What to use instead of fish sauce
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Background seasoning in a curry, stir-fry or braise
Anchovies broken down by salt over a year leave a liquid full of free amino acids, so a teaspoon seasons and adds savoury depth at the same time. Most of the smell cooks off.
Light soy saucePlant-based
1:1
Less funk and more roasted, malty character, and it darkens a pale curry. Slightly less salty per spoon.
Worcestershire sauceRan out
1:1
Built on anchovies too, so the savoury note is genuinely there, arriving with tamarind sourness and clove. Works in a braise and ruins a green curry.
Anchovy fillets, mashed into the hot oilRan out
2 fillets + 1 tsp water per 1 tbsp fish sauce
They melt away completely in fat over 2 minutes. Saltier per gram and much fishier if the pan is not hot enough to dissolve them.
Soy sauce simmered with kombu and dried shiitakePlant-based
1 tbsp soy sauce + a 5 cm piece of kombu + 2 dried shiitake, simmered 10 min, per 1 tbsp fish sauce
Gets closest of any plant option because the seaweed and mushrooms supply the glutamate and inosinate that fish sauce has. Still sweeter and rounder.
What doesn't work: Oyster sauce. It is thick with sugar and starch, so it glazes and sweetens where fish sauce seasons, and it turns a thin curry cloudy and syrupy.
The forward funk of a raw dipping sauce or salad dressing
Nothing is cooked, so the fermented smell is part of what you are tasting. That is the whole point of nuoc cham and som tam.
Patis or another fish sauce brandRan out
1:1
Brands vary hard. Filipino patis is sharper and saltier, Thai brands are rounder, so taste and adjust the lime and sugar.
Bottled vegan fish sauce, seaweed or mushroom basedPlant-based
1:1
Sweeter and less pungent, so add 1/4 tsp extra salt per tablespoon and a little more lime to get the balance back.
Light soy sauce with lime and sugarPlant-based
1 tbsp soy sauce + an extra 1 tsp lime juice per 1 tbsp fish sauce
Balanced and pleasant, and it reads as a soy dipping sauce. The dressing goes dark instead of pale amber.
What doesn't work: Anchovy paste in a cold dipping sauce. It will not dissolve without heat and fat, so it hangs in the liquid as grey specks and tastes of the tube.
A tablespoon of fish sauce carries roughly 2/3 tsp of salt, so season the rest of the dish after it goes in.