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Fish and seafood from Thailand

Kapiกะปิ

Tiny shrimp are tossed with sea salt, drained, sun-dried, then pounded to a sticky paste and packed into jars to ferment for 4 to 6 months. Salt-tolerant bacteria and enzymes turn it into a dark, pungent paste used to season chilli dips and soups.

Fully documentedFish and seafood4 months – 6.1 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceProportions only. JIRCAS gives salt at about 15–30 % of the shrimp; no batch size.
Small saltwater or brackish-water shrimp, washed[jircas-kapi]
Sea saltAbout 15–30 % of the shrimp[jircas-kapi]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 months – 6.1 months

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a grainSalt 15–30 %

What changes: Salt draws water out of the shrimp over 1–2 days

Step 1 of 5
Toss shrimp with salt and hold
Time
24 h – 2 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
15–30 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus
Pediococcus halophilus

Output: salted shrimp and drained liquid.

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

Tiny shrimp are tossed with sea salt, drained, sun-dried, then pounded to a sticky paste and packed into jars to ferment for 4 to 6 months. Salt-tolerant bacteria and enzymes turn it into a dark, pungent paste used to season chilli dips and soups. Made in 5 steps over 4 months – 6.1 months. The longest step, ferment and age, takes 4–6 months (JIRCAS 1995). Salt is 15–30 % (JIRCAS 1995). Bacillus and Virgibacillus halodenitrificans do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–6 monthsReported[jircas-kapi]Ferment and age
Salt15–30 %Reported[jircas-kapi]Toss shrimp with salt and hold
AciditypH 6.8–7.6Measured[mahidsanan2026]Ferment and age

What makes this one different

Kapi is sun-dried before it ferments and has no rice or sugar added, so it ends salty and near neutral (pH 6.76–7.58 in seven Thai products) rather than sour. It is a seasoning, not eaten alone.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Ka-pi-plaaFish paste, mixed into shrimp paste as a cheaper product (see its entry).
  • Ka-pi-kooaKapi pounded with chilli, galangal, lemongrass, shallot, garlic and kaffir lime peel for soups.
  • Nam prik kapiDip of kapi with garlic, bird's eye chilli and lime juice or tamarind.

Safety

Kapi is very salty. Samples from markets and small makers carried Staphylococcus aureus (up to 4.47 log CFU/g), Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens, and histamine of 9.5–39.4 mg/kg; the Thai Community Product Standard allows at most 2.00 log CFU/g S. aureus. The same study found that 25 % (w/w) salt alone does not make kapi safe. Its 25 % sample had the highest total bacterial count, and the authors say hygiene and control of temperature and humidity are needed as well.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens in wet-market and community kapi; Jeotgalicoccus halotolerans, named by the authors among histamine-producing bacteria.

History and sources

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

Wikipedia says the French diplomat Simon de La Loubère, at the Siamese court in 1687, described a sauce of the Siamese that he called Capi. JIRCAS lists it as a home industry in the East and South of Thailand.

  1. [jircas-kapi] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand: Ka-pi (based on The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995, and later studies)gov
  2. [mahidsanan2026] Mahidsanan T., Srinamngoen P. and Sittisart P. 2026, Unraveling microbial diversity and physicochemical hazard level in Thai traditional fermented shrimp paste (Kapi), PeerJ 14:e20864paper
  3. [faithong2014] Faithong N. and Benjakul S. 2014, Changes in antioxidant activities and physicochemical properties of Kapi, a fermented shrimp paste, during fermentation, Journal of Food Science and Technology 51:2463–2471 (abstract)paper
  4. [s1] Wikipedia, Shrimp paste (outline only)wiki