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Fish and seafood from Ghana

Ewurefuaewurefua

Ewurefua is a salted, fermented and sun-dried triggerfish from Ghana. The gutted fish ferment for half a day to a day in tanks of reused saturated brine or seawater with dry salt, under a weighted cover, and are then sun-dried for two to three days.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Ewurefua itself.

DocumentedFish and seafood2.5 days – 4 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe FAO survey gives no amounts.
Triggerfish, gutted through a slit from belly to lower jawnot given[fao-ftp329]
Saturated brine from a previous salting, or seawatera small quantity in the tank[fao-ftp329]
Dry saltpoured over the fish[fao-ftp329]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.5 days – 4 days

Start
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What changes: The triggerfish is slit from belly to jaw, gutted and washed

Step 1 of 4
Slit from belly to lower jaw, gut and wash
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: gutted, washed triggerfish.

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

Ewurefua is a salted, fermented and sun-dried triggerfish from Ghana. The gutted fish ferment for half a day to a day in tanks of reused saturated brine or seawater with dry salt, under a weighted cover, and are then sun-dried for two to three days. Made in 4 steps over 2.5 days – 4 days. The longest step, sun-dry on the ground, grass, nets or racks, takes 2–3 days (Essuman K.M. 1992).

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[fao-ftp329]Sun-dry on the ground, grass, nets or racks

What makes this one different

Ewurefua ferments for only half a day to a day, in a little saturated brine with dry salt poured over the fish. It is then sun-dried, unlike Ghana's soft momone.

Related ferments

Variants

  • EwuleListed with momone, koobi and kako in FAO Table 3 for Ghana; salted overnight to 3 days, then dried 3–5 days on straw, nets or stones. The FAO text heads the koobi and ewurefua notes "Koobi/Kaka/Ewule", so ewule may be another name for ewurefua.

Safety

The FAO survey warns that reusing brine many times can contaminate fresh batches with bacteria. Fermented dried fish with more than 35 percent moisture attract blowflies, especially at low salt; below 15 percent they turn brittle and draw dermestid beetles.

History and sources

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

  1. [fao-ftp329] Essuman K.M. 1992, Fermented fish in Africa, a study on processing, marketing and consumption, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 329, section 2.2 (T0685E04.htm), sections 3.4 and 3.5 (this page, T0685E05.htm) and 3.7 and 3.9 (T0685E06.htm) (Ghana)gov