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Sauces and condiments from Central Dry Zone of Myanmar: Bagan, Nyaung-U, Sale and Myingyan

Pon ye gyi (Bagan black bean paste)ပုန်းရည်ကြီး

Pon ye gyi is a black paste from Bagan made from horse gram. Researchers say the best comes from the Bagan region. The beans are boiled for hours and kneaded, and the slurry stands before being boiled down to a thick black paste, which is also sun-dried into powder. Researchers call the commercial paste naturally fermented, but the sources we found do not name the microbes that act, and the only measured process is a laboratory version made with an added starch enzyme.

Fully documentedSauces and condiments20 hMyanmar geographical indication

Recipe

Pon ye gyi (Bagan black bean paste), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Ninjastrikers, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceThe traditional make has no recorded amounts. The laboratory method used 100 g of horse gram in 6 L of water.
Horse gram (pe bazat)The main and only ingredient of the commercial paste[zinmarlinn]
Sodium bicarbonate0.3 % (lab)Added during boiling to soften the beans in the laboratory method[moemoeaye]
Salt0.2 % (lab)[moemoeaye]
Paste from a previous batch (starter)Added to the bean paste at one factory in Nyaung-U, where the observer, Suzuki Lapheko, said the paste contains hardly any salt[marukome2022]
Starterbackslop at one Nyaung-U factory (some paste from a previous batch)

Total time across the recorded steps: 20 h

Start
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What changes: Horse gram boils for hours and the cooking liquor is kept

Step 1 of 4
Boil the horse gram
Time
5 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: cooking liquor and soft beans, kneaded into a slurry.

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

Pon ye gyi is a black paste from Bagan made from horse gram. Researchers say the best comes from the Bagan region. The beans are boiled for hours and kneaded, and the slurry stands before being boiled down to a thick black paste, which is also sun-dried into powder. Researchers call the commercial paste naturally fermented, but the sources we found do not name the microbes that act, and the only measured process is a laboratory version made with an added starch enzyme. Made in 4 steps over 20 h. The longest step, let the slurry stand (fermentation uncertain), takes 12 h (Moe Moe Aye 1579) and runs at 28–32 °C (Moe Moe Aye 1579).

Key numbers
Main step12 hReported[moemoeaye]Let the slurry stand (fermentation uncertain)
Temperature28–32 °CReported[moemoeaye]Let the slurry stand (fermentation uncertain)
AciditypH 7.1 → 6.6Measured[moemoeaye]Let the slurry stand (fermentation uncertain)

What makes this one different

Unlike soybean pastes such as tuong or tauco, pon ye gyi is made from horse gram, and it is boiled down for hours into a smooth black paste.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Pon ye gyi powderThe paste sun-dried and ground.

Safety

The paste is boiled down at the end. The laboratory version kept 14 weeks at best, and the 21-hour one that kept that long tasted sour.

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.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [moemoeaye] Moe Moe Aye, Nwe Nwe Aung, Khin Thet Ni, Comparative study on the characteristics of traditionally and enzymatically fermented poonyigyi from horse gram beans, 3rd Myanmar Korea Conference Research Journal 3(4):1579–1586paper
  2. [zinmarlinn] Zin Mar Linn, Drăghici O., Oancea S. 2018, Comparative study on nutritional and bioactive composition of Pone-Yee-Gyi, Myanmar traditional food and its raw material, horse gram, Romanian Biotechnological Letters 23(6), doi:10.26327/RBL2018.192paper
  3. [marukome2022] Marukome Co., Ltd. (Fermented Foods Magazine) 2022, Pon Ye Gyi, Myanmar's Fermented Bean Paste Tradition, interview with Suzuki Lapheko, who watched production at a factory in Nyaung-U, 14 April 2022web
  4. [wp-ponyegyi] English Wikipedia, Pon ye gyiwiki