Fish sauce are made with anchovies, mackerel, scabbard fish and salt. The bigger the fish, the more mercury you might expect, especially if predator fish like scabbard fish. They do not have any additives like sugar, hydrolyzed protein, or preservatives. Vietnamese prefer sauces without a strong smell, and transparent with a deep golden amber color. "First press" fish sauce, meaning the sauce is bottled from the first time the fermenting barrels are drained, also indicates quality. Lastly, when measuring the nitrogen level of fish sauces (N), most fish sauce on the market falls within the mid 20N range. Anything over 30N is
Worcestershire sauce including traditional Welsh rarebit, Caesar salad, Oysters Kirkpatrick, and deviled eggs. As both a background flavour and a source of umami (the savoury "fifth flavour"), it is also now added to dishes which historically did not contain it, such as chili con carne and beef stew. It is also used directly as a condiment on steaks, hamburgers, and other finished dishes. The sauce is also used to flavour cocktails such as the Bloody Mary and Caesar. A fermented fish sauce called "garum" was a staple of Greco-Roman cuisine and of the Mediterranean economy of the Roman Empire, as the first-century