Anchovies is a name given to approximately 140 species of small “forage fish.” This means they are foraged and eaten by larger fish, sea birds, and marine mammals. Today, anchovies are mostly canned whole, bones and all.  When cooked, they will almost completely dissolve, leaving only the flavor. I never realized the many ways you can use anchovies until I began reading through 1800s cookbooks.

INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

BUYING ANCHOVIES
These delicate fish are preserved in barrels with bay salt, and no other of the finny tribe has so fine a flavor. Choose those which look red and mellow, and the bones moist and oily. They should be high-flavored, and have a fine smell, but beware of their being mixed with red paint to improve their color and appearance. When the liquor dries, pour on them some beef brine, and keep the jar close tied down with paper and leather. Sprats are sometimes sold for anchovies, but by washing them the imposition may be detected.

FRIED ANCHOVIES
Mix one tablespoon oil and one-half glass white wine together with sufficient flour to make into a thickish paste. Cleanse twelve anchovies, wipe them, dip them in the paste, and fry of a nice brown color. Sufficient for two persons.

ANCHOVY SALAD
Take eight salted anchovies or twelve bottled anchovies. If salted anchovies are to be used, soak them in cold water two hours, then drain, dry, and remove skin and bones.  Divide the flesh into small pieces and squeeze the juice of half a small lemon over them. Boil four eggs and let them cool. When ready to serve, arrange lettuce leaves upon a serving dish, stalk ends at the center. Cut the eggs in slices, mix with the bits of anchovies, and arrange upon the lettuce. Pour a French or mayonnaise dressing over the salad.

ANCHOVY ESSENCE
Take two pounds anchovies, one ounce bay salt, three pints of spring water, half a gill* of red port, and one-half gill mushroom ketchup. Put all into a saucepan until the anchovies are all dissolved. Let them boil, strain off the liquor with a hair sieve,* and be careful not to cork it until it is quite cold.

*gill/jill – a liquid measurement; four ounces in the U.S. and five ounces in the U.K.

*hair sieve – a strainer with a wiry fabric bottom usually woven from horsehair.

ANCHOVY PASTE
Pound anchovies in a mortar, rub the pulp through a fine sieve, and put it in pots. Cover it with clarified butter and keep it in a cool place. The paste may also be made by rubbing the essence with as much flour as will make a paste, but this is only intended for immediate use and will not keep. Anchovy paste is sometimes made stiffer and hotter by the addition of a little mustard flour,* a pickled walnut, spice, or cayenne.

*mustard flour – dry mustard, ground mustard seed, or mustard seed powder

ANCHOVY POWDER
Pound the fish in a mortar and rub them through a sieve. Make them into a paste with dried flour, roll it into thin cakes, and dry them in a Dutch oven before a slow fire. To this may be added a small portion of cayenne, grated lemon peel, and citric acid. Pounded to a fine powder, and put into a well-stopped bottle, it will keep for years.

ANCHOVY BUTTER
Soak, bone, dry, and pound eight salted anchovies. Add twice their bulk of fresh butter. Mix thoroughly, press forcibly through a fine sieve, and add a little more butter and the juice of a lemon. Make into small pats and keep in a cold place.

ANCHOVY TOAST WITH SPINACH
Press cooked spinach, chopped fine, through a purée sieve. Reheat with a little butter, salt, and two or three drops of Tabasco sauce. Sauté rounds of bread to a golden brown in a little hot butter. Spread with anchovy paste, and over this spread the purée of spinach. Press into the spinach on each round of bread one-fourth of a hard-boiled egg cut lengthwise, having the yolk uppermost.

ANCHOVY AND EGG SANDWICHES
Mash the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs with two tablespoons melted butter or olive oil. Add one-half teaspoon salt, a dash of paprika, and a tablespoon of anchovy paste or two mashed anchovies. Spread this between thin slices of buttered bread, press the slices together, trim off the crusts and cut into triangles.

HARVEY’S SAUCE
Dissolve six anchovies in a pint of strong vinegar, then add to them three tablespoons of India soy, three tablespoons mushroom catchup, two heads of garlic bruised small, and one-fourth ounce of cayenne. Add sufficient cochineal* powder to color the mixture red. Let all these ingredients infuse in the vinegar for a fortnight,* shaking it every day, and then strain and bottle it for use. Let the bottles be small and cover the corks with leather.

*cochineal – a red dye for coloring foods made of the dried and pulverized bodies of female cochineal insects.

*fortnight – a period of two weeks.

DUTCH SAUCE
Take six fine anchovies well washed and picked and put them in a stew-pan. Add to them four teaspoons of vinegar, eight teaspoons of water, one large onion sliced, two or three blades of mace, and four or five cloves. Let this stand one hour before the sauce is wanted. Set the sauce on the stove and give it a boil up. Strain the liquor into a clean stew-pan, then add the yolks of four eggs well beaten, some good, thick melted butter, and one-half pint of very nice thick cream. Mix all these well together, put it on a slow fire. stir it till it boils, and season to your taste.

FISH SAUCE
Take twenty-four large anchovies, bones and all, ten or twelve shallots, a handful of horseradish, four blades of mace, one quart of any white wine, one pint of water, one lemon cut in slices, half a pint of anchovy liquor, one pint of claret, twelve cloves, and one-half  teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Boil them till reduced to a quart. Strain, and bottle the liquor. Two spoons will be sufficient to add to one pound of butter to make fish sauce.

Buy Anchovies in a variety of ways.