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Sauces and condiments from Philippines

Patispatis

Patis is the Philippine fish sauce. Small fish such as anchovies are mixed with a lot of salt and left in covered jars or tanks for months, until the fish breaks down and a clear, salty liquid collects on top. The liquid is drawn off as patis. The fish mass it comes from is the bagoong stock, which can be extracted again with saturated brine.

Fully documentedSauces and condiments30 days – 12 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceSalt-to-fish ratios as given in a review of Southeast Asian fermented fish; makers vary.
Small fishDilis anchovies (Stolephorus) or mixed species such as sardinella and club mackerel[klit1982][narzary2021]
Salt1 part salt to 3 parts fish, or 2 parts salt to 7 parts fish[narzary2021][bersamin1962]

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 12 months

Start
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What changes: Small fish are mixed with plenty of salt

Step 1 of 4
Mix small fish with salt
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus
Micrococcus

Output: salted 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

Patis is the Philippine fish sauce. Small fish such as anchovies are mixed with a lot of salt and left in covered jars or tanks for months, until the fish breaks down and a clear, salty liquid collects on top. The liquid is drawn off as patis. The fish mass it comes from is the bagoong stock, which can be extracted again with saturated brine. Made in 4 steps over 30 days – 12 months. The longest step, ferment in covered containers or tanks, takes 30 days – 12 months (Klitsaneephaiboon M. 1982). Salt is 25–29.1 % (藤井建夫 (Fujii T.) 1980). Bacillus (B. subtilis, B. megaterium, B. circulans), dominant through 12 months and Micrococcus (M. colpogenes, M. cryophilus) and Staphylococcus (S. saprophyticus, S. epidermidis), found in the early and later stages do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 12 monthsReported[klit1982]Ferment in covered containers or tanks
Salt25–29.1 %Measured[fujii1980][nakano2017]Draw off the clear liquid
AciditypH 5.1–5.1Measured[fujii1980][nakano2017]Draw off the clear liquid

What makes this one different

Patis comes from the same salted fish as bagoong isda. Bagoong is the paste, ready sooner; patis is the clear liquid drawn off after longer fermentation. Codex, for fish sauce in general, says the fermentation generally takes not less than 6 months.

Related ferments

Safety

A 1962 study of commercial patis found that samples with more total solids and less moisture kept better, because moisture lets moulds grow. The Philippine Standards Association standard of 1958 asked for 20–25 % salt in patis. Codex treats fish sauce made by fermenting fish with salt, a class the study places patis in, and asks for at least 200 g/l salt, a histamine cap of 40 mg per 100 g, and fish fit to be sold fresh.

History and sources

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

The US Fish and Wildlife Service's Philippine Fishery Program reported in 1950 that pure salt has advantages over solar salt in making bagoong and patis, with early fermentation twice as fast in bagoong salted with pure salt, and that 45 °C for a week then 37 °C for two weeks gave the degree of fermentation normally reached in six months. On 4 September 1958 the Philippine Standards Association adopted quality standards for bagoong and patis.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [codex302] Codex Alimentarius, CXS 302-2011, Standard for fish sauce (amended 2012, 2013)spec
  2. [klit1982] Klitsaneephaiboon M. 1982, Fermentation of fish sauce (patis) in the Philippines, MS thesis, University of the Philippines Los Baños (abstract, SEARCA database)paper
  3. [fujii1980] 藤井建夫 (Fujii T.), Basuki S.B., 戸沢晴巳 (Tozawa H.) 1980, フィリピン産魚醤油の化学組成および微生物相 (Chemical composition and microflora of fish sauce "patis" and fish paste "bagoong" produced in the Philippines), 日本水産学会誌 (Nippon Suisan Gakkaishi) 46(10):1235–1240, doi:10.2331/suisan.46.1235 (abstract)paper
  4. [nakano2017] Nakano M. et al. 2017, Data on the chemical properties of commercial fish sauce products, Data in Brief 15:658–664 (table 2, product P1), doi:10.1016/j.dib.2017.10.022paper
  5. [narzary2021] Narzary Y., Das S., Goyal A., Lam S., Sarma H., Sharma D. 2021, Fermented fish products in South and Southeast Asian cuisine, Journal of Ethnic Foods 8(1) (review)paper
  6. [bersamin1962] Bersamin S.V., Napugan R.S.J. 1962 (year from the AGRIS record), Preliminary studies on the comparative chemical composition of the different commercial brands of patis in the Philippines, Bureau of Fisheries, Diliman, Quezon City (scan on FAO OpenKnowledge; author names are garbled in the scan, spelled as in AGRIS)paper
  7. [dof-leaflet9] Division of Fisheries (now Bureau of Fisheries), Philippines, undated, Preparation of fish sauce (patis), Leaflet No. 9, reprinted in The Local Government Review p.168 (one-page scan, University of the Philippines library repository)gov
  8. [wp] Wikipedia, Fish sauce (outline only)wiki