Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Fish and seafood from Côte d'Ivoire

Adjuevanadjuevan

Adjuevan is an Ivorian salted, fermented fish used as a condiment. Whole sea fish are left in the air for a day or two, gutted, dry-salted at about 35 %, fermented under weights for 5 days and then sun-dried. A second method fillets the fish and ferments it while it dries on racks.

Fully documentedFish and seafood2.2 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe salt share of method 1 (whole fish) as recorded from four producers at Assinie and Abidjan-Vridi by Kouakou-Kouamé et al. 2020. The producers use no other fixed amounts.
Fresh sea fish (Galeoides decadactylus in the studied batches)Whole fish[kouakou2020]
Salt, rubbed on dryAbout 35 % of the fish weight (w/w)20–35 % (w/w) for the filleted method[kouakou2020]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.2 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countYeastsPichia fermentansHanseniaspora osmophilaCandida zeylanoides24 h – 2 days

What changes: The whole fish rests under plastic for a day or two and starts to break down

Step 1 of 5
Leave the whole fish in the air
Time
24 h – 2 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts
Pichia fermentans
Hanseniaspora osmophila
Candida zeylanoides

Output: whole fish left to deteriorate in the air.

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

Adjuevan is an Ivorian salted, fermented fish used as a condiment. Whole sea fish are left in the air for a day or two, gutted, dry-salted at about 35 %, fermented under weights for 5 days and then sun-dried. A second method fillets the fish and ferments it while it dries on racks. Made in 5 steps over 2.2 months. The longest step, store, takes 56 days (Abré M.G 2023) and runs at 4–30 °C (Abré M.G 2023). Salt is 20–35 % (Kouakou-Kouamé C.A 2020). Yeasts, led by Pichia fermentans and Hanseniaspora osmophila, with Candida zeylanoides, Candida sp., Kluyveromyces marxianus, Kluyveromyces sp. and Torulaspora delbrueckii does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step56 daysReported[abre2023]Store
Temperature4–30 °CReported[abre2023]Store
Salt20–35 %Reported[kouakou2020]Gut, wash and dry-salt

What makes this one different

Adjuevan is left to deteriorate in the air before salting, then fermented briefly and dried, so it ends up a dry salted fish, not a paste or sauce. The whole-fish method ferments before drying; the filleted method ferments and dries at once.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Filleted adjuevan (method 2)The fish rests in the air for 24 h, is filleted along both sides and dry-salted at 20–35 % (w/w), then ferments outdoors at 28–32 °C while it sun-dries on racks for at least 7 days.

Safety

Freshly made adjuevan of Galeoides decadactylus held less than 2 mg/kg histamine. In storage, adjuevan made from tuna (Thunnus thynnus) went over 200 mg/kg histamine, the maximum level the authors cite from the Codex Alimentarius. Fish species and storage both matter, so of the three fish tested, tuna adjuevan was the riskiest. For tuna and similar fish, FDA guidance allows at most 4 hours above 4.4 °C if any of that time is above 21 °C, so leaving such fish unchilled for a day or two before salting goes far past it. Cooking does not remove histamine once it has formed. These steps record traditional practice, not a safe home method.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus, Lactobacillus, Psychrobacter, Peptostreptococcus and Fusobacterium (rise with biogenic amines during storage).

History and sources

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

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [kouakou2020] Kouakou-Kouamé C.A., N'guessan F.K., Montet D., Djè M.K. 2020, Biogenic amine, fatty acid, and volatile compound contents in Ivorian traditionally fermented fish adjuevan, Prev. Nutr. Food Sci. 25(1):98–107, doi:10.3746/pnf.2020.25.1.98paper
  2. [abre2023] Abré M.G., Kouakou-Kouamé C.A., N'guessan F.K., Teyssier C., Montet D. 2023, Occurrence of biogenic amines and their correlation with bacterial communities in the Ivorian traditional fermented fish adjuevan during the storage, Folia Microbiol. 68(2):257–275, doi:10.1007/s12223-022-01010-2 (abstract)paper
  3. [gsc2020] Kouakou-Kouamé A.C., N'guessan K.F., Aka S., Montet D., Djè K.M. 2020, Salt concentration effect on yeast diversity of the Ivorian traditional fermented fish adjuevan, GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences 13(1):086-094, doi:10.30574/gscbps.2020.13.1.0248 (abstract)paper
  4. [fda-ch7] US Food and Drug Administration, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, chapter 7, Scombrotoxin (histamine) formationgov