Fermented meat around the world
Dry salami, sour pork with rice, matured sheep and aged blubber follow different paths from animal to food. Their stories connect microbes with climate, slaughter, migration and the meals people share.
Colatura di alici di Cetara
colatura di alici di Cetara · colatura di alici · colatura di Cetara
Colatura di alici is the amber liquid drained from salted anchovies matured in wooden containers in Cetara, on the Amalfi coast of Campania, and sold under a protected designation of origin.
A surviving anchovy sauce of Cetara
Colatura di alici is a thin amber liquid made on the Amalfi coast at Cetara, a fishing town in Campania. It is drawn from anchovies that have been salted and left to mature, and it is used to season pasta and other dishes in small amounts, where its savour carries the dish. Its colour runs from pale gold to deep amber, depending on how long it has matured and how it was filtered.
The sauce belongs to the family of fish sauces that the Mediterranean world has made since antiquity. Its method, with layered salt, weight and a long rest, closely resembles the descriptions of ancient fish sauces. The protected designation records a living local tradition; the sources do not establish an unchanged line of practice from Roman times, and the resemblance should not be read as continuity.
Sources for this section
How it is made
Anchovies are headed and gutted, then layered with sea salt in wooden containers. The layers are weighted so that the fish releases its liquid. The liquid that drains off is collected and filtered, and it is then left to mature.
Across that period the liquid matures. The sources do not describe the changes in detail, so the chemistry is not assigned to a cause here.
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Why the stages matter
Heading and gutting are the first steps of the protected method. Layering with salt and weighting the fish are the steps that set the liquid running; the sources do not give a reason for each step beyond that.
Filtering removes the solids that drain with the liquid. The sources do not give the salt ratio or the weight used, so those are left unrecorded here.
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Use
Colatura is used as a seasoning. The sources consulted describe its production but do not record its uses in detail, so no serving suggestions are given here.
Sources for this section
Safety and limits
Salted and matured fish products call for handling control, and the sources give no safe limit for home production. Neither the appearance, smell nor taste of the liquid establishes that it is safe.
Open questions: the salt ratio, the weight used during layering, and the length of maturation before the designation was set are not given in the source consulted.
Sources for this section
History
Colatura di alici is a surviving local anchovy-sauce tradition of Cetara. Its technology closely resembles ancient fish sauces, but an unbroken Roman lineage is harder to demonstrate than the resemblance.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
AnchoviesHeaded and gutted.
Amount not stated
The specification gives no quantity ratio in the source consulted.Layered with the fish.
Method
Risks and precautions · High risk
Smell and taste do not establish that the sauce is safe.
- Head and gut the anchovies.
- Layer the fish with sea salt in wooden containers.
- Weight the layers and leave them to mature.
- Collect the liquid that drains from the fish and filter it.
- Keep maturing the liquid for at least nine months under the protected specification.
Conditions
Fermentationfrom 270 days
Places
Cetara
Traditional preparation · Locality evidenceThe protected specification names Cetara as the place of production.
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Sources
Regione Campania, AgricolturaMethod · History · Safety
Colatura di alici di Cetara DOP specification (2024)Anchovies are headed and gutted, layered with sea salt in wooden containers, weighted and matured; the liquid is collected and filtered.
The present PDO specification requires at least nine months of maturation.
The sauce is a surviving local anchovy-sauce tradition with a strong technological resemblance to ancient fish sauces.
Cited in: A surviving anchovy sauce of Cetara; How it is made; Why the stages matter; Use; Safety and limits