Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Fish and seafood from Korea

Jeongeori jeot정어리젓

Jeongeori-jeot is sardine salted and fermented; 1983 studies followed it for 80 days. They used jeot with 20 % salt as the reference and also made low-salt versions at 8–10 % salt with lactic acid, sorbitol and ethanol as preservatives and flavour enhancers. As the 20 % salt jeot ripens, the early Brevibacterium, Pseudomonas, Flavobacterium and Bacillus are replaced by Halobacterium, Micrococcus and Pediococcus.

Fully documentedFish and seafood3.6 months – 4.3 monthsFamily: Jeotgal (Korean salted fermented seafood)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe 20 % salt reference batch of the 1983 low-salt fermented sardine studies. No household recipe was found.
Sardine (Sardinops melanostictus)[lee1983]
Salt20 % saltThe reference batch in the low-salt studies[cha1983b][cha1983c]

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.6 months – 4.3 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: salt moving into a fishSalt 8–20 %

What changes: Salt is mixed through the sardines and draws water out

Step 1 of 4
Salt the sardines
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
8–20 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Brevibacterium
Bacillus
Micrococcus
Pediococcus
Yeasts

Output: salted sardine.

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

Jeongeori-jeot is sardine salted and fermented; 1983 studies followed it for 80 days. They used jeot with 20 % salt as the reference and also made low-salt versions at 8–10 % salt with lactic acid, sorbitol and ethanol as preservatives and flavour enhancers. As the 20 % salt jeot ripens, the early Brevibacterium, Pseudomonas, Flavobacterium and Bacillus are replaced by Halobacterium, Micrococcus and Pediococcus. Made in 4 steps over 3.6 months – 4.3 months. The longest step, ferment, takes 2–2.6 months (Lee E.H 1983) and runs at 26–32 °C (Lee E.H 1983). Salt is 8–20 % (Cha Y.J 1983). Micrococcus and Pediococcus (P. cerevisiae as then named), late in ripening at 20 % salt does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–2.6 monthsReported[lee1983][cha1983b]Ferment
Temperature26–32 °CReported[lee1983]Ferment
Salt8–20 %Reported[cha1983b][cha1983c]Salt the sardines
AciditypH 6Measured[cha1983c]Ferment

What makes this one different

Jeongeori-jeot is a sardine jeot. Its taste comes mainly from free amino acids, helped by nucleotides, betaine and creatinine; in low-salt versions, an antioxidant (0.02 % BHA) slowed rancidity.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Low-salt jeongeori-jeot (study)8 or 10 % salt with 0.5 % lactic acid, 6 % sorbitol and 6 % ethanol, fermented 60 days.

Safety

Treat the low-salt batches here as laboratory trials, not a method to copy. They held sardine at 8–10 % salt and 26–32 °C, near pH 6.0. For shelf-stable salted fish in reduced-oxygen packaging, the FDA's barriers against botulism, which can kill, include 20 % water-phase salt or more, pH 4.6 or below, or water activity below 0.85. Those batches miss the first two. The abstracts of the three 1983 papers give no water-activity figure and report no botulinum toxin or histamine test, so do not cut the salt. The FDA also says fish preserved by salting or fermenting should be gutted first, because toxin can form during the process even with strict temperature control. Its exception for ungutted fish under 5 inches has further conditions. Sardine is also a fish FAO and WHO name for histamine poisoning. The FDA says histamine can form during salting and fermenting until a product is shelf-stable, and that heat does not remove it, so start from fresh, chilled fish. In the low-salt studies, ethanol, sorbitol and lactic acid held microbe numbers below those of the 20 % salt jeot, and volatile basic nitrogen stayed under 70 mg/100 g after 100 days, which does not show the batches were free of toxin. Korea's Food Code allows sorbic acid only in jeotgal with 8 % salt or less and sets an E. coli limit (n=5, c=1, m=0, M=10).

History and sources

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

The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture lists jeongeori-jeot among the jeot made in the fifth month. The same entry says the earliest record of jeotgal as a group is in the Samguk Sagi, where jeotgal is among the bridal gifts for King Sinmun of Silla; that record is for jeotgal in general, not for sardine.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [lee1983] Lee E.H., Cha Y.J., Lee J.S. 1983, Studies on the processing of low salt fermented sea foods 1. Processing conditions of low salt fermented sardine, Korean J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. (Bull. Korean Fish. Soc.) 16(2):133–139 (abstract)paper
  2. [cha1983b] Cha Y.J., Cho S.Y., Oh K.S., Lee E.H. 1983, Studies on the processing of low salt fermented sea foods 2. The taste compounds of low salt fermented sardine, Korean J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 16(2):140–146 (abstract)paper
  3. [cha1983c] Cha Y.J., Chung S.Y., Ha J.H., Jeong I.C., Lee E.H. 1983, Studies on the processing of low salt fermented sea foods 3. Changes of microflora during fermentation of low salted sardine, Korean J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 16(3):211–215 (abstract)paper
  4. [ency-jeotgal] Suh H.K. 1995 (revised 2022), Jeotgal (젓갈), Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Academy of Korean Studiesbook
  5. [mfds-code] Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Korean Food Code (식품공전), 5. Standards by food, 20. processed fishery products, 20-2 jeotgal (젓갈류)spec
  6. [fda-ch13] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 13: Clostridium botulinum Toxin Formationgov
  7. [fda-ch7] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 7, Scombrotoxin (histamine) formationgov
  8. [fao-histamine] FAO 2013, Public health risks of histamine and other biogenic amines from fish and fishery products (highlights of the FAO/WHO expert meeting)gov