Fish Sauce - Introduction
Bottled Sauces

"Fish Sauce" is called for in many recipes on this site, from all over Southeast Asian and a few from China and the Roman Empire. This page is a quick introduction for persons unsure what the product is. It is completely impossible to reproduce the true flavor of ethnic cuisines that use fish sauce without using fish sauce. "Fish sauce is God stuff" - actual quote from a West Virginia man introduced to fish sauce by a college roommate.

The Fish Sauce we are dealing with here is a perfectly clear dark amber liquid with no sediment or cloudiness. It has a distinct aroma of fish but this aroma is generally not noticeable after incorporation into a recipe.

Vegetarians:   You will find many Southeast Asian recipes that are entirely vegetarian except for fish sauce. If you reject all seafood products, the closest you can get with pre-prepared ingredients is Thai Yellow Bean Sauce (use the ugly brown one). Bottled "vegetarian fish sauces" are sometimes available in markets serving a Vietnames (but not Thai) community, but they are pretty awful. Our recipe Vegetarian Fish Sauce gives better results. If the end product is supposed to be clear, you'll have to use plain salt.and water.

For much more on the many kinds of fish sauces made, see our main Fish Sauce page.


Buying:   Fish sauce will be found in all markets that serve a Southeast Asian community, and there will probably be many brands. In general, the premium versions will be in glass bottles and the "everyday" brands in plastic bottles (right front and back left in the photo). Persons who are unfamiliar with fish sauce may detect little difference.
  • Thai Kitchen (front left in photo) is the one brand that can now be found in many regular supermarkets, nation-wide. It's of good quality but a bit high priced if you use a lot of fish sauce.
  • Squid Brand:   This is a highly thought of brand and the one I use on practically a daily basis (back center in photo). I see this brand in smaller plastic bottles in one of the Philippine markets, but everywhere else it's 1 liter in glass. It is slightly lighter than the average Thai fish sauce so is also perfect for Vietnamese cooking. The one problem is it comes with a "shaker" cap and I want to pour, so I use a utility knife to cut the hole bigger.
  • Three Crabs Brand:   This sauce has a cult following among the gourmet set. It's "fermented in Thailand", but I'm a bit suspicious about what "processed in Hong Kong" means (lead added?), and what are fructose and hydrolized wheat protein (a weasel word synonym for MSG) doing in Fish Sauce? There are several other brands with the exact same fine print coming from the same factory.
  • Thai Fish Sauce:   Most of the brands you will find in markets are of Thai manufacture. Thailand has been the center of fish sauce production since the fall of the Roman Empire (in Roman times it was Spain).
  • Vietnamese Fish Sauce is essentially interchangeable with Thai fish sauce - on average a little lighter but similar to Squid brand.
  • Philippine Fish Sauces (Patis - back right in photo) are considered of lesser quality because they are usually made from a mix of fish types and as a byproduct of making sauces from the sludge left in the tanks. For Thai and Vietnamese fish sauce only anchovies are used and it is the sludge sauces that are the byproduct.
  • Vegetarian Fish Sauce is available in some markets serving a Vietnamese community (Vietnames Buddhism is stricter than Thai). It is not clear and most is pretty awful (see notes in the header paragraph above).

Storing:   Fish sauce, tightly capped and kept in a cool place out of direct sunlight, can be kept at room temperature. The contents of an open bottle with quite a bit of air in it will darken somewhat over a few months but it does not spoil.

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