How to make anchovies in vinegar?

We will tell you step by step how to make anchovies in vinegar so that they are perfect: white and hard. You will surprise anyone with this typical Spanish tapas dish.

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Making anchovies in vinegar and making sure that they’re cooked just right is not an easy task. Whether they are homemade, or if we look for them in any bar, we can find them in many ways: acidic, hard, soft, etc. The best thing for them to make sure they’re cooked just right is to make them at home.

Actually, the recipe is not very tricky, the most important thing is to have good raw material and cook for the correct amount of time so that they are white and smooth.

Ingredients to make pickled anchovies

1kg of anchovies
100ml of vinegar
5 cloves of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and parsley to taste

Preparation of anchovies in vinegar

Cleaning the anchovies

The first thing is to prepare the anchovies. We must clean them, removing the head and the spine and separating the fillets. We can avoid this step if we ask the super fishmonger to do it for us. Once the fillets are separated, we wash them with water and dry them with a cloth.
We arrange the loins, already dry, in a deep dish, next to each other, and then we cover them with very cold water and ice cubes. We keep them in the fridge for two hours.

Marinated anchovies

Over time, remove the water from the dish and cover the anchovies with pure vinegar or, if we prefer a less strong flavour, a mixture of one third water and two thirds of vinegar.
If it is just vinegar, we keep them in the mixture for 45 minutes, or up to 3 hours if we have covered them with the mixture of water and vinegar. During this time, the anchovies will turn white.

Final preparation and dressing of anchovies in vinegar

Once marinated, we can keep them drained and with a layer of oil in the freezer to avoid the risk of anisakis (parasites). This way, we’ll only have to season them and then they’ll be ready.
After thawing, we chop the garlic very fine and mix it with chopped parsley and a combination of 4 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 of vinegar.
We place the anchovies that we are going to eat on a plate, cover them with a little of the previous dressing, and that's it.

Homemade anchovies in vinegar can be kept in the fridge for about a week.

Are the anchovies in vinegar fattening?

Anchovies in vinegar are not fattening, since they contain only 208 calories per 100 grams. However, everything always depends on the amount that is eaten. A moderate consumption combined with a balanced diet and some sport will not pose any problem for the body.

However, we do not have to talk only about calories, since from this recipe we will obtain a wide variety of nutrients that are very beneficial for our health.

The anchovy is a blue fish rich in Omega-3, fatty acids that help reduce cholesterol and triglyceride levels and increase blood fluidity, which prevents the formation of thrombi. This makes its consumption highly recommended for people with cardiovascular problems.

But this is not all. Anchovies in vinegar are also a great source of vitamins from groups A, B and D. In addition, they contain vitamins from group B, D and numerous minerals such as iron, phosphorus and calcium.

Discover all the properties of anchovies.