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Vegetables from Thailand

Sa-tor-dorng (brine-pickled stink-bean seeds)สะตอดอง

Sa-tor-dorng is the green seed of the stink bean (Parkia speciosa), blanched in the pod, shelled with its thin skin on and soured under a 10 % brine for 3 to 4 days in the shade. Thailand's community product standard requires pH 4.0 or below. The skin is peeled off before it is eaten with nam prik.

Fully documentedVegetables3 days – 4 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHome method from the JIRCAS Thai fermented-food card; the brine strength is the only amount given.
Sa-tor podsBlanched a few minutes only, so the seeds do not go soft[jircas]
Salt solution10 % (w/v)Enough to cover the seeds[jircas]

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 days – 4 days

Start
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What changes: The pods are blanched for a few minutes, just short of cooking

Step 1 of 3
Blanch the pods briefly
Time
A few minutes; the seeds must not cook or they go too soft
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus plantarum
Lactobacillus
Pichia sp.
L. fermentum
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

Sa-tor-dorng is the green seed of the stink bean (Parkia speciosa), blanched in the pod, shelled with its thin skin on and soured under a 10 % brine for 3 to 4 days in the shade. Thailand's community product standard requires pH 4.0 or below. The skin is peeled off before it is eaten with nam prik. Made in 3 steps over 3 days – 4 days. The longest step, cover with brine, close and ferment in the shade, takes 3–4 days (JIRCAS 1995). Salt is 10 % (JIRCAS 1995). Lactobacillus plantarum and other Lactobacillus species and Pichia sp. do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–4 daysReported[jircas]Cover with brine, close and ferment in the shade
Salt10 %Reported[jircas]Cover with brine, close and ferment in the shade
AciditypH up to 4Set[tcps317]Cover with brine, close and ferment in the shade

What makes this one different

Unlike look-riang-dorng, a pickle of sprouted seeds of another Parkia, sa-tor-dorng uses the fresh seed itself, blanched in the pod and shelled with its skin left on.

Related ferments

Safety

Thailand's community standard for pickled stink beans requires pH 4.0 or below, total microbes no more than 1 × 10^4 per gram, no Staphylococcus aureus in 0.1 g, E. coli below 3 per gram (MPN) and yeasts and moulds no more than 100 per gram. Calcium firming salts are capped at 1000 mg/kg, and synthetic colours, borax and non-sugar sweeteners are banned.

Hazards the sources name: Enterobacter cloacae and Klebsiella pneumoniae, found early in a study of Sataw-Dong and gone once the lactic bacteria took over; Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli (the 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: Sa-tor-dorng (brine pickled sator seed); microbes cite The traditional fermented foods of Thailand (1995); read 2026-10-23gov
  2. [tcps317] Thai Industrial Standards Institute 2004, Thai Community Product Standard มผช.317/2547, Pickled stink bean (sa-tor dorng) (copy on archive.org)spec
  3. [jampaphaeng2019] Jampaphaeng K., Cocolin L., Maneerat S. 2019, Bacterial population diversity in Sataw-Dong, a traditional fermented stink bean, during fermentation using the combination of culture-dependent and culture independent methods through DGGE technique, Songklanakarin Journal of Science and Technology 41(2):285–291paper