Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Fish and seafood from Sudan

Kejeickkejeick

Kejeick is Sudan's hard, dried fermented fish. In the north the cleaned fish are dried at once on sticks, stones, grass or mats; in the south they are lightly salted or dipped in strong brine and fermented for two to three days first.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Kejeick itself.

DocumentedFish and seafood5 days – 10 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedArtisanal process with no fixed amounts.
Mixed fishUsually small Alestes and Hydrocynus[fao-ftp329]
Salt (southern Sudan only)Sprinkled sparingly or used as a strong brine dip; no amount given[fao-ftp329]

Total time across the recorded steps: 5 days – 10 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Large fish are gutted and split; small fish stay whole

Step 1 of 4
Clean and split the fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: large fish gutted, split along the back, scaled or headed; small fish whole or split at the belly.

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

Kejeick is Sudan's hard, dried fermented fish. In the north the cleaned fish are dried at once on sticks, stones, grass or mats; in the south they are lightly salted or dipped in strong brine and fermented for two to three days first. Made in 4 steps over 5 days – 10 days. The longest step, dry, takes 3–7 days (Essuman K.M. 1992).

Key numbers
Main step3–7 daysReported[fao-ftp329]Dry

What makes this one different

Kejeick is dried hard, unlike the wet salted fessiekh and the pasty terkeen of Sudan. In northern Sudan the fish are dried at once, with no salting step described.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Northern kejeickDried straight after washing, with no salting step described.
  • Southern kejeickSalted sparingly or brine-dipped and fermented 2–3 days before drying.

Safety

Insects attack it if it picks up moisture, and fatty fish turn rancid (FAO). Spores of Clostridium botulinum are present in fish guts, so US FDA guidance says fish that will be salted, dried or fermented should be gutted first, because toxin can form during the process otherwise. The FDA exempts small fish under 5 inches only if processing eliminates preformed toxin and prevents toxin formation, and a shelf-stable product reaches a water activity of 0.85 or below or a pH of 4.6 or less. Small fish may stay whole in kejeick, and no source we read gives its water activity or pH. For a shelf-stable dried product the FDA names 0.85 or below as the water activity that stops pathogen growth, and it lists S. aureus and C. botulinum as the hazards of inadequate drying. FAO suggests poisoning from fish may be low in Africa because food is generally cooked with intense, prolonged heat; that is an explanation, not a test. The FDA says the intended use is unlikely to change these hazards, because S. aureus toxin is highly stable and C. botulinum toxin is extremely toxic.

History and sources

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

FAO's 1992 survey of fermented fish in Africa lists kejeick with fessiekh, terkeen and mindeshi as Sudan's fermented fish.

  1. [fao-ftp329] Essuman K.M. 1992, Fermented fish in Africa, a study on processing, marketing and consumption, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 329, section 3 (the Sudan)gov
  2. [fao-ftp329-s2] Essuman K.M. 1992, Fermented fish in Africa, a study on processing, marketing and consumption, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 329, section 2.5.3 (Clostridium poisoning)gov
  3. [fda-fish14] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, chapter 14 (pathogen growth and toxin formation from inadequate drying)gov
  4. [sami2022] Sami A. et al. 2022, Sudanese fermented foods, The Boolean, Snapshots of Doctoral Research at University College Cork 6:89–93paper