Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Fish and seafood from Philippines

Guinamos / ginamosginamos

Ginamos is the Cebuano name for salted, fermented tiny fish such as anchovies or silverfish, sold in jars or open buckets in southern Philippine markets. The fish are mixed with about a quarter to a fifth of their weight in salt and left to mature for weeks. It is cloudy grey and is usually eaten uncooked with vinegar.

Fully documentedFish and seafood45 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are one tested batch of spicy ginamos from a 2023 study in Tawi-Tawi; plain ginamos is made with salt only.
Anchovies (Stolephorus spp.), cleaned, washed and drained for 30 min400 g (or 500 g)[dagodog2023]
Salt100 g1 part salt to 4 parts fish (the lower bacterial count of two tested ratios); 1:5 was also tested[dagodog2023]
Spices for the spicy version10 g chilli, 10 g vinegar, 6 g ginger, 6 g garlic, 4 g onion, 5 g sugar, 2 g MSGPlain ginamos is fish and salt only[dagodog2023]

Total time across the recorded steps: 45 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Starting material: tiny anchovies, washed and drained

Step 1 of 5
Clean, wash and drain the fish
Time
30 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Ginamos is the Cebuano name for salted, fermented tiny fish such as anchovies or silverfish, sold in jars or open buckets in southern Philippine markets. The fish are mixed with about a quarter to a fifth of their weight in salt and left to mature for weeks. It is cloudy grey and is usually eaten uncooked with vinegar. Made in 5 steps over 45 days. The longest step, mature, takes 45 days (Dagodog J.M.H 2023) and runs at 20–25 °C (Dagodog J.M.H 2023). Salt is 17–20 % (Dagodog J.M.H 2023).

Key numbers
Main step45 daysReported[dagodog2023]Mature
Temperature20–25 °CReported[dagodog2023]Mature
Salt17–20 %Reported[dagodog2023]Mix with salt

What makes this one different

Ginamos is the southern Visayas and Mindanao name for fish bagoong made from anchovies, where Tagalog speakers say bagoong isda. The 2023 study describes it as kept for one or two months and eaten uncooked with vinegar.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Spicy ginamos (2023 formulation)Chilli, vinegar, ginger, garlic, onion, sugar and MSG added to salted anchovies.
  • Dayok or ginamos of krill (western Visayas)In western Visayas the names also cover krill or shrimp paste.
  • TinabalThe name for larger fermented fish.

Safety

Ginamos is salted and eaten uncooked. In one study of a spicy version, the 1:4 salt ratio gave a lower microbial count than 1:5 after 45 days (2.83 against 3.28 log cfu/g). Histamine can form in fish while it is salted and fermented, and the US FDA uses 50 ppm in fish flesh as its guidance level, so use fresh fish kept chilled until it is salted.

History and sources

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

Ginamos is a Cebuano word for salted brine products of tiny fish. Espejo-Hermes (2004), as cited in the 2023 study, describes it as kept for one or two months and eaten uncooked with vinegar.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [dagodog2023] Dagodog J.M.H., Abdulgani W.A., Akrim S.M., Tikmasan J.A., Sarri J.H., Maribao I.P. 2023, Sensory, physicochemical, microbiological properties and commercialization preference of formulated spicy salted fish ginamos, European Food Science and Engineering 4(2):75–80, doi:10.55147/efse.1392159paper
  2. [fda-ch7] US Food and Drug Administration, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, chapter 7, Scombrotoxin (histamine) formationgov
  3. [wp-bagoong] Wikipedia, Bagoong (regional names only), accessed 2026-10-16wiki