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Fish and seafood from Indonesia

Rusiprusip

Rusip is a soft, sour-salty paste of small anchovies fermented with salt and palm sugar. The washed fish are mixed with about 25 % salt and 10 % palm sugar and closed in a jar at room temperature, where lactic acid bacteria use the sugar and the pH falls over one to three weeks.

Fully documentedFish and seafood7 days – 20 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe laboratory rusip of Yuliana (2007) and Koesoemawardani et al. (2013), both made by the traditional Bangka procedure. Rusip in general is made with 10–25 % salt and about 10 % rice or palm sugar (Yuliana 2007).
Anchovies (Stolephorus sp.), washed and drained[yuliana2007][koesoemawardani2013]
Salt25 % of the fish weight[yuliana2007][koesoemawardani2013]
Palm sugar (gula aren)10 % of the fish weightTakes the place of rice as the carbohydrate[yuliana2007][koesoemawardani2013]
Starterspontaneous (some modern rusip uses a lactic starter)

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 20 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: small anchovies, washed and drained

Step 1 of 4
Wash and drain the anchovies
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
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

Rusip is a soft, sour-salty paste of small anchovies fermented with salt and palm sugar. The washed fish are mixed with about 25 % salt and 10 % palm sugar and closed in a jar at room temperature, where lactic acid bacteria use the sugar and the pH falls over one to three weeks. Made in 4 steps over 7 days – 20 days. The longest step, ferment in a closed jar at room temperature, takes 7–20 days (Koesoemawardani D 2013). Salt is 17–30 % (Yuliana N. 2007). Lactic acid bacteria does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7–20 daysReported[koesoemawardani2013][yuliana2007]Ferment in a closed jar at room temperature
Salt17–30 %Measured[yuliana2007][koesoemawardani2013]Mix with salt, then palm sugar
AciditypH 6.3 → 5.07Measured[yuliana2007][koesoemawardani2013]Ferment in a closed jar at room temperature

What makes this one different

Rusip uses palm sugar where most Southeast Asian fish-and-carbohydrate ferments use rice, and it is ready in one to three weeks.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Non-spontaneous rusipA 2 % mixed lactic starter is added; it had more lactic bacteria, lower pH and lower TVN after 14 days.
  • Modern rusipMade from trash fish (ikan rucah), fermented with lactic acid bacteria, vacuum-packed or dried to a powdered seasoning.

Safety

In the laboratory study rusip made with 25 % salt and 10 % palm sugar fell from pH 6.25 to 5.07 over 20 days, while total volatile nitrogen (a spoilage marker) rose to 82.34 mg N/100 g (Yuliana 2007). The sources used here give no pathogen or histamine results. The 2025 review by Junianto et al. quotes much higher volatile nitrogen (237–396 mg N/100 g) for spontaneous rusip at 1 %, 2.5 % and 10 % salt, but its reference list gives that work as a study of bekasam, so those figures are not used here. Anchovy is one of the fish FAO and WHO name for histamine poisoning, which starts when the fish sit warm, generally above 25 °C for more than 6 hours, or for longer at lower temperatures. The FDA says histamine can still form during salting and fermenting until a product is shelf-stable, and that heat does not remove it, so start from fresh, chilled fish. The FDA also advises gutting fish before salting or fermenting, because botulism spores live in the viscera. It waives that only for ungutted fish under 5 inches (about 13 cm) when processing eliminates any toxin already formed and prevents more forming, and the finished product reaches 10 % water-phase salt under refrigeration or, if shelf-stable, a water activity below 0.85 or a pH of 4.6 or less. Rusip's pH stays above 5 in a closed jar at room temperature and no source here gives its water activity, so do not cut the salt. No study we read tested rusip for botulinum toxin, and this page records a practice, not a tested home recipe.

History and sources

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

Yuliana (2007) described rusip as a fermented fish product of Bangka and Lampung, and noted that the characteristics of rusip made from Lampung anchovies were little known. She cites a 1999 study (Dessi) of rusip from Bangka that found Lactobacillus, Streptococcus and Leuconostoc as the lactic bacteria. Koesoemawardani and colleagues (2013) cite an earlier survey (Koesoemawardani 2007) of Bangka rusip products, which found a wide spread of salt (17–30 %), pH (5.01–6.10) and volatile nitrogen, and read it as a sign that rusip was not yet made to a fixed standard. A 2025 review of literature from 2010–2025 (Junianto et al.) reports that makers have moved from anchovies to rucah fish, from spontaneous to lactic-starter fermentation, and from paste to powdered seasoning.

  1. [yuliana2007] Yuliana N. 2007, Profil fermentasi "rusip" yang dibuat dari ikan teri (Stolephorus sp), agriTECH 27(1)paper
  2. [koesoemawardani2013] Koesoemawardani D., Rizal S., Tauhid M. 2013, Perubahan sifat mikrobiologi dan kimiawi rusip selama fermentasi, agriTECH 33(3):265-272paper
  3. [junianto2025] Junianto J., Hidayat S. et al. 2025, Analysis of rusip product development, Jurnal Perikanan Universitas Gadjah Mada 27(2):159-165 (review)paper
  4. [fao-histamine] FAO 2013, Public health risks of histamine and other biogenic amines from fish and fishery products (highlights of the FAO/WHO expert meeting)gov
  5. [fda-ch7] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 7, Scombrotoxin (histamine) formationgov
  6. [fda-ch13] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 13: Clostridium botulinum Toxin Formationgov