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Meat from Vietnam

Nem chuanem chua

Raw lean pork is ground fine, mixed with strips of boiled pork rind, roasted rice powder, sugar, salt, garlic and spices, then shaped into small rolls wrapped in guava or star gooseberry leaves and banana leaf. The rolls sour at room temperature for two to four days and are eaten raw.

Fully documentedMeat2 days – 4 days

Recipe

Nem chua, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Joshua Rappeneker, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceThe shares of pork and rind are those quoted in the introduction of a study of fermented foods from central Vietnam (Phan et al. 2017), which takes them from an earlier study; they are not measurements from that study's own samples. The sources used here give no amounts for the rice powder, sugar, salt or spices.
Finely ground raw lean pork55–60 %[phan2017]
Boiled pork rind, sliced into strings30–35 %[phan2017][pilasombut2015]
Ground roasted rice, sugar, salt, garlic and spices[phan2017][pilasombut2015]
Guava (Psidium guajava) or star gooseberry leaves, then banana leaf[phan2017][pilasombut2015]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 4 days

Start
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What changes: Pork rind is boiled and sliced into thin strings

Step 1 of 5
Boil the pork rind and slice it into strings
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. plantarum
C. farciminis
Leuconostoc citreum
Pediococcus pentosaceus

Output: boiled rind strings.

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

Raw lean pork is ground fine, mixed with strips of boiled pork rind, roasted rice powder, sugar, salt, garlic and spices, then shaped into small rolls wrapped in guava or star gooseberry leaves and banana leaf. The rolls sour at room temperature for two to four days and are eaten raw. Made in 5 steps over 2 days – 4 days. The longest step, ferment at room temperature, takes 2–4 days (Phan Y.T.N 2017). Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Companilactobacillus farciminis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–4 daysReported[phan2017]Ferment at room temperature
AciditypH 4.9Measured[phan2017]Ferment at room temperature

What makes this one different

Nem chua is a small raw pork roll soured in leaf wrappers for only a few days, with boiled pork rind and roasted rice powder in the mix. It is not dried or smoked, unlike most European fermented sausages.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Nem ngọtLighter fermentation, sweeter.
  • Tré (central Vietnam)Made with cooked pork, including ear and nose; less lactic acid and, on average, more acetic acid than nem chua in five Huế market samples each.

Safety

Nem chua is eaten without cooking after two to four days of souring at ambient temperature. A 2017 study of its lactic bacteria says the tight wrapping inhibits potential pathogens and, citing earlier work, gives a shelf life of five days at room temperature, but it tested neither pathogens nor keeping. Souring is not shown to make raw pork safe. The US CDC says curing, drying or smoking alone does not consistently kill Trichinella worms, and undercooked pork is among the meats it names. A 2013 post-outbreak study in Thanh Hoa province linked raw and undercooked dishes, nem chua among them, made from one hunted wild boar to trichinellosis and advised thorough cooking of meat. These steps describe a traditional product, not a tested home method.

Hazards the sources name: Trichinella (parasite) in meat from a hunted wild boar; a post-outbreak study linked raw lap and undercooked nem chua made from one boar to 30 seropositive cases in Muong Lat, Thanh Hoa.

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.
  1. [phan2017] Phan Y.T.N., Tang M.T., Tran T.T.M. et al. 2017, Diversity of lactic acid bacteria in vegetable-based and meat-based fermented foods produced in the central region of Vietnam, AIMS Microbiology 3(1):61paper
  2. [nguyen2013] Nguyen D.T.L., Van Hoorde K., Cnockaert M. et al. 2013, A culture-dependent and -independent approach for the identification of lactic acid bacteria associated with the production of nem chua, a Vietnamese fermented meat product, Food Research Internationalpaper
  3. [nguyen2010] Nguyen H.T., Elegado F.B., Librojo-Basilio N.T. et al. 2010, Isolation and characterisation of selected lactic acid bacteria for improved processing of nem chua, Beneficial Microbespaper
  4. [pilasombut2015] Pilasombut K., Rumjuankiat K., Ngamyeesoon N., Duy L.N.D. 2015, In vitro characterization of bacteriocin produced by lactic acid bacteria isolated from nem chua, Korean Journal for Food Science of Animal Resources 35(4):473paper
  5. [do2014] Do T.T.L., Vu N.T., Phan-Thi H. et al. 2014, Traditional fermented sausage nem chua as a source of yeast biocatalysts efficient for the production of the aroma compound γ-decalactone, International Journal of Food Science and Technologypaper
  6. [nga2013] Vu Thi N., Do T.D., Litzroth A., Praet N., Nguyen T.H., Nguyen T.H., Nguyen M.H., Dorny P. 2013, The hidden burden of trichinellosis in Vietnam: a postoutbreak epidemiological study, BioMed Research International 2013:149890paper
  7. [wp] Wikipedia, Nem chua (outline only)wiki
  8. [cdc-trichinellosis] US CDC 2024, How to Prevent Trichinellosisgov