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Fish and seafood from Thailand

Som-khai-plaaส้มไข่ปลา

Som-khai-plaa is freshwater fish roe, sometimes with flesh or swim bladder, mixed with salt, a little cooked glutinous rice and garlic and left in a bowl out of the sun for two or three days until sour. The community product standard requires at least 3.5 % salt and a pH no higher than 4.6, and says it should be cooked before eating.

Fully documentedFish and seafood2 days – 3 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe JIRCAS database method (roe to salt 3:1 as given). The community product standard sets the limits for the finished product.
Fish roe and flesh, washed and drained3 parts[jircas]
Salt1 part[jircas]
Cooked glutinous riceA small amount[jircas]
GarlicA small amount[jircas]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 3 days

Start
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What changes: The fish roe is washed and drained

Step 1 of 4
Wash and drain the roe
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Enterococcus faecium
Lactobacillus sp.
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

Som-khai-plaa is freshwater fish roe, sometimes with flesh or swim bladder, mixed with salt, a little cooked glutinous rice and garlic and left in a bowl out of the sun for two or three days until sour. The community product standard requires at least 3.5 % salt and a pH no higher than 4.6, and says it should be cooked before eating. Made in 4 steps over 2 days – 3 days. The longest step, ferment in a bowl away from sunlight, takes 2–3 days (JIRCAS 1995). Salt is at least 3.5 % (Thai Industrial Standards Institute 2005). Enterococcus faecium and Lactobacillus sp. does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[jircas]Ferment in a bowl away from sunlight
Saltat least 3.5 %Set[tcps724]Ferment in a bowl away from sunlight
AciditypH up to 4.6Set[tcps724]Ferment in a bowl away from sunlight

What makes this one different

Som-khai-plaa ferments mainly fish roe, for only two or three days, with sticky rice and garlic like plaa-som.

Related ferments

Safety

The community product standard (TCPS 724-2548) requires pH 4.6 or lower, at least 3.5 % salt, no Salmonella in 25 g, no more than 100 S. aureus per g, no more than 500 yeasts and moulds per g, no parasites and no preservatives or colours, and says the product should be cooked before eating. JIRCAS gives a keeping time of 7 days. As a general hazard of freshwater fish ferments in Thailand, a study of plaa-som, a related carp ferment, notes that liver fluke larvae live in the flesh of carp-family fish and infect people who eat them raw or only briefly fermented, and that plaa-som is usually fermented for under a week (Senasri 2024).

History and sources

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

The Thai Industrial Standards Institute issued the community product standard for fermented roe (som khai pla) in 2005 (TCPS 724-2548).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [jircas] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand, Som-khai-plaa (references The traditional fermented foods of Thailand, 1995, and a 2023 paper on bacteriocinogenic lactic acid bacteria), read 2026-10gov
  2. [tcps724] Thai Industrial Standards Institute 2005, Thai Community Product Standard มผช.724/2548, Fermented roe (som khai pla) (TCPS 724-2548)spec
  3. [senasri2024] Senasri N., Chumnanka N., Talkul W. 2024, Temperature and preparation time intervals on survival of Opisthorchis viverrini metacercariae in pickled fish (pla-som), International Journal of Food Science 2024:4817012, doi:10.1155/2024/4817012 (introduction)paper