The Turkish pantry

Anchovies

Small fresh anchovies can be fried, paired around a filling or arranged around rice. Buy the cleaned form the recipe measures, rather than replacing it with salty preserved anchovies.

Last updated: 17 October 2026

This guide concerns raw European anchovy, Engraulis encrasicolus, cleaned and opened with the backbone removed. The butterfly keeps the two sides joined. Whole uncleaned fish, salt-cured anchovies, canned fish and anchovy paste have different yields and uses.

Cleaned raw butterfly anchovies with silver skin and gray-pink flesh in a blue floral ceramic platter.

Types & forms

Cleaned butterfly

Both sides remain joined for lining a dish or enclosing a filling; inspect for remaining bones.

Whole fresh anchovy

Ask the fishmonger to remove heads, guts and backbones. Purchased whole weight is not the same as prepared weight.

Frozen raw or preserved

Confirm whether frozen fish is cleaned. Cured or canned anchovies are separate prepared products.

What to look for when buying

Choose chilled fish from a traceable fishmonger, with a mild smell and firm flesh. Reject sour odors or damaged packs; attractive silver skin alone does not prove safe handling.
Ask for similarly sized, boneless opened fish for stuffed pairs or a rice lining. Confirm whether the recipe weight is cleaned weight before ordering.

Prepare & cook

Keep the cleaned fish cold, inspect for stray bones and pat dry. Separate its utensils from salad, bread and other ready-to-eat food.
Use the shape the recipe needs: open and flat for a lining, paired for hamsi kuşu, or arranged for frying. Avoid tearing thin flesh while handling it.
Cook the fish to 145°F. A stuffed or rice-containing dish needs the complete recipe’s cooking and cooling instructions as well; browning the outside does not establish that the filling is ready.

Store it well

Keep raw fish in a leakproof container at 40°F or below and use within 1–2 days, or freeze promptly. Follow an earlier use-by date. Thaw in the refrigerator, keeping drips away from other food.
For vacuum-packed fish labeled to remain frozen until use, remove it from the vacuum bag before refrigerator thawing. Follow the package instructions; a sealed thawing bag is not a substitute for this step.
Divide cooked food into shallow containers and refrigerate within 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90°F. Use refrigerated cooked fish, meat or broth within 3–4 days; reheat leftovers to 165°F. Follow a shorter recipe-specific limit where given.

Substitutions depend on the dish

Another small fresh fish

A sardine changes size, flavor and bones. Use a recipe designed for its cleaned form rather than a fixed fish-for-fish exchange.

Cured or canned anchovies

Their salt, oil and texture cannot reproduce a tray of fresh anchovies. Reserve them for recipes written for preserved fish.

Nutrition

No verified nutrition data is available for this ingredient.

At the Turkish table

The Ministry of Culture documents cornmeal-fried hamsi in Ordu and boned anchovies enclosing rice in Artvin. Our linked hamsi tava, hamsi kuşu, hamsikoli and hamsili pilav show several uses; these examples do not assign anchovies exclusively to one province.