Salted Fish, a Method of Preserving Fish in Indonesia – Since fresh fish generally very quickly deteriorates, people need to find the fish preservative method to ensure that the fish they caught can be stored for some times and still edible. The method of preserving fish has been known for centuries, usually by drying or salting. Ikan asin is the result of preserving the fish using salt. Although Salted Fish is one of the famous traditional food in Indonesia, this method of fish preserving is actually popular across the world and is a common method for hundreds of years.
Salted fish is easy and cheap to make. Moreover, the nutrients are well maintained despite being stored for a long time. It is really easy to make and does not really needs much effort nor ingredients. To make salted fishes, first, you need to put the fishes you are going to preserve in a large container. You can cut the bigger fishes to ensure that the salt easily penetrates the fish meat, while the smaller one does not need to be cut.
The next step is to pour edible salt on top of the fish and smear it evenly. You can also soak the fish in concentrated salt water. Due to the concentration differences and osmosis pressures, the salts crystal will draw out the cell’s water content from the fish meat while the salt particles will seep into the fish meat.
This high concentration of salt and reduced cell’s waters will stop the autolysis process and inhibit the bacterial growth in the fish meat. The last step is to sun-dried the fishes or boiled, or fermented to increase its preservation.
