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Fish and seafood from Indonesia

Bakasangbakasang

Bakasang is a fermented sauce-paste of North Sulawesi made from skipjack tuna viscera and salt. Traditionally the viscera are salted in a bottle and left in the sun for a few days until they turn to liquid. Studies have tested salt levels from 10 to 30 % and warm temperatures to set a standard method.

Fully documentedFish and seafood4.8 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceLocal production is not standardised. The salt level is the range the 2017 trial judged best.
Fresh skipjack viscera (intestines, liver, heart and roe)[fatimah2021]
Salt20–30 % (best quality in trials)Trials tested 10, 20 and 30 %[fatimah2017]

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.8 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: the fresh viscera of skipjack tuna

Step 1 of 4
Collect fresh skipjack viscera
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Micrococcus
Streptococcus
Pediococcus

Output: intestines, liver, heart and roe of fresh skipjack.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Bakasang is a fermented sauce-paste of North Sulawesi made from skipjack tuna viscera and salt. Traditionally the viscera are salted in a bottle and left in the sun for a few days until they turn to liquid. Studies have tested salt levels from 10 to 30 % and warm temperatures to set a standard method. Made in 4 steps over 4.8 days. The longest step, bottle and leave in the sun until liquid, takes 4.8 days (Fatimah F 2021) and runs at 32.9 °C (Fatimah F 2021). Salt is 20–30 % (Fatimah F 2017). Micrococcus, Streptococcus and Pediococcus, predominant in a laboratory bakasang made from small fish does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4.8 daysReported[fatimah2021][fatimah2017]Bottle and leave in the sun until liquid
Temperature32.9 °CReported[fatimah2021]Bottle and leave in the sun until liquid
Salt20–30 %Reported[fatimah2017]Mix the viscera with salt
AciditypH 5.7–6.7Measured[fatimah2017]Bottle and leave in the sun until liquid

What makes this one different

Here bakasang is made from skipjack tuna guts, not whole fish, though Yanti and Dali (2013) say small fish are also used. The salted guts are left in a bottle in the sun for a few days until they turn to liquid.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Laboratory bakasang from small Engraulis fishEngraulis japonicus with salt and glucose at 37 °C for 40 days; pH fell throughout and soluble nitrogen rose.
  • Bakasang nike (Kakas, Minahasa)Small nike fish mixed with hot cooked rice and packed into bottles; the 3-day sample from Paslaten village had no fixed rice-to-fish ratio, a blackish colour, pH 5.18 and 1.906 % total acid (Yanti and Dali 2013).

Safety

Yanti and Dali (2013) note that traditional bakasang lacks a standard method. In their 15-day laboratory batch of tuna viscera the pH fell from 5.82 to 5.21 as lactic acid built up. Skipjack is a tuna, a fish the FDA names for histamine (scombrotoxin) poisoning. The FDA says histamine can form during salting and fermenting until a product is shelf-stable, and that heat does not remove it. The FDA also says botulism spores are present in fish viscera, which is why it advises gutting fish before salting or fermenting. Bakasang is made of viscera, and its pH ranged from 5.66 to 6.73 across the 2017 trial treatments, far above the pH of 4.6 or less that the FDA lists as one botulism control for shelf-stable fish products. The FDA also lists 20 % water phase salt or more as a control for shelf-stable salted products. The trials added 10–30 % salt, but the sources we read do not give bakasang's water phase salt. The FDA says that without gutting, toxin can form during processing even with strict temperature control. This page records a practice, not a tested home recipe.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [fatimah2017] Fatimah F., Pelealu J.J., Gugule S., Yempormase H.V. and Tallei T.E. 2017, Quality evaluation of bakasang processed with variation of salt concentration, temperature and fermentation time, Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 20(11), 543–551, doi:10.3923/pjbs.2017.543.551 (abstract, read on Europe PMC, PMID 30187737)paper
  2. [fatimah2021] Fatimah F., Gugule S., Rorong J.A. and Tallei T.E. 2021, Optimum processing conditions for bakasang using the response surface methodology with central composite design, Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 24(12), 1269–1277, doi:10.3923/pjbs.2021.1269.1277 (abstract, read on Europe PMC, PMID 34989204)paper
  3. [ijong1996] Ijong F.G. and Ohta Y. 1996, Physicochemical and microbiological changes associated with bakasang processing, a traditional Indonesian fermented fish sauce, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 71(1), 69–74 (abstract, read on Europe PMC)paper
  4. [yanti2013] Yanti D.I.W. and Dali F.A. 2013, Karakterisasi bakteri asam laktat yang diisolasi selama fermentasi bakasang (Characteristics of lactic acid bacteria isolated during bakasang fermentation), Jurnal Pengolahan Hasil Perikanan Indonesia 16(2):133–141, doi:10.17844/jphpi.v16i2.8047paper
  5. [fda-ch7] US Food and Drug Administration, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, chapter 7, Scombrotoxin (histamine) formationgov
  6. [fda-ch13] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 13, Clostridium botulinum toxin formationgov