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Fish and seafood from Indonesia

Jambal rotijambal roti

Jambal roti is an Indonesian salted fish that is fermented before it is dried. It is usually made from giant sea catfish (Arius thalassinus), and sometimes from farmed Pangasius catfish. The split fish is salted, left to ferment, washed and dried. A lab study on the catfish version dry-salted the split fish at 25 and 30 %, fermented it for 24 to 48 hours, washed it and dried it in an oven.

Fully documentedFish and seafood2 days – 3 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe salt levels are the two treatments of a lab study on Pangasius jambal roti (Amir et al. 2024), not a fixed traditional recipe.
CatfishHeaded, gutted and split fish[amir2024]
Crystal salt, rubbed on dry25 % or 30 % (treatments tested)[amir2024]

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

Start
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What changes: The catfish is headed, gutted and split open into two halves

Step 1 of 5
Head, gut and split the fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

In the lab study, the head and guts were removed and the fish split into two halves.

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

Jambal roti is an Indonesian salted fish that is fermented before it is dried. It is usually made from giant sea catfish (Arius thalassinus), and sometimes from farmed Pangasius catfish. The split fish is salted, left to ferment, washed and dried. A lab study on the catfish version dry-salted the split fish at 25 and 30 %, fermented it for 24 to 48 hours, washed it and dried it in an oven. Made in 5 steps over 2 days – 3 days. The longest step, ferment, takes 24 h – 2 days (Amir N 2024). Salt is 25–30 % (Amir N 2024).

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 2 daysReported[amir2024]Ferment
Temperature70 °CReported[amir2024]Dry
Salt25–30 %Reported[amir2024]Dry-salt

What makes this one different

Jambal roti is a fermented salted fish. In the Pangasius lab study the fish was left to ferment for 24 to 48 hours before it was washed and dried. Pedah salts whole mackerel for weeks until the flesh turns red, and bekasam sours freshwater fish with cooked rice.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Pangasius jambal rotiMade from farmed Pangasius (patin) catfish. A 2024 study in Makassar tested it as a preserved product for South Sulawesi, where patin had so far been used only fresh.

Safety

In the Pangasius lab study, total plate counts averaged 0 to 1.037 × 10^3 colonies per gram, below the 1.0 × 10^5 limit of SNI 2721.1-2009 (Amir et al. 2024). In the Rembang samples the water activity was 0.723 and the salt content 18.2 %. E. coli and Salmonella were absent, but the water content (48.5 %), the total aerobic count (6.6 × 10^2 CFU/g) and the yeast and mould count (1.4 × 10^3 CFU/g) were above the standards the authors applied (Karyantina et al. 2021). Salted fish is high in sodium.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. (tested for and absent in the Rembang jambal roti samples).

History and sources

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

By 1987 Indonesian fisheries researchers were describing the Cirebon method of salting at 30-35 % of the fish weight and sun-drying for 3-5 days (Burhanuddin et al., as cited by Irianto and Irianto 1998). Irianto and Irianto (1998) named Pekalongan, Cilacap, Cirebon and Pangandaran as the Java production centres, and a 2021 study by Karyantina and colleagues sampled artisanal producers in Rembang Regency, Central Java. Indonesia published a national standard for jambal roti, SNI 8376:2017, which a 2024 study of farmed Pangasius catfish used to judge its samples.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [amir2024] Amir N., Syahrul S., Metusalach M., Hafifah N. 2024, Catfish jambal roti Pangasius sp., product characteristics based on salt concentration and fermentation length, Torani Journal of Fisheries and Marine Science 7(2):123–130paper
  2. [chan2023] Chan S.X.Y. et al. 2023, A comprehensive review with future insights on the processing and safety of fermented fish and the associated changes, Foods 12(3):558, table 2 (citing Karyantina et al. 2021, jambal roti from Rembang, Central Java)paper
  3. [indriati2006] Indriati N., Setiawan I.P.D., Yulneriwarni 2006, Potensi antibakterial bakteri asam laktat dari peda, jambal roti, dan bekasam, Jurnal Perikanan Universitas Gadjah Mada 8:153–159 (abstract)paper
  4. [karyantina2021] Karyantina M., Anggrahini S., Utami T., Rahayu E.S. 2021, Jambal roti characteristics, a traditional fermented fish from Rembang, Central Java, Food Research 5(S2):128–134 (abstract)paper
  5. [irianto1998] Irianto H.E., Irianto G. 1998, Traditional fermented fish products in Indonesia, in James D.G. (ed.), Fish utilization in Asia and the Pacific, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP Publication 24)book
  6. [narzary2021] Narzary Y. et al. 2021, Fermented fish products in South and Southeast Asian cuisine, Journal of Ethnic Foods 8:33paper