Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Fish and seafood from Indonesia

Bekasambekasam

Bekasam is a freshwater fish product made by gutting and washing the fish, mixing it with salt and cooked, roasted or fermented rice (or tape), and keeping it in clay or plastic jars for days to weeks. Lactic acid bacteria are thought to sour it, leaving a soft, pale-grey fish with a dark, sticky, acid-smelling liquid.

Fully documentedFish and seafood4 days – 14 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHusin et al. (2019) made a South Sumatran bekasam by mixing 1 kg of fish with 3 % salt and 250 g of rice. IPB describes traditional bekasam as small-scale household production and gives no amounts.
Freshwater fish, eviscerated and washedCommon carp is the traditional main raw material (IPB)[ipb]
Salt3 % salt in the study recipe of Husin et al.[ipb][husin2019]
Rice250 g per kg of fish in the study recipe of Husin et al.Husin et al. do not say how the rice was cooked. IPB names cooked rice, roasted rice, fermented rice and tape as the carbohydrate source, and Narzary et al. list cooked rice and sticky rice for carp bekasam[ipb][husin2019][narzary2021]

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 days – 14 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: The fish are eviscerated and washed

Step 1 of 4
Gut and wash the fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: cleaned fish.

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

Bekasam is a freshwater fish product made by gutting and washing the fish, mixing it with salt and cooked, roasted or fermented rice (or tape), and keeping it in clay or plastic jars for days to weeks. Lactic acid bacteria are thought to sour it, leaving a soft, pale-grey fish with a dark, sticky, acid-smelling liquid. Made in 4 steps over 4 days – 14 days. The longest step, ferment at room temperature, takes 4–14 days (IPB University 2017) and runs at 28–34 °C (Husin S 2019). Salt is 3 % (Husin S 2019). Lactic acid bacteria, suspected to play the role in common carp bekasam and Lactobacillus sp., isolated from bekasam of South Sumatra do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–14 daysReported[ipb][husin2019]Ferment at room temperature
Temperature28–34 °CReported[husin2019]Ferment at room temperature
Salt3 %Reported[husin2019]Mix with salt and rice

What makes this one different

Bekasam is freshwater fish fermented with salt and rice or tape. Its cousin bakasang from North Sulawesi is made from tuna viscera.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Carp bekasamCommon carp, the traditional main raw material, with salt and rice or tape, fermented about 4–10 days (IPB).
  • Wadi (Central Kalimantan)The Central Kalimantan name for bekasam (IPB).

Safety

IPB says little is known about the microbiology of bekasam because it is made on a small scale in households, and that the finished product has a low pH. Table 2 of Narzary et al. lists pH 6.35–6.51 for a carp bekasam, so the two sources disagree. Narzary et al. add that Clostridium botulinum, Salmonella, Listeria and Staphylococcus aureus have been reported from many fermented fish products. This page records a practice, not a tested home recipe.

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. [narzary2021] Narzary Y., Das S., Goyal A., Lam S., Sarma H., Sharma D. 2021, Fermented fish products in South and Southeast Asian cuisine: indigenous technology processes, nutrient composition, and cultural significance, Journal of Ethnic Foods 8:33 (table 2)paper
  2. [ipb] IPB University 2017, A group of researchers of IPB analysed microbial characteristics of bekasam of common carp (news report on research by Desniar, Iriani Setyaningsih and Retno Santi Sumardi)web
  3. [husin2019] Husin S., Melizah A., Alkaff S., Hidayat R. 2019, The probiotic bacterium isolated from bekasam (traditional fermented food), Lactobacillus sp., induces activation of gut mucosal immune system in rat, Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences 7(21):3530–3533, doi:10.3889/oamjms.2019.790paper