Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Fish and seafood from Philippines

Lumlomlumlom

Lumlom is a Bulacan dish of whole milkfish or tilapia buried in mud for a day or two so that it ferments slightly. The fish is then cleaned and cooked as paksiw sa tuba, in nipa vinegar with spices and sometimes coconut cream, and eaten as pulutan with drinks.

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

Short entryFish and seafood24 h – 2 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo amounts are recorded in the sources read.
Whole milkfish or tilapia[wiki-lumlom]
Nipa vinegar, spices, sometimes coconut creamFor cooking after fermentation[wiki-lumlom]

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h – 2 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Whole fish are buried in mud and ferment slightly

Step 1 of 3
Bury whole fish in mud
Time
24 h – 2 days
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

Lumlom is a Bulacan dish of whole milkfish or tilapia buried in mud for a day or two so that it ferments slightly. The fish is then cleaned and cooked as paksiw sa tuba, in nipa vinegar with spices and sometimes coconut cream, and eaten as pulutan with drinks. Made in 3 steps over 24 h – 2 days. The longest step, bury whole fish in mud, takes 24 h – 2 days (English Wikipedia 2026).

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 2 daysReported[wiki-lumlom]Bury whole fish in mud

What makes this one different

Lumlom is fermented only a day or two in mud, then cooked in vinegar. Burong isda, from Central Luzon, is fermented with rice and salt.

Related ferments

Safety

The sources record no salt or acid to protect whole fish buried in mud, and no study we found has tested this method. Botulinum bacteria live in soil and grow where air is shut out. Ordinary cooking does not kill their spores; toxin already formed needs 80 °C for 20 minutes or 100 °C for 1–2 minutes (MAFF). The steps here are a record of a local dish, not a tested method.

History and sources

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

Described as pre-colonial (Wikipedia).

  1. [wiki-lumlom] English Wikipedia, Lumlom (read 2026-10-23), citing Fenix 2017, Country Cooking (Anvil)wiki
  2. [featr] FEATR 2022, This fisherman ferments fish in mud in the Philippines (video page; gives the name Lumlum but no process details)web
  3. [maff-boto] MAFF Japan, hazard profile, Clostridium botulinum (food poisoning cases and control measures)gov