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Fish and seafood from Thailand

Hoi-ma-laeng-poo-dorngหอยแมลงภู่ดอง

Hoi-ma-laeng-poo-dorng is shelled green mussel meat washed in brine, mixed with sea salt at 7 to 1 by weight and left to ferment for 4 to 5 days before it is sealed in jars. Lactic acid bacteria make the dark orange, semi-solid meat sour as well as salty. It is eaten uncooked with ginger, shallot and chilli.

Fully documentedFish and seafood4 days – 5 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceMeat-to-salt ratio of 7:1 by weight from the JIRCAS database of Thai fermented foods (after The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995). No other amounts are given.
Shelled green mussel meat7 parts by weightWashed in 10 % brine, then in water, and drained[jircas-hoimalaeng]
Sea salt1 part by weight[jircas-hoimalaeng]
Starterspontaneous; a rice-flour starter of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Pediococcus acidilactici has been tested

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 days – 5 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: green mussels taken out of the shell

Step 1 of 4
Shell the mussels
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
L. plantarum

Output: raw mussel meat.

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

Hoi-ma-laeng-poo-dorng is shelled green mussel meat washed in brine, mixed with sea salt at 7 to 1 by weight and left to ferment for 4 to 5 days before it is sealed in jars. Lactic acid bacteria make the dark orange, semi-solid meat sour as well as salty. It is eaten uncooked with ginger, shallot and chilli. Made in 4 steps over 4 days – 5 days. The longest step, mix with sea salt and ferment, takes 4–5 days (JIRCAS 1995). Salt is 12.5 % (JIRCAS 1995). Lactiplantibacillus plantarum subsp. plantarum and Companilactobacillus formosensis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–5 daysReported[jircas-hoimalaeng]Mix with sea salt and ferment
Salt12.5 %Reported[jircas-hoimalaeng]Mix with sea salt and ferment

What makes this one different

Unlike hoi-kraeng-dorng and hoi-siap-dorng, which are cured whole in fish sauce, the mussel meat is shelled and fermented with dry salt, so lactic acid bacteria make it sour. Hoi-som also sours shelled clam meat, but adds rice-washing water and sugar to feed the bacteria.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Starter-fermented musselA dried rice-flour powder carrying Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Pediococcus acidilactici, added at 1 % of the mussel weight, speeds the fermentation to 3 days.

Safety

The Thai community product standard for pickled shellfish (หอยดอง), which names hoi-ma-laeng-poo-dorng as an example, requires no Salmonella in 25 g, no Staphylococcus aureus in 0.1 g, no Clostridium perfringens in 0.01 g, E. coli below 3 MPN per gram and no more than 100 mould colonies per gram. It bans preservatives and synthetic colours and limits lead, mercury and arsenic. The meat is eaten uncooked. Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety says mussels and other bivalves concentrate hepatitis A virus from sewage-polluted water, and it advises boiling all shellfish for at least five minutes before eating. Mussels can also carry natural toxins that the FDA says even cooking or retorting will not remove, so the control is mussels from waters a shellfish authority has not closed.

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.
  1. [fda-fish-guide] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance (pathogens from the harvest area; natural toxins)gov
  2. [jircas-hoimalaeng] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand: Hoi-ma-laeng-poo-dorng (after The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995)gov
  3. [kingkaew2022] Kingkaew E., Konno H., Hosaka Y., Phongsopitanun W., Tanasupawat S. 2022, Distribution, cholesterol-lowering and immunomodulation effects of lactic acid bacteria from fermented mussel (Hoi-dong), Heliyon 8:e12272paper
  4. [boonprab2022] Boonprab K. 2022, Rice flour powder carrying mixed starter culture of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum KU-LM173 and Pediococcus acidilactici KU-LM145 for fermented mussel, Perna viridis, J. Appl. Microbiol. 132:1197–1209 (abstract)paper
  5. [tcps320] Thai Industrial Standards Institute, Thai Community Product Standard มผช.320/2547, Pickled shellfish (หอยดอง) (copy on archive.org)spec
  6. [cfs-hav] Centre for Food Safety, Hong Kong, Hepatitis A virus in shellfishgov