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Fish and seafood from Malaysia

Pekasampekasam

Pekasam is Malaysian freshwater fish salted overnight, coated in ground roasted rice and sealed for one week to a month. Lactic acid bacteria feed on the rice and sour the fish. In Malaysia it is usually fried and eaten with rice.

Fully documentedFish and seafood7 days – 30 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAmounts from a university lab method (Md Yusoff et al. 2025), given as a share of the fish weight.
Freshwater fishSilver barb, three-spot gourami or climbing perch in the lab method; tilapia is popular[yusoff2025]
Salt25 % (w/w)Lab method; the paper cites 20–30 % salt for fermented fish in general[yusoff2025]
Ground roasted rice30 % (w/w)The carbohydrate for the lactic acid bacteria[yusoff2025]
Tamarind pulp or dried asam gelugur slices (optional)Speeds up the fermentation; see pekasam-asam[yusoff2025]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 30 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: cleaned freshwater fish, patted dry

Step 1 of 4
Clean and dry the fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Cut, cleaned, patted dry and rested about 15 minutes.

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

Pekasam is Malaysian freshwater fish salted overnight, coated in ground roasted rice and sealed for one week to a month. Lactic acid bacteria feed on the rice and sour the fish. In Malaysia it is usually fried and eaten with rice. Made in 4 steps over 7 days – 30 days. The longest step, seal and ferment, takes 7–30 days (Md Yusoff N.I 2025) and runs at 28 °C (Md Yusoff N.I 2025). Salt is 10–30 % (Md Yusoff N.I 2025). Lactic acid bacteria does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7–30 daysReported[yusoff2025][mahyudin2015][narzary2021]Seal and ferment
Temperature28 °CReported[yusoff2025]Seal and ferment
Salt10–30 %Reported[yusoff2025][narzary2021]Salt overnight
AciditypH 4.5–6.1Reported[narzary2021]Seal and ferment

What makes this one different

Pekasam is a short, rice-based souring like Thai plaa-som, but the fish is salted overnight first and coated in roasted, not cooked, rice. The acid-assisted form adds tamarind or asam gelugur to speed the souring.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Pekasam asam (acid-assisted)Tamarind or asam gelugur added to speed the fermentation; see pekasam-asam.
  • Pekasam ale-aleWest Kalimantan form made from ale-ale clam flesh (not fish) with 40 % salt; see pekasam-ale-ale.

Made the pekasam way

Safety

Commercial pekasam has carried several Listeria species, linked to poor handling (Narzary et al. 2021).

Hazards the sources name: Listeria ivanovii, L. innocua, L. seeligeri and L. welshimeri in commercial pekasam, from poor handling.

History and sources

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

Mahyudin and colleagues (2015), citing Awang (2001), call pekasam one of the ancient foods of Malaysia. Md Yusoff and colleagues (2025), citing Huda (2012), call it one of the oldest Malaysian delicacies and place its production in Perlis, Kedah, Perak and Kelantan. Wikipedia adds that in Cirebon, West Java, a pekasam called bekasem is prepared for Mawlid.

  1. [yusoff2025] Md Yusoff N.I., Nurhayati Y., Yusof N., Mat Gani H.S., Che Ku Jusoh T.F.I. 2025, Effects of fermentation on physical properties and lactic acid bacteria growth in ikan pekasam (fermented fish), Journal of Agrobiotechnology 16(2):55-62paper
  2. [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 8:33 (tables 1 and 2)paper
  3. [mahyudin2015] Mahyudin N.A., Ibadullah W.Z.W., Saadin A. 2015, Effects of protein content in selected fish towards the production of lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus spp.) during the production of pekasam, Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science 3(3):219–223paper
  4. [wp] Wikipedia, Pekasamwiki