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Meat from Thailand

Sai krok Isanไส้กรอกอีสาน

Minced pork and fat are mixed with cooked rice, garlic, salt and pepper, stuffed into pig intestine and tied into links. The links hang at room temperature for 2–3 days while lactic bacteria sour them, and they are grilled before eating.

Fully documentedMeat2 days – 3 days

Recipe

Sai krok Isan, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Vee Satayamas, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceThe control recipe of one university study, after a Thai meat-processing text; seasonings in g per kg of meat mix. Home recipes vary.
Ground pork55 %[sorapukdee2019]
Ground pork back fat30 %[sorapukdee2019]
Cooked rice15 %[sorapukdee2019]
Ground garlic50 g/kg[sorapukdee2019]
Curing salt (0.90 % sodium nitrite, 99.1 % sodium chloride)15 g/kgThis dose fits only a 0.90 % nitrite salt, not a 6.25 % cure; see the safety note[sorapukdee2019]
Sugar5.0 g/kg[sorapukdee2019]
Fine ground black pepper4.0 g/kg[sorapukdee2019]
Monosodium glutamate2.5 g/kg[sorapukdee2019]
Sodium tripolyphosphate3.0 g/kg[sorapukdee2019]
Sodium erythorbate2.0 g/kg[sorapukdee2019]
Natural hog casing, 28–30 mm[sorapukdee2019]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 3 days

Start
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What changes: Pork, fat, cooked rice, garlic and salt are mixed together

Step 1 of 4
Mix pork, fat, rice, garlic and seasoning
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Rind, when used, is boiled and shredded first. Output: sausage mix.

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

Minced pork and fat are mixed with cooked rice, garlic, salt and pepper, stuffed into pig intestine and tied into links. The links hang at room temperature for 2–3 days while lactic bacteria sour them, and they are grilled before eating. Made in 4 steps over 2 days – 3 days. The longest step, hang at room temperature to sour, takes 2–3 days (JIRCAS 1995) and runs at 30–34 °C (Sorapukdee S 2019). Lactic acid bacteria and Lactobacillus spp. and Streptococcus faecalis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[jircas-saikrok][sorapukdee2019]Hang at room temperature to sour
Temperature30–34 °CReported[sorapukdee2019]Hang at room temperature to sour
AciditypH 4.4–4.9Measured[sorapukdee2019]Hang at room temperature to sour

What makes this one different

Sai krok Isan has much more fat than naem (30 % fat or less in the finished sausage against 8 % or less) and is stuffed into hog casing and hung, while naem is lean pork with rind packed tight in plastic or leaves.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Reduced-fat sausage with konjac gelIn one study, swapping half the back fat (15 % of the mix) for konjac gel cut fat by 46 % and scored higher than the control for sourness and overall acceptability.

Safety

In one study the pH fell to about 4.4–4.9 within 3 days, but water activity stayed near 0.97–0.98, so the acid is the main hurdle. In that study, whose sausages held nitrite, S. aureus was at 1–2 log CFU/g in the fresh mix. Salmonella, S. aureus and E. coli were below detection in all finished products tested; that does not cover a home batch, and the paper reports no toxin test. The 15 g/kg dose suits only a curing salt of 0.90 % sodium nitrite, which the paper calls prague powder. Many commercial cures hold 6.25 % nitrite, about seven times as much, so the same weight of one would be an overdose, and nitrite overdoses can be harmful. Work out the dose for the cure in hand. Grill the sausage right through, to at least 71 °C for ground meat. Curing, drying or smoking alone does not reliably kill Trichinella worms in pork. Washington State University Extension warns, of dry sausages, that S. aureus toxin can form if fermentation is not rigidly controlled, and its semi-dry method calls for a starter culture and careful temperature control. These links hang at about 32 °C, and the recipe lists no starter culture. No source we read says grilling removes that toxin.

Hazards the sources name: Salmonella spp., S. aureus and E. coli (below detection in all finished products tested in one study; S. aureus was at 1–2 log CFU/g in the fresh mix).

History and sources

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

Sorapukdee and colleagues describe it as a traditional fermented sausage originating in northeastern Thailand and now widely eaten in various parts of Thailand.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [wsu-sausage] Washington State University Extension, Homemade Meat, Poultry, and Game Sausages (EB1661)gov
  2. [cdc-trichinellosis] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Trichinellosisgov
  3. [cdc-taeniasis] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, About Taeniasis (safe cooking temperatures)gov
  4. [sorapukdee2019] Sorapukdee S., Jansa S., Tangwatcharin P. 2019, Partial replacement of pork backfat with konjac gel in Northeastern Thai fermented sausage (Sai Krok E-san), Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 32(11):1763–1775paper
  5. [jircas-saikrok] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand: Sai-krork-prieo (after The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995)gov
  6. [s1] Wikipedia, Sai krok Isan (outline only)wiki