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Fermentation Atlas

Fish and seafood from Korea

Ojingeo-jeot오징어젓

Ojingeo-jeot is squid that is cleaned, salted and left to ripen, then cut into strips and seasoned with chilli and garlic. Traditional jeotgal is salted at 15–25 %, but most squid jeotgal sold in Korea is a low-salt, seasoned form with about 8 % salt that must be kept cold. Made in 4 steps over 23 days – 52 days. The longest step, keep cold, takes 23–52 days (Lee K.G 2012) and runs at -1–10 °C (Lee K.G 2012). Salt is 3–5 % (Lee K.G 2012). Leuconostoc does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step23–52 daysMeasured[lee2012][kim1993]Keep cold
Temperature-1–10 °CMeasured[lee2012][kim1993]Keep cold
Salt3–5 %Reported[lee2012]Salt and ripen
AciditypH up to 5Measured[lee2012]Keep cold
Fully documentedFish and seafood23 days – 52 daysMore fish and seafoodMore from Korea

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceNo source gives a full recipe; the salt levels are from studies of commercial and trial products.
Squid, skinned, gutted and washed[wp-ojingeo]
About 8 % in commercial seasoned squid jeotgal; 3–5 % in low-salt trialsSalt[kim1993][lee2012]
To tasteRed pepper powder, garlic and other seasonings[wp-ojingeo]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 23 days – 52 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: squid, skinned, gutted and washed

Step 1 of 4
Skin, gut and wash the squid
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Leuconostoc
Leuconostoc the
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

Traditional jeotgal is packed in 15–25 % salt. The squid jeotgal sold today is mostly lightly salted and seasoned instead, so it depends on the fridge rather than on salt.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Low-salt squid jeotgal (3–5 % salt)Kept 23 to 52 days depending on salt and storage temperature; quality close to commercial high-salt squid jeotgal.

Safety

Low-salt squid jeotgal is perishable. A study of seasoned squid jeotgal with about 8 % salt estimated its shelf life at about 3 days at 30 °C, 7 days at 20 °C and 25 days at 10 °C, so keep it refrigerated.

History and sources

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

  1. [kim1993] Kim D.S., Kim Y.M., Koo J.G., Lee Y.C., Do J.R. 1993, A study on shelf-life of seasoned and fermented squid, Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 26(1):13–20 (abstract)paper
  2. [lee2012] Lee K.G., Kim S.M. 2012, Quality changes in low-salted squid jeot-gal during fermentation and determination of shelf-life, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 41(5):687–694 (abstract)paper
  3. [jung2013] Jung J., Choi S., Jeon C.O., Park W. 2013, Pyrosequencing-based analysis of the bacterial community in Korean traditional seafood, ojingeo jeotgal, J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 23(10):1428–1433, doi:10.4014/jmb.1305.05018 (abstract)paper
  4. [wp-ojingeo] Wikipedia, Ojingeo-jeot (preparation outline only)wiki