How to Store Leftover Anchovies

Unless you're making Jansson's Temptation your recipe probably only calls for one or two anchovy fillets, and you will end up with a lot of leftovers.

You can use any of the following storage techniques.

Cover with salt

Cover the leftover anchovies with kosher salt and refrigerate in an airtight container. When you're ready to use them, you will need to brush off, rinse and pat the fillets dry.

Cover with oil

Cover the fillets with extra-virgin olive oil, seal in an airtight container and refrigerate.

Freezing Anchovies

Roll each anchovy fillet into a coil, onto a plate and pop it into your freezer. Once frozen solid, transfer them to a zipper bag, seal and store in the freezer.

What's the best way?

When the fillets are stored covered in salt, you will need to rinse them adequately, or they will be much too salty. Unfortunately, as you rinse off the salt, you will also rinse away much of the flavour.

Storing in oil is a hassle. The olive oil tends to congeal when refrigerated which makes a mess digging on the fillets. Not to mention blotting off excess oil which wastes a paper towel and is just another step.

Frozen and thawed anchovies taste as good as fresh fillets, and they are a breeze to handle and chop and keep the mess to a minimum.

So the next time you find yourself with leftover anchovy fillets, freezing is the way to go.

For more information about anchovies including nutrition data see: Anchovy fillets