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Fish and seafood from Cambodia

Mam (Cambodian fermented fish)មាំ

Mam is a Cambodian fermented fish, separate from prahok and from Vietnamese mắm. Salted freshwater fish is fermented with palm sugar, and in one account roasted red sticky rice, for a long time; it is sweeter, less salty and more acid than prahok. Market samples hold about 2–19 % salt at pH 4.5–5.7.

DocumentedFish and seafood12 months

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source gives amounts; the ingredients come from a market survey and a food-writer's account.
Freshwater fishSnakehead fillets (Lees 2006); trey bondol ampov, a clupeid, in the market survey (Ly et al. 2020)[lees2006][ly2020]
Salt[ly2020]
Palm sugar[lees2006][ly2020]
Roasted red sticky rice[lees2006]

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 months

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a fish

What changes: The fish are filleted and salted

Step 1 of 4
Fillet and salt the fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Mam is a Cambodian fermented fish, separate from prahok and from Vietnamese mắm. Salted freshwater fish is fermented with palm sugar, and in one account roasted red sticky rice, for a long time; it is sweeter, less salty and more acid than prahok. Market samples hold about 2–19 % salt at pH 4.5–5.7. Made in 4 steps over 12 months. The longest step, ferment until mature, takes at least 12 months (Lees P. 2006). Salt is 1.9–18.7 % (Chrun R 2023).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 12 monthsReported[lees2006]Ferment until mature
Salt1.9–18.7 %Measured[chrun2023][ly2020]The finished mam (market samples)
AciditypH 4.5–5.7Measured[chrun2023][ly2020]The finished mam (market samples)

What makes this one different

Prahok is a grey, very salty paste (about 21 % salt, pH about 6.2). Mam is less salty (about 9 %) and more acid (about pH 5.1), and palm sugar sweetens it. In Cambodia mam names this one product, while in Vietnam mắm is a general word for fermented fish and shrimp products (Lees 2006).

Related ferments

Variants

  • Mam lahongGreen papaya fermented with tiny fermented fish, salt and herbs; pH 3.7–3.8 and 3–4 % salt in 3 market samples (Ly et al. 2020).

Safety

Market mam often carries Enterobacteriaceae: E. coli was found in 52 % and Proteus in 35 % of samples (Chrun et al. 2023). One of three mam trey samples had more than 500 ppm histamine, a level linked to poisoning (Ly et al. 2020). It is usually cooked, in soups or steamed (Lees 2006), but cooking or freezing cannot remove histamine once it has formed (FDA). Mam is a separate product from prahok, but a Mekong review names prahok among the raw or inadequately cooked fish through which people catch the liver fluke Opisthorchis viverrini, and no source we found tests mam for it, so cook it through. WHO says fermented and salted fish are among the foods that have carried botulinum toxin, and that C. botulinum will not grow below pH 4.6 (salt and low storage temperature also hold it back). Market mam ran up to pH 5.67 with salt as low as 1.9 %, so no source here shows this ferment is a tested home method.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli in 12 of 23 market samples (52 %) and Proteus in 8 of 23 (35 %).

History and sources

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

  1. [chrun2023] Chrun R., Mith H., Meng S., Long S., Born P., Inatsu Y. 2023, Assessing prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Escherichia coli and other Enterobacteriaceae isolated from Cambodian fermented fish and vegetables, JARQ 57(4):311-320paper
  2. [ly2020] Ly D., Mayrhofer S., Schmidt J.M., Zitz U., Domig K.J. 2020, Biogenic amine contents and microbial characteristics of Cambodian fermented foods, Foods 9(2):198paper
  3. [lees2006] Lees P. 2006, Just the facts, Mam, Phnomenon (food in Cambodia blog)web
  4. [fda-ch7] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 7, Scombrotoxin (histamine) formationgov
  5. [sithithaworn2012] Sithithaworn P., Andrews R.H. et al. 2012, The current status of opisthorchiasis and clonorchiasis in the Mekong Basin, Parasitology International 61(1):10-16paper
  6. [who-botulism] World Health Organization, Botulism, fact sheetgov