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Fish and seafood from South Korea, south coast

Meonggejeot멍게젓

Meongge-jeot is jeot of the sea squirt (meongge, Halocynthia roretzi), shelled, sliced and salted. Little is written about a traditional recipe; a 1993 study salted sliced sea squirt at 5–20 % and found that 20 % salt at room temperature, or 5–10 % salt kept at 5 °C, held its fresh smell for 50 days.

Fully documentedFish and seafood46 days – 52 daysFamily: Jeotgal (Korean salted fermented seafood)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAmounts are the test levels of a 1993 laboratory study; no traditional recipe with amounts was found.
Fresh sea squirt, shelled and slicedIn season May to August, best in May[lee1993][nfm-meongge]
Salt5–20 % (w/w) in a 1993 study[lee1993]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 46 days – 52 days

Start
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What changes: The fresh sea squirt is shelled and sliced

Step 1 of 5
Shell and slice
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus sakei
Lactobacillus curvatus
Weissella koreensis
Lactic acid bacteria

Fresh sea squirts are shelled and sliced. Sea squirt spoils within a day or two, so it is used fresh.

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

Meongge-jeot is jeot of the sea squirt (meongge, Halocynthia roretzi), shelled, sliced and salted. Little is written about a traditional recipe; a 1993 study salted sliced sea squirt at 5–20 % and found that 20 % salt at room temperature, or 5–10 % salt kept at 5 °C, held its fresh smell for 50 days. Made in 5 steps over 46 days – 52 days. The longest step, ripen cold, takes 45–50 days (Lee K.H 1993) and runs at 4–6 °C (Lee K.H 1993). Salt is 5–20 % (Lee K.H 1993). Lactobacillus sakei, Lactobacillus curvatus and Weissella koreensis and Lactobacillus sakei do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step45–50 daysReported[lee1993]Ripen cold
Temperature4–6 °CReported[lee1993]Ripen cold
Salt5–20 %Reported[lee1993]Salt

What makes this one different

A short-ripened jeot of a sea squirt, not a fish or shellfish; at low salt it must be kept cold, because at 5 % salt it reached a spoiled smell in about 10 days.

Spoilage at low salt
At 5 % salt, volatile bases reached a spoiled-smell level in about 10 days
Season
Sea squirts are in season from May to August, best in May

Related ferments

Safety

In the 1993 study 5–15 % salt at 25 °C gave off-odours, mould and white slime within 10–40 days, while 20 % salt, or 5–10 % salt at 5 °C, kept its fresh smell to 50 days. The study followed smell, appearance and chemical spoilage markers (volatile bases), not pathogens or toxins.

History and sources

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

The National Folk Museum encyclopedia says sea squirt was an accompaniment snack served to customers waiting for raw fish and other dishes until meongge bibimbap, which began in Tongyeong, made it the centre of a dish, and that meongge jeotgal is among the dishes now made from it. Lee et al. published a 1993 series on the use of sea squirt (Halocynthia roretzi) that included the processing and quality of fermented sea squirt.

  1. [lee1993] Lee K.H., Cho H.S., Lee D.H., Ryuk J.H., Cho Y.J., Suh J.S., Kim D.S. 1993, Utilization of ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi 5. Processing and quality evaluation of fermented ascidian (I), Bull. Korean Fish. Soc. 26(3):221-229 (abstract)paper
  2. [lee1993b] Lee K.H., Cho H.S., Lee D.H., Kim M.G., Cho Y.J., Suh J.S., Kim D.S. 1993, Utilization of ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi 6. Processing and quality evaluation of fermented ascidian (II), Bull. Korean Fish. Soc. 26(4):330-339 (abstract)paper
  3. [lee1993c] Lee K.H., Cho H.S., Lee D.H., Kim M.G., Cho Y.J., Suh J.S., Kim D.S. 1993, Utilization of ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi 7. Processing and quality evaluation of fermented ascidian (III), Bull. Korean Fish. Soc. 26(4):340-345 (abstract)paper
  4. [nfm-meongge] Kim J. (김준), Meongge (멍게), National Folk Museum of Korea, Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture: Korean Food, Clothing and Housing (한국의식주생활사전)book
  5. [kim2019] Kim J.A., Yao Z., Kim H.J., Kim J.H. 2019, Physicochemical properties and bacterial communities of meongge (Halocynthia roretzi) jeotgal prepared with 3 different types of salts, J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 29(4):527–537 (abstract)paper
  6. [song2018] Song E.J., Lee E.S., Park S.L., Choi H.J., Roh S.W., Nam Y.D. 2018, Bacterial community analysis in three types of the fermented seafood, jeotgal, produced in South Korea, Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 82(8):1444–1454 (abstract)paper
  7. [yao2019] Yao Z., Kim J.A., Kim J.H. 2019, Characterization of a fibrinolytic enzyme secreted by Bacillus velezensis BS2 isolated from sea squirt jeotgal, J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 29(3):347–356 (abstract)paper