Pissalat or pissala, is a

condiment A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to enhance the Flavoring, flavour, to complement the dish or to impart a specific flavor. Such specific flavors generally add sweetness or pungency, or sharp or piquant ...

originating from the

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The name comes from ''peis salat'' in Niçard and means 'salted fish'. It is made from

anchovy An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the Family (biology), family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water. More than 140 speci ...

puree flavoured with

cloves Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or fragrance in consumer products, ...

thyme Thyme () is a culinary herb consisting of the dried aerial parts of some members of the genus ''Thymus (plant), Thymus'' of flowering plants in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are native to Eurasia and north Africa. Thymes have culinary, medici ...

bay leaf The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used as a herb in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. The flavour that a bay lea ...

and

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diameter ...

mixed with

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

. Pissalat is used for flavouring hors d'oeuvres, fish, cold meats, and, especially, the local specialty, pissaladière.

Etymology

The word ''pissala'' (in Nissard) or ''pissalat'' (in French) is composed of the old Provençal word ''peis'' for 'fish', and ''sala'', the past participle of ''salar'', which corresponds to the French ''saler'' ('to salt'). Together, they describe "preserves of small crushed and salted fish" or, similarly, "a piquant sauce made from the maceration of salted fish."

History

The pissalat is similar to the ''siqqu'', from the Mesopotamian Culinary Treatise of the 2nd millennium BC. J.-C. (c. 1700 BC) or with ''

garum Garum is a fermentation (food), fermented fish sauce that was used as a condiment in the cuisines of Phoenicia, Ancient Greek cuisine, ancient Greece, Ancient Roman cuisine, Rome, Carthage and later Byzantine cuisine, Byzantium. Liquamen is a si ...

'' (juice or sauce, in Latin, from Roman antiquity). Since the time of ancient Rome, garum has been produced (with many variants) throughout the Mediterranean basin. It is a sauce obtained by macerating the heads and intestines of mackerel, sardines, anchovies, and aromatic plants in salt. The sauce thus obtained passed through a fine sieve, was recovered with a ladle, and was preserved in olive oil. The manufacture of pissalat was a centuries-old local industry in the Nice-Côte d'Azur region, where the salting of sardines and anchovies employed roughly a dozen families at the beginning of the 19th century. The Niçois writer, Louis Roubaudi, notes in his 1843 book ''Nice and its surroundings'': "The pissalat is very suitable for reviving the appetite when it is seasoned with olive oil, vinegar, and salted olives." The sauce largely disappeared from commerce during the Second World War, and exists today only in the form of local traditional artisanal and family production (it is often replaced by salted anchovies or anchovy purée), in particular for the preparation of pissaladière.

Recipe

The pissalat sauce is traditionally made from a mixture of anchovies, sardines, or poutine. These ingredients are pounded in a mortar, then macerated and fermented for several months in a large Provençal terracotta terrine with a brine of salt, pepper, olive oil, spices and herbs, thyme, bay leaf, cinnamon, and ground cloves (for preservation by salting). The mixture is then stored in a cool place and stirred daily so as to quickly form a paste. The oil that rises to the surface must be skimmed every week. The resulting paste is passed through a fine sieve after one month. The pissalat can then be kept for some time in glass jars, covered with olive oil. It can be eaten on slices of bread and accompany soups, vegetables, salads, meats, or other dishes of Provençal cuisine. Pissaladière 02.jpg, Pissaladière. Pissaladière 05.jpg, Pissaladière. Anchoïade.jpg, Anchoïade (variante).

References

Fish sauces French cuisine Occitan cuisine Umami enhancers Food paste Anchovy dishes {{condiment-stub

Etymology

History

Recipe

See also

References