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Meat from Taiwan

Tmmyantmmyan

Tmmyan is the Atayal people's sour, salty pork. Pork belly is mixed with salt and half-cooked foxtail millet, packed tightly into a jar and left in a cool place for 7 to 10 days, longer in winter, while the starch in the millet sours the meat. It is eaten as it is, or boiled, grilled or stir-fried.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Tmmyan itself.

DocumentedMeat7 days – 15 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceProportions from a primary-school science study made with Atayal teachers; traditional makers add salt by taste and have no fixed amounts.
Pork bellyWild boar in the past[moe2019-tmmyan]
Saltabout 6 % of the porkTraditionally added by taste; 6 % worked best in a school study, and under 4 % it spoiled[fair-tmmyan]
Half-cooked foxtail millet1 part to 3 parts porkCooked with about half its volume of water; raw millet does not work[fair-tmmyan]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 15 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: salt moving into a pieceSalt 6 %

What changes: Pork belly is mixed with salt

Step 1 of 5
Salt the pork belly
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
6 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented
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

Tmmyan is the Atayal people's sour, salty pork. Pork belly is mixed with salt and half-cooked foxtail millet, packed tightly into a jar and left in a cool place for 7 to 10 days, longer in winter, while the starch in the millet sours the meat. It is eaten as it is, or boiled, grilled or stir-fried. Made in 5 steps over 7 days – 15 days. The longest step, ferment in a cool place, takes 7–15 days (pH4.6 的秘密 (The secret of pH 4.6)) and runs at 25–30 °C (pH4.6 的秘密 (The secret of pH 4.6)). Salt is 6 % (pH4.6 的秘密 (The secret of pH 4.6)).

Key numbers
Main step7–15 daysReported[fair-tmmyan][moe2019-tmmyan]Ferment in a cool place
Temperature25–30 °CReported[fair-tmmyan]Ferment in a cool place
Salt6 %Reported[fair-tmmyan]Salt the pork belly
AciditypH 5.8 → 3.8Reported[moe2019-tmmyan][fair-tmmyan]Ferment in a cool place

What makes this one different

Tmmyan uses half-cooked foxtail millet as its sugar source and is packed tight into a jar. Amis siraw is mainly salted pork, with rice or millet wine added only by some makers, and Thai naem uses cooked glutinous rice.

Related ferments

Safety

This page records a practice; it is not a recipe to follow. Tmmyan is raw pork packed tight in a jar at room temperature, and home-cured raw meat sealed this way is a botulism risk. Taiwan's health authority advises against curing raw meat at home, warns that a ready-to-eat salt-cured folk food (肉酉圭) often causes poisoning when made carelessly, and advises heating such foods before eating, because ordinary cooking destroys the toxin. Eating it uncooked removes that protection. The only process figures come from two primary-school science projects. They tracked pH and plate counts, not botulinum toxin, and the pH was still 4.9 on day 4 and fell to 3.8–4.2 in the last readings. One found it kept more than 50 days at room temperature with 6 % salt or more, and spoiled with under 4 %. That is keeping quality and does not show the food is safe.

History and sources

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

  1. [mohw-botulism] Ministry of Health and Welfare (Taiwan), 慎防肉毒桿菌危害 (Beware of botulism)gov
  2. [moe2019-tmmyan] 陳英傑, 黃淑惠, 蘇勝祥, 顏廷伍 2019, 「咑瑪糆」~ 泰雅醃肉的科學 (The science of Atayal cured meat), Ministry of Education school science education project, final report, academic year 107, Beicheng Elementary School, Luodong, Yilanother
  3. [fair-tmmyan] pH4.6 的秘密 (The secret of pH 4.6), primary-school entry on Atayal cured meat, 10th Indigenous Cloud Science Fairother