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Homemade salt cured anchovy fillets are easy to make, healthy, and very tasty.
Some of the foods that I now love I once thought I hated. I went from hating avocadoes and olives to having them be some of my favorite foods. In fact, I even make my own salt cured olives now.
Another food that I thought that I disliked, without having tried them of course, was salt cured anchovies.
I mean, they must be gross. Right? In the moves people were always asking to get their pizzas without them.
I'm still not a fan of anchovies on pizza, but there aren't many treats that beat some good salt cured anchovy fillets for me anymore!
Here in Spain, the equivalent word for anchovy, anchoa, is reserved only for the salt cured variety. Fresh anchovies are referred to as “boquerones.” Boquerones are very similar to sardines, and can be used in the same types of recipes; the main difference is really their size. While both fish are small, oily fish that are packed with healthy omega 3's, sardines are slightly bigger than anchovies.
In Spanish, the term for oily fish is “pescado azul,” or “blue fish.” That is because most of the oily fish, and all of those that I know of caught here in the Mediterranean, have a bluish coloured skin. Oily fish are different from white fish in that they contain a higher percentage of fat in the flesh of the fish, and not just in the liver, as is the case with whitefish. (Why do you think they sell oil from just the liver of cod, a whitefish?) These fats are considered healthy fats because they have a good dose of Omega 3's and have been shown to help prevent against heart disease.
What's the down side?
Oily fish tend to also have a slightly higher dose of mercury contamination. Smaller oily fish like anchovies and sardines, though, have lower doses of mercury and other heavy metals than the bigger fish that are higher up on the food chain like swordfish and tuna.
I tend to have very low blood pressure myself, and sometimes, especially in the summer, go through dizzy spells and black out when I get up quickly. It was recommended to me to eat a salt cured anchovy every morning to help regulate the way I was feeling.
While I didn't get into the habit of eating them every single morning, I do eat them often because I really do enjoy them, especially when they are homemade! Don't get me wrong, an occasional canned anchovy is fine, but it will never compare to those made at home.
A great, healthy, fat-packed snack that I like to make myself is homemade salt cured anchovy fillets with homemade salt cured olives! While I enjoy them plain with a plate of olives, most people here choose to eat them on toast.
Here in Spain, they are probably surprised to see me write that I think that people need to seriously increase their intake of healthy fats. It's quite obvious from the television commercials here that Spain hasn't quite embraced the idea that people need more fats, not just for heart health, but also for regulating hormones and helping prevent neurological disorders like dementia and Alzheimer's.
Instead, commercials still boast about things having grains, or “cereales,” as if that were a healthy addition to the product. You can find low fat (high sugar) versions of things, claimed to be healthier, packed with grains. They even add them to things like highly processed chocolate milk, as if it weren't gross enough, and unhealthy enough, already. 😉
Then there are the commercials for high sugar yogurts claiming to increase your defenses and lower your cholesterol, or soy products claiming to be healthier than other alternatives.
Heck, there are still commercials for butter flavored margarines claiming to be healthier than butter!!!
Don't even get me started on that one… it's a topic for another day. Just know that it's been pretty obvious for quite some time now that hydrogenated, vegetable oils that are high in omega 6s are not good for you and will never compare to butter, especially if that butter is from grass fed cows, making it higher in omega 3s than conventionally raised cow products.
I guess I went on a bit of a tangent, but it was all to get my point across.
Healthy fats are, well, healthy! Got it?
So, that brings us to my salt cured anchovy fillets recipe…
Homemade Salt Cured Anchovies
Ingredients
- fresh anchovies
- salt
- extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Clean the anchovies by removing the entrails and heads, and then rinsing out the belly cavity.
- Add a layer of sea salt to the bottom of the glass container in which you want to store your anchovies.
- Add a layer of anchovies, followed by another layer of sea salt, followed by more anchovies.
- Continue layering until you have used up all of the anchovies, and finish with a layer of salt, making sure to completely cover all of the fish.
- To ensure that all of the fish are well preserved, mix up a batch of brine solution. This is achieved by adding salt to warm water, and dissolving as much salt into it as you possibly can. Once you have your brine solution ready, pour it over your anchovies and salt, just covering them.
- Cover your container and put it into the fridge for about 3 months. (Yes, you read that right!) 😉
- Once 3 months have passed, you can start to take a look at your anchovies. They should now be cured and have a light brown flesh color.
- Remove a few anchovies from the salt. I like to prepare just a few anchovies at a time, not more than what I think I'll use in a week or two.
- Fillet each anchovy by removing the spine section with your fingers.
- Add the anchovy fillets to a bowl with fresh water. While you can eat them immediately, they tend to be too salty if you don't leave them in salt water for a little while first.
- After an hour or two, check on the anchovies for saltiness. If you still find them way too salty, you may want to change the water, and leave them for another hour or two. This part depends on how salty your particular anchovies have become, and your taste.
- Once the anchovies have reached the desired level of saltiness, dry them off on a cotton or paper towel, and place them into the container in which you want to store them.
- Cover with extra virgin olive oil, and you are done!
So, yes, the process is quite long, but it isn't difficult, and it is so worth it!
I really enjoy making my own salt cured anchovy fillets whenever I can get ahold of fresh anchovies! While my husband is a fisherman, he tends to only fish for shrimp, so I don't have access to fresh anchovies as often as I would like.
If you want to prepare your own anchovy fillets, but don't want to wait three months, you can also buy imported salt packed anchovies online. If you choose to buy the salt packed variety, you can begin with the filleting step above.
Do you love seafood too?
I have gathered together a bunch of different healthy seafood recipes from some of my favorite real food bloggers.
Check it out!
Thanks for this Tracy! Anchovy season just started in California and I got a huge batch this week! I did have 2 questions: (1) Do you have to use glass in the brining process? Or is plastic tupperware suitable? (2) How long do they keep once the brining process is complete and they’re immersed in the oil and in the fridge? Thanks so much!
Hi Ashley,
No, it’s not essential. My father-in-law used to make them in food-safe plastic containers. I just worry about the possible problems with plastic coming in contact with our foods. I feel better about using glass and stainless steel for most of my food containing at home, so that’s what I recommend to others. 😉
As for how long they keep? It really depends on how long you rinse them. If you keep them on the salty side, they actually keep for quite a long time. If you remove a lot of the salt, though, you’ll find that the flavor will change after several days, even if you keep them immersed in oil.
These days I usually just rinse off most of the salt, dry them well, and then place in oil. They keep for a very long time that way! My mother-in-law prefers soaking them in water because she finds anchovies to be too salty otherwise. They don’t keep as long that way. I guess I figure that the saltiness is part of their charm- but it’s all a matter of preference.
In any case, you should notice a difference in smell/taste before they go bad. I like to err on the side of caution and dispose of them at the first sign of something being off.
We use a fish called caplin from Newfoundland. Very similar to smelt and very oily. We catch them and salt heavily. They will keep for a long time. Then we take as many as we’d like, wash the salt off and perhaps soak for an hour or two. Then we either filet them or use whole. Add olive oil and place in frig for a few days. Really tastes very similar to commercially bought anchovies.
That sounds wonderful! Yes, we’ve tried with many different types of fish, and it really works well with all of them. I love salt-cured fish. 🙂
thank you i will try it today ,i love to learn the basics and then i manipulate it to my taste
Hi Shailendra,
That’s a very smart way of using recipes!
You sound like me! 🙂
I’m always experimenting and trying to do things differently- until I find what makes me happiest.
Good luck!
I bought really tiny black anchovies whole at an Asian market. I want to try your recipe but I noticed you clean all the fish. Is this really necessary if the fish are really tiny, like 1 1/2 inches? Seems like an awful lot of work…
Hi Emily,
There are people who don’t clean the fish first, but we always have because the innards tend to give the fish a bitter flavor that I don’t like at all. That, coupled with the idea of leaving all of the bacteria and possible toxins in the intestines of the fish to sit and cure there for weeks and months on end just doesn’t appeal to me.
You could give it a try, but in the end, consider the fact that it will probably be harder to clean them well once they have cured and you’ll probably end up with an inferior tasting product. Once you get the hang of the cleaning process, you can really whip through it rather quickly. We go through several kilograms of anchovies in very little time. Ours are about twice that big, though.
Oh, and by the way, concerns about mercury in fish are rather old fashioned. I can’t believe people are still hanging on to this!! For pity’s sake!! It’s the 21st century!!! (See what I did there?)
For more information, this link https://chriskresser.com/5-reasons-why-concerns-about-mercury-in-fish-are-misguided/ is quite solid.
I, once again, agree with you. Perhaps I should reword that section to make it clearer that I eat blue fish daily, and that I don’t believe that to be a problem.
My husband owns a fishing boat, and I ate fish throughout my pregnancy, and eat more than the 12 ounces in a week talked about in the article.
That said, some people prefer to err on the side of caution, and the point I wanted to get across was that even if blue fish have higher levels of mercury than whitefish, that because anchovies and sardines are so small, that the amounts in them are much less than those seen in fish much higher up the food chain.
So, for those wishing to err on the side of caution, I’d suggest that rather than avoiding fish, especially blue fish which I think are probably the healthiest for you, that they could choose smaller fish like anchovies and sardines. That said, I don’t avoid any fish as of yet, and don’t promote avoiding fish as I think they are a very healthy addition to our diets.
As if the States were the healthiest nation in the world, and EVERYBODY there knew low-fat is not the way to go (for most people).
I am sorry, but I am a bit put off by the condescending tone in this post. Actually, if there are such things as fortified cereal and low-fat yoghourts in Spain (or anywhere else for the matter) it’s because, for some reason that will always escape me, too many people think the United States are a model to follow. None of all this started in Spain, precisely. I don’t know why anyone would want to imitate or import anything from a place in which 1 in 3 people are obese or overweight, and which has one of the lowest life expectancies and highest infant mortalities in the developed world!
I’m sorry if you were offended by my mockery of Spanish commercials. I don’t think that a cholesterol lowering margarine should be promoted as good for your heart health, no matter where it is shown.
I was in no way saying that the United States was better than Spain, in any case. You seem to have taken it that way, or otherwise I don’t know why you seem to be so offended by a subject that we seem to agree on. I would be just as critical of the same sorts of stupid commercials in the United States or wherever I happened to be living at the time of writing. I’m just commenting on to what I have going on around me; and living in Spain, I talk about my home.
My comment referred to the fact that when I left the US, the most popular diets happened to be low carb type diets like Atkins, South Beach, etc. I didn’t (and still don’t) see as many people embracing low carbohydrate diets here yet. I’m not even saying one way of eating is better than another, I’m just making an observation that at the time of writing the article, people were more likely to avoid carbs in the US than in Spain. I wasn’t saying anything was better or worse; just making an observation.
I really don’t care if they add grains to chocolate flavoring for milk. I wouldn’t buy it and drink it either way. It just surprised me to hear on a commercial that promoted it as a healthier option because they had added grains, when back in the US, the commercials would be boasting the opposite: they’d be promoting the low carbohydrate version of the same garbage.
You see, I’m not saying one chocolate garbage is better than the other, but trying to explain the perceptions of the people buying the bad processed foods that, sadly, are available everywhere.
I’m sorry if I overreacted. It’s just that, being in the Mediterranean myself, I’m pretty fed up with people from the States (in general) criticising diets and food choices, when their own health is so poor (on a national average).
Actually I’m more of a Weston Price-ish person, and I believe that, grains or no grains, starch or no starch, saturated fat or no saturated fat, people should eat properly prepared good food the way their people have always eaten, in a way that is aligned with their genetics. For people in the Mediterranean zone, for instance, this does mean less saturated fat than for someone from Northern Europe, and bread, and pizza… But properly prepared, of course!
Oh, and if you’re half and half, like you and me… Hmm… That’s a good one. I’d say there’s lots of room for experimentation with one’s own body, and finding what makes one feel best!
Yes, I think everybody needs to experiment and find what works best for them! Unfortunately, it can be tricky sometimes!!
I’m getting there little by little, I think.
This blog, over the years, is a testament to that. I did a lot of dairy at first. I moved to grain free, and then figured out that I think I handle even gluten much better than dairy. Oh well. I figure people can use whatever of my recipes that best adapts to their personal diet. That’s why many of my recipes are either paleo or vegan or whatever, even though I am not strictly following any diet myself. I guess mine would resemble the paleo diet most, but, well, you understand, right? 😉
Hello! Tracy. This is what I exactly need to know about preserving anchovies. Will try this at home. I am very thankful that I chanced upon your blog. Very informative and helpful. Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome, Marlene. 🙂
I love them and have another batch going right now!
Hi Tracy,
I just love the way you explain things. Thank you so much for doing this post. I’m definitely gonna try this. I too have low BP issue and if eating the salt cured anchovies will help with that, then I will definitely try it out. I had one question though, You have mentioned to use olive oil to store the fish, can coconut oil be used instead, will it affect the taste or anything else?
Hi Lexie,
Thanks so much!
You can use whatever oil you like!
Yes, it will change the flavor a bit, of course. I’m used to mine tasting like extra virgin olive oil. 🙂
The other thing to consider is that if you are storing them in the fridge once packed with oil, that the olive oil already solidifies slightly because of the cold. Leaving it out on the counter for a few minutes, though, is usually enough to get it to liquify again. With coconut oil, it will solidify faster and take longer to become liquid again. If that isn’t a problem for you, then it should work great!
What I’d probably do it to test out a few in each oil to see which you like best. Once you de-salt them, it’s easy enough to put a few in each type of oil to test them both out.
I’d love to hear how it goes! 🙂
I have whole bucket of small Pacific herring salted just like your recipe. Can I use this herring as you use anchovies.? Have you ever tried?Ligia
Hello Ligia,
I haven’t personally made any other salted fish, but my father-in-law does the same thing with bonito, and it is excellent! I actually like it even better than the anchovies. They usually slice it into cross sections of about 1 cm in thickness, and then rinse it, soak it in water, and then pack it in olive oil in the same way. I could eat that all day long! 🙂
You can use it in the same ways as you would anchovies, it’s just larger pieces of fish.
I’m guessing that herring would be the same way. The name herring appears to apply to lots of different fish, but sardines and such are supposedly in the herring family, so it should be very similar. If you try it out, I’d love to hear how it goes!
Ciao Tracy!
I’m living on the Amalfi Coast and so fresh anchovies and sardines are a staple around here in the markets. I’m curious, in your steps you save the deboning of the anchovies until later. Why aren’t you doing that when you clean off the heads and entrails? Does it make a difference? It’s just as easy for me to remove the bones while I’m cleaning the heads and I’d prefer to already have it done when I later want to use them.
Since I’m single and usually cook for one, I can barely use up all of the fish for one fresh dish. I’m looking to preserving the rest (the fishmongers always seem to give you more than asked if you go at the end of the day) so I want to preserve them for future use.
Hi Stephanie,
There are people who don’t even bother cleaning the fish before putting them in the salt. I think those that do clean them may leave them intact to keep the salt from being directly in contact with the inside meat of the fish, but I’m not sure. When people bake fish in salt, that’s the idea. A lot of people don’t clean the fish first, and those that do, try to keep the salt from going into the cut area where the fish was clean.
I’m not really sure if it would make much of a difference in this case, though. I just do it the way I was taught here. For me, I found that it took me quite a long time to clean all of the fish, so I was happy to be done and get them in the salt. I find it easier to work with the fish once cured, too. I’m not sure if it would be as easy to remove the spine before the fish are packed in salt.
In any case, since I only take them out of the salt in small batches, at that time, it’s really quick and easy to remove the spine.
I’ve never tried removing them before packing them in salt, so it’s hard to know if it actually makes a difference or not. If you ever do end up trying it, I’d love to hear how it goes.
Nice work. I just got back (to California) from Catalonia, brought back a jar of La Scala anchovies packed in salt (and a big package of bacalao of course). Rinsed and packed a few in oil a few days ago, enjoying them with sliced fresh tomatoes on sourdough. Exploring the possibility of making my own salted anchovies here, but not sure if we get the proper kind of fish here at the markets. Anyway, enjoyable read. Congratulations on living in Spain, I envy you…
Thanks, John!
You should be able to make them with pretty much any small fish, ideally a blue fish like anchovies or sardines. You can also use larger blue fish, cutting them into chunks. We do that with the “caballa” fish. (I’d have to look up the translation.)
I wish you the best of luck with it.
(I wouldn’t mind living in California either.) 😉
Ok..this may sound dumb but..can I forgo the brine and just packed em with dry sea salt? Sorry,never cured anything before..
Hi Sisca,
It’s actually a great question, and totally not dumb at all.
I honestly was going to just do it that way myself, thinking that the fish would release enough juices to make a brine of its own. The only reason I did it this way was because my father-in-law, who’s been making them for years, makes them with the brine. I would think that, if needed, you could always cover them with a bit of water, if the fish didn’t release enough liquid, because I do think it’s probably important that they are well covered in liquid. If the salt were to start dissolving from the excess water, you could always add more salt as needed. I doubt that would be an issue, though, especially when using coarse salt.
I may try it that way next time I make them. The only problem I have is that my husband fishes for shrimp and not fish, and hasn’t brought me any in a long time. I have a batch sitting in salt from last year that I sort of hoard as if it were my little treasure. 😉
I use the liquid from the anchovies when I need fish sauce for recipes, and use the salty anchovies straight from the salt in salad dressings. Love ’em! 🙂
You said you never make more then what you wouldn’t eat in a few weeks, my father loves anchovies and I was thinking of doing this as a gift in a huge jar! Is there a reason you don’t make a large amount at a time?
Hi Hilary,
The problem is that once you remove the salt from the anchovies, they will start to go bad. It may take a couple of weeks, but the flavor will start to change and they will eventually grow mold.
As long as they are still packed in salt, they’ll last almost indefinitely. (OK, I’m not sure about that, but I’ve kept them for over a year without any problem.)
If you really want to prepare a larger batch, you’d have to keep them on the salty side so that they’ll keep for longer. The longer you de-salt them, and the less salty they are, the quicker they’ll go bad.
It’s a good idea to make sure they’re completely covered with oil so that they’ll last longer too. The olive oil solidifies somewhat in the fridge, so they tend to get uncovered when you take a few out. You can drizzle some more over them to make sure they stay covered.
I hope that helps!
I’ve been salting anchovies at home for a long while (I actually live very close to l’Escala, which another reader has commented on), and I’ve never had any go bad. I debone the fish before salting, and after a few weeks, when they’re done, I rinse them very quickly under the tap, pat them thoroughly dry and pack them in oil, ensuring no bubbles are left. They keep at room temperature for months, even throughout the summer.
If you only rinse the fish, after removing them from the salt, that makes sense. They will have a higher salt content, and will keep for much longer. I actually prefer them that way too, but since my family here prefers them more desalted (especially with bigger fish pieces), I leave them in water for awhile to reduce the salt content. When you do that, they do start to go bad after a couple of weeks.
Thank you very much for the detailed instructions. It helped a lot when making my own salt cured anchivy with Korean anchovy here in Korea.
You’re welcome, Hogan. I hope they turn out well for you. I love them.
Hello Tracy,
In Sri Lanka we have dried anchovies that are used in various recipes, we call them ‘Haal Mas-so’ which means ‘rice flies’, or flies on the rice, which makes sense.
I think they are a legacy of the Portuguese, who were here in the 1400s.
We also have ‘kara-vala’ which is salted, sundried fish of all varieties. Again, the Portuguese.
Salted anchovies in oil is very hard to find and extortionately expensive as they would be imported, the irony being we have anchovies at our doorstep!
I am going to try out your recipe and will comment back in three months.
And, no, I never joke about these things either!
Wow, really, Chamira?
That’s interesting. I’d love to try dried, too. I love other dried seafood that is found here. My husband has dried octopus and larger fish on his boat which is then heated over a flame for a minute or so, and served with olive oil.
I hope the process goes well for you. I really love homemade salt cured anchovies!!
And, yes, I’d love to hear how it goes!
This is beautiful! I’m so inspired to try it. Have you tried curing other fish like mackerel or sardines?
Thanks, Robin!
We have cured mackerel in the same way. Because it’s larger, we cut it into sections about a cm thick and cure it that way. When fresh I think I like anchovies better, but cured, bonito might be my favorite. Something about the bigger fish is really great cured.
Sardines would be done exactly the same way as anchovies, and they are almost exactly the same, so I’m guessing the results would be too.
I hope that helps! 🙂