Kapenta / Matemba


Drying Karpenta [Kapenta, Matemba (Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe); Limnothrissa miodon (Lake Tanganyika sardine)   |   Stolothrissa tanganicae (Lake Tanganyika sprat)]

These fish both originated in Lake Tanganyika, but have been introduced to other lakes in Southern Africa. They are an important human food in Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. Forming large schools in open waters, they feed on plankton, but come close to shore during breeding season. They are caught at night using lights and large dip nets. They are then sun dried on screens.

Adult L. miodon average around 4 inches (10 cm) long and adult S. tanganicae average about 2-3/4 inches (7 cm). While still plentiful, there is concern of depletion from overfishing, so some countries have banned fishing for them close to shore during the breeding season and now require licensing. IUCN Red Listed LC (Least Concern).   Photo by Emesik (severely cropped) distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike v3.0 Unported.

More on the Sardines     More on the Herring Family


Dried Kapenta

Buying:

  For fresh, you have to be there, but nearly all these fish are sun dried. This can be a problem as they are most available in the rainy season. The photo specimens were dried with light salt. Since the largest in the batch were 1.85 inches (4.70 cm) I presume these were S. tanganicae. Fresh are sold near where they are caught. Dried are often available on-line in North America from Zim Tuckshop, a Zimbabwe grocery specialist. The photo specimens cost 2022 US $1.00 / ounce at 7 ounces weight (200 gms).

Cooking:

  The most popular way to use these dried fish is to fry them in some oil, then stew them with onions, tomatoes and curry powder. They may also be lightly battered and deep fried as a snack. Fresh ones can be pan fried with onions, herbs and spices, or lightly battered and deep fried.

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