LOVE anchovies, but in small doses.

What about salt-cured anchovies? Favored by the Zuni Cafe cookbook, I bought a 1 kg can, and now am trying to find uses for them. Suggestions welcomed.

Thank god I married a man who loves anchovies too! We go through so many in our home that I skip the little tins and buy the huge glass jars of anchovies packed in oil.

I love what a little bit of anchovy flavor can do to a sauce or a salad. But when there's big pieces of them in my salad - that's too much for me.

The more anchovies, the merrier.

Don't put them in the Caesar salad???? I thought they were what made it so, so, delicious.

I'm with The Maiden Metallurgist - jars are the way to go! I use way more of them that way, and because I'm usually cooking for two I don't usually put a whole tin of anchovies into anything, so I can use these a few at a time and pop them in the fridge. Unfortunately they seem to be hard to find in regular grocery stores, though.

I don't eat them whole but I LOVE cooking with them - the more the merrier.

To EmilyS - I buy tins but put the spare anchovies in a small jar in the fridge covered with olive oil. They keep for months this way.

I really like them so they aren't a problem. I dont LOVE them on top of a salad but will eat them. However in sauces etc, they are AWESOME. Most people that claim to hate them never even know they are in there.

What's a good brand of anchovies to buy? I would welcome suggestions as its something my pantry doesn't currently have but needs :) Are the ones at TJ any good?

<3

I adore them in any shape, any form.

I want to love them but yuck. Maybe I'm just buying the wrong ones?

Cooked anchovies can be made more palatable. In fact, there are some things that I wouldn't do without it (like say, a puttanesca). They add a distinct salty, nutty flavor and isn't fishy at all. You just want to dice them and brown them in olive oil and they essentially disintegrate.

I love the flavor that anchovies can add when "hidden" in a dish, but I'm not a big fan of them on their own. My husband, on the other hand, is another member of the big-glass-jar-packed-in-oil-put-them-on-everything club. When we make pizza, we split the toppings down the middle. :)

Sardines, on the other hand, I love, even just straight out of the can. I know a lot of people who don't really know the difference between anchovies and sardines (or get them mixed up), and so just refuse to eat either. That's ok; more for me! :)

I love them. I was first introduced to them in a lemon dressing I made for roasted green beans. Mashed up anchovies, lemon zest, salt, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil. Drizzled over roasted green beans and toasted pine nuts...absolutely divine.

I've always wanted to cook w/ anchovies, but never really knew how. Do I pop the little guys into a blender and make a "paste"? Do I "prepare" them like a tiny fish and use the mini "filets" in my sauces, soups, stews etc? Are there bones? Eyes? Brains? What do I eat or not eat? Or do I eat the whole thing? Help!

I like them in things, but I don't like eating whole pieces of them. I think it's because I'm not a fan of the huge punch in your face of saltiness. For instance, I love anchovies in Caesar dressing, but not fillet atop a Caesar salad.

whats the general opinion of anchovy paste? I've only used it in caesar dressing, but it seems more usable to just use a little at a time from a tube than to open a whole tin. Is it a quality product?

I recently used anchovies in my cooking for the first time, making an Italian salsa verde to top fried haddock. Before that, I only had them topped on a pizza, which I found really unappealing, but the verde was so delicious that I used the leftovers on a rotisserie chicken the next night. Indeed, the fishy flavor seemed to have "melted" into the sauce, herbs taking center-stage. I'm excited to add the little filets into future dishes!

Like spaniard I need to say that I love it in olive oil in special for cantabria region, they are not too salty but are very tender and delicate. Even Spain is a country that can enjoy frsh fish from the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea canned food are widely consume due his high quality

I forgot to said anchovies traditionally, they are cured in brine in a wooden barrel and salted before canning. They are catch in the cantabrian sea in his way back from norway around spring when the anchovies are well-nourished and fatty. http://kitchenvoyage.blogspot.com/

Love 'em! Olive oil, lots of garlic, anchovies sauteed, red pepper flakes, parsley, spaghetti. Yum.

@vmorg -- you can easily incorporate them in tomato sauce. Just add a couple right after the garlic, and swirl them around with a wooden spoon, they will disintegrate, and will only remain as a depth of taste. You can add filets to pizzas or salads -- there's no head or anything to worry about. Don't worry about the occasional bone because it's so thin and so well cured that almost doesn't feel like a bone.

Jansson's Frestelse, a Swedish potato and cream dish, wouldn't be the same without the anchovies. The anchovies we get are packed in lobster sauce, however, and aren't as potent.

I use anchovies in caesar dressing and love it! Question though- I have been using a tube of anchovy paste, I'm wondering if it would be better to use the whole filets now? Maybe I'll be expanding my use of anchovies in other dishes too.

I'll be the odd one out. Yuck. My mom used to order them on pizza and the texture of the hard bristles or whatever was really, really not good.

But I love Caesar salad dressing.

I don't like the paste--I don't think it's usually as good as simply taking a fork and possibly some extra olive oil (if they're salt packed) to regular anchovies. Then, they just dissolve in whatever you're cooking.

Love 'em. I used them the other day in a pork tenderloin dish and as I was prepping the ingredients, my 3yr old asked what they were and could she have a taste. I gladly gave her one and she took it down w/out any grimaces or even spitting it back out. Bless her little heart....

Love 'em. My favorite is a salad that I devised when I didn't have the ingredients for a for a caesar. Oddly enough, we like almost better than a real caesar.

Curly endive, very thinly sliced celery, shaved parmesan cheese, and a dressing with anchovies mashed with garlic, lemon juice, red white vinegar, worchestershire sauce, and olive oil.

I'm a fan of the paste in tubes. Maybe I'll try the "save in a jar under oil" next time, but I'm fine with the flavor and I love the convenience.

I'm not ready to eat them whole, though.

It's weird that people put anchovies in Caesar. The original has Worcestershire sauce, not anchovies.

I absolutely love cooking with anchovies, not because I adore their flavor but because of the depth of flavor to the dish that I add them to. Two nights ago I was craving something with anchovies, I didn't know what but I knew that I wanted something with incredible flavor. I found a pasta puttanesca recipe that was easy to make and very affordable. That night my family all went back for seconds. This was absolutely one of the best and simple pasta dishes that I've made. Link to recipe below:

http://leitesculinaria.com/45581/recipes-pasta-puttanesca.html

Sisterfunkhaus, worcestershire sauce is made with anchovies.

I think anchovies are ok. Good in dishes, not so great on their own. I think they're too salty for pizza.

Count me in as being indifferent to them. :) I don't like them on their own or in pizza, but fish sauce is absolutely necessary in some dishes and if it's not there, I can tell that something is missing. It's one of those ingredients that I don't use at home, but that I trust others to use.

Everyone says there's no fishy flavor, but that they have a nutty yum flavor.

My mouth just doesn't taste that... it's fishy to the extreme. And I've had good ones in Spain and France, but they are still filed under the "no way" category on my palate. I want to like them, but nope.

I'm with SmellyKelly: I've tried and tried to develp a taste for them but just can't.

Oh, and AT, when oh when are you going to make it easier to report spam? Requiring a form to be filled out to do this? Not happening.

I heart these little fishes. Perfect on pizza. A lovely snack with a little brie and bread. Anchovy paste is a must for my pasta sauce - it does add that certain something. Try olive-anchoy tapenade. It's awesome!

They are essential in a good Caesar salad.

I had to steer a couple of vegetarian friends away from the Caesar salad on the menu because they didn't know that the real thing had fishes in it. I could have just kept my mouth shut until after they'd already ordered....that way, more for me.

I adore them.
I recently found anchovy-stuffed olives and thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

My father ate anchovies on pizza and put the paste on crackers. We usually had to throw away the remnant pieces from his half of a ginormous pizza because not even the dog would eat them. Luckily anchovies aren't part of the cuisine in these parts. There are other (edible) ways to add yip to cooking.

I like to slice them up, along with jarred (or broiled, if you are motivated enough) piquillo peppers. Sometimes I get jarred yellow and red peppers and add capers. You toss everything with basalmic vinegar and olive oil and put out some small slices of baguette and voila -- deliciousness.

I love cooking with anchovy, but the majority of what I make these days is vegetarian, so I don't use them much.

i really wish the world wasn't full of anti-anchovy rhetoric [same with brussels sprouts] because i grew up thinking it was cool not to like them. now i LOVE them, but it took being raised on canned smoked oysters & clams before i tried other smoked canned fish as an adult, and finally branched out to sardines and anchovies. LOVE THEM!

OK well I don't understand. Call me ignorant. Call me uncultured. But where I come from, we used them as bait. I tasted pizza with anchovies and that nutty velvety (also used for liver) taste was not there. Plese clue me in on how a fish that has such a discusting taste can have a delightful nutty flavor. Is it the use of very little. Maybe open the package in front of your dish and then close it quickly or is this a taste that has to be aquired? Because I haven't (my fault) been brave enough to buy a whole package of this bait only to use a very small amount and then throw the rest away.

Signed: Average American

canadiancook! Stick to your guns. I feel the same way. I am having a hard time relating to this bait taste.

We went to a dinner party and had the tastiest "peasant pasta" dish that was made by simmering olive oil, can of anchovies, crushed garlic.. then letting everything "melt" adding Italian bread crumbs (cup or two?) then tossing it all in with al dente linguine pasta. Yum!
I think most American's (specially from the Mid-West, like my husband!) don't have the seafood/fish palette unless it's fried. It's unfortunate and may be one link the low Omega-3 intake of Americans. In other parts of the world and coastal towns/cities where seafood is plentiful, children are introduced fish at a very early age. I recently noticed "Cod Fish Roe Spread" at IKEA, geared toward children-- looks like a spread for sandwiches.

Blah, blah, blah.... my point, I've learned to love anchovies by trying many different recipes.