# no anchovies please **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 1, 2001, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410 "2001-08-01T00:14:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/1 "2001-08-01T00:14:16Z")
Okay. We were grocery shopping earlier. My son has taken a liking to the food channel, and Emeril. He has some salad dressings on the market. We don’t know which one to pick. (help?) Also, the Ceasar one, which looks good, has anchovies as one of the main ingredients. I never saw, much less ate an anchovie. Are they bad? (I still recall the SNL episode where Bill Murray ate one and made the worst face) What ARE they? ---
**Author:** ![jane\_says](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jane\_says](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jane_says)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/2 "2001-08-01T00:31:19Z")
They’re really (no, REALLY) salty little fish fillets. I hate them, but I understand they’re an acquired taste. ---
**Author:** ![Turbo\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Turbo\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turbo_Dog)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/3 "2001-08-01T00:35:55Z")
Personally, I love them. On pizza, by themselves, on toast, on salad, (No such thing as a Caesar without anchovies) eggs, crackers, etc. First time I tried em I loved em. Some people can’t even look at them. I have never met anyone that was in the middle ground with them. You either love em or hate em. In a dressing though, they are not overpowering. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/4 "2001-08-01T00:38:24Z")
It’s a small, salted fish. It’s similar to a sardine but smaller and more intense in flavor. I like them, but many people find the taste too strong, especially when they are just sitting there on top of pizza. In a salad dressing they would be all smushed up. What you would taste is a slight salty, fishy flavor. I’ll throw in my opinion about salad dressings for free 🙂 I never buy them. Instead, get some extra virgin olive oil and some balsamic vinegar and make your own. Just beat a couple tablespoons of oil with a couple teaspoons of vinegar and add a little salt. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/5 "2001-08-01T00:43:33Z")
Put a little anchovy paste in any tomato-based soup. YUM! ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/6 "2001-08-01T00:57:01Z")
“No anchovies? You’ve got the wrong man. I spell my name … Danger!” Anchovies are one of those terrifically satisfying food items that, if you like them, you can not only enjoy in their own right, but enjoy the extreme reactions of the other people around you. Nothing like finding a partner in crime to order an anchovy pizza and have other people in your party piss and moan about how you can possibly eat the disgusting things. As said, small, salted, dark fleshed fish, packed in cans like sardines, VERY strongly flavored and VERY salty. They smell a bit, too, which is part of the reason you can annoy other people with them. ---
**Author:** ![vandergeld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e99b99/32.png) [@vandergeld](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandergeld)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/7 "2001-08-01T01:05:59Z")
Anchovie, mon amour. You are ze bacon of ze briney deep and I adore you on mon pizza. I would alzo like you on my c-zer sa-llad or perhaps as an apertif!! Disgusting? No mon ami, you are, how you say?, ah yes, delicious… ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/8 "2001-08-01T01:24:10Z")
And I thought this thread was about the cut on the J. Geils Band’s _Love Stinks_ album. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/9 "2001-08-01T01:30:57Z")
Go look at the ingredients list on your \*Worcestershire sauce]. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/10 "2001-08-01T01:38:32Z")
Do not fear the anchovy. In things like salad dressing, the anchovy is more like a seasoning than a full-fledged ingredient. It’s sort of like this: you probably wouldn’t like to eat a spoonful of salt and pepper, but you wouldn’t mind food that was seasoned with it. Same deal with anchovies, except that some of us like them by themselves too. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/11 "2001-08-01T23:02:35Z")
Now you’ve gone and made me think of the song Don’t Fear the Anchovie…I mean Reaper…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/12 "2001-08-01T23:37:17Z")
I thought anchovies were terrible. Then I ate something made with anchovies. Now I eat them a lot. It wasn’t a terribly difficult taste to acquire. I wouldn’t be surprised that Emeril Lagasse sells salad dressings with anchovy in it. It’s in line with his sense of flavor. ---
**Author:** ![robinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@robinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robinh)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2001, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-anchovies-please/74410/13 "2001-08-02T01:06:07Z")
Caesar salad dressing does traditionally have anchovies in it, so if you like caesar dressing already, I wouldn’t worry about them. For someone like myself, (a vegetarian for several years, who never liked fish anyway, and can taste the fishiness of the anchovies) there are dressings available without them. I like _Drew’s_, though I don’t know how widely available it is. And **samclem** , you _can_ get veggie “Worcestershire Sauce” as well, if you are of a mind.