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Fish and seafood from Myanmar

Panau (Kachin fish paste)

Panau is the Kachin fish paste of riverside villages. In an oral account, whole fish were wrapped in leaves and left for many days until the paste set solid; a portion was then grilled and pounded with marrow or with fermented soybean. The speaker says modern panau has flour added and is blander.

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

Short entryFish and seafood

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedAn oral account with no amounts.
Whole fish, with nothing else mixed in (the old style)[paradisec-kk2-0022]
Start
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What changes: Wrapped in leaves, whole fish ferment until they set into a solid paste

Step 1 of 3
Wrap whole fish in leaves and leave until it sets solid
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The speaker says only "many days"; no time, salt or temperature is given. Output: solid fish paste.

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

Panau is the Kachin fish paste of riverside villages. In an oral account, whole fish were wrapped in leaves and left for many days until the paste set solid; a portion was then grilled and pounded with marrow or with fermented soybean. The speaker says modern panau has flour added and is blander.

What makes this one different

The old panau was made from whole fish alone, wrapped in leaves, with no salt or flour mentioned. The speaker says highland Kachin rarely got it; only some people living by the river could eat it.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Modern panauThe speaker says flour is now added, which makes a blander paste.

Safety

Whole fish are wrapped in leaves and left for many days, and the account gives no salt amount, so it states no control. FDA says Clostridium botulinum should be assumed in raw fish, especially the guts, and that fish to be fermented should be gutted first. Do not copy this at home.

History and sources

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

Recorded in Jinghpaw with an English translation for PARADISEC in 2020 (collector Keita Kurabe; speaker Magawng Gam). The speaker says highlanders ate panau only a few times, sometimes from relatives.

  1. [paradisec-kk2-0022] Kurabe K. (collector), Magawng Gam (speaker) 2020, KK2-0022, Naw hpu a lam (Fermented soy bean) with English translation, PARADISEC, doi:10.26278/5fa2c5bf50209 (record on Research Data Australia)archive
  2. [fda-fish13] US Food and Drug Administration, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 13, Clostridium botulinum toxin formationgov