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Small freshwater fish are gutted, salted and packed in earthenware jars, then mixed with roasted rice or rice bran and left for six months or more. Salt and lactic bacteria turn the fish into a pungent, salty, slightly sour paste that keeps for years and seasons much of north-eastern Thai food. Made in 6 steps over 12 months – 4.3 years. The longest step, keep in the jar and use as a seasoning, takes 6 months – 3 years (JIRCAS 1995). Salt is 16.7–25 % (JIRCAS 1995). Tetragenococcus muriaticus and T. halophilus and Lactobacillus acidipiscis, L. rennini and L. futsaii do most of the fermenting.
Amounts from a sourceRatios by weight from the JIRCAS Thai fermented-foods database. It says there is no standard and each producer sets the salt level.
Freshwater fish, gutted, washed and drained · Lean, unsorted fish; small fish are common in the north-east[jircas-plaraa]
1 part to 3–5 parts fish
Salt · About 1 to 4 for large fish and 1 to 5 for small fish; each maker has their own level[jircas-plaraa]
1 part to 10 parts fish (roasted grain) or 1 to 5 (bran)
Roasted rice, glutinous rice or paddy, coarsely ground; or rice bran, roasted or not · Gives flavour and colour and feeds the bacteria[jircas-plaraa]
Starter
spontaneous
Total time across the recorded steps: 12 months – 4.3 years
Start
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What changes:The fish are gutted and washed, and the water drains away
Step 1 of 6
Gut, wash and drain the fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
T. muriaticus
L. acidipiscis
Lactobacillus rennini
Tetragenococcus
Lactobacilli
Output: cleaned fish.
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
Pla ra is a long, high-salt ferment with roasted rice or bran. Plaa-som and som-fak use much less salt and more cooked rice, and are ready in days. Lao padaek is the same food made saltier (15–20 %), so it stays less sour.
Pla ra nuaSmall to medium fish with salt and rice bran at 4:1:1 for about four to six months; a gentler smell than pla ra hom (Thailand Foundation).
Pla ra homLarge fish such as snakehead, more salt, and six to ten months of fermentation (Thailand Foundation).
Northern Thai pla raLower salt (8.3–8.6 %), pH 4.5–4.8 and 2.4–3.1 g/100 g lactic acid; lactobacilli dominate.
Central Thai pla raSaltier (11.3–12.3 %) and less sour (pH 5.6–5.7); Tetragenococcus dominates.
Safety
Salt is the main control. In padaek, the Lao sister product, home batches started at 6.5 or 10 % salt built up histamine within 2 weeks at 30 °C and passed 1,000 ppm in 6 months, while batches at 18 % salt formed none (Marui et al. 2021). The FDA notes that histamine can form during salting and fermenting until a fish product is shelf-stable, and it uses 50 ppm as its guidance level. Long-fermented pla ra rarely holds live liver-fluke larvae, but raw and briefly fermented cyprinid fish do, so pla ra is safest cooked.
Hazards the sources name: Clostridium species (two found in one of ten products; not identified as toxin formers); Liver fluke Opisthorchis viverrini (in raw or briefly fermented cyprinid fish).
Fermenting fish let makers keep seasonal freshwater fish all year and gave value to small fish that sell for little fresh (Marui et al. 2015). Pla ra is traced to the Ayutthaya kingdom, and the French envoy Simon de la Loubère described fish fermented in earthen jars in 1687 (Thailand Foundation).
[marui2021] Marui J., Phouphasouk S., Giavang Y. et al. 2021, Relationship between salinity and histamine accumulation in padaek, a salt-fermented freshwater fish paste from Laos, J. Food Prot. 84(3):434–441, doi:10.4315/JFP-20-272 (abstract)paper