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Fish and seafood from Côte d'Ivoire

Gyagawere / Adjonfagyagawere

Gyagawere, also called adjonfa, is Ivorian fish dry-salted and left to ferment in its own liquid in vats, then sun-dried. A semi-dried type ferments up to two days and stays soft and pungent; a hard-dried type is salted for a day and dried to a firmer, milder fish that keeps for months.

Fully documentedFish and seafood2.5 days – 9 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed amounts are recorded; the FAO survey gives times and the end moisture and salt only.
Sea fish, scaled, gutted and washedwhole, cut or split fish[fao329]
Dry saltnot recordedHard-dried gyagawere ends with 7–19 % salt[fao329]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.5 days – 9 days

Start
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What changes: The fish are scaled, gutted, cut or split along the back, and washed

Step 1 of 4
Scale, gut, cut or split, and wash
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Leuconostoc lactis
Lactobacillus fermentum
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

Gyagawere, also called adjonfa, is Ivorian fish dry-salted and left to ferment in its own liquid in vats, then sun-dried. A semi-dried type ferments up to two days and stays soft and pungent; a hard-dried type is salted for a day and dried to a firmer, milder fish that keeps for months. Made in 4 steps over 2.5 days – 9 days. The longest step, sun-dry, takes 2–7 days (Essuman K.M. 1992). Salt is 7–19 % (Essuman K.M. 1992). Leuconostoc lactis and Lactobacillus fermentum, listed for gyagawere in a 2026 review table that cites Banwo et al. 2020 does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–7 daysReported[fao329]Sun-dry
Salt7–19 %Reported[fao329]Sun-dry

What makes this one different

Gyagawere ferments for hours to two days in its own salty liquid before drying. Adjuevan, the Ivorian salted fish, is in one of its two methods salted harder (around 35 %) and fermented about 5 days under weights.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Semi-dried gyagawereFermented 12 hours to 2 days and dried 2–5 days to 45–55 % moisture; pungent and soft.
  • Hard-dried gyagawereSalted 12–24 h and dried 2–7 days to about 35–40 % moisture; mild and firm.

Safety

The FAO survey found poor hygiene at many sites, reused salt and brine that carried moulds, and insect attack on fish with high moisture or too little salt. Thorough salting and drying, and clean salt, reduce spoilage.

Hazards the sources name: Osmophilic moulds (the spoilage called dun) from reused brine, noted in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, particularly in triggerfish processing.

History and sources

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

The earliest description found is the FAO survey of 1992 (Essuman), which lists gyagawere, also called adjonfa, among the fermented fish of Côte d'Ivoire and records that its processing was dominated by women, mainly from Ghana.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [fao329] Essuman K.M. 1992, Fermented fish in Africa, a study on processing, marketing and consumption, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 329, section 3 (Côte d'Ivoire) and table 3gov
  2. [kouakou2020] Kouakou-Kouamé C.A., N'guessan F.K., Montet D., Djè M.K. 2020, Biogenic amine, fatty acid, and volatile compound contents in Ivorian traditionally fermented fish adjuevan, Prev. Nutr. Food Sci. 25(1):98–107paper
  3. [khongthaw2026] Khongthaw B., Dladla M., Chauhan P.K., Dulta K., Kumar V., Oneyaka H. et al. 2026, Fermented fish products, a comprehensive overview of traditional processing techniques, varieties, and their health benefits, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 25:e70457, doi 10.1111/1541-4337.70457 (table of fermented fish; lists gyagawere from Ivory Coast with the two bacteria named above)paper