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Fish and seafood from South Korea, Jeolla

Tohajeot토하젓

Toha-jeot is jeot of toha, a small freshwater shrimp from rice paddies and reservoirs. The washed live shrimp are layered with thick salt, sealed and kept a month or more in a cool, dark place; studies salted them at 20 % and ripened them at about 4–5 °C. It is often ground with glutinous rice and chilli and seasoned before eating.

Fully documentedFish and seafood30 daysFamily: Jeotgal (Korean salted fermented seafood)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe salt share is the level used in a 1996 study; the folk method gives no amounts.
Fresh toha (freshwater shrimp), whole[nfm-toha][park1996]
Salt20 % (w/w) in a 1996 studyThe folk method layers salt thickly[park1996][nfm-toha]
Cooked glutinous rice, salt and chilli powderTo tasteGround with the shrimp for a quick or seasoned toha-jeot[nfm-toha]
Ginger and garlicTo tastePresent in commercial toha-jeot[lee1997]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days

Start
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What changes: The fresh freshwater shrimp are washed clean

Step 1 of 4
Wash the live shrimp
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Fresh toha caught in clean paddies or streams are washed well.

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

Toha-jeot is jeot of toha, a small freshwater shrimp from rice paddies and reservoirs. The washed live shrimp are layered with thick salt, sealed and kept a month or more in a cool, dark place; studies salted them at 20 % and ripened them at about 4–5 °C. It is often ground with glutinous rice and chilli and seasoned before eating. Made in 4 steps over 30 days. The longest step, ripen cool and dark, takes at least 30 days (Ahn J.Y. (안정윤)) and runs at 3–7 °C (Park W.K 1996). Salt is 20 % (Park W.K 1996).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 30 daysReported[nfm-toha][park1996][lee1997]Ripen cool and dark
Temperature3–7 °CReported[park1996][lee1997]Ripen cool and dark
Salt20 %Reported[park1996][nfm-toha]Layer with salt and seal

What makes this one different

Toha-jeot is a freshwater jeot: tiny paddy shrimp instead of sea shrimp. It is usually ground with glutinous rice and chilli, while saeu-jeot is kept whole in salt.

Season
Made in October in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture's jeotgal calendar
Shrimp
Caridina denticulata denticulata, a small freshwater shrimp also called saebaengi; saengi or saebi in Jeolla

Related ferments

Safety

One study salted it at 20 % and ripened it at about 4 °C, and a commercial version was ripened at 3–7 °C, but they measured nutrients and flavour, not safety. The folk method gives no salt amount and only a cool place. These are raw freshwater shrimp. WHO says people catch fluke worms by eating raw crustaceans, and it names freshwater crabs and crayfish as lung fluke hosts, not shrimp. No study we found tested toha for flukes or shows that salting kills them. Do not eat the quick version, made from fresh shrimp that were not first salted, raw.

History and sources

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

Toha-jeot was a royal tribute and a dish of yangban households, the Omcheon toha-jeot of Gangjin being the best-known case. Jeolla folk medicine used it for indigestion, hence the name sohwa-jeot (digestion jeot). Since the 1990s Geumjeong in Yeongam has farmed toha for Geumjeong toha-jeot.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [who-trematodes] World Health Organization, Foodborne trematode infections (fact sheet)gov
  2. [nfm-toha] Ahn J.Y. (안정윤), Toha-jeot (토하젓), National Folk Museum of Korea, Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture: Korean Food, Clothing and Housing (한국의식주생활사전)book
  3. [park1996] Park W.K., Park Y.H., Park B.H., Kim H.K. 1996, Changes in nutritional components of toha-jeot (salt-fermented toha shrimp) during fermentation, J. Korean Soc. Food Sci. Nutr. 25(4):665-671 (abstract)paper
  4. [lee1997] Lee J.S., Joo D.S., Kim H., Jang S.M., Choi H.G., Cho S.Y., Cha Y.J., Lee E.H. 1997, Flavor compounds in commercial toha-jeot, J. Korean Soc. Food Sci. Nutr. 26(2):222-228 (abstract)paper
  5. [encykorea-jeotgal] Seo H.K. (서혜경) 1995 (revised 2022), Jeotgal (젓갈), Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Academy of Korean Studiesbook