Tsukemono (Salt-Pickled Cabbage) Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (2024)

FAQs

How do you use tsukemono? ›

The Japanese eat them with plain rice, mix it into onigiri rice balls, or pack it in their bento boxes. The ingredients used for tsukemono can include a wide range of vegetables such as cucumbers, radishes, turnips, carrots, ginger, lotus root, and eggplant.

Sunomono refers to specifically quick pickled cucumbers. Therefore, sunomono is a type of tsukemono.

Suzuke (vinegar pickling)

Suzuke pickles are brined in Japanese rice vinegar, which gives them a crunchy texture and a sweet and tangy flavor. Due to the low acidity of rice vinegar, suzuke pickles will not keep for long out of the refrigerator.

Japanese pickles (漬物, tsukemono) are an important part of the Japanese diet, served with practically every traditional meal alongside rice and miso soup. They are valued for their unique flavors and commonly used as a garnish, relish, condiment, palate cleanser or digestive.

Keep it in the fridge for at least a week. Enjoy! (Pickles last for about 2-3 weeks in the fridge.)

Once everything is mixed, I pack it into a jar and put in the fridge. The beauty of pickles is that the taste just gets more complex every day. These will keep at least two weeks in the fridge, though in my house they never last that long. Don't forget to use a clean utensil when scooping it out-no fingers!

Since most of raw vegetables used for tsukemono are cruciferous vegetables, including daikon（radish),hakusai（chinese radish ）, nozawana, takana, and turnips, intake of tsukemono is also expected to help maintaining health functionality.

Tsukemono (lit. “pickled things”) are a staple in Japanese cuisine. Made from an infinite array of local, seasonal ingredients, tsukemono are almost always found as a side dish or garnish to any Japanese meal. They serve the purpose of cleansing one's palate while also aiding in digestion.

It's left to pickle for about a month. Some have a more pale cream color due to a shorter fermentation period. The bright yellow hue of traditionally made takuan is from turmeric, gardenia fruit, or safflower.

For ease, use a Kasumi Kuro 17 cm Santoku knife to thinly slice your vegetables into bite-sized pieces. The sliced vegetables are then soaked in a sea salt brine and weighed down for 6 to 12 hours. Make sure to rinse off the brine before serving and enjoy the pickles with Japanese steamed rice and miso soup.

Why are Japanese pickles pink? ›

Thinly sliced ginger is brined in a sweet rice vinegar mixture. Gari has a pale yellow to light pinkish hue – the pink color comes from the use of young ginger. While gari is associated most with sushi, it's also a lovely condiment alongside many other foods.

A customary item for Japanese curry, f*ckujinzuke (福神漬) is a type of Tsukemono, Japanese pickled vegetables. The pickles are easily recognizable for its eye-catching red color as they sit atop in almost every curry dish.

Daikon (Giant white radish)

What is the most consumed vegetable in Japan? You guessed right. It's a daikon! It is often used in stews, soups, or simmered with seafood.

Many people eat by taking a bite of the main or side dish, then eating a little rice, and then having a sip of soup straight from the bowl (soup isn't usually eaten with a spoon). A little rice is saved until the end of the meal, when it is eaten with the pickled vegetables.

Tsukemono (漬物)

Unlike many Western pickles, Tsukemono are pickled in some combination of salt, soy sauce, miso, sake lees, or rice bran and don't include any vinegar. Any tartness in the pickle is a result of lacto-fermentation, which converts the sugars in the vegetables into lactic acid, giving them a sour taste.

Fresh vegetables and tsukemono are rich in potassium, which is low in foods of animal origin. Since potassium facilitates sodium excretion and inhibits blood pressure increase, it is designated as one of six types of minerals for which “food with nutrient function claims” may be made.

Gari, or the pickled ginger you get with sushi, is to be used as a palate cleanser. You eat a piece of sushi. You eat some gari afterwards to clean your palate and then eat a different piece of sushi. It helps to clear away some of the taste from the previous piece.

Pickle brine makes the best salad dressing. Add 2 parts pickle brine to one part oil and you have an instant dressing that can can fancy up even a few torn lettuce leaves. 8. Give boiled potatoes a bit of punch by pouring some pickle brine into the boiling water.