we can get a glimpse of one or two. In ancient times, it represented the meaning of meat sauce and fish sauce, and many seafood pickled products in Chaoshan still have the word "醢", such as Qianluo, Houyou and so on. Perhaps earlier, when the Han people entered Chaoshan, they brought the practice of "醢" to Chaoshan and slowly spread and evolved in this land, and even titles and Chinese characters were also handed down together.
The modern fish sauce preparation method basically follows the production process of more than a thousand years ago, but the seasoning may change slightly, generally only using fish and shrimp and other seafood, salting can be used, without adding other seasoning ingredients such as ginger. Now after the fermentation of fish sauce, after the soup will also add sterilization and testing and other steps, with the help of modern scientific techniques and processes, to further reduce the uncontrollable factors brought about by the fermentation process of fish sauce.
= Effect of fish sauce on other cuisines =
When it comes to fish sauce, many people think of Southeast Asian cuisine. Indeed, at present, in addition to the southeast coast of the country, it is difficult to see the figure of fish sauce in many places. Southeast Asia is still very popular, even like Vietnamese cuisine, it can be said that there is no fish sauce can not be a dish, and it is not an exaggeration to say that fish sauce is the cornerstone of Vietnamese cuisine.
At present, most of the fish sauce that can be bought in major supermarkets is also Southeast Asian fish sauce, especially thai fish sauce. It is precisely because of the fame of Southeast Asian fish sauce, and China's modern times has always been called fish sauce fish sauce, even before the Qing Dynasty can not find the word "fish sauce", so some people mistakenly think that China's fish sauce is from Southeast Asia. However, from the time of invention of fish sauce and fish sauce in China, there is almost no such possibility.
Southeast Asian fish sauce used the longest time is Vietnam, and since the Qin to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, northern Vietnam has been China's Baiyue, until the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period to become independent, and if Vietnam had used fish sauce at that time and introduced to China, then the "Qi Min Zhi Shu" will not write the legend that Emperor Wudi of Han destroyed the seashore and found fish sauce, after all, it was the South Vietnamese State that Emperor Wudi destroyed the South Vietnamese State, although the territory of the South VietnamEse State included Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and northern Vietnam. However, Emperor Wudi's army only reached Panyu Chengxia (now Guangzhou), the capital of the South Vietnamese state, and the South Vietnamese state as a whole became a vassal state of the Han Dynasty, so Emperor Wudi of Han did not go so far directly to Vietnam.
As for why there is fish sauce in Vietnam? According to the "Food Linguistics", it is more likely that after the conquest of South Vietnam by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the original Baiyue people gradually retreated to Southeast Asia, resulting in the spread of fish sauce to Southeast Asia.
However, the end point of fish sauce spread is far farther than in Southeast Asia. In The Linguistics of Food, the author explains why ketchup is written as "tomato ketchup."
He believes that the original meaning of ketchup is fish sauce in southern China, tchup is the pronunciation of "juice" in the Hokkien language, and ke is the meaning of "pickled fish" in the Hokkien language. I tried to read it myself, and I felt that the pronunciation of ke-tchup is indeed very close to the pronunciation of "fish juice" in Chaoshan dialect, and Chaoshan dialect belongs to a branch of the Hokkien language family, so this statement is not out of thin air.
This fish sauce, called ketchup, was brought to Southeast Asia from Quanzhou, Fujian Province, and then sold by the British to the hinterland of Europe, and became an expensive condiment. Over the next four hundred years, fish sauce was imitated and slowly evolved, from the initial use of fish and mushrooms to ferment together, to later no longer use fish, directly fermented with English mushrooms, and even with the addition of walnuts. Fish sauce, a Chinese seasoning, went further and further down the road of imitation after setting foot in Europe, evolving into many different recipes of ke-tchup.
In the 19th century, South American tomatoes were introduced to Europe, and tomatoes were also added to the recipe, and anchovies were added to the original ketchup method, which can also be seen from here. In the mid-to-late 19th century, anchovies no longer appeared in ketchup recipes. Ketchup became the most popular recipe of all counterfeit ketchup, and later, ketchup was introduced to the United States with more sugar added, and then exported to Hong Kong and around the world, evolving all the way. Heinz, as a ketchup giant, has also always used the word "ketchup", so most of the ketchup we see now still say "tomato ketchup".
The predecessor of fish sauce, the fish fish mentioned above, spread in another direction and became the masterpiece of today's Japanese cuisine - sushi.
According to Masakatsu Miyazaki in "The Story of Cooking", sushi in Japanese originally meant "sour", which was originally not added to rice, but salted fish, shellfish, meat and other salted food after pressure, and then fermented to produce sour food, the purpose of which is to preserve food through fermentation, which is basically the same as the practice of Han Dynasty fish fish.
By the middle of the Heian period, around the 9th century AD, the sushi prescribed in the "Yanki style" as a nagong had been further improved, using a method of fermenting fish and meat with salt and adding it to the middle of rice, called cooked sushi. But this kind of sushi, fermented rice is discarded and not eaten.
In the Muromachi period, it evolved to reduce the fermentation time of rice, and when the rice was slightly sour, it was taken out and eaten with shellfish and fish.
This way of eating is different from the previous cooked sushi, so it is called "raw and cooked", and the sushi we eat now is derived from this "raw and cooked" method. Now in traditional Japanese sushi, some fish will still use their own enzymes to mature, in order to soften the meat and enhance the flavor, for example, tuna will often be about ten days to mature, which is why in "Sushi God", Jiro said to a piece of raw tuna, "not cooked enough".
The Kanji for "鲊" is also synonymous with "鮨", which in Chinese originally meant fish that was fermented sour by salt and rice, and now "bass" is directly the meaning of sushi in Japan.
Fish sauce, which originated from China's Han Dynasty fish and fish sauce, at different times, in different ways, respectively to East Asia, South Asia and other directions spread, after a circle, after a thousand years into the homeland again, but it has long been a different look.
= What is Good Fish Sauce? =
Fish sauce, like other fermented sauce sauce, the focus is on "fresh", its main ingredient is delicious amino acids, including glutamic acid, aspartic acid, threonine and other fresh substances, of course, also includes a variety of other complex flavor substances, Shimoda M to Taiwan fish sauce as a sample, from the fish sauce analysis of 124 volatile flavor substances, including nitrogen, sulfur, alcohol, ketones, aromatic carbohydrates and so on. It is precisely because the flavor of fish sauce is complex and delicious, so the Chaoshan people who are eager for freshness will be so partial to this sauce.
But there are too many fish sauces on the market, from the choice of raw materials to the fermentation process, it is not the same.
The first is the material. Earlier we mentioned that fish sauce can be fermented with fish meat with offal, so naturally some manufacturers will use miscellaneous fish that cannot afford to sell, and may even use discarded fish offal and scraps, all kinds of fish and fish offal are fermented together, and then through the later defishing treatment. This is also the reason why a large bottle of fish sauce consumes a lot of fish feed fermentation, and the final price is not expensive.
And good fish sauce, as described in the "Qi Min Zhi Shu", should be used to remove the scales and then fermented, and even should be divided into categories, different fish fermented separately, which is why Jia Sixun wrote a sentence at the beginning of the fish sauce "carp, mackerel is the first good; the fish is also in the middle." Mackerel and mackerel are all made without cutting. Although the fishery was not as developed as it is now, and there were not many fish available, it can be seen from this description that the quality of fish made from different catches is also different.
The second is the process. Fish sauce production, generally including pickling self-dissolving, sun and night dew, filtration, drying, post-fermentation and sterilization and other steps, of which the temperature of fermentation, the amount of salt, whether to add acid to dissolve and the number of days of fermentation, are closely related to the final flavor.
In Sun Meiqin's "Research on the Flavor and Rapid Fermentation Process of Fish Sauce", it is mentioned that the volatile fatty acids produced by microorganisms decomposing fish proteins in the fermentation process of fish sauce are the most important flavor components of fish sauce. Therefore, the fermentation process is also an important factor in determining the flavor of fish sauce.
Traditional fish sauce fermentation process, fermentation time to more than two or three years, like the southeast coast of the fish sauce production, generally using the traditional high-salt natural fermentation, this way of fermentation of fish sauce, because the fermentation is slow, fresh substances and flavor substances are more abundant, and salt and glutamic acid will be combined to become sodium glutamate, so it has a more natural umami taste. On the other hand, high salt also inhibits the growth of bacteria, so the ammonia nitrogen produced is very low, which can effectively avoid the unpleasant ammonia odor of fish sauce. But at the same time, salt also inhibits the viability of proteases, so the fermentation time is long and the production cost is high.
In order to reduce costs, a variety of ways to make fish sauce quickly were born. In the article "Research on the Rapid Fermentation Process of Fish Sauce" by Huang Zhibin and others, a variety of fish sauce production methods are mentioned, and like Japan and Southeast Asia, the salinity is slightly lower, and some fish sauce factories will use potassium nitrate or nitro chloroform and other strong acids, first hydrolyzed the fish protein for rapid fermentation, but the disadvantage is the lack of natural flavor of fish sauce, so it is necessary to add additional starch and amylase to ferment together to increase the aroma of fish sauce. A good fish sauce should try to use the enzymes of the fish itself for natural fermentation, without adding additional hydrolysates, so that the production can have the special flavor that fish sauce should have.
That is to say, from the perspective of the production process, under the appropriate amount of salt (generally 10%-30%), the higher the salinity, the stronger the flavor of fish sauce; the longer the salting time of raw materials, the stronger the flavor of fish sauce.
In general, the first fish sauce stock solution is the best quality and the most precious.
How did the low-priced and naturally fermented fish sauce come about? Generally, after natural fermentation, after filtering several fish sauces, the remaining fish is coated and then steamed with salt water and then filtered. However, because it is the rest of the material reprocessed and filtered, the color of the fish sauce is not deep enough, and the umami taste is not enough, so it is necessary to further blend the caramel pigment and sodium glutamate, so that the color looks deep enough, but the flavor is far away.
Although it is difficult for consumers to penetrate into the production link, it is also difficult to deduce from the fish sauce that they finally get their hands on, to push back what fish feed the manufacturer uses, and what process is used, but through the ingredient list, we can still get a glimpse or two.
Naturally fermented high-quality fish sauce will have a natural ochre red color and a strong umami taste, so there is no need to add caramel pigments, nor do you need to add fresh substances such as sodium glutamate. If it is a fish sauce that is steamed from the tailstock, the general color and umami taste are insufficient, so it is necessary to add additional caramel color and sodium glutamate. Under high temperature cooking, sodium glutamate will become sodium pyroglutamate that does not have an umami taste, due to MSG fish sauce, umami is very dependent on the added sodium glutamate, so the umami taste will be greatly reduced, and naturally fermented fish sauce, in addition to sodium glutamate, there are more than a dozen rich fresh substances, so the flavor can still be well preserved.
In addition, fish sauce, like soy sauce, can be judged by the level of "amino acid nitrogen" content. Like the standard of soy sauce, it can be divided into four grades of special, first, second, and third grades, and its amino acid nitrogen content is ≥0.8, ≥ 0.7, ≥ 0.55, ≥ 0.4g/100ml, the higher the amino acid nitrogen, the higher the amino acid content in the soy sauce, the better the umami taste. According to the national SB/T 10324-1999 standard, the amino acid nitrogen of first-class fish sauce should be more than 0.9g/100ml.
In addition to the objective parameters of looking at the ingredient list, if you have a sensitive sense of smell and taste, you can also buy several fish sauces to experience separately. High-quality fish sauce will have a meat flavor on the smell, including cheese flavor, meat flavor and slight ammonia taste, and because it is high-salt long-term fermentation, the ammonia flavor will be well suppressed, so it will not have a spoiled and fishy smell. On the contrary, accelerated fermentation generally uses low-salt methods for rapid fermentation, and it is easy to have ammonia odor or stinky foot odor if it is not well grasped. In terms of taste, high-quality fish sauce is rich in fresh substances, not like fish sauce mixed with MSG, although the umami taste is also very strong, but it is relatively thin.
Finally, it is up to the factory. Like I am used to Chaoshan fish sauce, less than the last resort generally do not buy fish sauce from Southeast Asia, Chaoshan fish sauce has always been exported with high-quality fish sauce, but these years have declined, it is difficult to buy good Chaoshan fish sauce in channels outside the local area, and even locally bought, it is inevitable to add caramel color and sodium glutamate, about this is indeed a pity.
One of the most famous production areas of Chaoshan fish sauce is Waipu in Chenghai, before liberation, a small Waipu Township had nine long-established fish sauce factories such as Tongmao and Chengji.
After liberation, the Chenghai Fish Sauce Factory, which was merged into a public-private partnership, consumed 80,000 quintals of live fish raw materials per year, and there were many varieties.
Chenghai Fish Sauce Factory not only exports products to the outside world, but also exports technology to the outside world, and employees have been hired to Raoping Gargolin, Fujian Tongshan, Huiyang Aotou and other places as technical consultants. It can be said that the Chenghai Fish Sauce Factory at that time was a rich stroke in the history of the development of Chaoshan Fish Sauce.
Later, in the early 1980s, it was re-spun off and privatized, and the scale of production after the spin-off was gradually reduced, and some manufacturers who still have feelings are still insisting on production, but it is said that the scale of production is less than one percent of that year.
The fish sauce I'm currently using is a brand called Hatsumi that I recently learned from a friend.
At first, I only thought that this brand name was very flattering, the pronunciation of fish sauce in Chaoshan dialect was the same, and it also had the meaning of the first original soup fish sauce. Later, I learned that this brand was purchased from the original Part of the Waipu Fish Sauce Factory for production, but not many people knew about it at present, and it had just begun to be produced, because the ancient legal law took several years, so the output was not high. Before I used it, there was only a micro-business channel, and now finally Jingdong has to buy it.
I rarely use the word "most" in general reviews of food, but this is not an exaggeration to say that it may be the best fish sauce I have tasted so far. Because fish sauce does not have so much to choose from like soy sauce, especially after leaving Chaoshan, whether offline or online channels, there are few optional brands left, and many of them are fish sauce with MSG. The first soup of this kind of non-mixed monosodium glutamate, amino acid nitrogen can reach more than 1g / 100ml of fish sauce, is even more rare, compared with many previously used fish sauce brands, may be more than three streets.
Later, it is said that they also sent a batch to Cai Lan to taste, it is estimated that they also feel that the flavor is excellent, so the big guy not only mentioned the word, but also customized a batch of fish sauce to his shop.
= Use of fish sauce in shiochew =
There are many places where fish sauce is used in Chaoshi cuisine, although it is not a unique favorite, but the influence of fish sauce is also in all aspects, in the Chaoshan hotel, you can leave the soy sauce, but absolutely inseparable from the fish sauce, because no matter whether it is boiled and stewed, it is almost necessary to use it.
For example, stir-fry, the essence of Chaoshan stir-fried kale is "fierce fire, houjiao, fragrant first soup", the first soup is the meaning of chaoshan fish sauce, the quality of fish sauce, is one of the key factors that determine the success or failure of fried kale.
Speaking of Teochew brine, fish sauce is also indispensable and is one of the important materials to cooperate with soy sauce and other brines. And this long-term repeated stewing of the halogen process, if the use of added sodium glutamate fish sauce, brine once or twice, the fresh sodium glutamate will become no taste of sodium pyroglutamate, umami is gone.
There are also the most common boiled, Chaoshan soup gouache noodles, such as the most famous koji, the bottom of the bowl for the soup must be a spoonful of fish sauce, and then pour into the kon strips, and finally spread with meat, seafood and other ingredients, if less than this spoonful of fish sauce, the flavor is greatly reduced, and it can even be said that it cannot be called Chaoshan kway teow.
Similarly, boiling Chaoshan casserole porridge is generally seasoned with fish sauce, which, like winter vegetables, is an indispensable condiment for casserole porridge.
There is also direct as a dipping sauce, like the famous oyster sauce of Chaoshan Province, the table must be accompanied by a dish of fish sauce, which belongs to the designated CP, not dipped in the oyster sauce, although fragrant but insufficient umami, together is the most reliable way to eat.
There are many more uses of fish sauce, sometimes Chaoshan raw pickling in order to pickle will also add some fish sauce together to marinate, fried rice and finally add a spoonful of freshness.
It can be said that as long as it is fresh, in Chaoshan there is a high probability that fish sauce will be used, sometimes a simple small stir-fry, add a little fish sauce, you can make the taste instantly enriched, the simplest contrast is fried kale, interested everyone can try it separately.
= Conclusion =
Today's article is a bit long, mainly because the history of fish sauce in China is very long, and at the same time because of the international trade in the Middle Ages, fish sauce from China to the world, directly or indirectly affecting other cuisines, so as soon as the story unfolds, it cannot be contained.
For the above origins and histories, I am afraid that few people know, and even many people think that fish sauce is an imported product from Southeast Asia to our country. Therefore, I also feel that it is necessary to borrow this article to let everyone re-understand the ancient taste of Chinese traditions that have crossed the millennium and influenced the world.
And I also hope that these factories, which still adhere to traditional craftsmanship, can be known to more people, rather than being on the verge of being lost in the expulsion of good money from bad money. Maybe as an amateur food lover, I can do a little bit of it.
bibliography
1.Shimoda M, And R RP, Osajima Y. Headspace Gas Analysis of Fish Sauce[J]. J.agric.food Chem, 1996,44(11):3601-3605.
2. Ren Shaotang . Food Linguistics[M]. Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 2017
3. Masakatsu Miyazaki . The Story of Cooking[M]. Chongqing University Press, 2017
4.Yang Jian. Analysis on fish sauce processing in Qi Min Zhi Shu[J]. Journal of Nanning Vocational and Technical College, 2011, 16(1):6-8.
5.Hong Guangzhu. A preliminary study on the origin of fish sauce in China[J]. Chinese Brewing, 1983, 2(3):33+45-47.
6. Gan Hui. Preparation Methods of Several Common Traditional Aquatic Seasonings[J]. Scientific Fish Farming, 2014(6):76-77.
7. Sun Meiqin. Study on flavor and rapid fermentation process of fish sauce[J]. Modern Food Science and Technology, 2006, 22(4):280-283.
8.HUANG Zhibin,XU Xuancheng,YANG Yunzhuang. Study on the rapid fermentation process of fish sauce: The effect of low-salt insulation fermentation[J].Journal of Fisheries Sciences,1980, 4(2):141-146.
9. Zhang Xuehua, Chen Yourong, Qi Fenglan, et al. Research status of fish sauce fermentation technology[J]. Journal of Shanghai Ocean University, 2000, 9(4):355-358.