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Fermentation Atlas

Fish and seafood from Philippines

Burong isdaburong isda

Salted pieces of freshwater fish are mixed with plenty of cooled cooked rice, packed into a sealed jar and left for about a week. Lactic bacteria ferment the rice, and the mix turns sour, falling below pH 4.0. The sour rice-and-fish mash is usually sautéed before it is eaten. Made in 4 steps over 7 days – 11 days. The longest step, pack into a sealed jar and ferment, takes 7–11 days (Orillo C.A. and Pederson C.S. 1968) and runs at 26–29 °C (Cabal M.S 2024). Salt is 2–10 % (Cabal M.S 2024). Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Pediococcus cerevisiae and Lactobacillus plantarum and Streptococcus first, then Leuconostoc and Lactobacillus from day 3, with Lactobacillus dominant at the end do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7–11 daysMeasured[orillo1968][cabal2024]Pack into a sealed jar and ferment
Temperature26–29 °CMeasured[cabal2024]Pack into a sealed jar and ferment
Salt2–10 %Reported[cabal2024][arcales2018]Salt the fish
AciditypH up to 4Measured[orillo1968]Pack into a sealed jar and ferment
Fully documentedFish and seafood7 days – 11 daysMore fish and seafoodMore from Philippines

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceA 750 g case-study batch from Bicol (Cabal et al. 2024), with rice and fish at 65 to 35. A lab burong bangus used 29 % milkfish, 69 % rice and 2 % rock salt; household recipes vary.
35 parts by weightFish, cleaned and sliced (tilapia in this recipe)[cabal2024]
65 parts by weightCooked rice, cooked the day before and cooled[cabal2024]
10 % of the total mixSalt · 75 g in a 750 g batch, split between the fish (50 g) and the rice (25 g)[cabal2024]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 11 days

Start
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What changes: The fish is washed, cleaned and cut into slices

Step 1 of 4
Clean and slice the fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: fish slices or fillets.

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

Burong isda uses much more rice than fish and little salt, so it is a quick lactic ferment that turns sour in a week. Bagoong and patis are salted at about 15–20 % and are not soured by rice.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Red burong isda (Pampanga)Angkak (red yeast rice) is added and colours it red (Wikipedia).
  • White burong isda (Zambales and western Central Luzon)No angkak (Wikipedia).
  • Burong bangusMade with milkfish.
  • Hingmay and kuyog (Bicol)Similar fish ferments of Bicol; kuyog uses small rabbitfish and ginger.

Safety

The acid is the main protection. Burong dalag fell below pH 4.0 within a week, under the pH 4.6 limit the FDA gives for growth of Clostridium botulinum, but it must be kept covered or yeasts and moulds grow. A Bicol case-study batch at 10 % salt had an aerobic plate count of 2.1 × 10^7 CFU/g, above the 5 × 10^5 CFU/g guideline of the Philippine FDA, though E. coli was not found. Clean fish, clean jars and enough salt matter.

History and sources

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

Buro is the Filipino word for this way of fermenting with salt, and Central Luzon and Bicol both keep it. The ferment is close to the rice-and-fish ferments of mainland Southeast Asia and to Japanese narezushi.

  1. [orillo1968] Orillo C.A. and Pederson C.S. 1968, Lactic acid bacterial fermentation of burong dalag, Appl. Microbiol. 16(11):1669–1671, doi:10.1128/am.16.11.1669-1671.1968 (abstract)paper
  2. [olympia1994] Olympia M.S.D., Ono H., Shinmyo A., Takano M. 1994, Lactic acid bacteria in a fermented fishery product, burong bangus, U.P. Research Digest 1(2):368–369 (AGRIS summary)paper
  3. [arcales2018] Arcales J.A.A. and Alolod G.A.L. 2018, Isolation and characterization of lactic acid bacteria in Philippine fermented milkfish Chanos chanos-rice mixture (burong bangus), Curr. Res. Nutr. Food Sci. 6(2), doi:10.12944/CRNFSJ.6.2.24paper
  4. [cabal2024] Cabal M.S., De Vera F., Tadeo D. et al. 2024, Burong tilapia, factors on the fermentation process and its microbiota, Samota J. Biol. Sci. 3(2):1–8paper
  5. [up2026] UP Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs 2026, Burong isda has probiotic potential (on Veluz et al. 2025, doi:10.1016/j.microb.2025.100334)web
  6. [fda-app4] US FDA 2011, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, 4th ed., Appendix 4, Bacterial pathogen growth and inactivation, Table A-1gov
  7. [s1] Wikipedia, Burong isda (red and white variants)wiki