Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Fermentation Atlas

Fish and seafood from Thailand

Pla chao (khao mak fish)ปลาเจ่า

Sweet-sour-salty fish; mould-fermented rice gives sugar and alcohol; keeps 2-3 months (JIRCAS). Made in 3 steps over 12 days – 22 days. The longest step, ferment in jars, takes 10–20 days (JIRCAS 1995). Salt is 25 % (JIRCAS 1995). Pediococcus halophilus and Bacillus, Micrococcus, Staphylococcus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step10–20 daysReported[jircas-plachao]Ferment in jars
Salt25 %Reported[jircas-plachao]Salt fish, then wash
DocumentedFish and seafood12 days – 22 daysMore fish and seafoodMore from Thailand

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
freshwater fish
salt
khao mak (sweet fermented glutinous rice made with loog-pang starter) or ang-kak
Starter: other: loog-pang (mixed mould-yeast cake) via khao mak

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 days – 22 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: salt moving into a fishSalt 25 %

What changes: Salt draws water out for 2 days, then the fish is washed

Step 1 of 3
Salt fish, then wash
Time
2 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
25 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Pediococcus halophilus
Bacillus
Micrococcus
Yeasts
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

Variants

  • Koong-chao (kungchao)Shrimp made the same way (JIRCAS).

History and sources

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

  1. [s1] Li et al. 2024, Foods 13:2565 (lists 'Chao' paper in references)paper
  2. [jircas-plachao] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand: Pla-chao / Koong-chao (after The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995)gov