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Sauces and condiments from Cambodia

Tuk treyទឹកត្រី

Anchovies are mixed with coarse salt in large wooden vats and left for months, up to two years at one Kampot maker, while the fish break down into a clear brown sauce. The liquid is drawn off, and Wikipedia describes a final ripening in jars in the sun.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Tuk trey itself.

Short entrySauces and condiments2 years

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source gives a recipe or fish-to-salt ratio for Cambodian fish sauce. Production is in a few coastal factories.
Anchovies or other fishFAO describes the traditional product as anchovy sauce; one Kampot maker uses a fish known locally as kak koeum[fao2004][ppp2021]
Coarse salt[wp]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 years

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a piece

What changes: Anchovies are mixed with coarse salt in large wooden vats

Step 1 of 4
Mix the fish with salt in wooden vats
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: salted fish.

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

Anchovies are mixed with coarse salt in large wooden vats and left for months, up to two years at one Kampot maker, while the fish break down into a clear brown sauce. The liquid is drawn off, and Wikipedia describes a final ripening in jars in the sun. Made in 4 steps over 2 years. The longest step, ferment in the vats, takes up to 2 years (Hom Phanet 2021).

Key numbers
Main stepup to 2 yearsReported[ppp2021]Ferment in the vats

What makes this one different

Tuk trey is the Cambodian sea-fish sauce, made in only a few factories on the Kampot and Sihanoukville coast. Unlike prahok, Cambodia's freshwater fish paste, it is a clear liquid like Thai nam pla.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Roe fish sauce (Kampot)One Kampot producer adds fish roe (reported by Wikipedia, citing a book on Cambodian cuisine).
  • Sweet fish sauceDipping sauce made from fish sauce with sugar, lime juice, chilli and crushed peanuts (reported by Wikipedia).

Safety

Codex requires fish sauce to hold at least 200 g/L salt and no more than 40 mg histamine per 100 g, and to be made from fish fit to sell fresh. Cambodia's fish sauce standard (CS 005:2003) is mandatory, but a 2015 UNIDO review found that it did not set a histamine limit.

History and sources

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

An FAO review of Cambodia's marine fisheries (2004) counted three marine fish sauce factories, one in Kampot and two in Sihanoukville, down from several a decade earlier as anchovy catches fell. Cambodia's fish sauce standard (CS 005:2003) is mandatory, and in 2021 Kampot fish sauce was reported as a possible geographical-indication product.

  1. [fao2004] Gillett R. 2004, The marine fisheries of Cambodia, FAO/FishCode Review No. 4, FAO, Rome, section 7 (processing and marketing)gov
  2. [unido2015] UNIDO 2015, assessment of Cambodian standards for fish and fishery products (lists CS 005:2003 Fish sauce, mandatory, and its 2014 draft revision)gov
  3. [codex302] Codex Alimentarius Commission, Standard for Fish Sauce, CXS 302-2011 (amended 2012, 2013), FAO/WHOspec
  4. [ppp2021] Hom Phanet 2021, 'Kampot Fish Sauce' mulled as possible geographical indication product, Phnom Penh Post, 31 December 2021 (via Asia News Network)web
  5. [wp] Wikipedia, Fish sauce (Cambodia section; outline only)wiki