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Meat from Thailand

Naangหนาง

Naang is a southern Thai sour meat. Strips of pork or lean beef with cooked skin are salted for two to three days, then mixed with fermented bamboo shoot or banana-stem core and sugar or honey and left in a covered earthenware jar in the shade for five to ten days until sour. It is cooked in coconut-milk curries.

Fully documentedMeat7 days – 13 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe only amount given is the salt ratio of about 10:1 meat to salt by weight; other amounts are left to the maker.
Pork or lean beef with a small amount of cooked skinEar and other head parts give a better taste[jircas-naang]
SaltAbout 1 part to 10 parts meat, by weight[jircas-naang]
Fermented bamboo shoot or fresh banana-stem coreAs the eater prefers[jircas-naang]
Sugar or honey; in some places palm sugar and roasted rice[jircas-naang][thwiki-naang]

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 13 days

Start
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What changes: Meat and cooked skin are cut into long, thin strips

Step 1 of 4
Cut meat and cooked skin into thin strips
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
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

Naang is a southern Thai sour meat. Strips of pork or lean beef with cooked skin are salted for two to three days, then mixed with fermented bamboo shoot or banana-stem core and sugar or honey and left in a covered earthenware jar in the shade for five to ten days until sour. It is cooked in coconut-milk curries. Made in 4 steps over 7 days – 13 days. The longest step, ferment in a covered jar in the shade, takes 5–10 days (JIRCAS 1995). Salt is 10 % (JIRCAS 1995). Lactobacillus plantarum, Pediococcus pentosaceus and P. acidilactici and Bacillus sp. and Micrococcus sp. do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step5–10 daysReported[jircas-naang][thwiki-naang]Ferment in a covered jar in the shade
Salt10 %Reported[jircas-naang]Salt and ferment briefly

What makes this one different

Naang is salted strongly first and then soured with bamboo shoot or banana-stem core and sugar, not with cooked rice as naem is. It is used as a cooking ingredient.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Naang-hooa-moo and naang-hooa-wooa (head)Only head pieces are used, salted for about one month; the other ingredients go in when it is wanted, and it ferments 2 more days.

Safety

Naang is eaten cooked, in curries, soups and steamed dishes (Thai Wikipedia); a Thai magazine article adds that it is also fried, baked or grilled. JIRCAS gives a keeping time of 1 month.

History and sources

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

A 2018 Thai magazine article says southern Thais make it from beef or pork scraps, often left over from merit-making events, and that a similar salted-meat and bamboo-shoot practice exists in Phetchaburi.

  1. [jircas-naang] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand: Naang (after The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995)gov
  2. [thwiki-naang] Thai Wikipedia, หนาง (Naang)wiki
  3. [silpa-naang] Kritch Luealamai (กฤช เหลือลมัย) 2018, แกงหนางไหลบัว สำรับสำหรับคนชอบหนาง แล้ว "หนาง" คืออะไร-มาจากไหน? (Naang lotus-shoot curry, and what naang is and where it comes from), Silpa-Watthanatham (Art and Culture) magazine, June 2018web