Kkanari-aekjeot (Sand Lance Fish Sauce)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Digital kitchen scale accurate to 1 g
• •2 liter onggi crock or wide-mouth glass fermentation jar
• •Glass or ceramic fermentation weight
• •Large stainless mixing bowl and colander
• •Fine-mesh sieve and doubled cheesecloth or cotton filtering cloth
• •Nonreactive pot and instant-read thermometer
• •Sterilized glass bottles with tight caps, total capacity about 750 ml

Instructions

1. 1

   Choose the fish

   Buy sand lance in spring, the day it was landed if your market allows it. The fish should be whole, firm, silver, and cold, with no sour smell and no broken bellies leaking into the bag. Fish sauce forgives time after the salt goes in. It forgives almost nothing before that.

   If you cannot get food-grade sand lance, buy a good bottled kkanari-aekjeot instead of salting random small fish. Anchovies make myeolchi-aekjeot, not this sauce.
2. 2

   Rinse and drain

   Dissolve 20 g salt in 1 liter cold water. Swish the sand lance through this lightly salted water for 20 seconds, just long enough to remove sand and loose scales, then lift the fish out and drain in a colander for 30 minutes. Do not soak it. Extra water weakens the salt ratio, and the salt ratio is what keeps this safe.

3. 3

   Measure the salt

   Weigh the drained fish. For 1 kg fish, use 250 g coarse sea salt, exactly 25 percent of the fish weight. If your fish weighs 900 g after draining, use 225 g salt. Notebook 42 has this number underlined. Less than that is not restraint; it is spoilage dressed in hope.

   손맛 is real, the hand-taste a good cook trusts, but I still measure it so it can be handed on. Fish sauce is not the place to guess by handfuls.
4. 4

   Pack the crock

   Wash a 2 liter onggi crock or wide-mouth glass jar very clean, dry it completely, and wipe the inside with soju if you like. Scatter 30 g of the measured salt on the bottom. Toss the drained fish with 170 g salt in a stainless bowl, then pack it into the jar without crushing it. Cover the surface evenly with the remaining 50 g salt. The bottom salt starts the brine below, the mixed salt reaches every fish, and the top salt protects the surface while the fish begins to release liquid.

5. 5

   Weight and cover

   Set a clean glass or ceramic fermentation weight directly on the salted fish. Cover the jar with a loose lid or a clean cloth tied tight enough to keep insects out, but not sealed airtight. Keep it at 18 to 22 C for the first week, away from direct sun. After 24 to 48 hours, the fish should have released enough liquid to rise around the weight. If dry fish is still exposed after 48 hours, dissolve 25 g salt in 75 g boiled and cooled water and add only enough of this 25 percent brine to cover the top.

6. 6

   Ferment and wait

   For the first week, check the jar once a day, press the weight down gently, and wipe salt crust from the rim with a clean cloth. After that, check once a month. The smell will be strong, briny, and fishy at first, then deeper and more savory as the fish collapses and amber liquid rises. Age at least 6 months; 10 to 12 months gives a rounder sauce. If you see fuzzy mold, or if the jar smells rotten, rancid, or like sewage, discard it. 정성이 첫째예요. Sincerity comes first, and here sincerity means patience and cleanliness.

7. 7

   Strain gently

   When the sauce has aged at least 6 months, lift off the weight and ladle the liquid and softened fish into a fine-mesh sieve lined with doubled cheesecloth over a nonreactive pot. Let it drip for 1 hour. Do not squeeze hard unless you accept a cloudier sauce, because pressing forces fine bones and sediment through the cloth. Refrigerate the strained liquid 8 to 12 hours so the heavy sediment settles, then pour the clear amber sauce off the top.

8. 8

   Pasteurize and bottle

   Heat the strained sauce to 85 C / 185 F and hold it there for 5 minutes, skimming any foam from the surface. Do not boil it hard, or the clean edge that makes kkanari-aekjeot useful in pale kimchi turns harsh and dark. Pour into sterilized glass bottles, cap, cool, and refrigerate. Let the bottled sauce rest 1 week before using so the salt and aroma settle.

9. 9

   Use with restraint

   For kimchi seasoning, start with 1 1/2 tablespoons, about 22 ml, for every 1 kg salted and drained napa cabbage, then adjust by 1 teaspoon at a time. For muchim, the quick seasoned vegetable dishes, start with 1/2 teaspoon for a 200 g bowl of greens. Kkanari-aekjeot should make the dish taste fuller, not fishier. Let the cabbage or vegetable still taste like itself.

Chef Tips

• •The safe corner to cut is the vessel. A glass jar works if you do not own onggi. The corner you cannot cut is salt. Keep it at 25 percent of the fish weight.
• •Start this in spring if you want it for late autumn kimjang. Six months gives usable sauce; a full year gives a calmer, deeper one. Food moves with time, but time still has to do its work.
• •Use coarse sea salt without iodine or anti-caking agents. Fine table salt dissolves fast and can make the surface harsh before the inside is properly salted.
• •Kkanari-aekjeot is lighter than myeolchi-aekjeot, anchovy fish sauce. Use it when you want clean savor in pale kimchi, cucumber kimchi, young cabbage kimchi, and quick muchim. Use anchovy sauce when you want a darker, stronger backbone.
• •Never pour from the bottle over a bowl. Measure into a spoon first. One extra tablespoon can flatten a whole batch of kimchi, and then all the cabbages have to live with your impatience.
• •After bottling, keep it refrigerated and use clean utensils. A pasteurized, well-salted bottle keeps about 1 year in the refrigerator. If mold appears in the bottle or the smell turns rotten instead of briny, throw it away.

Advance Preparation

• •Plan at least 6 months before you need the sauce. For kimjang, begin in spring when sand lance is in season and strain in late autumn.
• •The jar can be washed, dried, and wiped with soju the day before packing, but the fish should be salted the day you buy it.
• •After pasteurizing and bottling, rest the sauce in the refrigerator for 1 week before using. The first taste straight from the pot is louder than the sauce will be after it settles.
• •For longer keeping, divide into small bottles so only one is opened at a time. Keep unopened bottles cold and dark.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 18g)