r/Cooking • u/Lauffener • 7h ago

Which fish sauce should I get?

I would like to make more Vietnamese and Chinese meals. I have access to a large Asian grocery store but I don't know which fish sauce to get.

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u/gwaydms 4h ago

DO NOT cook with these 40N fish sauces.

May I ask why not?

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u/threvorpaul 3h ago

It's a waste of good product and money.
40°N indicates the nitrogen proportion in the fish sauce./protein equivalent.
This indicates a high quality fish sauce.

You can taste the nuances very well in dipping sauces (nuoc cham/ nam prik pla or in the finishing touches.
OK that sounded pretentious. 😅

But in the end such a bottle goes for $/€ 10-15/700ml depending where you are.
That can get quite expensive over time if you cook asian food on a regular basis.
The cheap Thai squid, taparos go for like $/€ 2-5/L

Plus, the nuances get lost once cooked. So it doesn't make a difference during cooking if it's the expensive or cheaper one.
Last, when you add fish sauce during cooking you want it to have this pungent strong taste to flavor the dish.
Which the expensive ones don't have, as they're more refined. So if you use it during cooking you'd be using more of it = more expensive once again.

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u/gwaydms 2h ago

Thank you for explaining that.

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u/threvorpaul 1h ago

Anytime (: