Spice Road Spices - The Art of Flavour You can see why Anchovies appeal to the Italian Sicilians. Anchovies have been described as having a mysterious complexity. It rather fits these wonderful Island people, you would think.

Readers beyond Sicily are no doubt also aware that these tiny little fish fillets with their strong flavour structure will totally disappear into a dish without leaving any semblance of fish taste while delivering such a distinctive and mysterious flavour.

That's all very nice but if you were an Anchovy you would look for something more than being described as distinctive and mysterious. You would like an identity.

The Fifth Umami Taste

Thankfully, our culinary world provides such a place for ingredients possessing serious and unique flavour. It is called the fifth taste or better; Umami.

Having sorted all that we can now move on to a little of the history of this remarkable fish.

The ancient Romans created a recipe they called Garum that heavily features anchovies and salt. It continues today and preparing it is only for the brave.

Vietnamese cooking brings in anchovies with their Nuac Mom sauce. Try it if you have the chance. It is really good.

Try Patam Peperium

Or for a totally unique Anchovy derivative, the British Patam Peperium, a Gentleman's Paste dating back to 1823 is hard to beat.

Returning Anchovies to our Sunday Art of Flavour Post world, it should be noted when considering using Anchovies, those being sold in the better food stores or online are vastly superior to those found on commercial pizzas.