Traditional Fish Sauce Production Process

Sunlight, so the fish sauce will have a fragrant smell.

Seafood used for salting is usually small and easily decomposed (such as anchovies, scad, mackerel, and anchovies). This is also the type of seafood that is often caught in larger quantities than other types of seafood in each fishing trip.

Seafood used for grilling or boiling is usually larger than seafood used for pickling or drying, and can be small (like anchovies) or large like mackerel or sardines. For large dried fish, in order to be able to use them for a long time, before drying, people often cut open the belly and remove the intestines and gills.

2. Forms of seafood processing

Maybe you are interested!

• Cultivation and Production Process of Special Rare Weasel Coffee
• Logistics Activities in the Production Process
• Management Organization, Production Process and Production Operations
• Industrial Production Area, Industrial Park, Traditional Craft Village, Farm:
• Textile Production and Finishing Process

2.1. Salt products

2.1.1. Fish sauce

The ingredients to make fish sauce are anchovies, small fish or mackerel (mackerel usually has higher protein content). Buy fresh fish right at the dock and then bring it home to wash it, it must be washed with sea water, if washed with fresh water, the fish sauce will rot and spoil. Then mix salt and fish in a ratio of 10kg of fish: 1 - 1.5kg of salt and put it in a soaking barrel (if the fish has been salted at sea, the salt ratio will be reduced a little).

People here divide the traditional way of making fish sauce into two: fish sauce flakes (also known as fish sauce) and fish sauce. The method, time and tools used to make these two types of fish sauce have some differences. Next, we will see how to make these two types of fish sauce with different finished products.

Fish sauce flakes (fish sauce)

The fish sauce fermentation tool is a round cylindrical barrel with a bottom, cast from cement with a diameter of about 0.8m - 1m, height from 1m - 1.2m, covered with a lid of the same material, in the shape of a cone. In the past, people made barrels from yellow heart wood with tight straps for fermentation. Many old people said that using wooden barrels to ferment fish will make the fish sauce more delicious than using cement barrels, but currently no family uses wooden barrels to ferment fish. The reason is that no one makes wooden barrels anymore because it takes a lot of work and meticulousness, moreover, the price of wooden barrels is more expensive (the price of wood is much more expensive than before), and it breaks down faster than cement barrels, in terms of economy, it is no longer very convenient.

People pour the salted fish mixture into the barrel almost full (about 10cm from the mouth of the barrel - to avoid the fish sauce from spilling out) and close the lid. On top, sprinkle a

salt layer, to prevent the fish from floating to the surface, easily smelling and breeding maggots. When it is sunny, open the lid to dry, when it is rainy, cover it, especially, avoid letting rainwater get into the fish sauce barrel, like that the fish sauce will rot and spoil. To avoid flies, mosquitoes and other insects, people here use a thin cloth stretched across the mouth of the barrel when opening to dry. Dry the fish sauce like this for 9 to 12 months, every day using a tray (a tool made of wood or bamboo pole, 1m - 1.5m long) to beat the fish sauce quickly. The longer the fermentation, the more ripe the fish sauce, the more delicious the fish sauce will be later. After 6 months, the fish sauce can be stored (for households that do not have the conditions to wait for long-term capital turnover), but usually it takes more than 1 year for the fish sauce to be delicious, especially for households with conditions, they can wait for a longer capital turnover time.

After the fish sauce is cooked, it is time to filter the fish sauce. The filtering tool is a plastic barrel (about 1m high, 0.60m in diameter), with a small hole punched in the body near the bottom so that the fish sauce can flow out. To ensure the fish sauce is preserved, you should use a ceramic or non-recyclable plastic barrel. Using a regular plastic barrel often releases odors, and the fish sauce will lose its original flavor. (Currently, few households use ceramic barrels because of the heavy transportation, most use plastic barrels). The barrel is placed on a shelf 0.30m above the ground, below the faucet, using an aluminum or glass barrel to catch it. To filter, people spread a rough cloth inside the plastic barrel, stretching it about 1/3 from the bottom, then pour in the cooked fish sauce. With 5 barrels like that, after one day, you will get 100 liters of fish sauce. For every 301 quintals of fish, you can get 30 liters of pure fish sauce.

This first batch of fish sauce is called fish sauce essence, also known as pure fish sauce or grade 1, special type. This fish sauce is fragrant, delicious, has high protein content (200 - 300 ) , clear, and has the color of honey.

After distilling the fish sauce essence, the remaining residue is still intact, so people continue to use it to make second-class fish sauce. Boil water and salt (in the ratio of 1 liter of water: 5 grams of salt) then mix it with the residue that has been poured back into the fermentation tank, stir well and cover the fermentation tank again. After two days, the fish sauce can be distilled using the same process as distilling first-class fish sauce. However, the longer it is left, the better the quality of the fish sauce will be.

After getting the second grade fish sauce, you can still continue to use the fish residue to make the third grade fish sauce. This time, you will boil the fish residue with water and salt. When it boils, use a ladle to skim off the dirty foam that floats to the top, then let it boil thoroughly (about 10 to 15 minutes). Then let it cool and filter (also

If the first filter is still a bit cloudy, you can filter it again to make the fish sauce clearer. And you can still use the fish residue after filtering to make grade four fish sauce, using the same method and process as making grade three fish sauce. After filtering out all the fish essence, they use the fish residue to make a very good fertilizer for plants, or they can dry it and grind it to use for animal husbandry.

To make fish sauce types 2, 3 and 4 more delicious, when distilling, you can add MSG and sugar or you can use boiled molasses to mix in, so that the fish sauce has a beautiful color, and tastes better and sweeter. Of course, the more you filter, the lower the quality of the fish sauce, and it is cheaper than the original fish sauce.

After distillation, fish sauce is packaged in 1-liter glass bottles, or 5-liter or 10-liter plastic cans. For family-scale fish sauce makers, the product is often purchased by consumers at home, especially those that have been making it for a long time and have a reputation.

Fish sauce

The ingredients to make this fish sauce are: anchovies (or herring), salt, roasted rice, and you can add pineapple (depending on each family's method). The ratio of fish and roasted rice is about 1 quintal of fish: 2kg of roasted rice. After washing the fish (with salt water), mix well with salt and roasted rice.

The fish sauce barrel is also a barrel cast from cement, but has a small hole punched on the side near the bottom with a plastic tap (where the fish sauce flows out), and a small layer of bamboo is lined at the bottom of the barrel (a type of vermicelli). After about 3 to 4 months, open the tap to get the first batch of fish sauce, take that water and pour it back into the fish sauce barrel to continue fermenting (doing this to mix the fish sauce evenly in each batch). The time to get the final product is about 1 year, nearly 2 years for the fish sauce to be delicious. Unlike fish sauce flakes, making fish sauce from a pressing pot cannot be beaten to ripen quickly, so the time to make this type of fish sauce is longer, and more laborious. That is why, currently, almost no one makes this type of fish sauce.

According to Mr. Nguyen Hong Hai, chairman of the Nghi Thuy Ward Fishermen's Association, in 2000, a fish sauce processing facility in Nghi Thuy applied the Phan Thiet fish sauce processing method to Cua Lo, but failed. Currently, the factory has been abandoned and dissolved. The main reason for the failure is that the method is not suitable for the climate conditions of Cua Lo. People built a large, covered house, inside which cast

Large tanks with tight lids to ferment fish. Because the fish sauce is matured by hydrolysis, without exposure to sunlight, the fish sauce is not delicious, the product is not popular, which led to the failure of this small business. Applying that method is not suitable, because the climate conditions of Cua Lo area (in particular, the area from the north of Hai Van Pass in general) are different from the climate and weather conditions in the interior. The average annual temperature in Phan Thiet (in particular, the area from the south of Hai Van Pass in general) is higher, and there is no winter, so the residents there can use the method of making fish sauce without drying in the sun, the fish sauce can still mature to create delicious fish sauce. The average temperature in Cua Lo is lower, and like many northern provinces, there is a rather cold winter lasting 3 months, so people here have to take advantage of the sunny times of the year to dry the fish to ripen it. If it is not dried in the sun, the fish will not reach the high level of decomposition to obtain the highest protein content, and the product will not be delicious.

Currently, most families process fish sauce according to traditional manual recipes. The town also opened a number of short-term training courses on making fish sauce, using some chemical catalysts to ripen the fish quickly, shortening the time to create the finished product. However, very few people attended these training courses.

“Up until now, my family has been making fish sauce the way the ancients did.

The processed products are fragrant and delicious, and are still trusted by many people. It is true that it takes a long time to make fish sauce, years, but we just do it slowly. Whenever there is a lot of fish, we ferment it, in batches, in seasons, in rotation, and there is always fish sauce to sell. The new way of making fish sauce is indeed faster, but the delicious taste of the fish sauce is not as natural, the fish sauce is not as delicious as the fish sauce made in the old way. Nowadays, buyers are very sophisticated, they only buy the special delicious ones, especially in the summer, when tourists from the North come to relax, they come to buy a lot to use, to bring back as gifts. Therefore, my family still makes fish sauce in the old way" - A person in a family with many generations of fish sauce processing, 67 years old.

Diagram 3: Traditional fish sauce production process

Mix fish, salt

Compress and dry

Ripe fish sauce

lees

Cook to destroy the residue

Salt

Juice

Fish for making sauce

Waste residue

Finished product phase

Heat the water to boil.

2.1.2. Types of floss

Just like fish sauce, no one can confirm the origin and time of birth of this food with certainty and accuracy. Maybe when the season is good, fish, shrimp, prawns caught in lagoons, ponds, in the middle of lagoons, on rivers, at sea... people use fish sauce to prepare food in times of change of weather, rain or flood, cold winter months. Fish sauce is not only food for the poor "don't despise fish sauce because it smells bad, with fish sauce and fish sauce, you have a meal" but is also processed into delicious dishes that the rich and noble class and royalty love. In general, fish sauce can be divided into 3 flavors: salty, sour, sweet depending on the purpose of use and the method of seasoning, and 3 regions of origin: saltwater fish sauce - sea fish sauce (made from seafood caught at sea), brackish water fish sauce - lagoon fish sauce, lagoon fish sauce (raw materials taken from seafood caught in lagoons) and freshwater fish sauce - river fish sauce, field fish sauce (raw materials taken from seafood caught in rivers, lakes, and fields).

Famous in Vietnam must mention Hue fish sauce. The fish sauce making profession in Hue has existed for a long time , with hundreds of types of fish sauce processed from local ingredients such as fish , clams , shrimp , dut, clams , crabs , etc. More than 100 years ago , Mrs. Truong Thi Bich ( granddaughter - in - law of King Minh Mang ) wrote the book : " Thu c pho bach thien " teaching how to prepare 100 special dishes in Hue , of which fish sauce alone has 14 dishes . It can be said that in Hue , each season has its own fish sauce. In the cold winter and spring, there is mam ngu , mam dut, mam chuon, mam cherries . In the fall , there is anchovy fish sauce , mussel fish sauce . In the summer , there is melon fish sauce , crab fish sauce , and mam ma Phao . In fish sauce , there are dozens of types such as mam ca ngu , anchovy , mackerel , duoi , ... with many different ways of processing such as mam thinh corn , thinh g .Fried fish sauce , salted fish sauce , sour fish sauce , sweet fish sauce , ... Each type of fish sauce has different ingredients and processing methods , creating the characteristic flavor of Hue dishes .​​​​​​​​​​​

Fishermen in Cua Lo, like many fishermen in other places, over time, with the way of processing fish sauce from caught seafood, have created one of the typical products of Nghe An, "Nghe shrimp paste".

“This job alone is not enough to make a living. The house is just enough to live on, there is a little garden space, only enough to store a few barrels of fish sauce. If we catch a lot of shrimp, we can buy it to ferment, make stinky shrimp, sour shrimp, and sell it in the summer. But the good thing is that this job also saves time, because there is not much to do, just pay attention to drying it in the sun and covering it carefully, avoiding rain, and preventing flies, mosquitoes, and insects. You can use a curtain stretched over the top to prevent flies and mosquitoes from landing on it. Besides, when it is new, flies often land on it, but when it is cooked, the smell is stronger and heavier, and flies and mosquitoes do not dare to come” - Female fisherman, 30 years old.

Currently, households that process shrimp floss are often also households that make fish sauce. With available tools and space, they only do this processing job as a sideline, to create more jobs, sell it with fish sauce, and increase family income.

Just like making fish sauce, making shrimp paste also requires the natural heat of the sun to make the finished product fragrant and beautiful in color. But the most important thing when making this product is the ratio of additives. Each person has their own way of mixing, depending on their experience and ingenuity, or their sensitivity to the smell and taste of the product.

Shrimp paste

It is called ruoc but it is not the meat ruoc as people in the North often make. This is a type of fish sauce made from sea shrimp, a member of the shrimp family, but they are very small, the largest one is only about 2cm long, the body has a diameter of about 0.3cm, which people in Nghe Tinh often call con khuyet (or con moi). When fresh or dried, it has a light pink color.

In the past, coastal people fermented hundreds of kilograms of slugs to make shrimp floss in large wooden barrels. Currently, fishermen in Cua Lo use earthenware jars (not many left) or mostly use cement barrels (similar to the type of fish fermentation barrels used to make fish sauce) to ferment slugs. Fishermen here often buy raw materials at Nghi Thuy fishing port, as soon as the fishing boats dock, they quickly buy and sell, bringing the slugs back to process to avoid spoilage. After being caught, the slugs are washed with seawater or with salted water with a salinity equivalent to seawater, absolutely do not wash with water, stir gently with hands to avoid crushing and keep the slugs fresh. If the slugs are spoiled, when making shrimp floss, they will not have the characteristic attractive smell and color. After washing, let the kumquat drain and then shake with salt, ratio 1kg kumquat: 3 small bowls of salt (equal to a rice bowl) and put in the fermentation tank. When first incubating, cover with a wooden lid or you can spread a rough cloth to prevent flies and mosquitoes from landing on it and breeding bugs. Similar to processing fish sauce, during the fermentation stage, you need to avoid contact with rainwater, otherwise the product will easily spoil. Because the kumquat is small and soft, easy to decompose, the time to produce the final product is much faster than processing fish sauce. If it can be dried in strong sunlight, it only takes 1 month to be used, if it is in mild sunlight, it must be dried for 3 months to be used. The kumquat is cooked into floss, light brown in color, sweet in taste.

In the past, every family had a few jars of dried shrimp as a reserve food. Currently, dried shrimp is used as a spice, used to season soup or stir-fried dishes (especially sweet potato or water spinach soup) and is an indispensable spice in preparing dog meat. In addition, lemon or vinegar can be mixed to make dipping sauce for vegetables and eggplants. In a light, simple meal, it is often eaten with vermicelli noodles with green bananas, thinly sliced ​​sour star fruit or dipped in rice cakes. Eating this way will allow you to enjoy the original flavor of dried shrimp (like the smell of shrimp paste), but those who are not used to eating it will find it too smelly to eat.

Sour Shrimp (sour fish sauce)

The raw material for making sour floss is also the cuttlefish. After washing the breed

Like washing the kumquat to make the pork floss, put the kumquat in a mortar and pound it while adding spices: sugar or molasses (if you add molasses, boil it first before adding it), red powder, hot pepper, MSG and corn flour (roasted corn, ground) pound it with the kumquat, then mix well. Then put it in a jar to dry, about 10 sunny days is the best. During the drying period, you have to beat it once a day, usually in the morning.

The final product does not have a strong smell like rotten shrimp paste, it is a combination of sour, spicy, salty, sweet flavors. Sour fish sauce is used to dip boiled foods, especially pork belly, or used to dip raw vegetables.

After the final product is finished, it is usually packed in glass or plastic bottles, but it should not be filled to the brim because after a while the lid will pop off due to the accumulated vapor. After bottling, open the lid in the evening and close it again early the next morning to let the floss air out, avoiding the situation of the lid popping off and releasing vapor later, especially during transportation.

2.2. Products processed through fire

Types of fish commonly used for grilling, boiling, and smoking include: anchovies, herring, silver pomfret, scad, spotted scad, plaice, mackerel, and bream... Size depends on the type, some are as small as a finger (like anchovies) and some are as big as a calf (big mackerel).

2.2.1. Grilled fish

Preparation steps before grilling fish: if the fish is fresh, wash it thoroughly. If the fish is frozen, wait a while for the ice on the outside to melt, then wash it thoroughly. After washing, spread the fish on a rack (mesh) to drain. One woman is in charge of washing the fish, the other is in charge of lighting the stove and preparing other utensils.

The grill consists of two (or four) parallel iron bars, placed on two bricks at both ends. The two iron bars are usually wrapped in fresh coconut leaves or fresh banana leaves or continuously lubricated with lard to prevent sticking, making it easier to grill the fish and preventing the fish from peeling off their skin and scales. After preparing the grill, the woman pours in charcoal from the bag and lights the grill, then spreads a layer of charcoal evenly along the bottom of the two iron bars, and plugs in an electric fan from a grill chef. In the past, when there was no electricity, people used hand fans such as bamboo fans, palm fans or paper fans to fan the charcoal directly, which took a lot of time.