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Fish and seafood from Ghana

Momonemomone

Momone is Ghana's salted, fermented and sun-dried fish, called a fermented fish condiment in one study. Dressed fish are salted and left to ferment for one to six days, then dried in the sun for one to three days.

Fully documentedFish and seafood2 days – 9 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe FAO survey gives the process in days and steps, with no salt amounts or batch sizes.
Fish, scaled and gutted or left whole; large fish such as shark cut up or split along the backMany species are used, from catfish and croaker to squid and octopus[fao-ftp329]
Dry saltCoastal processors use cheap local solar salt and salt heavily[fao-ftp329]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 9 days

Start
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What changes: The fish are dressed and washed in sea or fresh water

Step 1 of 4
Dress and wash the fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Large fish such as shark are cut into pieces or split along the back. Output: dressed, washed fish.

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

Momone is Ghana's salted, fermented and sun-dried fish, called a fermented fish condiment in one study. Dressed fish are salted and left to ferment for one to six days, then dried in the sun for one to three days. Made in 4 steps over 2 days – 9 days. The longest step, salt and ferment, takes 24 h – 6 days (Essuman K.M. 1992).

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 6 daysReported[fao-ftp329]Salt and ferment
AciditypH at least 6Measured[sanni2002]Pack and store

What makes this one different

Momone is salted and fermented for only a few days and then sun-dried, so it stays a soft piece of fish, not a paste or sauce. FAO says coastal West African processors salt fermented fish heavily.

Related ferments

Variants

  • KoobiTilapia rubbed with salt, fermented two to three days and dried longer.
  • EwurefuaTriggerfish fermented 12–24 hours in brining tanks before drying.

Safety

If the salt level is low, momone attracts fly larvae and grows mould, and poorly cured fish break up. Fish cured with crude solar salt lost water activity more slowly and held more bacteria and volatile bases than fish cured with refined salt, and histamine was their main amine.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus and Klebsiella isolates (genus only) in retail momoni; Histamine, the main amine in fish cured with crude solar salt.

History and sources

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

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [fao-ftp329] Essuman K.M. 1992, Fermented fish in Africa, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 329, section 3 (traditional methods, salting and drying)gov
  2. [sanni2002] Sanni A.I., Asiedu M., Ayernor G.S. 2002, Microflora and chemical composition of momoni, a Ghanaian fermented fish condiment, Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 15(5):577–583, doi:10.1006/jfca.2002.1063 (abstract)paper
  3. [yankah1996] Yankah V.V., Ohshima T., Ushio H., Fujii T., Koizumi C. 1996, Study of the differences between two salt qualities on microbiology, lipid and water-extractable components of momoni, a Ghanaian fermented fish product, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 71(1):33–40 (abstract)paper