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Sauces and condiments from China

Yúlù鱼露

Yúlù is Chinese fish sauce, native to Guangdong and Fujian. Anchovies or other small marine fish are fermented with 30–40 % salt for 12–18 months according to a review, while the fish tissue liquefies into a savoury sauce. In a 12-month study, salt-loving bacteria such as Haloanaerobium and Halomonas led the ferment.

Fully documentedSauces and condiments12 months – 18 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe salt-to-fish ratio comes from a review of fermented fish products (Narzary et al. 2021); no tested recipe with other amounts is cited here.
Anchovies or other small marine fish[narzary2021]
Salt30–40 % of the fish weightSalt to fish, w/w, as given in a review[narzary2021]

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 months – 18 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: salt moving into a pieceSalt 30–40 %

What changes: Small anchovies are packed with heavy salt

Step 1 of 4
Mix the fish with salt
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
30–40 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Halomonas
Tetragenococcus

Output: salted fish.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

high salinity had a significant bacteriostatic effect on fish sauce in a storage study (Chen 2012 abstract)

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

Yúlù is Chinese fish sauce, native to Guangdong and Fujian. Anchovies or other small marine fish are fermented with 30–40 % salt for 12–18 months according to a review, while the fish tissue liquefies into a savoury sauce. In a 12-month study, salt-loving bacteria such as Haloanaerobium and Halomonas led the ferment. Made in 4 steps over 12 months – 18 months. The longest step, ferment until the fish liquefy, takes 12–18 months (Narzary Y 2021). Salt is 30–40 % (Narzary Y 2021). Haloanaerobium and Tetragenococcus and Photobacterium do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12–18 monthsReported[narzary2021]Ferment until the fish liquefy
Salt30–40 %Reported[narzary2021]Mix the fish with salt

What makes this one different

Yúlù is made like Southeast Asian fish sauce, from anchovies or other small fish and heavy salt. The sources disagree on time: a review gives 12–18 months, while a temperature study compares two-year and three-year ferments, so the time varies by maker. In that study a two-year sauce held 8 days at 60 °C reached the volatile levels of a three-year sauce.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Heat-ripened yúlù (trial)In one study a two-year sauce held 8 days at 60 °C reached the volatile levels of a three-year sauce.
  • Reeves shad sauce (Chaoshan)Wikipedia reports Chaoshan fish sauce made from Reeves shad, a fatty, bony fish.

Safety

In a storage study of fish sauce, high salinity had a significant bacteriostatic effect. Sauce at 25 % salt had aerobic plate counts 97.91 % and 99.73 % lower than sauce at 10 % salt after 15 and 30 days, and the authors say 25 % salt could maintain quality during storage. Histamine is also a hazard in fish sauce. The Codex standard for fish sauce allows no more than 40 mg histamine per 100 g and sets a minimum of 200 g/L salt (as NaCl).

History and sources

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

Wikipedia's fish sauce article says fish sauce re-entered China in the 17th and 18th centuries, brought from Vietnam and Cambodia by Chinese traders up the coast of Guangdong and Fujian. It also says the Hokkien fish sauce kôechiap (膎汁) might be the precursor of ketchup.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [chao2010] Chao D.X., Zeng Q.X., Huang Z.Y. 2010, Effects of temperature on the characteristics of traditional fish sauce in latter fermentation (温度对传统鱼露发酵后期品质的影响), Modern Food Science and Technology 26(1):22–27 (abstract)paper
  2. [chen2012] Chen Y.Z., Wu D.K., Fang Y.C., Zhao S.Y., Gao X.Y. 2012, Effect of salinity on quality of fish sauce during storage (盐度对鱼露贮存过程中品质的影响), Modern Food Science and Technology 28(7):784–786 (abstract)paper
  3. [li2018] Li C.S., Wang Y.Q., Li L.H., Chen S.J., Wu Y.Y., Hu X., Rong H. 2018, 传统鱼露发酵过程中细菌群落演替及对其挥发性风味形成的影响分析 (Bacterial community succession and volatile flavour in traditional fish sauce), Food Science (食品科学) 39(24):85–92, doi:10.7506/spkx1002-6630-201824014 (abstract)paper
  4. [chen2024] Chen J., Wang W., Jin J., Li H., Chen F., Fei Y., Wang Y. 2024, Characterization of the flavor profile and dynamic changes in Chinese traditional fish sauce (Yu-lu), Food Research International 192:114772, doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2024.114772 (abstract, PubMed 39147494)paper
  5. [narzary2021] Narzary Y., Das S., Goyal A., Lam S., Sarma H., Sharma D. 2021, Fermented fish products in South and Southeast Asian cuisine, Journal of Ethnic Foods 8, doi:10.1186/s42779-021-00109-0paper
  6. [wp] Wikipedia, Fish sauce (China and History sections; names, Reeves shad, and the 17th–18th century return of fish sauce to China)wiki
  7. [codex302] Codex Alimentarius, Standard for Fish Sauce, CXS 302-2011, clauses 3.4 and 6.4spec