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Anchovies have made the town of Collioure, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, famous. For several generations, the recipe has remained the same. Report in the last two local canneries.
Anchovies can be eaten as a starter, on a pizza or as a tapenade. It has made Collioure (Pyrénées-Orientales) famous since the Middle Ages. The specialty has no equal anywhere else. In the past, it was fished in the Mediterranean, on traditional Catalan boats. Only two canneries remain today, carrying on the tradition from generation to generation. This ancestral know-how is recognized by the protected geographical indication (PGI), obtained in 2004.
However, the fish is no longer caught in the Mediterranean, but in the Atlantic. “The problem is the Mediterranean, there is not much stock left, the biomass has collapsed”, explains Malou Roque, of the Roque house. However, the recipe remains the same: the small fish matures in salt, and is cleaned manually. Malou’s great-grandfather started the business in 1870. Today, Malou can tell by smell whether the anchovies are ripe. “It smells like ham. It’s red, like ham”, she says. Before tasting it, you have to remove the central bone, and separate the fillets one by one. The meticulous work has always been done by women. Every year, 100 tons of anchovies are prepared here.