anchovy paste

Europe, in the waters of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the warm eastern Atlantic, where Engraulis encrasicolus, the anchovy of culinary renown, is caught; eaten for centuries mostly salted, sold from barrels

Potted with heavy spice as Gentleman's Relish, Patum Peperium, Latin for pepper paste, invented in Paris in 1828 by an expatriate, John Osborn, shown at the Paris food shows of 1849 and 1855 and still made in England; now more familiar as canned fillets, while on the coast of Salerno the liquid of anchovies fermented in salt, colatura di alici di Cetara, protected in the European Union since 2020, seasons pasta

The anchovy is used for what it does to other food: Davidson has the canned fillets giving a distinctive, salty flavour to many dishes, and Neil Buttery has Gentleman's Relish, used very sparingly, seasoning lamb stews and scrambled eggs. Fermented in salt, the same fish gives the colatura of Cetara, which its registration calls umami, strong and very flavoursome, a seasoning and sauce for pasta, and Davidson notes that the fish sauces of Southeast Asia, which may themselves be made from anchovies, give the daily diet there the taste the anchovy gives Europe. What this means is that the anchovy is wanted most as a seasoning, whatever form it is kept in.