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Fish and seafood from Philippines

Bagoong alamangbagoóng alamáng

Bagoong alamang is tiny Acetes shrimp (alamang) mixed with salt and left to ferment into a pink, salty paste. In a 28-day trial the paste stayed light pink for two weeks, then turned dark pink. Some makers add angkak to make it red, and the paste can be sautéed with tomatoes, garlic and onion before serving.

Fully documentedFish and seafood28 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe 3:1 shrimp-to-salt ratio matches both a common description and the middle treatment of a trial of community-made paste; makers in Sarangani and General Santos City had no standard ratio.
Acetes shrimp, washed in weak brine3 parts by weight (2 to 6 parts in a trial)[dagumanpan2018][wp-bagoong]
Salt1 part by weight (25 % salt to 75 % shrimp)[dagumanpan2018][wp-bagoong]
Angkak (red yeast rice), optional, for a red or pink colour[wp-bagoong]

Total time across the recorded steps: 28 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: tiny Acetes shrimp, washed in weak brine

Step 1 of 4
Wash the shrimp in weak brine
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
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

Bagoong alamang is tiny Acetes shrimp (alamang) mixed with salt and left to ferment into a pink, salty paste. In a 28-day trial the paste stayed light pink for two weeks, then turned dark pink. Some makers add angkak to make it red, and the paste can be sautéed with tomatoes, garlic and onion before serving. Made in 4 steps over 28 days. The longest step, ferment in jars, takes 28 days (Dagumanpan R.M.B. 2018). Salt is 14–33 % (Dagumanpan R.M.B. 2018).

Key numbers
Main step28 daysMeasured[dagumanpan2018]Ferment in jars
Salt14–33 %Reported[dagumanpan2018][wp-bagoong]Mix with salt

What makes this one different

Bagoong alamang uses tiny whole shrimp and salt, with angkak only for colour, unlike balao-balao, which adds cooked rice. With no rice, salt does the preserving.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Sautéed bagoong alamangSautéed with tomatoes, garlic and onion after fermentation and served with pork chicharrón (Wikipedia caption).
  • Aramang (Ilocos)The Ilocano name for the krill or shrimp paste.

Safety

Salt is the main control here. In a 28-day trial histamine rose from 10.26–20.63 ppm to 18.31–31.02 ppm. The US FDA notes histamine can form during salting and fermenting until a product is fully shelf-stable. Its 50 ppm guidance level is set for fish, not shrimp, so it is only a rough yardstick here.

Hazards the sources name: Histamine-forming bacteria (histamine rose from 10.26–20.63 ppm to 18.31–31.02 ppm over 28 days in a trial).

History and sources

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

Felice Sta. Maria's Philippine Food History site says the earliest appearance of the word bagoong in a Philippine historical reference could be 1613, in Fr. San Buenaventura's entry for salmuera (brining solution), which defines it as fish or shrimp fermented in salt.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [dagumanpan2018] Dagumanpan R.M.B. 2018, Influence of salt concentration on the quality of sergestid shrimp (Acetes sp.) paste, BS Fisheries thesis, Mindanao State University–General Santospaper
  2. [delarosa2021] Dela Rosa C.J.O., Lee A.C., Rivera W.L. 2021, Pink pigmented facultative methylotrophic bacteria isolated from fermented Philippine shrimp paste, Tropical Life Sciences Research 32(2):147–161, doi:10.21315/tlsr2021.32.2.10paper
  3. [fda-ch7] US Food and Drug Administration, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, chapter 7, Scombrotoxin (histamine) formationgov
  4. [wp-bagoong] Wikipedia, Bagoong (accessed 2026-10-16), citing Sanchez P.C. 2008, Philippine Fermented Foods, Principles and Technology, UP Press, p. 424wiki
  5. [phfoodhist] Sta. Maria F.P., Native Cooking by 1610 (Part D) and More by 1610, Philippine Food History (online exhibits, last updated 2022)web