Ingredients
What to buy
- lanhouin, ready fermented and dried
- in pieces
- from a Beninese, Togolese or West African grocer
- see the note on why no method is given
To use it
- a piece the size of a matchbox, per dish for four
- no more, see the note
- rinsed, then added early to the sauce
What it goes into
- tomato and pepper sauces
- okra and leaf sauces
- bean dishes
- with akassa, pounded yam or rice
Directions
- Rinse the piece in warm water. Ten or fifteen minutes is enough. Pick out large bones.
- Use very little. Too much makes a dish smell of the ferment rather than taste of depth.
- Start with half of what you think. You cannot take it out again.
- Add it early, with the onion and tomato. It needs time to break down into the sauce.
- Taste before salting anything that contains it. Use less of each if you use both. Anyone avoiding fish should be told.
- Keep it double-sealed or everything nearby smells of it. Check it for damp and insects.
- Discard anything that goes damp, slimy, mouldy or rancid.
Technique
- The atlas gives no method: this is a warm, low-acid, high-protein fish ferment ripened for days before drying, which is what botulinum needs — and Clostridium botulinum type E is specifically associated with fish, producing a toxin with no smell, taste or visible sign. Improperly handled fish also develops histamine, causing scombroid poisoning, which mimics an allergic reaction and is not destroyed by cooking. Coastal producers make it safely through practice the atlas cannot compress into a paragraph. The same position applies to Shidol, Mahyawa and Afitin.
- Use very little — a piece the size of a matchbox for four. Too much makes a dish smell of the ferment rather than taste of depth. Start with half of what you think, because you cannot take it out again.
- Rinse it in warm water first to remove surface salt, dust and anything picked up in drying and transport, then soak it ten or fifteen minutes to soften. Do not soak it to nothing — the point is to season the dish, not to serve the fish.
- Add it early, with the onion and tomato. It needs time to break down into the sauce; added at the end it sits in lumps.
- Always cook it; it is not eaten raw. Cooking is not a substitute for buying well, and sourcing is the real control.
- Buy packaged, labelled product from a proper shop. Unlabelled fish of unknown age and handling is a different proposition.
- Judge it by firm dry brown-to-greyish flesh smelling strongly of fermented fish. Damp, slimy or soft flesh, coloured or fuzzy mould, insect damage, or a rancid or solvent smell all mean leave it. Rancid fat smells of old paint, which is quite different from the ferment smell.
- The smell is strongest when it first hits the hot pan and settles as the dish comes together. Open a window.
- Taste before salting anything that contains it. It carries a great deal of salt, varying by producer and with how you rinsed it.
- It divides people completely — loved along that coast and unopenable elsewhere. The atlas records that rather than softening it.
- Fermented fish condiments do the same job worldwide: prahok, padaek, bagoong, garum and shidol all belong to the same idea, of preserving a catch without refrigeration and carrying the sea inland.
- Use less of each if you use lanhouin and afitin together, as the same kitchens sometimes do.
- Say plainly when a dish contains it. A fermented fish piece cooked into a vegetable sauce is not obvious, and that matters both for fish allergy and for anyone vegetarian.
- Keep it double-sealed, or everything nearby smells of it. Freezing keeps it and also controls insects.
Substitutions
- Dried or smoked fish gives a milder version of the same depth.
- Prahok, padaek or bagoong substitute at the cost of the regional character.
- Fish sauce gives savouriness with none of the texture.
- Dried prawns are the mildest stand-in.
- Afitin or iru give a comparable depth from a plant source.
- Smoked mackerel works loosely in a pinch.
Variations
- Lanhouin from whole small fish is used differently from pieces of a large one.
- Smoked fish, used the same way, is milder and more widely sold.
- Afitin is the plant-based condiment used in the same sauces.
- Shidol in Bengal is the closest process relative.
- Prahok and padaek are the Southeast Asian equivalents.
- Momoni in Ghana is the neighbouring fermented fish.
History
A coastal Fon and Ewe preserve of the Bight of Benin, made from salted marine fish left to ripen for days before drying.
Frequently asked questions
What is Lanhouin?
Lanhouin is a fermented & pickled from Benin: sea fish salted and fermented until strongly aromatic, used in small seasoning pieces. A coastal Fon and Ewe preserve of the Bight of Benin, made from salted marine fish left to ripen for days before drying.
How long does Lanhouin take to make?
Lanhouin takes 10 minutes of preparation and in the dish of cooking. The recipe makes buy a small piece; a little goes far. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Lanhouin?
Yes, within limits. Dried or smoked fish gives a milder version of the same depth. Prahok, padaek or bagoong substitute at the cost of the regional character. Fish sauce gives savouriness with none of the texture. Dried prawns are the mildest stand-in. Afitin or iru give a comparable depth from a plant source. Smoked mackerel works loosely in a pinch.
What is the most important thing to get right in Lanhouin?
Use very little. Too much makes a dish smell of the ferment rather than taste of depth.
