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Meat from Thailand

Mam (Isan liver sausage)หม่ำ

Mam is a northeast Thai sausage of minced beef, buffalo or pork mixed with liver (and spleen), salt, garlic, roasted rice and cooked rice. The mix is packed into a cleaned intestine, stomach or bladder and hung in the shade for a few days until it turns sour. The Thai community product standard sets its pH at no more than 4.6.

Fully documentedMeat2 days – 3 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source gives amounts; makers use no fixed ratio of meat to liver. Food colouring is not allowed by the community product standard.
Minced beef, buffalo meat or porkThe main ingredient; there is no fixed ratio of meat to liver[jircas-mam][tcps-mam]
Liver (and spleen) of the same animal[jircas-mam][tcps-mam]
Salt, crushed garlic, ground roasted rice and cooked rice (cooled)[jircas-mam][tcps-mam]
Ox small intestine or stomach, or bladderCleaned by kneading with coarse salt, washed with alum solution and kept soaking in water[jircas-mam][tcps-mam]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 3 days

Start
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What changes: Meat and liver are minced and mixed with salt, garlic and two kinds of rice

Step 1 of 5
Mince meat and liver and mix with rice and seasoning
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Pediococcus pentosaceus
Micrococcus sp.
Lactic acid bacteria

Meat and liver are minced together and mixed well with salt, garlic, ground roasted rice and cooled cooked rice.

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

Mam is a northeast Thai sausage of minced beef, buffalo or pork mixed with liver (and spleen), salt, garlic, roasted rice and cooked rice. The mix is packed into a cleaned intestine, stomach or bladder and hung in the shade for a few days until it turns sour. The Thai community product standard sets its pH at no more than 4.6. Made in 5 steps over 2 days – 3 days. The longest step, hang in the shade to sour, takes 2–3 days (Thai Industrial Standards Institute 2003). Pediococcus pentosaceus and Micrococcus sp. and Staphylococcus epidermidis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysSet[tcps-mam]Hang in the shade to sour
AciditypH up to 4.6Set[tcps-mam]Hang in the shade to sour

What makes this one different

Mam adds liver and spleen to the meat and uses roasted rice as well as cooked rice, and it is packed in a large gut, stomach or bladder. Naem uses pork and boiled rind with cooked sticky rice, wrapped in leaves.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Mam-neua pasteThe mixed ingredients are packed into a bowl and left to ferment, then sold as a paste.
  • Round mamFermented in a gallbladder gives a round mam; in gut, a long one; Thai Wikipedia gives 5–6 days of fermenting.

Safety

Thai community product standard TCPS 146-2546 sets pH at no more than 4.6, bans food colouring and requires Salmonella to be absent in 25 g, S. aureus and C. perfringens absent in 0.1 g and E. coli below 3 MPN per g. Its label rules call for advice such as cooking before eating and keeping it refrigerated. The mix is raw meat and liver hung in the shade, and souring is not a kill step. The US CDC says curing, drying or smoking alone does not consistently kill Trichinella worms, and undercooked pork is among the meats it names. Cook mam through before eating.

Hazards the sources name: Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium perfringens and Escherichia coli are tested for under the community product standard (Salmonella absent in 25 g; S. aureus and C. perfringens absent in 0.1 g; E. coli below 3 MPN per g).

History and sources

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

A home industry of northeast Thailand. Thai Wikipedia notes it was first a way to keep beef left after a cow was slaughtered, using better meat than for sai krok.

  1. [tcps-mam] Thai Industrial Standards Institute 2003, Thai Community Product Standard TCPS 146-2546 (มผช.๑๔๖/๒๕๔๖), Mam (หม้ำ), copy on the Internet Archivespec
  2. [jircas-mam] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand: Mam (after The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995)gov
  3. [thwiki-mam] Thai Wikipedia, หม่ำ (Mam)wiki
  4. [cdc-trichinellosis] US CDC 2024, How to Prevent Trichinellosisgov