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Fish and seafood from Thailand

Hoi-siap-dorngหอยเสียบดอง

Hoi-siap-dorng is small wedge clams cured whole in fish sauce. The clams are washed free of sand, drained dry, covered with fish sauce in a closed jar and left in the shade for 2 to 3 days. The pale brown, salty meat is eaten raw with rice.

Fully documentedFish and seafood2 days – 3 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe JIRCAS database (after The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995) gives no fixed amounts; the clams are packed in a dry jar and covered with fish sauce.
Whole wedge clamsenough to fill the jarWashed well to remove sand, then drained dry[jircas-hoisiap]
Fish sauceenough to cover the clams[jircas-hoisiap]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 3 days

Start
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What changes: The wedge clams are washed free of sand and left to drain until dry

Step 1 of 4
Wash out the sand and drain dry
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The clams live in sand, so they are washed until the sand is gone. Output: clean, dry whole clams.

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

Hoi-siap-dorng is small wedge clams cured whole in fish sauce. The clams are washed free of sand, drained dry, covered with fish sauce in a closed jar and left in the shade for 2 to 3 days. The pale brown, salty meat is eaten raw with rice. Made in 4 steps over 2 days – 3 days. The longest step, cure in the shade, takes 2–3 days (JIRCAS 1995).

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[jircas-hoisiap]Cure in the shade

What makes this one different

Hoi-siap-dorng is cured in fish sauce for 2 to 3 days. It is made like hoi-kraeng-dorng but with small wedge clams instead of blood cockles.

Related ferments

Safety

The Thai community product standard for pickled shellfish (หอยดอง), which names hoi-siap-dorng as an example, requires no Salmonella in 25 g, no Staphylococcus aureus in 0.1 g, no Clostridium perfringens in 0.01 g, E. coli below 3 MPN per gram and no more than 100 mould colonies per gram. It bans preservatives and synthetic colours and limits lead, mercury and arsenic. The clams are eaten raw, and CDC says most vibriosis comes from raw or undercooked shellfish. Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety says clams and other bivalves concentrate hepatitis A virus from sewage-polluted water. It tells the public to buy fresh shellfish and to scrub and rinse them, and also to boil all shellfish for at least five minutes before eating. We found no study showing that a few days in fish sauce replaces that boiling, so this page records a practice and is not a safe recipe.

Hazards the sources name: Salmonella (must be absent in 25 g), Staphylococcus aureus (absent in 0.1 g) and Clostridium perfringens (absent in 0.01 g), with Escherichia coli below 3 MPN per g, under the Thai community standard for pickled shellfish (หอยดอง), which names hoi-siap-dorng as a product name.

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.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [jircas-hoisiap] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand: Hoi-siap-dorng (after The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995)gov
  2. [tcps320] Thai Industrial Standards Institute, Thai Community Product Standard มผช.320/2547, Pickled shellfish (หอยดอง) (copy on archive.org)spec
  3. [thaipbs-foodwork] Thai PBS, Foodwork, เก็บหอยเสียบ เลียบริมหาดวอนนภา (episode page), 2 July 2023web
  4. [cfs-hav] Centre for Food Safety, Hong Kong, Hepatitis A virus in shellfishgov
  5. [cdc-vibrio] CDC, About Vibrio infectiongov