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Anchovies, Essence Of
Clean and remove the bones from one pound of anchovies, beat them into a pulp, and pass the soft portion through a sieve, so as to separate the flesh from any small bones, etc. Put those parts of the pulp that will not pass through the sieve into a pan with the bones, and simmer them, with the liquor in which they have been pickled, a blade, of mace, a little cayenne pepper, a heaped tea-spoonful of salt, and a pint of water, for twenty minutes, and strain. Now add the soft portion of the anchovies that passed through the sieve. Boil all together at a moderate heat for a few minutes. Then take the vessel from the fire, and add a quarter of a pint of strong vinegar. Essence of anchovies should be kept in small bottles, with the corks covered with bladder, and sealed to render them airtight. Probable cost, 4s.
This is a Victorian store-cupboard preserve: a concentrated anchovy sauce bottled and sealed for months of use. The cooking is straightforward, but the keeping method is where it fails by current standards.
- Why it is unsafe as writtenThe finished essence is a low-acid, protein-rich fish purée sealed airtight in bottles and stored at room temperature, with no heat processing beyond a few minutes' simmer and no measured acidity. That is the classic set of conditions for Clostridium botulinum, which thrives without oxygen and is not killed by simmering. Use a current, tested recipe if you want a shelf-stable anchovy sauce.
- The salt is diluted awaySalted anchovies keep because their salt concentration is hostile to bacteria. Adding a pint of water and only a heaped teaspoon of salt drops that protection sharply, and a quarter-pint of vinegar added off the heat cannot be relied on to acidify the whole batch to a safe pH.
- The bladder sealCorks covered with bladder and then sealed were a standard airtight closure before reliable screw caps. Airtight is exactly the wrong thing here — it creates the oxygen-free environment botulinum spores need, without the pressure processing that would destroy them.
- The anchovies meantNot tinned fillets in oil. These are whole salt-cured anchovies from a barrel or crock, sold in their own brine — the "liquor in which they have been pickled" that goes into the pan. Salt-packed anchovies are still sold by Italian and Spanish grocers.
- A blade of maceOne whole piece of the lacy aril that surrounds a nutmeg, perhaps a quarter-teaspoon once ground. It was a common fish-sauce spice of the period.
- Quarter of a pintAn imperial quarter-pint is 5 fl oz, about 142 ml — a little more than the 4 fl oz an American reader would assume. The pint of water is likewise 20 fl oz.
- Probable cost, 4s.Four shillings was a substantial outlay. Anchovy essence was a luxury flavouring bought by the bottle.
Essence of anchovies was one of the great Victorian bottled flavourings, spooned into fish sauces, beef gravies, devilled dishes and savoury butters wherever a cook wanted depth without announcing fish. Commercial versions were sold from the late eighteenth century onward, and the taste for them sits in a long line of fermented and salted fish condiments running back through medieval sauces to Roman garum — a lineage often invoked, though the direct descent is more culinary habit than unbroken tradition. Cassell's includes it among the fundamentals because a well-run kitchen of the 1870s was expected to manufacture its own stores: essences, ketchups, forcemeats and pickles were made in quantity when ingredients were cheap and kept on the shelf, which is precisely why the recipe ends with instructions on corking and sealing rather than on serving.