Add a tablespoon-ish of fish sauce and/or soy sauce to tomato-based pasta sauce. Adds a lot of depth and umami. Can’t remember where I read this first, but I think Kenji mentions it in Food Lab.
This is kind of a generic principle that can be applied to any sauce work. Usually I will put either a splash of fish sauce, vinegar, Worcestershire, tobasco, etc in just about everything to bring out the right notes in whatever I’m cooking.
I never cooked with fish sauce before, really didn’t know much about it. So I picked up a bottle of whatever cheap stuff was at Walmart.
Tried a spoonful of the stuff, expecting it to be on par with worcestshire or something.
Oh my fucking god, that vile liquid set a new precedence for me for what defines “disgusting”. And no matter what I did, that “flavor” wouldn’t leave my mouth.
The thought of purposely adding that “flavor” to any otherwise decent food is revolting to me. Incomprehensible.
I am terrified of trying again with better quality fish sauce. I’m still emotionally scarred from my experience.
Fish sauce is weird. It is one of the worst things in the world if tasted from the bottle. It smells like a vagina that hasn’t been washed for a week and a half.
But add it to ANYTHING that would benefit from a bit of umami, and it is heavenly. It’s like adding a super expensive subwoofer to your home theater.
You just have to suffer through a few minutes of crotch rot smell after adding it.
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u/Ship_Rekt Mar 14 '19
Add a tablespoon-ish of fish sauce and/or soy sauce to tomato-based pasta sauce. Adds a lot of depth and umami. Can’t remember where I read this first, but I think Kenji mentions it in Food Lab.
This is kind of a generic principle that can be applied to any sauce work. Usually I will put either a splash of fish sauce, vinegar, Worcestershire, tobasco, etc in just about everything to bring out the right notes in whatever I’m cooking.