Nem chua (Nem cái)
Raw fermented sausage of minced pork and rind, wrapped in banana leaves. The lactic fermentation, of three to five days, produces its characteristic acidity.
| Lean pork (leg) | 600 g |
| Cooked pork rind, cut into fine strands | 250 g |
| Pork fat | 100 g |
| Fine salt | 18 g |
| Sugar | 15 g |
| Fresh garlic, crushed | 15 g |
| Fresh red chilli, sliced | 10 g |
| Ground black pepper | 2 g |
| Nuoc-mam (optional) | 5 ml |
| Banana leaves (for wrapping) | — |
- Preparing the rind: Cook the pork rind in boiling water for 30 to 40 minutes until tender. Leave to cool, then cut into very fine strands 3 to 4 cm long.
- Mincing: Mince the lean pork and the fat very finely through the 3 mm plate or in a mortar (pestle). The meat should form a sticky paste.
- Mixing: Combine the minced meat, the rind strands, the salt, the sugar and the garlic. Knead vigorously for 5 to 8 minutes to a very homogeneous, sticky forcemeat.
- Shaping: Form portions of 30 to 50 g. Add a slice of chilli and a few peppercorns to each portion.
- Wrapping: Wrap each portion in a banana leaf, forming a tight little rectangular packet. Tie or hold with an elastic band.
- Fermentation: Leave to ferment at room temperature (25–30 °C) for 3 to 5 days. The natural lactic fermentation acidifies the meat and gives it its characteristic flavour.
- Serving: Unwrap and serve as it is, with guava or perilla leaves, fresh garlic and chilli. Eaten as an aperitif with beer.
- Note: Like any raw fermented product, the nem chua relies on an acidification that must reach a pH below 4.6 within the first two days. For the corresponding precautions, see the note in the chapter 'How to read this book'.
The nem chua is a Vietnamese raw fermented sausage whose distinctive technical gesture is the cutting of the rind into very fine strands (three to four centimetres long, barely a millimetre thick) which, mixed with the finely minced meat, create, after fermentation, a contrast between the melting meat and the crunchy rind. This juxtaposition of textures is the marker that distinguishes nem chua from Thai naem, which does not add rind in this way.
The province of Thanh Hóa, in north-central Vietnam, is regarded as the historic cradle of the preparation, and its producers enjoy a national reputation. Historians of Vietnamese cooking date the emergence of nem chua as a distinct preparation to the period of the Trinh and Nguyen lords (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries). The use of banana leaves for wrapping is attested to by French ethnographic sources of the nineteenth century.
The regional variants are valued in Vietnamese popular culture. The nem chua of Thanh Hóa is the most sour and most garlicky. That of Hội An is milder and slightly sweet. The Hanoi versions sometimes use more nuoc-mam, which gives a more pronounced umami dimension.
It is eaten as an aperitif or starter, uncooked, with guava leaves or perilla leaves (Japanese shiso), rings of fresh garlic, and slices of chilli. In households, it is prepared as the Tết festivities approach, when it is present among the traditional festive dishes.
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