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Fermentation Atlas

Fish and seafood from Mediterranean

Bottargabottarga

Bottarga is the whole roe sac of grey mullet (or tuna), salted, pressed and dried until it is firm and amber. It is a salt-and-drying cure, not a microbial ferment, so it sits at the edge of the atlas. In Greece the dried roe is sealed in beeswax. Made in 5 steps over 6 days – 8 days. The longest step, air-dry, turning daily, takes 5–7 days (Corrias F 2020) and runs at 20 °C (Corrias F 2020).

Key numbers
Main step5–7 daysMeasured[corrias2020]Air-dry, turning daily
Temperature20 °CMeasured[corrias2020]Air-dry, turning daily

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe times are from a 2020 study that made bottarga by the traditional Sardinian method from Cabras lagoon mullet. Producers judge salt and drying by weight loss, not by fixed amounts.
Both ovaries of a ripe female mullet, left whole in their membrane[corrias2020][pdo-messolongi]
Enough to cover; salting time 1 h per 200 g of roeDry salt · The study did not report the salt amount, only the time[corrias2020]
Natural wax to seal the dried roe (Messolongi PDO)[pdo-messolongi]
Starternone (a salt and drying cure)

Total time across the recorded steps: 6 days – 8 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: whole mullet roe sacs, still in their membrane

Step 1 of 5
Take out the roe sacs whole
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The two ovaries come out intact in their membrane; air pockets are pressed out. Output: whole, intact roe sacs.

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

What makes this one different

Bottarga is a cure, not a ferment. Salt and drying preserve the roe, and no study describes a microbial fermentation. Unlike fermented fish pastes, the roe stays whole in its membrane.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Avgotaracho Messolongiou PDO (Greece)Grey mullet roe from the Messolongi-Etoliko lagoons; washed, salted, dried and sealed in natural wax. PDO since 1996.
  • Bottarga di tonno (Sicily, Sardinia)Made from bluefin or yellowfin tuna roe instead of mullet.
  • Karasumi (Japan) and wuyuzi (Taiwan)The East Asian names for mullet roe salted and dried the same way.

Safety

Dried fish products rely on low water activity. The US FDA says a water activity of 0.85 or below stops growth and toxin formation by all pathogenic bacteria, including S. aureus and C. botulinum. Dried products packed with less drying, such as vacuum packs, must be kept cold.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium botulinum (the pathogens of concern when dried fish products are not dried enough).

History and sources

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

The word comes from the Byzantine Greek oiotarikhon, "egg pickle"; the Italian form dates to about 1500. The Messolongi PDO application cites travellers' accounts of the lagoon roe from as far back as 1668.

  1. [corrias2020] Corrias F., Atzei A., Giglioli A., Pasquini V., Cau A., Addis P., Sarais G., Angioni A. 2020, Influence of the technological process on the biochemical composition of fresh roe and bottarga from Liza ramada and Mugil cephalus, Foods 9(10):1408paper
  2. [pdo-messolongi] Application for registration of "Messolongi Botargo" (Avgotaracho Messolongiou) PDO, Greece, eAmbrosia file PDO-GR-0446, registered by Regulation (EC) No 1263/96 (OJ L 163, 2.7.1996)spec
  3. [fda-ch14] US Food and Drug Administration, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, chapter 14, Pathogenic bacteria growth and toxin formation as a result of inadequate dryinggov
  4. [s1] Wikipedia, Bottarga (etymology and variants only), accessed 2026-10-16wiki