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Fish and seafood from Thailand

Pu dong (crab pickled in brine or fish sauce)ปูดอง

Pu dong is whole crab, usually sesarmid mangrove crab or rice-field crab, washed clean and soaked in a salt brine or fish sauce. A HACCP study of commercial fermented crab set the brine at 25% salt and boiled it for 20 minutes first. The Thai community standard says to cook it before eating.

Fully documentedFish and seafood20 min

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed household amounts; the brine strength is from a HACCP plan for commercial fermented crab.
Crabs (sesarmid or rice-field), washed clean[tcps1334]
Salt brine or fish sauceThe HACCP plan uses a saturated salt brine, boiled and held at 25% NaCl[tcps1334][boonprab2023]

Total time across the recorded steps: 20 min

Start
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100 °C

What changes: In one HACCP plan the salt brine is boiled for 20 minutes

Step 1 of 4
Boil the salt brine
Time
20 min
Reported
Temperature
100 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Pu dong is whole crab, usually sesarmid mangrove crab or rice-field crab, washed clean and soaked in a salt brine or fish sauce. A HACCP study of commercial fermented crab set the brine at 25% salt and boiled it for 20 minutes first. The Thai community standard says to cook it before eating. Made in 4 steps over 20 min. The longest step, boil the salt brine, takes 20 min (Boonprab K 2023) and runs at 100 °C (Boonprab K 2023). Salt is 25 % (Boonprab K 2023).

Key numbers
Main step20 minReported[boonprab2023]Boil the salt brine
Temperature100 °CReported[boonprab2023]Boil the salt brine
Salt25 %Reported[boonprab2023]Soak the crabs in the brine or fish sauce

What makes this one different

Pu dong soaks the crabs in brine or fish sauce, where poo-khem mixes live crabs with dry salt; the Thai community standard for salted crab covers both and names ปูดอง on the label list.

Related ferments

Safety

The Thai community standard for salted crab (TCPS 1334-2549) sets total microbes under 1 × 10⁶ colonies per g, no Salmonella in 25 g, S. aureus and V. parahaemolyticus each under 100 per g, coliforms under 20 per g (MPN), yeasts and moulds at most 500 per g, and no parasites, and bans synthetic colours and preservatives. It says the crab should be cooked before eating. A HACCP study set a boiled brine (100 °C, 20 min) and 25% NaCl in the fermenting brine as the critical limits (Boonprab and Donrung 2023). Salting does not make raw crab safe. The CDC says the lung fluke Paragonimus spreads through freshwater crab eaten raw, partly cooked, pickled or salted, and that crab should be cooked to at least 63 °C (145 °F). That applies to rice-field crab going into som tam or chilli dips too.

Hazards the sources name: Salmonella (must be absent in 25 g), Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus (each under 100 colonies per g) under the Thai community standard; Parasites, which must not be found in the product.

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.
Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [tcps1334] Thai Industrial Standards Institute 2006, Thai Community Product Standard มผช.1334/2549, Salted crab (ปูเค็ม) (TCPS 1334-2549), archive copyspec
  2. [boonprab2023] Boonprab K., Donrung N. 2023, HACCP plan for microbiological hazards associated with fermented crab, Episesarma mederi H. Milne Edwards 1853, Journal of Applied Microbiology 134(2):lxac087, doi 10.1093/jambio/lxac087 (abstract)paper
  3. [jircas-pookhem] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand, Poo-khem, read 2026-10gov
  4. [sumpavapol2010] Sumpavapol P., Tongyonk L., Tanasupawat S. et al. 2010, Bacillus siamensis sp. nov., isolated from salted crab (poo-khem) in Thailand, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 60(10):2364–2370, doi 10.1099/ijs.0.018879-0 (abstract)paper
  5. [cdc-paragonimus] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2024, About Paragonimiasisgov