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Fermentation Atlas

Sauces and condiments from Southern Iran

Mahyawaمهیاوه

Small sardines or anchovies are mixed with salt and water and left to break down for about a month, stirred every day, until a brown liquid forms. The liquid is strained, mixed with roasted mustard and other spices and set in the sun for about two weeks. Made in 4 steps over 35 days – 55 days. The longest step, ferment, stirring every day, takes 25–40 days (Ghayoomi H 2024) and runs at 37–39 °C (Ghayoomi H 2024). Salt is 15–35 % (Kavian F 2022). Lactic acid bacteria and Streptococcus, Micrococcus and Bacillus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step25–40 daysReported[ghayoomi2024]Ferment, stirring every day
Temperature37–39 °CMeasured[ghayoomi2024][kavian2022]Ferment, stirring every day
Salt15–35 %Measured[kavian2022]Mix the fish with salt and water
AciditypH 5.4 → 6.5Measured[ghayoomi2024]Ferment, stirring every day
Fully documentedSauces and condiments35 days – 55 daysMore sauces and condimentsMore from Iran

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are from the Kavian and Nateghi laboratory recipe, which follows the traditional ingredients. Households in southern Iran use no fixed amounts, and traditional sauces vary widely in salt.
1 part by weightSmall sardines or anchovies · Whole, with the guts; Kavian and Nateghi also tested tuna[kavian2022]
1 part by weightWater[kavian2022]
15–35 % of the mixSalt · Traditional sauces measured 7.4–17.1 % salt[kavian2022][ghayoomi2024]
10 % of the strained liquidMustard · Roasted mustard, fennel and pepper in the traditional finish[kavian2022][ghayoomi2024]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 35 days – 55 days

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a leafSalt 15–35 %

What changes: Whole small fish go into salty water, which starts to draw water out of them

Step 1 of 4
Mix the fish with salt and water
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
15–35 %
Measured
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: fish in salty brine.

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

What makes this one different

Mahyawa ferments for only about a month, far shorter than the 6 to 18 months of Southeast Asian fish sauces, and it is finished with roasted mustard and spices and set in the sun. Its salt is often lower, which makes histamine a real problem.

Related ferments

Variants

  • SuraghNamed by Kavian and Nateghi as another name for mahyaveh.
  • Low-salt mahyavehLab version with 12.65 % salt brine held at 39 °C for 40 days; histamine stayed at 43.49 mg/kg.

Safety

Histamine is the main hazard. Codex caps fish sauce at 40 mg histamine per 100 g, and the EU at 400 mg/kg. Traditional mahyaveh samples have held up to 7916 mg/kg, and a lab batch reached 16 339 mg/kg by day 30. Salt at 7.4–17.1 % in traditional sauces is below the 200 g/L Codex expects; more salt and longer fermentation lowered microbe counts, including Enterobacteriaceae.

Hazards the sources name: Enterobacteriaceae (up to 4.4 log cfu/ml at 15 % salt and 30 days; fewer with more salt and time); Histamine-forming bacteria (3.00 → 4.58 log cfu/ml over 40 days).

History and sources

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

Mahyawa is traditional in the southern provinces of Iran, including Fars and Hormozgan, and is made in households with no quality controls. Zarei and colleagues surveyed 66 local sauces in 2012, and laboratory studies since 2019 have tested salt, time and spice oils to cut histamine.

  1. [ghayoomi2024] Ghayoomi H., Edalatian Dovom M.R., Habibi Najafi M.B., Pourfarzad A. 2024, The principal component analysis of key and significant features of the safety and nutritional value of Mahyaveh sauce, Food Science & Nutrition 12, doi:10.1002/fsn3.3970 (cites Zarei et al. 2012 for the 66-sample survey)paper
  2. [kavian2022] Kavian F., Nateghi L. 2022, Optimization of production conditions of Mahyaveh, a traditional Iranian fish sauce, with low microbial load, Iranian Journal of Microbiology 14(2), doi:10.18502/ijm.v14i2.9194paper
  3. [hajimohammadi2019] Hajimohammadi B., Raeisi M., Eftekhar E., Mohebat R., Saffari A. 2019, Studying the effect of Allium sativum and Bunium persicum essential oils on histamine production in Mahyaveh, Journal of Food Safety, doi:10.1111/jfs.12590 (abstract)paper
  4. [codex302] Codex Alimentarius Commission, Standard for Fish Sauce, CXS 302-2011 (amended 2012, 2013), FAO/WHOspec
  5. [eu2073] Commission Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs, Annex I row 1.27a (histamine in fish sauce), as retained in UK lawspec