100-year recipe / Taste of Japanese mom / Instant vegetable pickles

Japanese pickles, called tsukemono, have a long history. A description of gourds and other vegetables preserved with salt has been found on wooden plates that date from the Nara period in the eighth century.

As many as 64 different pickles, including those developed in the intervening period, were introduced in “Shiki Tsukemono Shiokagen,” a book about pickles from the Edo period (1603-1867). The book says that pickles are the most important element in meals and that they cannot be spared in any household.

Pickles were considered important as a preserved food and a side dish, and they became a basic item in Japanese cuisine together with rice and miso soup. A main dish and another side dish would be added to the combination.

Pickles changed after World War II. The amount of salt used for pickling decreased rapidly. According to Tokyo Kasei University Prof. Shigeo Miyao, a food microbiology expert, the salt content of takuan — pickled daikon — was reduced from about 12 percent 50 years ago to about 3 percent today.

A lot of salt had been used for preservation, but the situation changed. “Developments in makers’ preservation technologies, such as cold storage and packaging, meant they coped with people’s growing interest in the link between salt content and health,” Miyao said.

Homemade pickles also changed. With the Westernization of foods, traditional pickles came to be served less frequently in meals.

The recipe introduced today was published in 1997 in The Yomiuri Shimbun. After being pickled with salt for a short time, the vegetables are dressed mainly with soy sauce. The vegetables can be eaten in high quantities as the taste of myoga, Japanese ginger, stimulates the appetite.

Instant pickles became a popular vegetable cooking method with the hit “Asazuke no Moto” (Mix for instant pickles) launched by Ebara Foods Industry, Inc. in 1991.

Yasuhiko Maeda, a professor emeritus at Utsunomiya University who is an expert on food chemistry, said: “Contemporary pickles that are fresh and have vivid colors are suitable for enjoying the flavor and taste of the vegetables themselves.”

According to a survey by the Tokyo-based Better Home Association, which was conducted in 2011 with responses from about 400 women attending its cooking classes, only 10 percent of respondents said they regularly made nukazuke, pickles in salty fermented rice bran. Those who stopped making such pickles cited reasons such as, “It’s troublesome to take care of the bed of salted rice bran every day.”

Washoku has been recorded on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Fermentation expert Takeo Koizumi said: “I hope people also cherish traditional pickles that have distinctive flavors arising from lactic acid fermentation.”

Koizumi launched an organization for publicizing the merits of Japan’s fermented foods inside and outside the country in 2013. He said pickled vegetables can be used to season other dishes. For example, pickled Chinese cabbage can be mixed into fried vegetables, or into nabe stews.

“I’d like to convey to people the unknown charms of Japanese pickles,” Koizumi said.

Our recipe for instant vegetable pickles

(From the July 18, 1997, edition)

Ingredients (serves four):

2 eggplants

1 cucumber

200g cabbage

40g carrot

3 myoga Japanese ginger

8 shiso leaves

1 piece kombu kelp, 5 centimeters on a side

3g dried bonito shavings

1 tbsp white roasted sesame seeds

(any vegetables available can be combined)

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp vinegar

Directions:

1. Cut the kombu into thin strips with scissors and soak in a sauce made of the soy sauce, mirin and vinegar for half a day.

2. Halve eggplants lengthwise and cut into 1-centimeter-wide slices diagonally. Halve a cucumber lengthwise and cut into 7- or 8-millimeter-wide slices diagonally.

3. Cut cabbage into 2- by 5-centimeter rectangular pieces. Cut carrot into 1- by 3-centimeter pieces.

4. Slice myoga lengthwise, thinly. Remove the center stem of the shiso leaves and cut finely.

5. Mix vegetables. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of salt and 2 tablespoons of water over the vegetables and mix well. Put a light weight on them and leave for about an hour.

6. When vegetables become soft, wash with water roughly and wring dry.

7. Mix in dried bonito shavings and the sauce. Serve in a bowl, sprinkled with sesame seeds.