fermented fish products, and Europeans a handful These include the original sushi, which was not a pristinely fresh piece of fish on mildly vinegared rice! Here I’ll describe some of the more common ones Asian Fish Pastes and Sauces Asian fermented fish pastes and sauces are vital manifestations of a preparation that has mostly disappeared in Europe but was once well known as garum or liquamen, the fish sauce of Rome (see box, p 235) (Modern ketchup, a sweet-sour tomato condiment, owes its name to kecap, an Indonesian salty fish condiment.) Fish sauces play the same role that soy sauces in regions where soy doesn’t grow well, and were probably the original model for soy sauce Fish pastes and sauces are two phases of the same simple preparation A mass of fish or shellfish is mixed with salt to give an overall salt concentration between 10% and 30%, and sealed in a closed container for from one month (for pastes) to 24 months (for sauces) Fish pastes tend to have relatively strong fish and cheese notes, while the more thoroughly transformed fish sauces are more meaty and savory The most prized fish sauces come from the first tapping of the mass; after boiling, flavoring, and/or aging, they play the lead role in dipping sauces Second-quality sauces from re-extraction of the mass may be supplemented with caramel, molasses, or roasted rice, and are used in cooking to add depth to the flavor of a complex dish Sour Fish: The Original Sushi and Gravlax There are remarkable parallel traditions in Asia and Scandinavia in which fish are stored with carbohydrate-rich foods that bacteria ferment to produce acids that preserve the fish These traditions have given birth to more widely popular but unfermented preparations: sushi and gravlax ...30%, and sealed in a closed container for from one month (for pastes) to 24 months (for sauces) Fish pastes tend to have relatively strong fish and cheese notes, while the more thoroughly transformed fish sauces are more... thoroughly transformed fish sauces are more meaty and savory The most prized fish sauces come from the first tapping of the mass; after boiling, flavoring, and/ or aging, they play the lead role in dipping sauces Second-quality sauces from re-extraction of the mass may be... sauces from re-extraction of the mass may be supplemented with caramel, molasses, or roasted rice, and are used in cooking to add depth to the flavor of a complex dish Sour Fish: The Original Sushi and Gravlax There