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Meat from Thailand

Naemแหนม

Naem is Thai sour pork. Minced lean pork is mixed with boiled shredded rind, cooked glutinous rice, garlic, salt and usually whole chillies, wrapped tight in plastic and banana leaf, and left 3 to 5 days at room temperature. Lactic acid bacteria feed on the rice and bring the pH down to 4.6 or lower.

Fully documentedMeat3 days – 5 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceProportions from the JIRCAS Thai fermented-food database (after The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995), as shares of the minced pork or of the whole mix.
Minced red pork meatFibrous parts removed; some regions keep a little fat[jircas-naem]
Pork rind or ear20–30 % of the minced meatHair and fat removed, boiled and shredded into strips about 2–4 cm long[jircas-naem]
Cooked glutinous rice7–10 % (7–8 % for a short fermentation)Sugar source for the lactic bacteria[jircas-naem]
Salt2–3 % of the mixBelow 2 % it spoils easily; above 3 % it is too salty[jircas-naem]
Pepper0–0.05 %[jircas-naem]
Potassium nitrate0–200 ppm[jircas-naem]
Garlic and whole bird's eye chilliesThe chillies are normally added but not necessary[jircas-naem]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 days – 5 days

Start
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What changes: Lean pork is minced and the boiled rind is shredded

Step 1 of 4
Mince the lean pork and prepare the rind
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

The rind is boiled and shredded; pork ear is sometimes used for its chewiness.

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

Naem is Thai sour pork. Minced lean pork is mixed with boiled shredded rind, cooked glutinous rice, garlic, salt and usually whole chillies, wrapped tight in plastic and banana leaf, and left 3 to 5 days at room temperature. Lactic acid bacteria feed on the rice and bring the pH down to 4.6 or lower. Made in 4 steps over 3 days – 5 days. The longest step, ferment at room temperature, takes 3–5 days (JIRCAS 1995). Salt is 2–3 % (JIRCAS 1995). Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Pediococcus and Weissella and Weissella hellenica do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–5 daysReported[jircas-naem][santiyanont2019]Ferment at room temperature
Salt2–3 %Reported[jircas-naem]Mix meat, rind, rice and seasoning
AciditypH 4.6Measured[santiyanont2019]Ferment at room temperature

What makes this one different

Naem is a short, warm, rice-fed ferment of raw pork wrapped in leaf, sour within days. Dry sausages such as sucuk are stuffed in casings and ripened and dried for one to three weeks.

Related ferments

Safety

Naem is raw pork fermented at room temperature, and souring does not make it safe. A risk assessment built on published Thai data estimated that Salmonella numbers fall from raw pork to nham at pH 4.5 but do not vanish. It reports them rising over 14 days at 4 °C and recommends cooking nham before eating (Osiriphun et al. 2004). The US CDC says curing, drying or smoking alone does not consistently kill Trichinella worms, and undercooked pork is among the meats it names. In a Thai case-control study, people who had eaten raw pork had about 13 times the odds of Streptococcus suis infection (Chongkratok and Charerntanyarak). In one study all batches reached pH 4.6 or lower in 3–5 days, but in two of three batches tyramine and total biogenic amines passed the recommended limits (100 and 1,000 mg/kg) after 5 days. Over-fermenting and poor ingredients raise this risk. If potassium nitrate is used, weigh it exactly, because the CDC warns that swallowing nitrates or nitrites can cause methemoglobinemia, a potentially fatal blood condition.

Hazards the sources name: Biogenic amine formers (tyramine and total amines reached unsafe levels after 5 days in two of three batches); Salmonella (a risk assessment from Thai data put its prevalence in nham at about 3.5 %).

History and sources

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

A 1990 Massey University thesis describes nham as a traditional household industry that began in northern Thailand, especially Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang and Lamphun provinces. It says migrants from the north carried it to other regions, including Bangkok, so that by then it was eaten across Thailand and made mainly by small-scale industries.

  1. [jircas-naem] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand: Naem (after The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995)gov
  2. [santiyanont2019] Santiyanont P. et al. 2019, Dynamics of biogenic amines and bacterial communities in a Thai fermented pork product Nham, Food Research International 119:110-118 (abstract)paper
  3. [visessanguan2005] Visessanguan W., Benjakul S., Panya A., Kittikun C., Assavanig A. 2005, Influence of minced pork and rind ratios on physico-chemical and sensory quality of Nham, a Thai fermented pork sausage, Meat Science 69:355-362 (abstract)paper
  4. [wiriyacharee1990] Wiriyacharee P. 1990, The systematic development of a controlled fermentation process using mixed bacterial starter cultures for Nham, a Thai semi-dry sausage, PhD thesis, Massey University (chapter 1)paper
  5. [osiriphun2004] Osiriphun S., Pongpoolponsak A., Tuitemwong K. 2004, Quantitative risk assessment of Salmonella spp. in fermented pork sausage (Nham), Agriculture and Natural Resources 38(5):52-65paper
  6. [chongkratok-suis] Chongkratok P., Charerntanyarak L. 2024, Factors associated with the incidence of Streptococcus suis infection in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, matched case-control study, Journal of the Office of Disease Prevention and Control 9 Nakhon Ratchasima 30(2) (abstract)paper
  7. [cdc-trichinellosis] US CDC 2024, How to Prevent Trichinellosisgov
  8. [cdc-nitrite2002] US CDC 2002, Methemoglobinemia following unintentional ingestion of sodium nitrite, New York, 2002, MMWR 51(29)gov