If fish sauce has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 301 recipes to try it in.

What is fish sauce?

Fish sauce is the salty, savory backbone of Southeast Asian cooking. It is made by packing small fish, usually anchovies, with salt and letting them ferment for months to a couple of years, then drawing off the amber liquid that results.

What you get is concentrated umami in a bottle. A teaspoon adds the deep, almost meaty savoriness that makes a Thai curry or a dipping sauce taste finished rather than flat, and it does it without tasting "fishy" once it is cooked into a dish.

It is sharp on its own. The smell straight from the bottle is strong. In the pan it settles into pure savoriness.

How to Use Fish Sauce

Think of it as a salt that also brings depth. It seasons and adds umami at the same time, which is why it turns up across curries, soups, stir-fries and dressings, not just one of them.

It is the defining note in a Thai Toam Yum Gai (Thai Soup) and the seasoning that carries a Green Chicken Curry with Eggplant. Cut with lime juice, sugar, garlic and chili it becomes nuoc cham, the dipping sauce that lifts the Mahogany Chicken Wings with Green Papaya Salad.

How much? Start small. A teaspoon for a pot of soup or curry, then taste and build. A whole tablespoon vanishes into a dish for four, but it is far easier to add more than to pull back an over-salted pot.

Add it during cooking, not at the very end, so the raw edge cooks off. The exception is dipping sauces, where you want its full punch raw.

Pairing and a Word of Caution

Fish sauce loves lime, chili, garlic, palm sugar, cilantro, and coconut milk. That combination is the heart of Thai and Vietnamese flavor.

A few drops also deepen things outside Asian cooking. It disappears into a tomato sauce, a beef stew or a Caesar dressing, standing in for anchovies without anyone naming it.

The real caution is salt. Fish sauce is intensely salty, so when you add it, cut back the other salt in the recipe and taste before adding any more. Doubling the fish sauce to boost flavor usually just makes the dish too salty.

One more: it is not vegetarian, and it contains fish, a common allergen. Always flag it when you cook for others.

Substitutes

There is no exact swap, but you can get close. Soy sauce or tamari covers the salt and some of the depth; it lacks the fishy funk, so add a tiny squeeze of lime to lift it. Use a little less, since both are salty.

For a closer match, mash an anchovy fillet or two into the dish, or use a splash of the oil from an anchovy tin, then add soy sauce for the salt. Worcestershire sauce, which is itself anchovy-based, works in a pinch in non-Asian dishes.

Vegetarian fish sauce made from seaweed and mushrooms is the best plant-based option and is sold in most Asian groceries.

Buying and Storing

Read the ingredient list. The best bottles list only anchovies (or another fish) and salt, sometimes a little sugar; brands like Red Boat, Three Crabs and Squid are reliable. Skip anything padded out with hydrolyzed protein and lots of additives, which tastes thinner.

A higher protein number on the label, often shown in grams of nitrogen, signals a richer, first-press sauce.

Store it in a cool, dark cupboard. It keeps for years thanks to the salt, though the flavor and color deepen over time.

Refrigerating after opening slows that change and keeps the brightest flavor, but it is optional. Do not worry if salt crystals form at the neck of the bottle; that is normal.

Nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find fish sauce: Fish sauce is usually found in the asian section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Fish sauce is a member of the Soups, Sauces, and Gravies US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese

鱼露

British (UK) term

Fish sauce

en français

sauce de poisson

en español

salsa de pescado

How much does fish sauce weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 tbsp	18 grams
1 fl oz	28 grams

Related

Soups, Sauces, and Gravies

Recipes using fish sauce

There are 301 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 301 recipes

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