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Fish and seafood from Mali

Djege and djadandjege

Djege is an unsalted fermented and sun-dried fish of Mali. Larger fish are split, soaked in water for 12 hours to ferment and then dried on grass or mats for three to seven days. Small clupeids (djadan) are dried straight after washing and ferment as they dry.

Fully documentedFish and seafood3.5 days – 7.5 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo amounts; no salt is used.
Fresh fish (tilapia, Clarias, Alestes, Schilbe or Hydrocynus); small clupeids for djadanany quantity[fao-ftp329]
Waternot given[fao-ftp329]

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.5 days – 7.5 days

Start
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What changes: The larger fish are scaled, split along the back and headed

Step 1 of 4
Descale, split and head the larger fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: scaled fish; larger species split along the back and headed.

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

Djege is an unsalted fermented and sun-dried fish of Mali. Larger fish are split, soaked in water for 12 hours to ferment and then dried on grass or mats for three to seven days. Small clupeids (djadan) are dried straight after washing and ferment as they dry. Made in 4 steps over 3.5 days – 7.5 days. The longest step, dry on grass or mats, takes 3–7 days (Essuman K.M. 1992).

Key numbers
Main step3–7 daysReported[fao-ftp329]Dry on grass or mats

What makes this one different

Djege uses no salt. A short soak in plain water does the fermenting, and sun-drying preserves the fish.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Djadan (small clupeids)Washed and dried at once, with no soaking; fermentation happens during drying.
  • Solar-dryer djege (trials)In trials at Youwarou, fish were dried in solar dryers at 60 °C, aiming for fresh-dried and fermented-dried fish in one to two days; a weight loss of 60 % or more marked good drying.

Safety

FAO says fish fermented without salt ferment in an uncontrolled way, so pathogens can grow in the flesh and the product could be a health hazard to consumers (FAO 329, section 3.9). Djege uses no salt. In Mali the fish are also dipped for a few minutes in the insecticide Gardona or K-Othrine against blowflies, and the storage mats are treated with malathion. This is not part of the ferment. Describing fish dried in Chad, FAO calls the indiscriminate use of insecticides on dried fermented fish a health hazard to consumers. Fish above 35 percent moisture are open to blowflies, especially at low salt; below 15 percent they turn brittle and draw dermestid beetles (FAO). These steps record how djege is made in Mali, not a safe home method.

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.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [fao-ftp329] Essuman K.M. 1992, Fermented fish in Africa, a study on processing, marketing and consumption, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 329, sections 3.4 (this page, T0685E05.htm), 3.7, 3.9 and 3.11 (T0685E06.htm) (Mali)gov
  2. [heilporn] Heilporn C., Lonys L., Boey C., Haut B. and Nonclercq A., Développement d'une méthode rationnelle de séchage de poissons par l'utilisation de l'énergie solaire au Mali, Université Libre de Bruxelles (field trials January–April 2009)paper