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Fruit from Thailand

Lum-pee-dorng / ra-kam-dorng (brine-pickled salak)หลุมพีดอง

Lum-pee-dorng is peeled salak flesh soured in a boiled and cooled salt and sugar brine. The jar is closed and left in the shade for 3 days. Lum-pee is used more often than ra-kam because it has more flesh.

Fully documentedFruit3 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHome recipe from the JIRCAS Thai fermented-food card, for 30 fruit, in cups.
Lum-pee or ra-kam fruit30 fruitPeeled, flesh taken off the seeds, washed and drained[jircas]
Salt1 cup[jircas]
Sugar2 tablespoons[jircas]
Water4 cups[jircas]

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 days

Start
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What changes: The salak is peeled and its flesh cut away from the seeds

Step 1 of 4
Peel and stone the fruit
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus plantarum
L. brevis
Lactococcus lactis

The flesh is separated from the seeds, washed, drained and packed in a clean jar.

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

Lum-pee-dorng is peeled salak flesh soured in a boiled and cooled salt and sugar brine. The jar is closed and left in the shade for 3 days. Lum-pee is used more often than ra-kam because it has more flesh. Made in 4 steps over 3 days. The longest step, cover, close and ferment in the shade, takes 3 days (JIRCAS 2026). Lactobacillus plantarum, L. brevis, L. pentosus and Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3 daysReported[jircas]Cover, close and ferment in the shade
AciditypH up to 3.5Set[tcps160]Cover, close and ferment in the shade

What makes this one different

Lum-pee-dorng follows the general Thai fruit-pickle method (fruit under a boiled, cooled brine in a closed jar). It differs in using peeled, stoned salak flesh and sugar in the brine.

Related ferments

Safety

Thailand's community standard for pickled fruit requires pH 3.5 or below, total microbes at most 1 × 10^4 per gram, no Staphylococcus aureus in 0.1 g, E. coli below 3 per gram (MPN) and yeasts and moulds at most 100 per gram. It bans synthetic colours, borax and non-sugar sweeteners, and the brine must show no white film or fermentation bubbles in the pack.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli (the pickled-fruit standard sets limits for both).

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. [jircas] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand: Lum-pee-dorng / Ra-kam-dorng (brine pickled salak), read 2026-10-23gov
  2. [tcps160] Thai Industrial Standards Institute 2003, Thai Community Product Standard มผช.160/2546, Pickled fruit (phonlamai dong) (copy on archive.org)spec
  3. [chanprasert2010] Chanprasert N. 2010, Growth inhibition of foodborne pathogens by crude bacteriocin produced from lactic acid bacteria isolated from pickled Garcinia schomburgkiana Pierre products, MSc thesis, Suranaree University of Technology (abstract and chapter text, in English and Thai)paper